Nicole

I agree with you Tony. I feel for all the people who are genuinely struggling and i have been there myself over the years. The answer is very very simple....get another job and work harder. If you cannot live on your current wage get up and do something about it, i went back to college and re-studied to enable me to get a better salary as i wanted more from life. I had to get a second job to pay for my education as i missed the boat on free education (my own fault). I work my arse off for my current job, you get out of life what you put in, i learnt that very valuable lesson from my dad along with many other's!! It certainley didn't fall into my lap!!! I now reap the rewards of a well paid job that gives me the lifestyle i wanted.

I am extremeley gratefull for what i have and i think a few others on this thread should re-evaluate what they actually have in life and perhaps adjust their opinions slightly on exactly WHO is responsible for the shape of their finances!!!

There are always options and choices available to you, we don't always want to make the choices but they are there, you just have to take the rough with the smooth in life. It's character building and inevitably moves you up the ladder in the long run, you just have to see the bigger picture.

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

roflol @chip
he hasn't diversified into glass bath panels yet i will suggest this to him it may be his next money making opportunity and he could buy a his and hers lambo then .All he does is clean the schools and hospitals windows in this area

Chip

iTrader: (3)

How am I being a cunt?

By showing you up to be full of shit when you say you havent been wasting money?


It was only november last year!
If you could afford 750 quid for a bath panel, you could afford 20 quid for a bath panel and 730 quid put into savings for if things got tough!


I havent trawled anything, someone who remembered the thread sent me a link to it actually as they were so gobsmacked to hear you talking how you were! (ie as if you have been sensible with money and been caught out, rather than you pointlessly squandered money that could have been saved for a rainy day like the ones you now finally see looming!)


No, what you did was visit a salesman who sold you a product that gave him a good commission, and you did so blindly without looking at the longer term consequences, I have utterly NO finanical education, and I was able to see the potential problems with taking a short term deal, so between the two of you surely you could have summonsed up enough inteligence to make similar decisions IF you had cared about your financial security in future, rather than on squandering money you could ill afford to spend on other things, while subsidised by excessive borrowing!

Im not making you out to be anything, YOU posted about your 750 bath panel, I just replied with a link to it that someone sent me who had read the thread!
If thats your idea of not over-indulgent, then you have a VERY different view to many of us!

Ginge !

christian first of all when i asked for help you was rather cagy about it, this aint a witch hunt at all, infact you DESERVE your property you own, you both worked hard for it and the bath panel is also WELL deserved and looks good as does the rest of your house might i add

just your complaining about what people are doing to make money, you do the same on a smaller scale to pay for your family, BT are the fucking WORST company for ripping people off and was doing it for YEARS,,,,, but im sure your missus aint had a issue with that ?

i understand the frustration,, i was the same a few years ago, just bought a pokey little ex authority flat on the hood, dead end job for a big company on a shite wage and trying to have a family, infact i was using a 21ins second hand tv in my front room when my old one died for a few years, kitchen was falling apart and had a hob where 2 rings worked,,,,, this time i owned a cossie that ALSO got nicked which was a extra 5k sitting there doing nothing

ive sort of worked hard,,,, ok alot of it was luck to get there i must admit but ive had to work hard when there to get what i have now,,, which is still the same pokey flat in the shite whole pmsl

we all waste money, ive wasted LOADS in the last 18 months one night out stood me in 500 notes belive it or not so i wont complain when im poor ( ok i will but ill try not too )

RANJ

alot of caps and asses there chip

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Ginge, christian is allowed to spot a business opportunity and make an honest living from it which he puts towards a 750 quid bath panel etc, BP arent allowed to do the same and return dividends to my pension company to help with securing my old age.

Hope that clears it up

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

there are people far worse off than you Christian I had to buy back my loopy x wives half of all the family assets in 05 at the boom price and have been a single parent since 03 when she went loopy wonder if she has a glass bath panel bought with the kids inheritance roflol

dunketh

On the subject of mortgages and those who sell and advise on them - never take someones word as gospel truth.
Always shop around. Even if the guy you're speaking to is a genuine independant.

