Millionaire Challenge

Kayalana99

Thanks. I guess you guys understand lol

Charlie - What degree did you graduate in if you don't mind me asking? There was some studies done that an Arts degree only improves on average income by 30,000 (in a lifetime!!!) and other degrees could be as much as 400k +. There was some rubbish about people with degrees more likey to live better and healther lifestyles - but I think this is down to the people who go to Uni and study are more likey to care about themselves and there future. Not saying if you don't go to Uni you wouldn't, but surely it would attract a certain type of person to start with.

I think I'll be changing next year to business + ICT instead of just business, business is great and connects to everything in a way, but with the ICT I should be able to walk into a job where as business I could get lucky, but without experience I just don't see it being the gold mine and ICT really, is a trade that I'm training up for.

Been considering just doing ICT on it's own, but then I'll loose all the work I've done so far so with the joint degree I can use 60 credits I've already done towards it but I'd not be able to go as in depth to ICT although I think an ICT + Business degree is more impressive - I've got to research all the modules and decide what job I'd like to do (although I have an idea hence the switch) and see where to go.

Either/or it's a decision I've got to make.

House with a pool?! I'm there lol. Everyone is doing so well, I need to catch up

lessonlearned

BB....interesting question about whether or not there is a forthcoming crash. If only we had a crystal ball.

I think this is why we have to take the long view and in my case I only risk money that I can afford to lose. I might not have very long to recoup my losses but someone like my son who is just 30 can perhaps afford to take more risks. Although of course I don't like the idea of losing.....

Anyway my small investment is going well. Dipped a bit for a few days but still on an overall upwards trajectory and is still beating the high street banks.

It will be interesting to see what my premium bonds do this month, since the new year they have easily outstripped the high street banks. Of course again these are not guaranteed returns but at least th capital is safe so again they seem to work well for an older person.

My "rest" is definitely doing me good. I still have days when I'm pretty tired and need to just coast along but I can feel my old vim and vigour starting to return. I'm getting out and about, having fun, seeing people etc. I have also been able to do some decorating - nothing exciting - just painting door frames. :rotfl:

Re better and healthier lifestyles.....again a really interesting question. I tend to think - in general terms - that being better educated does equate to better life choices but I don't necessarily think that a university education is a pre -requisite. You can always educate yourself, especially with tools like the internet.

I think lots of people make great choices and live rich, rewarding, healthy and satisfying lives without having gone on to tertiary education, Especually those in previous generations for whom university was just not an option. I know loads of people my age and older who have done very nicely thank you without the benefit of a degree. I think attitude can be just as important as aptitude. . No point in being a genius if you don't use your brain or if you squander your chances.

Just my opinion. :rotfl:

Ps it is probably harder these days for young people to get started without a degree, employers do like those bits of paper. However,I did notice on the Mr Moneymoustache website that he lists a number of high paying jobs that don't require a degree. Of course it's an American website but I guess the same principles would still work here.

lessonlearned

Charliesays......I think whilst it's nice to have a high income from your primary employment, I don't think it's essential. After all plenty people earn huge salaries and have even huger debts.....if you can manage on a small salary and then save and invest all your passive or secondary income streams then you should soon build up. I think if you can keep day to day costs down and avoid debt then you do stand a Better chance of amassing funds.

Anyway I think, given your £11k setback with having to move to another area to find work, then you are doing very well clearing debts and building up savings.

We just have to keep at it.

Kayalana99

lessonlearned wrote: »

I think lots of people make great choices and live rich, rewarding, healthy and satisfying lives without having gone on to tertiary education, Especually those in previous generations for whom university was just not an option. I know loads of people my age and older who have done very nicely thank you without the benefit of a degree. I think attitude can be just as important as aptitude. . No point in being a genius if you don't use your brain or if you squander your chances.

That is true, but my dilemma is I don't want to spend 15k + on something that won't benefit me which is why I find it hard to swallow people that have graduated and still on NMW. (Not just the other poster, but a few of my friend friends are in this boat although they were mostly drama students)

It was never my intention to say you couldn't do well without one of course as that has been proven time and time again otherwise.

lessonlearned

Kay.....my second son is in this position. NMW with a degree in media production. I don't think he wasted his time though.

