# Eddie Hobbs & the fish farmer....



## nelly (20 Feb 2006)

Anyone see the latest episode?
 Its like a car wreak, you don't want to look but end up watching anyhow. 
It was like everyones dream - i only want to work 2 months of the year, while sweetly ignoring the soaring  170k+ debt going on. I though Hobbs looked pathetic because this guy did not want any advice at all. 
Where does he get the folks with NO financial savvy at all, i wonder?

Also it stuck me that soon Today FM won't be taking him off so much as repeating him - the pun's were awful this week.


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## Audrey (20 Feb 2006)

Yes it does seem to be going downhill lately.  It may be that he simply can't get 'normal' people to go on the show.  Would you go on?  I certainly wouldn't.  Also, there's no particular resolution by the end of the programme.  I was especially impressed (not!) with yer woman deciding to go back to school (despite all the debts) and having great faith in yer man to make enough money to keep the two of them going, and smiling away at the camera despite everything!  If only we could all get by on great faith and a giggle!!  Does anybody agree that last year's Show Me The Money was better .... more realistic and more beneficial to the participants and the viewers?


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## Covenant (20 Feb 2006)

Maybe last year was better but it was mostly refinancing / turnaround stories ie with dramatic tension and was criticised for being too focused on that, this year it's broader based which many AAM posters seemed to want but such stories lack dramatic tension. Its hard to know where it should pitch maybe it should just stop, but then there would be hundreds of thousands of viewers left without a similar Irish programme. Maybe it needs a new presenter completely somebody like??


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## TarfHead (20 Feb 2006)

Andrewa said:
			
		

> ..  I was especially impressed (not!) with yer woman deciding to go back to school (despite all the debts) and having great faith in yer man to make enough money to keep the two of them going..



I thought the opposite.
I thought 'fair dues' to her following through on her ambitions after 7 years of subsidising him on his loss-making hobby.


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## Winnie (20 Feb 2006)

In some ways I thought fair play to them ..... there are very few people in Ireland these days who arent obsessed with earning & spending as much as they possibly can!  She said that she would prefer to be poor & happy than loaded & unhappy - I only wish I could think somewhere along the same lines.
Although the business really didnt seem to be viable....


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## TarfHead (20 Feb 2006)

Winnie said:
			
		

> .. there are very few people in Ireland these days who arent obsessed with earning & spending as much as they possibly can..



OK - but there has to be a better compromise between that ideal, and having debts of 177K on an income of 20K


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## markowitzman (20 Feb 2006)

I think they will have to sell their home in the next few years to claear debt. House probably worth 400k as in louisburgh. Could buy 3 bed semi in castlebar for 190k. Start again with no mortgage and good household budget.
Thought the programme was very poor.
Eddie did not lay it onthe line enough imho.
No discussion as to what rates business loans were or chances of equity release on house to get  a better rate etc??


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## Brendan Burgess (20 Feb 2006)

I was pleased to see another programme on the interaction between a business and a person's personal finance. That made it more interesting than "giggle, giggle, I just love buying shoes and going on three holidays a year - why do I owe €50k on my credit card? giggle, giggle". 

Eddie can't tell them what to do. He can only suggest and encourage them. He can only inform them of the situation in black and white. I thought he did it very well. It's a 25 minute programme, so he can't do everything. 

Part of the dramatic tension comes from the subject refusing Eddie's advice.

Brendan


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## ClubMan (21 Feb 2006)

Brendan said:
			
		

> That made it more interesting than "giggle, giggle, I just love buying shoes and going on three holidays a year - why do I owe €50k on my credit card? giggle, giggle".


Yeah - and that's just the men!


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## colc1 (21 Feb 2006)

Covenant said:
			
		

> Maybe it needs a new presenter completely somebody like??


  Maybe dunphy could take over to slag the participants could be amusing


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## colc1 (21 Feb 2006)

markowitzman said:
			
		

> or chances of equity release on house to get a better rate etc??


 Isnt equity release the same as remortgaging, just wondering?  I can see your point though then


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## ClubMan (21 Feb 2006)

colc1 said:
			
		

> Isnt equity release the same as remortgaging, just wondering?


They are often interchangeable term. An equity release/mortgage top-up is basically increasing the mortgage to release some of the equity for other purposes. A remortgage could also mean moving the mortgage to another (more competitive) lender without increasing the amount outstanding. But they are closely related and often used as synonyms.