I saw lots of different advisors, some independant, some linked to a list of companies, some linked to an estate agent (the very worst kind).
My golden finance rule is - everyone is on the take and everyone is trying to fuck you over. Your best hope is to find the person that fucks you over the least because you wont find someone who doesnt.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

I honestly beleive that Christian cant actually see what is obvious to most people about how he and Becky have made choices about where there money goes and how that has left them.

Im not being a cunt, im actually trying to pop a few humourous caps in his arse just to point out to other people how easy it is to end up with debts you dont need!

I once got TWENTY grand in debt (8-9 years ago, at aged 24 when I should have known better!), on pointless shit I didnt need (modified cars actually, unsurprisginly, lol) and at the time, I was only earning 32 grand a year, so it was basically an entire years take home pay I ended up owing, not a nice feeling knowing that you have to work for an entire year and give every penny to someone else, and I mean EVERY penny, not just spare money.

That motivated me to get off my arse, and earn some money, a combination of good luck and hard work saw me on about 10K a month less than a year later, and it only took me 3 months then to pay off the money that I owed.

So Im not really taking quite the moral highground that he thinks I am, as even to this day I still squander money, but I do try and limit myself now to only squandering money that I can afford to do so, and I prioritise a bit of financial security above showing off with a silly trendy bath panel etc.

The reason he is so pissed off I would imagine, is finally its dawning on him just how stupid he actually has been, so he is choosing to shoot the messenger

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Now look at the bigger picture and see how long after we started doing our bathroom that we actually bought that panel, we saved up for a solution to that problem for possibly 2 years and I don't begrudge us some nice things, as I said earlier, we don't smoke or drink and spend very little on 'luxuries' so that we can occassionally have nice things. You've taken this all out of context and feel great because you feel like you have 'won'. Well done. For me it was never a battle, but there we are, usual Passionford response I guess of trying to make an innocent person out to be some kind of villain.

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

you try getting a mortgage to buy a house you have paid for that you technically half own with a psychotic women.Not many lenders keen to do that

Turbocabbie

See that's a good way to beat recession marry some money and claim half

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Well as per my post above, I was just trying to use a bit of banter and humour to educate you as well as provide a bit of entertainment of course. but clearly ive TOTALLY failed to do so if you still miss the point that the money you saved up for 2 years for that panel, could have gone on a cheaper panel and some savings instead, and why that might have been a better decision, so clearly ive LOST, I tried to give an idiot proof argument, and I greatly underestimated the standard of idiocy I needed to allow for, but hey ho, im sure I'll still manage to sleep at night.

Its YOU that needs to see the bigger picture IMHO

dunketh

Don't take this as a dig but what were you doing to earn that sort of money at 24? I dont know what its like where you live but that would be a very high wage locally.

Jim Galbally

christian, why can't you see that you have gotten yourself in this situation?

yes you didnt do it intentionally, but you still did. yes chip's highlighting this in a rather comedy fasion, but what he's saying is right.

i'm in the same boat, but i know full well it's my own fault for where i am!

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

a women scorned lol
Heather mills holds the world record for marrying money

Jim Galbally

in london that's about average, bear in mind we're not talking un-skilled labour

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I originally owned the cheaper panel, one made up of ceramic tiles, which didn't work, therefore I had to buy the proper thing.

Sadly I designed my bathroom in those days where we had a little more than a pot to piss in and once I had a timber frame, I had to cover it with something, unfortunately B&Q don't stock a £20 panel that covers that.

I also 'wasted' £2500 on a Kitchen, when I could have made-do with a £500 flat-pack job from Wickes. Silly me.

That said, it's all these things that have made my home a little nicer than the average 3-bedroom bungalow and probably contributed towards us not being in negative equity yet.

