Making a fair contribution

[Ray Scully]

Really serious Moby, for all my faults I hate injustice, and people being judgmental and mean spirited.

Ray

[Not so ancient mariner]

Yes, my mortgage was very small compared to the ones my kids have (as indeed were my wages at the time)........but at one point I was paying FIFTEEN per cent interest on it!!

[Quizzical Bob]

In my opinion Inheritance Tax is in the same category as graverobbing.

[Not so ancient mariner]

Merv wrote:

Really? For one thing interest rate cuts, which benefit those in debt, have cost me about £4,000 a year in income from my savings. That is more than the average loss of earnings for younger people. Also older people are more dependant on services which have been cut in the name of austerity. And as QB already points out reduced inheritance tax does not benefit pensioners, it benefits the next generation.



I am in the process of having an extension built on the house. It isn't cheap, as the final bill will be around 50% more than we originally paid for the house.

So why are we doing it? Over the last 6 months, the interest on the savings account that will pay for all this, earned me just the price of a meal out.

[Ray Scully]

Yes, my mortgage was very small compared to the ones my kids have (as indeed were my wages at the time)........but at one point I was paying FIFTEEN per cent interest on it!!

We paid £3,100 for a detached house, when a 'good wage' was £1000 a year, (3 years salary equates to purchase price)the mortgage was around £20 a month. Today you would need to be earning around £80,000 to buy it.
Things have changed!

Ray

[Frank Manning]

I worked until I was 71. I think I deserve a reasonable retirement. The deductions from my salary throughout my working life were supposedly invested to give me the pension I got, but the thieving financial services industry took a big cut of it to line their greedy pockets, and then when I chose the open market option to buy an annuity they took what they called market value adjustments on top. Lucky for me I never left SERPS, and Sue has a pension which she paid for too. No I'm not going to apologise to any spoiled brat for what I have earned. I saved like mad for a deposit for a home, and Sue saved for what little furniture we had. In my late 20's and early 30's when interest rates on my mortgage were sky high, I wore my Dad's hand down suits to work, and we sacrificed any proper social life so that our kids didn't go without.

Blame who you like for the state of the country, but not me. I didn't sell all our revenue earning industries down the swanee so that now we don't have enough proper jobs in our overpopulated, debt ridden, foreign owned, post imperial, country.

[oldbluefox]

I'm right behind you Frank. Ne'er a truer word was spoken.
The idea of 'deferred gratification' and 'not buying if you can't afford it' have gone, as has the notion of starting at the bottom and working your way up. Unfortunately too many think you can live a lavish lifestyle and still have what everybody else has got. And if you can't have it blame somebody, anybody. Some people need to get a grip. I'm afraid there is little sympathy here.

[Manoverboard]

Really serious Moby, for all my faults I hate injustice, and people being judgmental and mean spirited.

Ray

I would also respond to an injustice but on the other hand I have no time for spongers and freeloaders.

[Ray Scully]

Really serious Moby, for all my faults I hate injustice, and people being judgmental and mean spirited.

Ray

I would also respond to an injustice but on the other hand I have no time for spongers and freeloaders.

Neither have I Moby, just as I have no time for those fiddling their taxes etc. The fiddlers and cheats exist throughout the demographic but thankfully they only represent a small percentage.

Ray

[barney]

On an immotive subject like this, folk tend to use both extremes to reinforce their arguement.

Yes, there are tax fiddlers and yes, there are benefit fiddlers but, the vast majority in the middle are just doing the best they can to support their families.

In my opinion, the real time bomb will be the lack of social infastructure due to the population spike of over a million in three years.

Unless uncontrolled immigration from the EU and elsewhere is addressed, the services will eventually grind to a halt.

Social services, doctors, hospitals, roads and many other things will not be able to cope with the volumes.

Everyone can see it but our government is not able to do anything about it.

[barney]

double post ?

[Manoverboard]

double post ?

Where is the other one ?

[towny44]

double post ?

Where is the other one ?

In a galaxy far far away..............

