Pedlarjak

I find myself in the fortunate situation of having a sum of money to invest - but for only six months. It's a large enough sum for those few decimal points of interest rate to actually count. Does anyone have any suggestions of where it will get maximum return risk free - assuming the investor is non-tax paying?

I cannot believe that nobody has yet started this topic - so herewith I venture to take the slings and arrows ...

I started selling internationally in the early 1980's -just after she had come to power, but before her policies had had any impact. I clearly remember that the first few minutes of every meeting were taken up by my customers' polite banter, gently mocking the UK and all it stood for. "Who's turn is it to strike this week?" "Did Arthur Scargill give you permission to travel?" "You don't really drive a British car, do you?" and so on.

A few years later, these comments were all but replaced by statements of envy. "I wish we had someone like her to sort out things here" being typical.

She restored the standing of Britain overseas- for which I had personal reason to be particularly grateful.

And did you know that she was the second Mrs. Thatcher ?

Or am I just unlucky? (Again)

In the past 5 weeks I have seen 12 loans written off as being in default. From a loan book of about 600 loans.

I have always kept an eye on a simple calculation to monitor my bad debt. The calculation is  'Bad Debt' divided by 'Earnings to Date', expressed as a percentage.

This seems to me to be a good, simple way to judge the true effect of bad debt.

It has stayed in the range of 22% to 28% for over a year - but is now 35%.

I'd be interested to know what other lenders recent experience is, and what figure the same calculation produces on other loan books.

I would like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the posters who have kept us so entertained and informed throughout 2011.

I trust you will enjoy this newly revised Christmas Carol:

God bless you little Euro, now it’s time to say farewell
This well intentioned project has completely gone to hell
They say that when it’s over the fat lady sings a note
Well, old Angela is clearing her throat
Clearing her throat, old Angela is clearing her throat

To save the City of London, Dave Cameron had to fight
As Merkel and Sarkozy kept him up all through the night
With nothing but a blackberry into the corner he was backed
Then he found that his vocicemail had been hacked
Had been hacked, he found that his voicemail had been hacked

To save this little currency will need a lot of wealth
Some way to spend more money than the British National Health
That is why dear boys and girls there is a real good chance
That David Beckham will come and play in France
Play in France, David Beckham will come and play in France

With the continuing (relatively) high amount of money being held in the system and not being lent - it seems to have been above £5 million for quite some time - and the likelihood that interest rates seem very likely to stay at their current low levels for quite some time - maybe it is time for Zopa to offer loans over a longer period. Maybe seven or even ten years.

Obviously not all lenders would be interested in this longer term commitment, but those that are could offer into these longer term markets and this should help boost demand and help all of us getter better returns on our money.

What do other lenders think?