Prose from a Poshboy

[AlunB]

I appreciate all that but why are the regulators so stupid to stop people borrowing with 50% deposits with no fixed income?  It's the most risk free form of mortgage lending possible.   I understand the self cert days/110% mortgages with no deposits etc etc and why everything went tits up.  I don't understand why the regulators because this happened now stop people with huge cash deposits but no steady form of income from borrowing.  It makes no sense to me at all.

I agreed it's ridiculous but the banks went so far past the irresponsible way they've had to drag it back equally far beyond the safe way. I would assume there's a way around it for people with such large deposits but I think you'd be looking at specialist banks with brains rather than your usual "computer says no!!" type banks. I imagine you have to sign up to all kinds of wavers as well saying it's not their fault if it goes tits up and you lose everything.

I thought it was still fairly easy to get an interest only BTL mortgage just not one on your main residence?

[nirvana]

I appreciate all that but why are the regulators so stupid to stop people borrowing with 50% deposits with no fixed income?  It's the most risk free form of mortgage lending possible.   I understand the self cert days/110% mortgages with no deposits etc etc and why everything went tits up.  I don't understand why the regulators because this happened now stop people with huge cash deposits but no steady form of income from borrowing.  It makes no sense to me at all.

I agreed it's ridiculous but the banks went so far past the irresponsible way they've had to drag it back equally far beyond the safe way. I would assume there's a way around it for people with such large deposits but I think you'd be looking at specialist banks with brains rather than your usual "computer says no!!" type banks. I imagine you have to sign up to all kinds of wavers as well saying it's not their fault if it goes tits up and you lose everything.

I thought it was still fairly easy to get an interest only BTL mortgage just not one on your main residence?

It is..hard to challenge arbbollo tho when he's on a roll with so many opinions on subjects he knows so little about

[vegaslover]

I appreciate all that but why are the regulators so stupid to stop people borrowing with 50% deposits with no fixed income?  It's the most risk free form of mortgage lending possible.   I understand the self cert days/110% mortgages with no deposits etc etc and why everything went tits up.  I don't understand why the regulators because this happened now stop people with huge cash deposits but no steady form of income from borrowing.  It makes no sense to me at all.

I agreed it's ridiculous but the banks went so far past the irresponsible way they've had to drag it back equally far beyond the safe way. I would assume there's a way around it for people with such large deposits but I think you'd be looking at specialist banks with brains rather than your usual "computer says no!!" type banks. I imagine you have to sign up to all kinds of wavers as well saying it's not their fault if it goes tits up and you lose everything.

I thought it was still fairly easy to get an interest only BTL mortgage just not one on your main residence?

It's not as easy as it was, due to MMR the banks now have stupid levels/figures whatever the fuck they use, to assess if you can repay. I bought another property this year to rent out and they wanted all my payslips and scrutinised all my outgoings, despite the rental figures more than covering the mortgages.

[SuuPRlim]

Yeah but what if you lose Arb?  

Funny hearing the degens viewpoint, I can't relate to it at all  

it's not degenerate though, it's business.

and to be clear I meant buying a house outright in cash 100%, obviously if you can put ~30% of w/e down and get a mortgage it's an absolute no brainier ofc.

When you say it's not about the return, it's about the security then it is absolutely about the return, you are paying for the security. Not saying it's a bad thing to do, just saying that's what you're doing.

[arbboy]

Yeah but what if you lose Arb?  

Funny hearing the degens viewpoint, I can't relate to it at all  

it's not degenerate though, it's business.

and to be clear I meant buying a house outright in cash 100%, obviously if you can put ~30% of w/e down and get a mortgage it's an absolute no brainier ofc.

When you say it's not about the return, it's about the security then it is absolutely about the return, you are paying for the security. Not saying it's a bad thing to do, just saying that's what you're doing.

If putting down 30% down though and it impacts your ability to earn money with your money then it is a massive issue.  You will go cash busto and be asset rich which is no good when you gamble for a living.  I know at least 3 people this has happened to in the last 2 years.

[DMorgan]

Thing is on big life decisions like buying houses and choosing a career over poker you're almost never going to get an unbiased answer.

Everyone that views him/herself as a smart, rational person (which pretty much everyone does) will find a way to justify their mistakes to themselves when it comes to big life choices because the alternative is to alter the view that they are a smart and rational person.

I think its reasonable to assume that some %age of people make the wrong choices, but almost everyone seems so sure that they made the right choice. Most of them probably did, but the ones that at some point knew that they didn't (and these people just have to exist) aren't consciously lying, its just the way that the brain works. Its so much easier to justify our decisions in any way possible than live with the turmoil (dissonance) that results from knowing that we made a bad decision.

Its something that I've been reading about a lot recently and I think its pretty fascinating stuff. I'd recommend a book by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson called Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me). The slight trade off is that after reading it you won't want to believe anyone's opinion on anything, your own included

Back to the question, in the past you were adamant that the whole freedom thing was really important to you. Has that changed? If not then I think that your decision is a clear one.

My biased belief is that there is still plenty of money to be made in poker if you really want it, and your last blog entry reads as if you have a lot less confidence in your game than you used to. Plough the hours into studying, use stuff like Odds Oracle an CardrunnersEV. Be the guy making the long and detailed posts about how many bluff combos you should have in this spot and what hands you'd be using for balance, working out for yourself what the close-to-GTO play could be as well as your exploitative adjustments. Thats how you get some confidence back and I think you know that if you were feeling really confident in your game and your ability to make a good amount of money in poker you wouldn't even consider giving it up for a desk job which I think not many people would dispute is what you're looking at for the first x number of years of your venture capitalist employment.