[Dark Knight]

as somebody still in their 40's. which for many of the baby boomers, will be a distant rose tinted memory, let me add my own experience
I left school at 16 and got a job in the old YTS scheme earning £25 per week for a 40-50 hr week, I continued on at college and I was lucky enough to get a full time job at the company earning £63.50 a week at the age of 17, which in the mid 80's was a fair wage for a young Lancashire lad, I also joined the company pension scheme as soon as I could.
From there I carried on at college and university and due to promotions and pay rises , I was, at the age of 23 able to buy a 3 bed terraced house, my first home, like many people on here I didn't have brand new anything and had to save or work overtime to get things and even then most were second hand, the only new things in the whole house were a bed and kitchen stuff such as knives and forks and plates
so 25 years later :we have a nice 4 bed detached house, we have 2 new cars, nice holidays, and a large disposable income, we have very good pensions on the go and continue to fill the coffers for our retirement, we spend and save and enjoy the rewards of working hard and being educated
my reply to the young people of today, who see their parents having this sort of lifestyle is GO AND BLOODY WORK FOR IT and do not expect anyone else to pay for you. the main problem is that young people do not see what many of us had to do to get what we have now and imagine it is easy to reach this level, well it isn't and I make no excuse for having bugger all sympathy for the young of today.
the only real problem for young people is the price of houses and that is to a certain degree manageable by not setting their sights too high, which is one of the main problems with younger people today

they want it all and they want it now.............I blame the parents for not teaching their children real life values and lessons

[Ray Scully]

as somebody still in their 40's. which for many of the baby boomers, will be a distant rose tinted memory, let me add my own experience
I left school at 16 and got a job in the old YTS scheme earning £25 per week for a 40-50 hr week, I continued on at college and I was lucky enough to get a full time job at the company earning £63.50 a week at the age of 17, which in the mid 80's was a fair wage for a young Lancashire lad, I also joined the company pension scheme as soon as I could.
From there I carried on at college and university and due to promotions and pay rises , I was, at the age of 23 able to buy a 3 bed terraced house, my first home, like many people on here I didn't have brand new anything and had to save or work overtime to get things and even then most were second hand, the only new things in the whole house were a bed and kitchen stuff such as knives and forks and plates
so 25 years later :we have a nice 4 bed detached house, we have 2 new cars, nice holidays, and a large disposable income, we have very good pensions on the go and continue to fill the coffers for our retirement, we spend and save and enjoy the rewards of working hard and being educated
my reply to the young people of today, who see their parents having this sort of lifestyle is GO AND bl**dy WORK FOR IT and do not expect anyone else to pay for you. the main problem is that young people do not see what many of us had to do to get what we have now and imagine it is easy to reach this level, well it isn't and I make no excuse for having bug*er all sympathy for the young of today.
the only real problem for young people is the price of houses and that is to a certain degree manageable by not setting their sights too high, which is one of the main problems with younger people today

they want it all and they want it now.............I blame the parents for not teaching their children real life values and lessons

DN
I can only applaud your industry and hard work which has brought about your success.
However there are those without your mental caliber who no matter how hard they work they will often be exploited and never have the life chances of others.
Coming from a very working class background, Dad second man on a lorry, mum a cleaner for the 'well off', I can empathise with such folk.
Like you we are financially comfortable, being honest, a lot of it was due to being in the right place at the right time and with a degree of luck. More important though than financial well being are our relations with family and friends.

Ray

[Gill W]

I think it is a rite of passage for young people to feel jealous of older people, and to feel that the previous generation had it somehow 'better' than you.

When I first bought a house in 1981, complete with 15% interest rate (actually it was more like 16%, as I had to pay a higher rate for having an endowment policy and having a 'large' mortgage of over £20000) I remember being very jealous of recent retirees, who had bought their large houses for a couple of thousand pounds and had gold plated pensions after having been in the same job since they left school.

But I conveniently forgot about all the bad times they had been through, like a world war!

I soon learned that there was no point in looking at other people and wishing I could have their 'easy' life. I just got my head down, worked hard, enjoyed life along the way, and got to a point where I could retire early.

When the time comes, I will accept my state pension and any other benefits that may still be available to me, as I contributed to the system all the years I was working. Indeed, even though I no longer work, I will need to make arrangements to make voluntary NI contributuons, so I can get the full single tier pension in 11 years time. I was contracted out for many years, so my state pension is currently predicted to be less than the flat rate.

[Gill W]

Like you we are financially comfortable, being honest, a lot of it was due to being in the right place at the right time and with a degree of luck.

There's an old saying - 'the harder I work, the luckier I get'

It takes more than luck to get financially comfortable - it's bloomin' hard work!