kimchi

Yes, many now ask for guarantors because during Covid the Government banned evictions. Therefore many tenants decided not to pay rent - knowing they could get away with it - and wouldn't be evicted. So landlords had no rent coming in and couldn't do a thing about it. Thanks to those people - and the government being fools - it's now harder for good, hard-working people like yourself because we are now demanding guarantors for added security. The Gov recently released a white paper looking to change this going forward (i.e. potentially evict non-paying tenants within 2 months) which is fairer so landlords may loosen up on the guarantor requirements.

@LemmyMcGregor  Could you offer to pay 6 months or a year in advance?  Would that make any difference?   That's what we did when we came back from Italy in 2008 and had to rent for 6 months. They wanted references and we couldn't be arsed with the whole stupid game so we offered the full 6 months up front and they accepted it.

On the topic of houses, might not be worth bothering any more. Mind me, I am looking in Wales, I am not aware if this is a nationwide item or specific to Wales, but I suspect is national.
Just called an agency for a property, the guys asked me if I have a guarantor, I was stunned. I told him that I'm employed and I would earn way more than enough, he says he doesn't care, because of changes in legislation which are coming up, landlords will not be able to kick out folks until 6 months without paying rent have passed, so landlords want a guarantor regardless of your income.
More so, because of all these legislations, lettings have dropped as landlords are feeling the heat, don't want to be caught out by someone not paying or another lockdown and are selling. It's a moment to buy, but letting anything is mental.
How on God's green Earth can they demand me a guarantor? Am I supposed to put someone's neck on line for me? I've got no family, am I not allowed to live in a house because the private sector won't rent to me because of state regulations?
Bloody mental.
Sorry for the rant.

When I was a kid we used to put 1p and 2p coins on the railway track to get squashed flat by the trains..   Although we also did it with nailgun cartridges and caused a couple of trains to stop...😈   Mis-spent youth

When dealing with a Govt...the simple fix (send in the incorrect COA...RM sends correct one out) which in all sense would be the cheapest safest and most cost effective for all does not get a run in the RM policy manual. Seems a universal Govt dept approach across the planet.

 

Fingers crossed, that my 1 OZ COA and box is coming with a 2 OZ coin🤞

My 2oz arrived with the COA for a 1oz 🤯

Well I’ve just returned my 2oz silver and cancelled my subscription.

Proof 2-coin set just arrived...  the reverse fosted coin looks like it fell on the floor, before packing
Very difficult to photograph, but there are dirt marks and what looks like milk spots beginning to form around the 2023.

Another return to the mint...

Apologies for the delay in replying. The coins are flawless at 5x magnification, i am in 2 minds to return them for an appropriate COA. Might keep them as an anomaly, once royalmint replies. 
 
 

I have similar issue. My 2 oz coin has a COA for 1 oz coin

Not like they used to. There were too many in the 70s, early 80s. People who weren't really in need (they could have rented) got them easily. Within a few successive governments people expected them more or less if they wanted one, and got one. Then Thatcher sold them off cheap (like our national utility companies). People loved her for it. Why not when you could buy a nice semi (many of them in our street were pretty nice houses) dirt cheap, and then treble your money in five years?
There are no council houses in that street now. The one closest to where I lived is probably worth half a million currently - as soon as they purchased it for a pittance (because they 'couldn't afford housing except from the council') they extended a bit.
Now look at the housing market and utilities.

...and another random thing I realised recently is how debt widens the rich/poor gap further with interest rates. Poorer people who live on the breadline may need payday loans which are charged at insane interest rates. Whereas people in a position to invest (e.g. in property) pay about 3% interest on properties. So the cost of debt is massively imbalanced further widening the rich/poor gap. It's a vicious circle for some people 😔

Bingo!  The transfer of wealth 101. 
The poorer are more exposed as a bigger percentage of their income is on fixed outgoings.
Most normal families even those who you think are middle class don’t have £700-£800 spare at the end of the month. We are heading for a very interesting period in our history. 

you just have to make sure you are on the right side of the wealth gap.  

The Sovs mainly for liquidity, and again as @LawrenceChard pointed out, the double Sov is presently an opportunity  

Please do buddy, feel free to PM me for my email anytime It'd be interesting to know where roughly you are, I can't right now but might be worth meeting for a coffee/beer and a chat. I have a unique market at my fingertips that needs a merch company as it's quickly exploding and is going to be huge I think, I just can't deal with it (myself) right now. If you can, I'll see if I can secure the rights from the content creator (Youtube, and published author). He'd probably let me have it free right now (!) but people are starting to see that and no doubt trying to get in there as we speak and I think he should get a cut. I don't know how the figures stack up with merch but there might be easy money in it for all (?). The stuff is pretty much already designed (though lots of scope for variations and development). If interested can you give me a shout in a few weeks? I'd need to get onto to it quick (I could also possibly get his publishing rights in the UK/Europe as he's only in the US for now, but that's a completely different kettle of fish!) cheers!

