Some of you are vultures

StevieJ

LilacPixie wrote: »

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

If a household cannot meet it's essential monthly outgoings (without luxuries) without needing both salaries then yes they are over streched. Losing one salary would mean that the family in question couldn't meet their commitments. Surely you cannot disagree??

To be honest my opinion is probably clouded by the fact debt of all types, including mortgage, makes me uncomfortable.

What planet you from ZOG?

Cannon_Fodder

In a sensible world, 1 salary would/should/could be sufficient.

The fact that this is not the case in the UK at the moment is part of the problem.

IMO, it is one of the prime factors in the boom, as each couple upped the proportion of the second salary that was going towards housing costs (and car loans/debts etc) - often to keep up with the Jones' - and then boosted the hours worked by the second person, to keep up during the next year, because of the insidious inflation in the economy, that went unnoticed as HPI was not in any stats.

Wouldn't it be preferable that if the second member of a couple chose to work, it should because the career attracts them, not because they NEED the money just to exist/"keep up" ?


Single income mortgage calculation should be law, like a 90% maximum LTV. Takes the heat out of the economy/housing, releases whichever partner of a couple wishes to look after their kids, reduces juvenile deliquancy/improves discipline (subject to parenting lessons, naturally), makes the second job a career instead of a cash decision, etc etc.



Related thought - heard a piece on radio this morning, with an appeal for festive "shoeboxes" for Romania...believe there is a MSE thread for them...

...the lady was talking about the smiling faces of people who have almost nothing...

...we really do need to get over ourselves, pretty damn soon.

tesuhoha

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I'm afraid most of that is bad planning, if he is working full time there is no reason you shouldn't have enough to live on and you should have saved up from his incomings to pay for the tax.

Yes, no softly softly, kissy kissy words, because I have been there and done the same things as you. I would prefer to work on lovely empty sites as well, who wouldn't, but life is not like that.

Tbh he doesn't sound like he runs his business properly, harsh words probably, but I see someone like him every week, most of them go bust complaining about how they were badly done by everyone.

Maybe he would be better off employed by someone else, being self employed is not for everyone.

PS I'm not having a go at you, but the same thing I would say to you in a pub.

Why should I want your softly softly kissy kissy words? He was working on site and he worked for 8 weeks getting paid rubber cheques (as he has in the past) and as there was work there he hesitated to leave but in the end he was forced to walk off site as we had no money so everything is not lovely working on nice empty houses. We are owed several thousands of pounds and don't stand a hope in hell of getting it back.

I would think at the best of times it would be difficult to set up as self employed but in the middle of a recession with thousands of other construction workers flooding the market it is almost impossible. Whatever it is you do you obviously feel very smug and secure but who knows the recession may start to affect you eventually as it is having a knock on effect everywhere.

tesuhoha

caveman38 wrote: »

With the risk of being shouted down, I shall ask.
If during the boom years in the building trade (pre 2007) your husband worked continually and earned say £35-40K. You if I remember from earlier posts work in a school (am I correct)
What the b****y hell did you spend that money on. You say your home is a tip, your van and cars are old bangers and you don't go on holidays. Plus you don't put aside money for his tax either.
Again I stress I am not being rude I am just confused as I'm sure others are..

I am putting money aside for his tax but I can't spend it on anything else as they come down on you like a ton of bricks if you dont pay it.

We have just funded our daughter through university, paid her rent and fees. She repeated a year so she was there for 4 years and then she failed her degree. So thats where a lot of our money has gone. She just finished in July and we were just about straight, we had almost paid off all our debts when he lost his job in October. We have quite a high mortgage as we are trying to pay it off by the time he is 65 and so the debt has gone up again as we had no income at all. We also spent a lot of money on our other house when we sold it. We bought this house but have never had the money to do it up and it needs a lot of work done

I must say I never meant to bring my own situation into this it was just when I posted the link about the gas fitter losing his job and people were unsympathetic towards him. It has just developed from there and this is the last I'm going to say on the subject of his job. I don't want sympathy, I hate sympathy.

tesuhoha

sarkin wrote: »

Maybe if you spent less time posting and more time working, you would have more money or do you not work?

This comes from someone who is posting at 12.20 during the day. I do work in a school and I do a duty every day to earn money. I have looked for an evening or weekend job but I have not seen one job advertised.

neas

I went to uni for 4 years... i worked my !!! hard when i was there... it taughht me the value of money... parents didnt chip in a thing.

4 years... 16 hours a week B+Q job.... came out with a 2:1 in an engineering degree , 6.5k in an isa and 12k in student loan debt... so total debt was 5.5k.

I guess your daughter partied hard and didnt work part time if you funded her life (lets admit it if my parents paid my way i wouldnt care about money either :P).

It was a luxury you had to give her a free education.. most of us end up with huge debts.. or have to work hard to keep them low. Hopefully its a good degree and helps her during this downturn. (not gold course management etc).

So i guess husband lost job as building work goes down, has he thought of retraining?

tesuhoha

neas wrote: »

I went to uni for 4 years... i worked my !!! hard when i was there... it taughht me the value of money... parents didnt chip in a thing.

4 years... 16 hours a week B+Q job.... came out with a 2:1 in an engineering degree , 6.5k in an isa and 12k in student loan debt... so total debt was 5.5k.

I guess your daughter partied hard and didnt work part time if you funded her life (lets admit it if my parents paid my way i wouldnt care about money either :P).

It was a luxury you had to give her a free education.. most of us end up with huge debts.. or have to work hard to keep them low. Hopefully its a good degree and helps her during this downturn. (not gold course management etc).

So i guess husband lost job as building work goes down, has he thought of retraining?

He's too old, 59 next year.

tesuhoha

louiser123 wrote: »

i have to reply to this as my daughter works for a recruitment/agency and she is the contact for the construction workers, back in july and august she was extremley busy she has hundreds on her books ready for work and most were in work at that time, however as of the end of november she herself has been put on short time with a drop in wages as the construction industry is pretty dead!!! she has workers ringing two three times a day begging for work but only one out 35 construction companys she contracts out to is actually wanting anyone to work, some have put work on the sites on hold and are not continuing, she herself is looking at redundancy in january if it doesnt pick up. so i do know through that that construction inc plumbers, brickys, ect are all struggling for work, some are working alone as self employed and have to compete fiercley with others at knock down prices to secure a job!!

At last someone else who realises whats going on.

neas

in all honesty plumbers and other tradesmen were getting a disproportionatly high salary. I mean a graduate gets 20k a year whereas plumbers could easily get more than that... as with the last profession it will get so bad they will knock on people door asking if any work needs doing for chinese style prices... just to earn some money...

Lotus-eater

tesuhoha wrote: »

Why should I want your softly softly kissy kissy words? He was working on site and he worked for 8 weeks getting paid rubber cheques (as he has in the past) and as there was work there he hesitated to leave but in the end he was forced to walk off site as we had no money so everything is not lovely working on nice empty houses. We are owed several thousands of pounds and don't stand a hope in hell of getting it back.

I would think at the best of times it would be difficult to set up as self employed but in the middle of a recession with thousands of other construction workers flooding the market it is almost impossible. Whatever it is you do you obviously feel very smug and secure but who knows the recession may start to affect you eventually as it is having a knock on effect everywhere.

Who said the recession isn't affecting me, it is.

Thats very bad luck about the bouncing cheques, but the problems you are in isn't due to just them is it? You've got a high mortgage and debts.
You don't want kissy words...... so you've been living beyond your means then?

Then because its going wrong, you come on here and call us vultures, I'm seeing it now.