Ginge !

christian i think its more to point out that even though your feeling the pinch theres other out there that are MUCH MUCH MUCH worse off than you,,, but you dont seem to notice that

i would also put up the thread when you was slating the people off claiming back there bank charges cause they couldnt manage there account due to you ALWAYS being able to manage there account and never getting a bank charge

this is why i NEVER condem a man, we all do thing WE think is right,, ffs i sold my old engine and bought a 4500 sierra cossie,,, then got a loan out to pay for a boiler as i couldnt afford to buy one on my wages,,,, what a cunt i was back then but i wanted a cossie sooo much that i put that ahead of reality

now i managed to save ( by accident might i add ) enough cash buy never buying any car shite and was going out more, then we worked out that i spent more on going out than i ever did on cars,,, so i bought another car as i need something i guess to be happy, i was gonna buy a 10k motor and be broke but i went for a cheep motor incase it got nicked or broken down and i would beable to wash away

we all waste cash on this forum though,,,, as cars are a waste of cash so its EASY to point faults on people on here so dont worry about it

Chip

iTrader: (3)

I was working as a senior computer programmer for BT Cellnet, and then a year later I was doing the same for toyota but on 120K a year through my own company as a contracted consultant, bigger risks but bigger returns!

Right place and right time, but also of course a lot of hard work and natural ability too, back then I was fucking shit hot at what I did, these days im not and I sit on forums all day, hence despite 8 years of inflation and pay rises, im back down to earning again now not much more than I was on then, although now I only do 4 day weeks and dont work very hard, so it feels like progress to me

bigchez

You earn £120k a year for 4 day weeks? Fair fucking play!! Wish I did.

Ginge !

mate my first flat i moved out of and let the ex live there, in court i was told i still own it but she can stay there till she finds another place OR the little one moves out

i STILL have to pay the fucking morgage though !!!

though i found out that if i defaulted on payments the flat would be sold to pay the debt and not come back on me,,,,, guess what i did with my abbey national account !

shame some housing assosiation bought the fucking thing asn she STILL lives there GRRRR

was sold for the debt and that only too so i got FUCK ALL when i should have got 15k back

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

Christian don't take peoples advice personally you spent the money, tighten your belt now and ride the storm.Property is a long term investment not a short term the cycle of boom and bust has been going on for decades wait till the next boom.
Things could be worse beccy could divorce you

Chip

iTrader: (3)

NO!

I earn back down in the 40K region now on my lazy 4 day week, when I was earning 120K a year that was based on a 5 day week (although actually I used to do overtime so it was probably more like 150K a year)

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

behind every problem is a women

dunketh

Nice one.
I'd assumed you were some kind of engineering/motorsport guru due to the cars.

I wish I had a head for software. We've had two guys leave now to start their own companies, one in NZ! I'm a hardware and networks chap myself, which is far less financially rewarding. (I'm on 22k)
(although you do get paid for doing not very much so I cant complain)

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

But who is arguing over whose fault it is? I can't see what was wrong about what we did and I still don't know what we would have done differently if we did it all again. If life is all about living on the bare minimum of everything all the time and anything more than the bare essentials is classed as indulgence, then whats the point? Anyone that knows us knows that we are not indulgent in any way. We've both worked hard and have grafted our bollocks off to make our home what it is and see it that we saved 'x' amount of pounds on labour, so why not make what we have done a little nicer. For the first year or so of the renovation, we often worked until 2am and are still not finished.

The point here is, and has always been, why is EVERYTHING rising at an unreasonable rate at the moment? But thats the point you seem to be missing. I don't think we'll ever agree on it, so why bother going on?

rog

iTrader: (2)

Did you borrow that money along with your mortgage then? As you should have been strongly advised at the risks of doing so as this is never really a wise choice.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Don't be silly. We can't possibly consider a luxury such as a wedding. We've been together for 9 years, are deeply in love, but haven't spent the £10-15k on getting married, because we decided to spend £750 on a piece of glass.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Nah. cars are just a hobby, my background is in real time programming for things like power stations, that does put me in a good position for understanding a vehicle ECU, monitoring 8 inputs at once and only have two main outputs (timing and spark) when you are used to 50,000 or more does make it all seem pretty simple and trivial where cars are concerned

My problem these days is just a lack of motivation, I could still be earning the same money if I could be arsed, but im financially secure enough not to need to, and having an easy day at work for 4 days and then 3 day weekends suits me more than having extra cash.