His time at university gave him much needed confidence, a chance to grow and mature, the opportunity to experiment, to stand on his own to feet, to learn how to think critically, to gain a better understanding of politics, how the world works etc. He gained a lot of valuable life skills.

Admittedly he may not be using his film production experience or knowledge in his current job and he will probably never make a commercial film because he has decided it's not for him after all.

He has chosen a different path. He has eschewed a stress filled career and has deliberately chosen a job he enjoys and which gives him free time and energy to pursue other interests, such as his photography, diy and learning about investments. He now has a nice little investment portfolio which should over time eclipse his nmw earning and his diy skills have added value to his house further adding to his net worth.

So yes whilst some might see his degree as a waste I do think he is a much more rounded person as a result of his studies and I think his education will stand him in good stead throughout life.

I honestly don't think a university education is ever a "waste" because I firmly believe education is more than simply obtaining a piece of paper to secure a job. I am a firm believer in the concept of personal development, learning for the sheer enjoyment of learning and education purely for educations sake.

I do think the value of a degree is much more than just its financial reward or pay off even if some of the benefits are intangible and difficult to measure. It's just one of those things you can't really put a price on.

My son and I were only discussing this last night, in relation to the increase in fees. He was saying that many people are going to be put off studying subjects like art, the classics, or the humanities because these type of subjects do not guarantee a career path in the same way that medicine, law, or the sciences do.

I am afraid he may be right. £50k plus of debt is fine for a career in medicine or the law or engineering but not for a museum worker or librarian or similar.

My DS1 has a PhD in maths and at the age of 32 is now reaping the finanicial rewards as an engineer but it's been a long haul and he was lucky in that he finished his education whilst tuition fees were £3k a year. Both my sons were fortunate in completing their courses before the rise in fees.

I am afraid that esoteric subjects like art, the humanities, the classics, philosophy etc are at risk and that society will be all the poorer if these subjects disappear. I think that by introducing sky high fees and making these subjects not financially viable society may well have shot itself in the foot.

We could become a race of autonomous clones incapable of critical thought or creativity. Unless we wake up we could find that within a few generations we are incapable of independent thought and that we have backed ourselves into an evolutionary cul de sac.

Hopefully it won't come to this and our beloved leaders will wake up to what they have done.

I think there should always be a place for the dreamers, the oddballs, the crazy inventors, the absent minded professors, the writers, the artists, the musicians, the dancers, the creatives, and yes .......even the drama students .......;)

I think a world without them would be a dire place.

AndyBlue1975

I think this is a very elitist and class defining thread. Fair play to you all but a lot of us aren't so fortunate and struggle with everyday reality problems such as keeping an old car on the road, etc. I am not after ruffling feathers, but i just think this thread subconsciously rubs people's nose in it. Especially when you try all your life for the simple dreams then get dealt curveballs. I will get off my soap box now and put my pitchfork away.
Of course curiosity got the better of me so i caused my own jealousy!!!

sunshine81

AndyBlue1975 wrote: »

I think this is a very elitist and class defining thread. Fair play to you all but a lot of us aren't so fortunate and struggle with everyday reality problems such as keeping an old car on the road, etc. I am not after ruffling feathers, but i just think this thread subconsciously rubs people's nose in it. Especially when you try all your life for the simple dreams then get dealt curveballs. I will get off my soap box now and put my pitchfork away.
Of course curiosity got the better of me so i caused my own jealousy!!!

Oh dear. Yes jealousy is a good word. Have you read the thread? A lot of people here aren't in the position you describe, but want to be. I'm more of a lurker than a poster here but am definitely more at your end of the spectrum than a millionaires. However, everyone has aspirations and ambitions and with this thread and a bit of PMA some people might just get there. You won't with your attitude

Go and have a look at the savings and investments thread, that will really stir up the green eyed monster in you!

(As an aside, if this thread was full of elitist people, they'd be entitled to have a thread on money saving too!)

lessonlearned

AndyBlue1975 wrote: »

I think this is a very elitist and class defining thread. Fair play to you all but a lot of us aren't so fortunate and struggle with everyday reality problems such as keeping an old car on the road, etc. I am not after ruffling feathers, but i just think this thread subconsciously rubs people's nose in it. Especially when you try all your life for the simple dreams then get dealt curveballs. I will get off my soap box now and put my pitchfork away.
Of course curiosity got the better of me so i caused my own jealousy!!!

