Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

This information was posted on Motley Fool website and a poster had  found one of these storage pods for sale. Store First (Group First) claimed that these storage pod investments were guaranteed and low risk - it doesn't appear to be that way. This is the lot - http://www.pugh-auctions.com/Lot/Manchester/20151203/110 the guide price of £10,000 is for 9 units!   The legal pack provided contained a copy of the original lease dated 1 June 2012. The seller bought the storage pod via his SIPP and paid £33,750 for this 'investment' in 2012. He's also previously tried to sell them in the October auction, though this time with a guide price of £20,000 - http://www.pugh-auctions.com/Lot/Manchester/20151022/065a . They've abandoned that for this month's auction, I wonder why?

Is Airport Parking Suitable for Pension Investment? Is Airport Parking Safe and Guaranteed? Airport parking spaces being offered as an investment opportunity appear to be following the same pattern as those offered previously for Storage Pods which interestingly now seem to have gone very quiet. It's really very worrying that such schemes are being so actively marketed to people with the new pension freedoms and who could end up losing their entire pension pot to these unregulated investment "opportunities". With any investment or purchase especially an unregulated one I always find it a useful consideration to assess what the seller is getting from the deal as well as what I would get. If the seller is getting a risk free return substantially above mine and my entire capital is at risk, as it is with any unregulated investment regardless of any so called guarantees offered, then it will always ring alarm bells. Two examples are storage pods and airport parking spac...

It's apparent from posts on various discussion boards that there is a big gap in understanding the differences between regulated and unregulated investments and the protection they offer. A regulated investment has to comply with strict rules from the FCA about what can and can't be said as well as having to include the standard disclaimers: "Past performance is not a guide to the future" and "Your capital is at risk" A regulated investment is also protected by FSCS so if the company selling the investment goes bust you are protected up to £50,000. This doesn't cover you if the investment performs badly. Unregulated investments aren't burdened by such requirements and can make pretty much any claim. I've seen a very useful statement saying that "marketing for unregulated investments should be considered fake unless verified by a professional". I'd add that it should be verified by a professional employed by you. It's not ...

Is Dream Lodge Group offering guaranteed investments a scam?  A question was asked on the popular Money Saving Expert (MSE) website about Dream Lodge group selling holiday cottages for a guaranteed return of 8% per year. It appears that Dream Lodge group were not happy with the comments that were made in the thread and have instructed lawyers to demand that posts are removed and that MSE users give their personal contact details in an effort to get content deleted. Some of the details here have been collated from posts about Dream Lodge Group from the thread where the posters have given permission. I understand that a number of people have been contacted by the MSE administrator and that the Dream Lodge Group are now using their lawyers in an attempt to bully people into removing posts which question the wisdom of "investing" money with the Dream Lodge Group. Whilst I am not going to purport to give formal legal advice on this thread, please be aware of the followin...

There are many adverts that appear online for various investments offering what they claim to be guaranteed returns, sometimes in the order of 10-20% per year in things like airport parking spaces at airports such as Glasgow or Gatwick. In some cases the parking space may not even exist. The reality is that these investments are not regulated and can lose ALL your money so any claims about guarantees should be considered as unenforceable - if the company offering the guarantee goes bust then it will not be able to pay out any investors making the guarantee worthless. Some people may be targeting investors with a pot of money after the new pension freedoms who think that it's too risky to invest in the stock market and are attracted by the offer of guaranteed returns. What these investments in airport parking don't tell you is that the return is often only promised for a couple of years so after that you may receive no further money and your parking space may be worthl...

A similar example but this time assuming all dividends are invested again rather than taken as income.  Assume in 2011 you invested £10,000 in this investment trust. The price then was £6.60 per share so you'd have got 1515 shares you now own. In 2011 you'd have received 28.75p income per share as dividends, that's a total of £435.56 and equivalent to 4.3% on your £10,000 but rather than taking that income you reinvest it to buy more shares. At £6.60 each that's another 66 shares you can add to your holding bringing the total to  1581 . In 2012 the share price had dropped to 640p so your £10,000 would now have been worth £10118, an increase on your original investment as it now includes reinvested dividends. However if you'd held your nerve and not sold out you'd have received your annual dividends, this year of 29.75p per share now based on the 1581 shares, a total of £470.34 so now 4.7% of your original £10,000. Again you reinvest this and buy another  73 ...

I received the annual report for one of my investments recently and with some comments I've seen about investments being too risky or not understood thought it might help to give some numbers. These are for an investment trust - a company setup to invest in shares and the Investment Trust shares are themselves traded on the stock market so easy to see the value and buy/sell them. Some of these investment trusts have existed since 1868 so they have a very long term track record behind them. Assume in 2011 you invested £10,000 in this investment trust. The price then was £6.60 per share so you'd have got 1515 shares you now own. In 2011 you'd have received 28.75p income per share as dividends, that's a total of £435.56 and equivalent to 4.3% on your £10,000. In 2012 the share price had dropped to 640p so your £10,000 would now have been worth £9696 , a drop of £304 on your original investment. However if you'd held your nerve and not sold out you'd have...