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## colc1 (21 Feb 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> They are often interchangeable term. An equity release/mortgage top-up is basically increasing the mortgage to release some of the equity for other purposes. A remortgage could also mean moving the mortgage to another (more competitive) lender without increasing the amount outstanding. But they are closely related and often used as synonyms.


 
Thanks for that cluman thats what I thought, why doesnt every home owner use this way of raising finance (e.g. buying car) then?  Maybe a stupid question but I assume its because you'd have to lie that it was for home improvement or just to remortgage, right?


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## ClubMan (21 Feb 2006)

Where possible using a mortgage top-up/equity release to pay for other purchases makes sense but only if the repayments for the top-up are scheduled over a similar term to the alternative unsecured loan. For example it doesn't make sense to pay for a car or holiday over 20-30 years. Doing so, eve using credit at mortgage interest rates, will result in a very expensive purchase inflated by high total interest charges. If the alternative for purchasing a car would be, say, a 3 year car loan then a mortgage top-up scheduled for repayment over a similar term would make sense and be a lot cheaper overall. Some lenders may put restrictions on what a mortgage top-up can be used for. Others may not. In other cases some individuals already have other significant debts or financial issues which precludes them from availing of mortgage interest rate credit through a top-up. Where somebody has the option of using mortgage top-up finance (ideally scheduled over a few years rather than the full mortgage term) to make a purchase but don't avail of it and use a more expensive unsecured loan instead then I'm not sure why they do this other than ignorance of the options. This is why it's important to get independent, professional advice and not depend on tied agents for "advice" since they just want to sell you their own products (e.g. high interest car loan for the car, high interest personal loan for the holiday, spread the repayments on a mortgage top-up over the full 20-30 years etc.) and not necessarily those that make most financial sense for the individual. Caveat emptor.


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## colc1 (21 Feb 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> For example it doesn't make sense to pay for a car or holiday over 20-30 years. sense for the individual. Caveat emptor.


  Good point!  Hadnt muy thinking cap on there re: that.  So if you have a good credit record in your opinion they are generally more accommodating re: what you can get a mortgage top up for?


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## ClubMan (21 Feb 2006)

colc1 said:
			
		

> Good point!  Hadnt muy thinking cap on there re: that.


That's why the financial institutions make so much money on stuff like debt consolidation onto mortgages. There must be lots of people paying for a car or holiday over decades out there. And they probably blame the reduction in their disposable income on _Rip-off Ireland _rather than their own poor or ill-informed decision making...


> So if you have a good credit record in your opinion they are generally more accommodating re: what you can get a mortgage top up for?


Of course they will be more accommodating in terms of actually granting top-ups to those with good rather than bad credit ratings or those with less rather than more debt. However I'm not sure that this extends to what the loan is used for. I suspect that some lenders simply have strict rules on what they will do mortgage top-ups for while others don't. After all if a lender knows that you're doing a mortgage top-up for €20K repayable over two years for a new car they also know that this will cut into their car loan business...


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## colc1 (21 Feb 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> they also know that this will cut into their car loan business...


 
Thats a good point it doesnt make much financial sense from the financial institutions point of view, except from the point of view of attracting customers


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## markowitzman (21 Feb 2006)

my point is that they will be better off selling house rather than waiting for repossession. Eddie did not mention the word repossession during the programme but just mentioned solicitors letters and court etc.
I think one has to look these people in the eye and say you look like losing your house if you do not do the following........


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## DoctorEvil (21 Feb 2006)

markowitzman said:
			
		

> No discussion as to what rates business loans were or chances of equity release on house to get  a better rate etc??



They were hardly in a position to release equity with only one income of less than 20k!


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## Grizzly (21 Feb 2006)

I thought that this guy was a real loner. I would have thought that a roofer/carpenter would not have to put a hand written sign in the local supermarket looking for employment. Does he have any mates?


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## nelly (21 Feb 2006)

Ah Grizzly - did you want him to go out and buy a computer and printer for a sign?? if he had to have thought of it he probably would have 

the one comment i had (apart from the obvious 170k+debt holey moley )
was that it must have been love for sure holding that relationship together because i think if my hubbie was a guy who racked up so much debt to work 2 months of the year and i was working an operator to tide him & his "business" over, having nothing to spend even though i earned it - well i reckon i would have been off or else beaten reality into him, and it would not have taken 6 years! 
DH was watching with me and he was in full agreement.