Andy.......when I first subscribed to this thread I was £30k in debt........

Elitist, moi?? :rotfl: Hardly!!!

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Yes I did eventually get to university but not until I was 40.

I was born working class, brought up in a council house and attended state schools. I left school at 15 without a single qualification to my name.

I wanted more out of life so I set to. I worked my socks off, I educated myself, I went to night school and devoured the public library. I learned to "talk proper" and I learned how to dress to impress. I learned about art and culture and acquired a few social graces.

I dragged myself up by my bootstraps. If I can do it anyone can. My life hasn't been a bowl of cherries.

I too have struggled to keep an old banger on the road, I have had to do car boots to put food on the table, had to walk to work because I couldn't afford the bus fare, had to wash in cold water because I couldn't afford to switch on the immersion heater. I've lived in what was a building site because it was all I could afford.

Without doing a "four Yorkshire men sketch" I think I can say there have been times when I've had it rough.

I am proud of my Working class heritage but I am also happy that I have been able to improve my situation in life. I am not a millionaire but I am comfortable enough.

And all through my own efforts. No one ever handed me anything on a silver plate. I worked for opportunities, they were not just given to me.

We were doing ok and by the time I was 55 I was looking forward to a nice retirement.

Then in 2006 disaster struck. My husband got sick, I became his full time career and we ended up £30k in debt. He died in 2014.

How's that for a curved ball.........

Since then I have been rebuilding my finances and my life. I would gladly be £30k in debt again if I could have my husband back.

A piece of advice.......

It is your Chip on your shoulder that is weighing you down. You negative attitude and resentment and jealousy are what is holding you back.

In the nicest possible way I say to you, the way to get ahead is to stop feeling sorry for yourself, Ditch the attitude, pull your finger out, and work, work, work. Work hard but also work smart.

I think you will find most of the contributors to this thread are ordinary hardworking people like me who just started out wanting to improve their lot in life, who rolled up their sleeves and who just get on with it.

We have dreams and ambitions and we are prepared to put in the effort required to make our dreams come true.

Are you prepared to make that effort or are you just going to sit and whinge, content to drift along achieving nothing, getting all bitter and twisted and resenting those who are more successful than you.

The solution to your woes lies in your own hands. Only you can make the necessary changes, no one else can do it for you.

Here Endeth the lesson;)

Use your hardships to spur you on to better things. If you are at the bottom of the heap then the only way is up.

But ultimately it's up to you. You have to want it badly enough.

lessonlearned

Hi Sunshine..(what a lovely positive username:rotfl:).

Good to see you come out lurkdom.

minxy-x

AndyBlue1975 wrote: »

I think this is a very elitist and class defining thread. Fair play to you all but a lot of us aren't so fortunate and struggle with everyday reality problems such as keeping an old car on the road, etc. I am not after ruffling feathers, but i just think this thread subconsciously rubs people's nose in it. Especially when you try all your life for the simple dreams then get dealt curveballs. I will get off my soap box now and put my pitchfork away.
Of course curiosity got the better of me so i caused my own jealousy!!!

Hi Andy

Have you read through the thread, or just a few posts and the opening thread title?

This thread does show peoples struggles and we all seem to have different amounts of money to play with, and since the thread started some people have been lucky to increase what they have to play with- yes I am one of them, yes I have been lucky, yes life has thrown us a few curveballs also, yes we both work hard, and take risks also.

I am sad that you take what you do from this thread, and not what I do, I don't mean this to come across patronising which the written word can sometimes, when I read others successes it motivates me, when I meet someone successful (and I don't just define this by net worth), I find it curious and want to speak to them and ask 1000 questions, learn about them and learn from them.
Don't judge others book cover with your book, on the whole I use this thread to talk about the positive, I do throw some of our issues in, but I don't go into them in depth due to privacy.

Someone could say of you, oh I wish I even had a car to worry about keeping on the road, oh I wish I had running clean and safe water which I can easily access.

We all have issues in life, even multi millionairs might be worrying their diamond shoes are too tight :rotfl:
Comparison is the theft of joy.