The psychologists answer would be that it doesn't really matter which you choose because you'll justify whichever choice to yourself and others either way

[AlunB]

Thing is on big life decisions like buying houses and choosing a career over poker you're almost never going to get an unbiased answer.

Everyone that views him/herself as a smart, rational person (which pretty much everyone does) will find a way to justify their mistakes to themselves when it comes to big life choices because the alternative is to alter the view that they are a smart and rational person.

I think its reasonable to assume that some %age of people make the wrong choices, but almost everyone seems so sure that they made the right choice. Most of them probably did, but the ones that at some point knew that they didn't (and these people just have to exist) aren't consciously lying, its just the way that the brain works. Its so much easier to justify our decisions in any way possible than live with the turmoil (dissonance) that results from knowing that we made a bad decision.

Its something that I've been reading about a lot recently and I think its pretty fascinating stuff. I'd recommend a book by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson called Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me). The slight trade off is that after reading it you won't want to believe anyone's opinion on anything, your own included

Back to the question, in the past you were adamant that the whole freedom thing was really important to you. Has that changed? If not then I think that your decision is a clear one.

My biased belief is that there is still plenty of money to be made in poker if you really want it, and your last blog entry reads as if you have a lot less confidence in your game than you used to. Plough the hours into studying, use stuff like Odds Oracle an CardrunnersEV. Be the guy making the long and detailed posts about how many bluff combos you should have in this spot and what hands you'd be using for balance, working out for yourself what the close-to-GTO play could be as well as your exploitative adjustments. Thats how you get some confidence back and I think you know that if you were feeling really confident in your game and your ability to make a good amount of money in poker you wouldn't even consider giving it up for a desk job which I think not many people would dispute is what you're looking at for the first x number of years of your venture capitalist employment.

The psychologists answer would be that it doesn't really matter which you choose because you'll justify whichever choice to yourself and others either way

What do they say about people who are absolutely certain they've made some huge mistakes in their life? I can happily admit I've made some dreadful choices in the past that have obviously had a huge impact on my life and most of the people I know would say the same. That's not to say I, or they, are not happy with their lot. I am for sure. But there is no way, for a banal example, doing the degree I did wasn't an awful decision.

[neeko]

One other aspect is your level of degeneracy.

88% concentration (remember him) spun up £100k plus and down again and up and down but in the blog talked about buying a house or part of one. If he had not bought the illiquid asset that is a house, then you can guarantee that it would have been lost by the end of the month through poker (and maybe back again) but these things don't tend to end well.

Don't know what happened to him in the end - was still an amazing tale.

Equity in a house is just something that gives that extra confidence that allows risks elsewhere.

[Woodsey]

One other aspect is your level of degeneracy.

88% concentration (remember him) spun up £100k plus and down again and up and down but in the blog talked about buying a house or part of one. If he had not bought the illiquid asset that is a house, then you can guarantee that it would have been lost by the end of the month through poker (and maybe back again) but these things don't tend to end well.

Don't know what happened to him in the end - was still an amazing tale.

Equity in a house is just something that gives that extra confidence that allows risks elsewhere.

Absolute best blog ever back in the day 

[DMorgan]

What do they say about people who are absolutely certain they've made some huge mistakes in their life? I can happily admit I've made some dreadful choices in the past that have obviously had a huge impact on my life and most of the people I know would say the same. That's not to say I, or they, are not happy with their lot. I am for sure. But there is no way, for a banal example, doing the degree I did wasn't an awful decision.

The theory goes that there is a very strong link between how emotionally/financially committed you are to whatever you're giving your opinion about and so with the passage of time you are far less invested in your choice, and so you experience much less dissonance resulting in you having little reason to have to justify your choices to yourself and others. I guess in non psychology terms it would just be what we call 'emotional maturity'?

[dreenie]

Sell everything you own, fly to Vegas with your net worth and put it all on black or red.

Document it on a YouTube video and if you lose you will get it all back from you're YouTube hits...

Live the dream, he who dares Rodney! !

[cambridgealex]

"your last blog entry reads as if you have a lot less confidence in your game than you used to"

No Dan it's the other way around. I'm confident at my level. Live tournaments/cash and midstakes mtts online. I'm not confident higher and don't have the hunger or desire to get there.

[redsimon]

Sell everything you own, fly to Vegas with your net worth and put it all on black or red.

Document it on a YouTube video and if you lose you will get it all back from you're YouTube hits...

Live the dream, he who dares Rodney! !

Looks like someone did that

[VBlue]

With all due respect to all contributors to this recent discussion on the best investment to make, none of you can now what is best for anyone unless you have had a full and detailed discussion with them about a whole host of things.

I would personally much rather take the advice of a chartered and/or certified financial planner who comes highly recommended, than take my investment advice from this thread.

Seriously, I mean no offence to anyone who has posted in saying that.

[AlunB]

What do they say about people who are absolutely certain they've made some huge mistakes in their life? I can happily admit I've made some dreadful choices in the past that have obviously had a huge impact on my life and most of the people I know would say the same. That's not to say I, or they, are not happy with their lot. I am for sure. But there is no way, for a banal example, doing the degree I did wasn't an awful decision.

The theory goes that there is a very strong link between how emotionally/financially committed you are to whatever you're giving your opinion about and so with the passage of time you are far less invested in your choice, and so you experience much less dissonance resulting in you having little reason to have to justify your choices to yourself and others. I guess in non psychology terms it would just be what we call 'emotional maturity'?

Thanks. Think I will check out the book. Sounds interesting and very much up my street. Just for my two cents regarding Alex, I think what you choose to do is considerably less important than how you choose to do it.