Stu

I now have my Three Grace's back in hand after its travels around the world!! It took 119 days from sending to receiving 😅
Returned to me in a slab with a PF70 grade. It didn't even need conservation, and they've blown the fluff off! I am very happy with this result! A massive thanks to @ChrisSilver and @CoinsOfTheRealmAuctions for providing the grading free of charge! The Silver Forum logo looks great  Looking forward to enjoying this coin for a while now!
 

@SilverDrum it was a very long time to wait. What I have realised about submitting to NGC is that if you are lucky enough to catch the shipment (ie the one from the UK office to the US) just as it's about to leave you have a shorter time to wait, however if you are unlucky and submit when they are at the beginning of a shipment then you wait until that shipment goes from the UK. This can be 2-3 weeks. When coins are sent to us, we process and send off to the UK office within a few days of receiving. Though it really has no bearing to how long those items will take to be graded. Unfortunately I am not privy to the knowledge of when they are at the end of their shipment ie about to send off to the US. 
Now I am aware of this because when your coin was back from grading (yours was submitted on March 16th to them) the May submissions came back at the same time as the few March submissions. Hopefully this is making sense. lol
Anyway, I hope this helps people to understand that we in no way have control of when these are returned or how long they take.
I am glad you got a Top Pop! Grade anyway. At least it was worth the wait.
 
Best regards
 
Louise
 

Still supposed to be selling. Oh well. 
1895 M and 1912 sovereigns to add to the collection.

1/4 Gold QB set arrived! Few hairs.  Would have liked to see an 11 coin set with a centre completer surrounded by the 10 QB.
Both my sliver sets have been delayed, so hoping they will send them soon.  







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Massive shout out to @Clockpuncher for this one. The 1997 1/4oz gold Britannia. That now concludes my collection of the 5 Philip Nathan Britannia designs. Was inspired by a comment by @Roy a while back to collect these. Lovely crenellated border design which brings them together as a collection

Finally got them back! 
Thanks @CoinsOfTheRealmAuctions and @ChrisSilver
 

Luddites unite!

This threads a blast from the past! What happened to @vand i used to enjoy some of his input. And yeah hows everyone getting on? I’m basically in the same position except i have a son almost 1 and our house has been extended which has helped increase my net worth (for those who do include their home in that figure). Other than that covid has pretty much halted anything else. This was a good thread! 

@onlyroadtoheaven wondering how you are getting on with your journey now you are nearly halfway in? I hope all is going well. 

Luddites unite!

Wheeler/Dealer, “a person who engages in commercial or political scheming”

Well firstly I also hold gold but platinum has a lot of long term industrial applications in fuel cell electric vehicles I believe in 10+ years it will outpace Gold.

Someone was typing faster 😉

I wouldn't touch eBay with a sh*tty stick after the experiences I've had with them. They're an accessory to fraud and nothing is done about them.
But that's just my opinion.

F*ck sake so it is... Thanks steve, blind as a bat here
https://www.thesilverforum.com/compare/uk/ @Stu 

You are probably going to get overloaded with a lot of replies which could be counter productive, however. I would suggest you could get incredibly diversified across the entire world stocks with £300 per month. You could set up a Dd for a low cost, global equity tracker, that tracks the entire world stock market. Vanguard is a good place to start. If you are young, put it all into equities (stocks and shares) . If older or less risk tolerant, balance with. A % of bonds. There are ready made packages to drip feed into. Keep gold to around 10% of your “portfolio” Good luck

Before lockdown I was spending around 200 a month on just buying coffee .... mocka,, docka, rapperchino type things.... and probably another 200/300 on lunches... now I buy a sovereign a month or if possible (when the good people of TSF do good deals) some 1oz items... when we go back... coffee off the table and lunches made by my fair hands.... so turned an expense into a savings plan...

Received this today. Very happy with it, unfortunately had to pay more than RM price but @Chrisplym was a pleasure to deal with. Great packaging and also very fair and reasonable with the price - enough room for both of us to feel happy with the transaction i hope.
 
Also @Paul offered some very useful advice on what is my first proof purchase, so thanks to him also!

Bit random but today I received 
Q. Sicinius and C. Coponius 49 BC denarius 
Minted with Pompey in the East. 

diad. hd. of Apollo r., star below, Q SICINIVS before, III VIR behind, rev., club of Hercules surmounted by lion's skin with scalp to r., bow on r., arrow on l., C COPONIVS P R S C (Seaby, Sicinia 1)

Something a bit different for me,but think it might be my way forward for a wee while.
London 1858. And I got these for scrap value plus post. 😁😁

3 Graces returned home today, thanks again to the forum and COTR.

Well done!   There's nothing like the feeling of paying off your mortgage and saying FU to the bank that owed your arse!
I worked out years ago you only really need 3 things food, warmth and shelter.    I paid my mortgage off and I get drift wood off the beech to heat my house for free so I get 2 out of the magic 3 for free.   I use less than £117 in gas a year  my total monthly outgoings are £428 for everything.   
Debt control is the key to being close to free as you can in this world, don't fall into the trap that I've seen many do,  pay off the mortgage only to replace it with more debt and or more outgoings  some find it difficult to get off the hamster-wheel. 
Well done sir I salute you! 

Yes of course I did not think of that - of course if you remortgage you will only have to do it on 20-30% of the property assuming you started from scratch. 
That means the payments will be a lot less assuming interest rates have not gone up severely. 
I guess by then anyway you could have enough investments to buy it in cash anyway??
Like buy a property at the bottom - rent it until prices go back up and then sell it for a decent profit.  

Thanks for that its really brightened me up knowing I could get completely out of debt in 10 years. 

No sweat, I’m 5 years into a 10 year but looking to b break out for an interest only. Probably looking for a 7 to 10 year deal. Also have around 50% equity. 

I don’t know. I think they only cover England and Wales so rules me out. Probably just as well as I would be tempted. Think this is repayment rates also and so am considering going interest only.