There is something somewhere that is going to rub people up the wrong way and offend.

I was going to explain abit about our background, then I though no, I do not have to explain myself to you, the important people in our lives know our struggles and successes, and who we are as people.
However I have decided I will, not all details but some, I decided to do this more for the lurkers who may be reading, and like me want to hear and know about the journey of others.

Myself and my DH are early 30's, we met late teens, we do not yet have children.
At first in our early relationship this was a choice, the last few years this actually because we have issues which make me conceiving a problem.
I added this as although highly personal and not something I choose to talk about to most people, its a part of our story.

I was bought up by a single Mum, who then married, I was lucky to be bought up in a loving home, although actually poor. I remember my Mum not eating with me and saying she would eat with Dad and then noticing she did not eat with Dad and said she had eaten with me, my Mum having holes in her shoes so I could have shoes that fit.
Now there are loads more stories around this, no I was not bought up in a house of money, but I was lucky to be bought up around love and stability and encouragement.
I never even thought of going to Uni at the time, I could not imagine being in that debt (no where near the level it is now).
I left school with x 2 b's, 5 c's and then they decrease

My husband was bought up out of the UK, his family owned a farm, he would go to school during busy times for a few hours a week, he was the oldest and had to work with his Dad to feed the family.
He wanted to go onto higher education, there was no money, and no grants etc, so he could not go.
He has his equivalent of GCSE's but none from this country.

He left shortly after and came to the UK only being able to speak a few words.

He worked when he could up to 3 jobs in one week, Mon-Fri construction laborer (up any time from 4am depending on where in the country he had to travel), anything up to 4 nights a week on the doors of clubs, and Sat and Sun for free in the industry he wanted to open a business in to get experience and knowledge, this had times when he may not be working at all, as there were no jobs/other issues.

I have worked full time (pretty much) for 13 years.

When we began saving for a house, we saved everything we could, we had no meals out, no coffees/magazines- all our spare money went towards saving for our house.
When we purchased we bought a smaller house than we could, so all bills could come out of one income.

The rest was to be saved as hard as we did for the house, for a business.

So we bought our house, and continued to save, the same as before, we first got the internet in our home a few years ago, this was our Christmas present from my Mum and Dad.

Our first holiday together in all the time was late last year, out of season in the UK.

We purchased our first business, this was done earlier than we wanted to (because of some major personal problems meant we felt we had to then rather than wait), alongside our savings we had loans to enable us to do this, we took a big chance, at this point it was we do this and it works or we don't and we sink (personally, this was not to do with money), we have nothing to loose.

My husband had 2 days off a year (Christmas and Easter, the only 2 days the business legally has to shut), he really, truly and honestly went to work every other day, over a period of a few years. He would leave home by 7am and be home aprox 8pm, and then at times had to do other business bits.

Yes this gamble paid off, we are fortunate, we did not increase our expenditure in line with our increased income, again we continue to save.
During this period, we had a massive issue, had we increased our expenditure we would not have been able to weather the storm financially, and emotionally, we put our heads down and continued fighting.

Yes a the moment we sit in a privileged position financially, one of which I am very aware of, and one of which even a few years ago we did not have.
This gives us the money to continue looking at and planning future businesses, this did not come easy, but yes we did have luck and hard work.

Do you want to know what drives us, I want my Children to grown up having more choices, I want them to go to Uni if that's what they want, my husband wants to have the money so they can live a childhood and not have to be aware of the adult worries at an early age.
I want to be able to have the time when I am older to look after and spend time with my Mum and Dad, I want to not worry about putting food on the table or a growth spirt.
I want to have the money to be able to pay for my father and mother in laws medical needs if they have any.
I want to be able to help my family and friends if they need this.

Yes if I make loads, I'm going to buy a white range rover with a personalised number plate
But that is not what for me drives me, its not so much the actual money, its what the money can bring choice and opportunities.

Now only 2 and 1/2 years ago we ate beans on toast for my birthday as that's all we could afford at that point, and now I may be able to afford king prawns and scallops (at home though we still would probably not eat out)- I have not changed, and am still the same person.

I can empathsis with other peoples issues, I can do what I do with regards to charity and community (money and time), yes I have some money, but I can look myself in the mirror and be happy with me, my morals and my choices.