how is the credit crunch affecting you

vivatifosi

Pastures, have you considered a move to Cheltenham? I've noticed that you are good at cracking algorithms they may be looking for your type there, if you get my drift (think Turing, only more modern jobs).

PasturesNew

Cleaver wrote: »

People pay other people / companies £80 to do their wedding seating plan? At the risk of sounding like my Dad, the world has gone mad.

Blimey, I could do that easily enough. I used to love those logic puzzles years ago where Amy was taller than Fred, Susan has a red cardigan on and Joe won't stand next to people in primary colours... place them in age order.

Logic is my forte... I could really clean up!

E I G H T Y ... Q U I D ..... madness... pure, unadulterated, hedonistic madness...!!!

Docker

PasturesNew wrote: »

Would you try those first? Would anybody?
And, I've never done them, so probably wouldn't even get an interview.
And I have a mild dyspraxia (clumsy/if I carry 2 or more things I am most likely to drop one as I can't mentally keep them all on the go)
And I have Aspergers, so social interaction/bright lights/loud environments aren't good for me.

It might take 2-3 months to find the right job, that I will thrive in, that is what I love doing.

Nobody said I am struggling per se, just have a smaller income, just have to get a job.

I love your positive attitude and that is what will see you through, dont settle for something that in the end might make you feel worse.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Pastures, have you considered a move to Cheltenham? I've noticed that you are good at cracking algorithms they may be looking for your type there, if you get my drift (think Turing, only more modern jobs).

I wouldn't mind being there, and have looked at jobs for what I do, but they all want security clearance, which I don't have.

If it's a "clever job", they probably want a degree, which I don't have.

Docker

PasturesNew wrote: »

I wouldn't mind being there, and have looked at jobs for what I do, but they all want security clearance, which I don't have.

If it's a "clever job", they probably want a degree, which I don't have.

Can you pay for the clearance you desire?

needtoearnmoremoney

Took on a £185000 mortgage in August to buy my husband out of a house that wouldn't sell. (He wanted out after 26 years!).
House is now worth considerably less than the £370K it was worth then and still won't sell as too far up a housing chain.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I've had a larger turnaround of customers than usual though it's still very low. New customer enquiries have dried up but that's normal for my work at this time of the year. It doesn't affect my overall income because my work is frequent repeat work. I could get more work by doorknocking though. I didn't put my prices up last year except for a few badly underpriced jobs that would have been no loss if they had gone elsewhere. Although this won't be until late Summer, the first big thing for me will be when I become stuck on my sub prime mortgage. That's when I come off the fixed rate and enter SVR territory with a lender of poor reputation.
On a positive note, the above stuff has got me managing my finances very well - perhaps for the first time in my life. I just wish I had figured this stuff out before my debts escalated.
So far, it's mostly OK for me. It has forced self discipline onto me that I probably would not have done voluntarily. I am now able to cook a bit more than the very basics. I feel it has knocked into me a greater appreciation of the things that I already have.

PasturesNew

Docker wrote: »

Can you pay for the clearance you desire?

I think it costs them about £50k, that was a figure I was told about 5-6 years ago.

As I understand it, most people obtain clearance by working in the services in the first instance. Then they go on to security cleared jobs once they've left/retrained and are re-employed as civvies.

TJ27

I seem to be miles better off than I have ever been before.

In the past ten years or so I've paid chunks off my mortgage, rather than borrowing more. So my current mortgage is quite small. Low interest rates mean that my monthly payments are also small.

I pay zero for petrol, as two years ago I sold my car and now cycle everywhere. I estimate that this has saved me about five grand per year. Plus I feel massively better for it.

I normally struggle to afford holidays but I have recently booked and paid in full for no less than four holidays. Two are in the UK, two are abroad.

I normally buy very few clothes for me and the kids but recently found that I had enough money to buy a heap of stuff in the sales.

I've never earned a great deal of money because I only work 18 hours per week and my wife doesn't work at all. We also have 2 kids. Despite this I actually feel quite well off.

I think people concentrate too much on money coming in, without realising that money going out is the other side of the equation. My income is under a thousand pounds per month but my general outgoings are tiny and I have no current financial worries whatsoever.

Wappers

As hard working educated DINKies in (hopefully!) secure jobs we are better off than we have ever been. Although being young there is a lot of demand on our income, from mortgage, to student loans, to getting some financial security from a zero start (before starting a family, trying to be responsible...).
Currently putting lots of money into paying off mortgage/building up savings, although we do have a large household income we live very frugally in order to achieve this.

PS. to get Security clearance you need a sponsor (a company or gov dept.) and it doesn't cost them 50k! but it does take months.