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## delgirl (21 Feb 2006)

What struck me was the 'I paid for this' and 'he paid for that' statements.  They had been married for some considerable time - when we got married, our salaries went into a joint account and everything was paid from this pot.

Do married couples these days have separate accounts?  How easy is this to manage?  Who pays for what?  Can't imagine it myself.

I don't work, but have access to all accounts etc.  A friend of mine gets 'an allowance' from her husband and if she wants to buy anything over and above that allowance, she has to ask him and justify what it is and why she needs it.  Can't imagine living like that either, am I alone in thinking this way?


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## TarfHead (21 Feb 2006)

delgirl said:
			
		

> Do married couples these days have separate accounts? How easy is this to manage? Who pays for what? Can't imagine it myself. .. A friend of mine gets 'an allowance' from her husband


 
IMHO no 2 couples manage their finances in the same way. My wife does not work outside the home and I lodge a fixed amount to the joint account each payday.


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## nelly (21 Feb 2006)

I missed that - sure nobody paid for anything as far i as i can get it was all going  into a debt. 
Yep i agree no two couples are the same but i think the "wife not working outside the home" is an endangered species and so couples who both hold down jobs would tend to keep their seperate bank accounts and split bills etc. Its how we do it but it might have been out of laziness rather than any great decision to be independant.


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## minion (21 Feb 2006)

I felt sorry for him.  He obviously loved what he was doing but it didnt make him money.


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## onekeano (22 Feb 2006)

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that young oneKeano doesn't drag home an Oyster Farmer as her suitor over the next few years! I nearly prefer if she got herself an ordinary young Northside decent criminal rather that a parasite like yer man!

Roy


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## jake108 (25 Feb 2006)

I don't know how Eddie stopped himself from slapping the two of them. I understand that the guy had a dream about his fishing business but get real! If it's not working out and paying the bills maybe it's time for a more realistic approach!


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## sully (27 Feb 2006)

I think they were trying a trial seperation and using the financial thing as the excuse to spilt up. ie why else would she go to DIT when she could just as well go to GMIT to do the same course and commute daily. I doubt if there would be plenty of oppurtunity for science graduates in mayo as well so i reckon she want to move back to dublin fulltime and see how different it would be.

She seems to do things on a whim, like at the start she quit her job and went off to mayo and it was indicated that she left dublin went to mayo and was married within  at most 12 months. Then again on a whim she decides to take redundacy from a good paying job in west of ireland with little qualifications to go back to college, I think eddie was coming down hard on the fishfarmer and let her off very lightly maybe he knew the situation that they were/are close to brekup and if the farmer didn't get his act together then it was over.


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## colc1 (27 Feb 2006)

sully said:
			
		

> I think they were trying a trial seperation and using the financial thing as the excuse to spilt up. ie why else would she go to DIT when she could just as well go to GMIT to do the same course and commute daily. I doubt if there would be plenty of oppurtunity for science graduates in mayo as well so i reckon she want to move back to dublin fulltime and see how different it would be.
> 
> She seems to do things on a whim, like at the start she quit her job and went off to mayo and it was indicated that she left dublin went to mayo and was married within at most 12 months. Then again on a whim she decides to take redundacy from a good paying job in west of ireland with little qualifications to go back to college, I think eddie was coming down hard on the fishfarmer and let her off very lightly maybe he knew the situation that they were/are close to brekup and if the farmer didn't get his act together then it was over.


 
I wish I'd seen this one now it seems to be a really bizarre story


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## nelly (28 Feb 2006)

Ah Sully steady on, 
the following points are relevant: 
she is living rent free in her parents house in Dublin, in Galway if she were to commute it would probably be impossible due to the distance but would cost far more, 
I don't think they were going to break up, her family were ,moving up the road to be close to them and finally there is at least one pharmachem company in the area and maybe it had made her job redundant? But i agree that she was left out of the loop a fair bit and her husband did not listen to her at all regarding money and seemed to have the "yes dear" down to a fine art. i would have laid him out after that show but love is blind!


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## Humpback (28 Feb 2006)

nelly said:
			
		

> she is living rent free in her parents house in Dublin, in Galway if she were to commute it would probably be impossible due to the distance but would cost far more,


 
10 miles from her house to GMIT in Castlebar. Don't know what courses are there though.


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