You're right about Banksy and about Damien Hirst.  Although I do find Banksy's art/satire to be very interesting still.  
As for Damien Hirst, I did like his edgier, more thought-provoking stuff but I think everything he has produced in at least the last fifteen years holds no appeal (certainly to me), other than by virtue of his name.

Margins can be pretty good even with the obscene charges, as once you start producing bulk the costs on a single print are low. At present I have a single screen setup which is very limiting, but again, I am literally just gaining experience and I don't see the point in learning multiple colours prints when I can't even get consistent quality with one, I have also realised that part of the problem is my lack of equipment, but hey, I'll have to suck it up in the initial phase.
On the bright side, I have a good friend that has a record company and has been dealing with merch for decades, so I'm getting good tips for the marketing side of it, once I have a line ready, as it all revolves around brand recognition and moving out of sale sites; I also have good contacts in the alternative crowd and biker scene, so it's all about getting it going and, once I can offer reliable quality on multicolour prints, should be all down hill.
I'll let you know how it goes, maybe could be beneficial for both.

I've long considered a screen printing business, I would do it as a labour of love as long as I could cover the bills. Interestingly I've also found a niche and quite unique but quickly growing market for T-shirts (merchandise) but that be best be dealt with through a commercial company who will just send me my cut, and I don't have any experience at all with such companies. I'm sure it's easy but too many other things on my plate right now.
When I have time I may try to 'do' a viral 'Banksy' type thing. Or get into NFTs if they are still around. Mind you, Banksy is only Banksy because he's a toff. Damien Hirst also was an elite creation. More £££millions for them.

I've looked into selling on all various platforms since I have started screen printing and I am coming up with decent results, I still botch about a quarter of the prints, but the vast majority are good. My plan is to do it on the side and I don't care how low the margins are, as long as I make the money back all I want is to get the experience to improve the overall quality and get some spare change to produce more screens, once I have enough designs ready I'll move to my own website and forget about eBay and similar, the charges are ludicrous.
 
I couldn't like it twice, so I'm quoting it for appreciation 😍

I binned selling on Amazon several years ago for that very reason coupled with the unreasonable bias against sellers.  They gave me a strike when a buyer complained about an almost 40 year old vinyl album I sold him which wasn't in mint condition, even though I had described it as such and made it clear via a series of personal messages before he committed to buy.  Pathetic and I fail to understand why anyone bothers with it as a platform.  It's probably worse than ebay.

But first things first, you want to get yourself an old, completely knackered boat...

 

People born with a silver spoon drive me nuts. But then again it's not their fault they were born 😆.
I'm no millionaire. I do OK. I'm feeling the squeeze lately especially. But I did it by in 2006 spending £100 on junk and selling it on eBay. I turned it in to a grand, bought more stuff (we are really talking junk - from novelty flick combs to referee whistles!) But it grew. It turned to an amazon store (I don't sell junk anymore though as it took up too much space!) and it turned to 10 properties. But now Royal Mail is so expensive and the markets is flooded it would be impossible to do it from scratch again.
And, it's mostly due to China. We subsidise their post. So in China their government said "right you can send items for a few pennies" so Chinese people sell sell sell. Once their item gets to UK, our postal service takes it and must deliver it... for free! WE PAY THEIR POSTAGE FOR THEIR ORDERS because Royal Mail etc charge us a fortune for basic stamps to cover that cost! We are paying for them to steal our customers and our country makes less money hence less taxes coming in.
So.... don't buy from China.  They can sell you a tea towel for 99p for a reason and they're screwing our economy over. 
Donald Trump got it right as I think he stopped it in America (or at least tried to, I'm not sure).

I can tell you because my best mate is one of them - he's just left Hong Kong and his 5k a month rent was paid for as part of his package. A lot of them are in financial services/banking. Estate agents have been making a fortune too. Go figure!

Have opted out of the Car Rat Race for a while - swapped an old (16 years) car for an e-Bike and a load of transport credits (for Train, Taxi, Uber etc) though a Council Scheme to take old cars of the road in March of this year, and all the money I would have spent on Petrol, Road Tax, Insurance  & upkeep has been converted to PM's - plus I'm starting to feel the benefits of more Cycling & walking than I've done in years 😊

Fits in the luggage rack on a train when folded too...