Money isnt everything, but I couldnt see that till I actually had some, so was very cash focussed in my early days.

I'll never be wealthy again I suspect, but I cant remember the last time I was unhappy or particuarly stressed, so without meaning to sound too corny, IMHO im a richer man now overall.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

We couldn't have done it any other way. We know the pitfalls of borrowing extra money over the entire length of a mortgage term. At that time, we envisaged over-paying our mortgage, but the reality is that just isn't possible now.

alistairolsen

because you are choosing to define what is unreasonable based on your experience over the last ~15 years. Sadly much as it would be nice, the country does not sit at a 2% inflation rate with a stable bank base rate all of the time, it fluctuates, especially when one ends up with a government willing to do nothing about controlling borrowing in order to avoid unsustainable growth rates.

Ginge !

thats rubbish jim, the average is worked out of the overall wages by the number of people here

theres MORE people in london earning under 20k a year than earning over 35k a year, just theres some earning BIG wages to help it sound intersting

when i changed bank accounts i was told im VERY well paied and the person who was opening it was paied 15k a year and needed qualifacations to get the job

im not classed as skilled but not anyone can do my job if that makes sence but for me its easy as it comes naturally and ill read books/scan the net in my free time to get the answers i need all so i dont get paied for it but i do it for myself and then pass the info over to my boss so is that classed as a skilled job ?

there IS money to be made, you just have to know how to get it i guess

a kid i worked with was paied 14k a year for 3 years,,, never asked for a pay rise as he was always been told hes paied well and hes paied better than hes mates, i mentioned what he should be paied and told him to look for another job but ask for that wage, he only done it when he HAD to,,, he left and was offered MORE money to come back to work at my place and hes now on twice that for doing the same job,,, sometimes we dont know where the money is as people dont share what they get paied ( unless lying about it obv)

though thats where this problem is,,,, people just worring about themselves rather than everyone

Jim Galbally

we explained why

anyway it's YOU thats saying it's unreasonable based on what you assume should be the case, we are highlighting that your view on how life works etc. is not how it actually works

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Ginge, for people with significant skills, ie a degree or a professional trade, I dont believe that in the 30s in london is above average at all.

If you are talkin semi skilled jobs like you do that dont require specialist qualifications or experience, then yes it is more than you are likely to earn on average.

Jim was talking about folk like me and him, not like you.


(apologies for how patronising that sounds, not looking down on you or anything, just pointing out that you and jim have a different opinion of what constiutes "skilled labour" thats all)

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

OK, I made it all up. Forget I ever asked.

Jim Galbally

we're talking mean figures. i'm sure the modal would be a bit different, but it wont be FAR off 30k...

if you're just talking about central london (ie EC,WC,E1,W1,S1,N1 etc.) it's about 50k!

rog

iTrader: (2)

Ok, the reason I ask is I was in the same situation as yourself and we decided to take the option having the house in my name and a large personal loan in my Gf's name to a similar value as yourself and pay it over 5 years which works out to be far more effective, but obviously you need the means to be able to repay that over the shorter term. My only advise would be if things are THAT bad is ALWAYS contact your lender before it's too late to see what they can do.

dumped

Christian - one of the reasons might be that in many other parts of the world people are working 15+hours a day 7 days a week just to barely survive. As the world has become so stable and the global economy being opened up a balancing is taking place imo. That on top of a reliance for finite resources that the world is competing over as our lifestyle and resource consumption is pushed higher and higher.

Time for a war or two.

dunketh

10-15k??

I got married for 5k. That included a full traditional church service with all the trimmings, an afternoon meal for around 60 people with full table service, an evening buffet for the same, a barn dance (dont ask ) and rental of the reception venue. Then theres the wedding dress and other bits.
You can make a lot of savings, if you're clever..
I supplied and decorated my own cars, got flowers cheaply and had various mates who work in salons to do the girls hair and makeup. The wedding cake was three white-iced cakes from M&S decorated by my mum!
My honey moon was a week in Edinburgh in a B&B - cheap as chips!

You should look into it more. It might not be as difficult as you fear.