Paying the mortgage

michaels

DELETED USER wrote:

These days two people living on £25k/year, no matter how frugally, is almost impossible in many parts of the country. Rent, energy and food easily eat that up. £50k is twice the national average. You were extremely well off and lucky to be able to do that. Good for you, but hardly a realistic option for most of us.

That's funny, 5 of us live in a very expensive commuter town on 49k which is of course less than 25k x 2 because of the tax system and no we don't get any tax credits and yes we do have a 300k mortgage. 2x expensive andriod phones on packages with lots of minutes, car, holidays, school uniforms, music lessons, pension contributions, isas etc etc so I can't understand how it would be impossible to live on 25k x 2 for 2....

undetterred

PaulF81 wrote: »

Luck had nothing to do with it.

1) I worked hard at school to be on a decent whack when I joined the jobs market rather than doss round the bike sheds smoking.

2) we had cheap housing as a result of service in the forces. Which involved being shot at and shelled on a regular basis in three differen countries. I call that a fair deal.

3) we were laughed at for shopping at Asdas and doing all our own car maintainance whilst others were buying Aston martins at 30. I am more than content with frugality now as we are reaping the benefits as a result of significant deflation during 08-10.

2. no one forced you into the forces,being shot at and shelled thats whats its about,fair deal or not,you could have joined civvy street.

Thrugelmir

Tancred wrote: »

There is money in Britain.

Spend today pay tomorrow. Brown's legacy children who know no different. Even today they are saying recession what recession.....

PaulF81

undetterred wrote: »

2. no one forced you into the forces,being shot at and shelled thats whats its about,fair deal or not,you could have joined civvy street.

Had no issue with that.

But cheap accommodation was part of the package.

robmatic

DELETED USER wrote:

These days two people living on £25k/year, no matter how frugally, is almost impossible in many parts of the country. Rent, energy and food easily eat that up. £50k is twice the national average. You were extremely well off and lucky to be able to do that. Good for you, but hardly a realistic option for most of us.

Two people on £25k pa (the national average) have plenty scope for saving. That's a net take home pay of £3000 per month which is a reasonable amount to live off! Here in Edinburgh you can rent a flat in a nice area for £500-£600 per month, council tax and bills would be about another £300. So probably £2000 discretionary spending every month for an average couple.

[Deleted User]

PaulF81 wrote: »

Luck had nothing to do with it.

1) I worked hard at school to be on a decent whack when I joined the jobs market rather than doss round the bike sheds smoking.

So did I. I have an engineering degree.

2) we had cheap housing as a result of service in the forces. Which involved being shot at and shelled on a regular basis in three differen countries. I call that a fair deal.

You said your first house cost a small fortune. Or do you mean that you were able to save due to very low rent costs?

Most military jobs seem to be pretty low paid. You must have been an officer or something.

3) we were laughed at for shopping at Asdas and doing all our own car maintainance whilst others were buying Aston martins at 30. I am more than content with frugality now as we are reaping the benefits as a result of significant deflation during 08-10.

An Aston Martin is a totally unrealistic dream for me, you are living in another world. I shop at Asda sometimes. I do some car maintenance but my health limits what I can do somewhat.

Sorry, but you are extremely lucky.

[Deleted User]

robmatic wrote: »

Two people on £25k pa (the national average) have plenty scope for saving. That's a net take home pay of £3000 per month which is a reasonable amount to live off! Here in Edinburgh you can rent a flat in a nice area for £500-£600 per month, council tax and bills would be about another £300. So probably £2000 discretionary spending every month for an average couple.

Yes, fine if there are two of you living in a moderate rent area. People with only one income need houses too.

[Deleted User]

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

My point can easily be proven by taking any person [in the position you describe] and note down the income. That defines the limit of spending which you advocate can barely be 'lived on', and certainly not cut. Once you have named that income, I can guarantee you would find hundreds of people in your own town, your own workplace who earn 90% of the figure you wrote down. They are living on it. Even assuming they, too, are spending 100% of their income it proves conclusively that your person could live on it as well - leaving 10% for pension/savings - whatever.

Lots of people are building up debt, mostly due to rising rents and other costs. Other people on similar wages living in the same area as me are all in the same boat.

You chose to live in that house at that rent, you chose to buy that specific car knowing what the repayments were, you chose the particular lifestyle you lead and by implication chose to surround yourself with costs that add up to £X which would not provide a necessary safety margin for (a) savings, or (b) petrol/tax/rent rises....

My car is fully paid for actually. It's true that I did choose to live in a certain area, to the extent that I won't live two hours commute away and spend as much on transport anyway. There isn't enough housing available for rent, prices are high all over and demand is huge. It's not as simple as you seem to think.

You quickly work out 4 X 52 X 12.5 to be 2,600 days worth of food. Enough! Phew!

I'm perfectly capable of budgeting and doing simple maths. Don't be so patronising. You people are not idiots. Really, your arrogance is staggering at times.

PaulF81

DELETED USER wrote:

So did I. I have an engineering degree.
.

Here's something for you. I'm an engineer by trade too. I reckon 60% of those who did engineering on my course left to do financial instruments, or some other useless interpretation of my course, which focussed on a traditional engineering subject involving structures (statics and dynamics) control systems, regulation, project management and the like.

My course was pretty heavy on dynamic maths, Fourier, Dirac deltas, statistics,algorithms, neural networks... all the stuff quants LOVE to use in their models hence why so many from a traditional red brick with a good history in engineering ended up doing finance models.

If you are suffering as a part of your training, are single and are after a change in your life, attend an engineers workshop looking at emigrating to the UAE. You will be earning 60k, no tax, and can work as hard or as little as you like. 60k is starting. You can be 'on' much more, have a great time, in an awesome expat community, and save a monster vulture fund for your return to the uk. You WILL be put into a situation where you have your current managers job overnight; all you need is common sense and a love for the job. Pretty much all the stuff you wish uk employers looked for in an employee.

Don't believe the crap about women in the ME. There are plenty out here if you are of that flavour (although from the makeup of my eng course, I reckon I have a 9/10 chance you are male).
Just a thought.

Regards, Paul

[Deleted User]

This is my point. This country has abandoned its younger generations. I'm not even that young, 33 in fact. But there is little opportunity to get on in life here and own a home, or start a family.

Moving to the UAE is not an option at the moment. My health won't allow it. Otherwise I would have moved to Japan years ago.