The march to financial freedom

liltdiddylilt

Hey Ali

Looks like we caused a bit of a hoohaa daring to discuss the bills that have clanged in this month. I didn't even glance at where the money is going, because frankly, I have to pay it and therefore it doesn't matter to me where it goes. I am happy with the majority of services in the local area. A disproportionate amount is spent on the local parks and coastline which actually means a much better surrounding for my daughter.

As for council workers and their pay rises; well I don't buy that either. Especially if they could get 5x the salary elsewhere. Seems a no brainer to me also. I happen to know a few people working for the council in two different counties, and both have incredible employee benefits. Full pay maternity leave for a year, whereas mine was statutory for 9 months; optional 5 year sabbatical then returning to the job they left, for things such as to raise their kids etc. When I was working in Nottingham, EVERYONE was applying for the council jobs for the various benefits it entailed, and frankly, yes it was £5k more a year for the same job, different title :rotfl: - unfortunately I never managed an interview when I was applying due to being 19-20 at the time and not quite what they were looking for. My boss got a job there though... £9k increase on her salary and a less stressful job. She promptly got married and went on maternity leave 12 months after maybe that is why there are no pay rises? They are paying all these maternity packages

Anyways enough fuss about nowt, an extra £2 a month after 2 years of freezes is not bad for me

Dansmam we cross posted. My dad worked for a water company for many many years. As he came up to retirement, they changed the pensions from final salary and everyones were cut to shreds. My dad luckily took his pension prior to the changes, but 2 weeks after he took his at a reduced rate early due to ill health, they cut everyone elses. I work in finance. The pension changes happened in every sector because they are unsustainable.

Ali You've been busy this morning. I have managed 15 minutes on an ice pack while on MSE and making the little breakfast and half a dozen hot drinks! Throat still bad. Coffee is good for it

My brain is remarkably normal too it was the bottom of my back that showed years of damage still, nice to be told you're normal every now and again.

Much love. Hope you enjoy your Saturday. I was planning on taking the small out for the day but seriously.. the wind is horrifying. Tiny gap in the window and my curtains are blowing like there is a gale indoors.

...And now it is raining. It was beautiful at 8am

Dansmam

Where are you? It's not like that up north. 12 months maternity on full pay unheard of!!! We have a north- south split economy now x

Dansmam

Lilt (sorry Ali I'll shut up after this) that's sort of my point. Lots of people in all sectors have had pensions battered but no one is shouting loud enough for people to rethink their preconceptions about the public sector and council workers in particular. So the myth that benefits and salaries are over super generous isn't getting busted. Hence my one woman mission. Slinks off x
(It was Brogden what started it, mind!)

Ali-OK

EE - you're fabulously diplomatic :T A skill I never mastered

Dansmam - I can only echo EE really - the diaries are for our personal journeys with money and for supporting each other through the rollercoaster that is life and the money we have on which to get through it. We have the power to change our income by job moving, increased education, promotion, a second job, eBaying.

Getting individual or personal isn't right for the boards and I hate the thought that I'm having right now which I will share to give you an idea of what I mean - so you want me to pay more council tax, so I have less money to live on, to give you more money to live on because you think you should have a pay rise when I know full well I can't raise my prices because my clients will go elsewhere? That's what it will boil down to.

We've all been affected by pension changes, be it company rules, governments stealing from all our pots (dividend tax Mr Broon :mad: was the biggie) and so on. Any money not on my person or safe under the £85k rule (or safe under the bed - I wish :rotfl:) is at risk. We hope for better or higher returns, but fact is, it's not guaranteed. Neither is property. Inflation will erode our cash with low interest rate returns. Nothing in life is guaranteed except death and taxes. That old chestnut really

We all do the best we can with what we have or haven't got and make our choices. Those choices do come back and bite us on the bum for sure, so we have to change course to counter them and I don't think a 1.3% pay rise or similar on a salary is going to make up your pension loss.

Lilt I got 16 weeks statutory maternity leave/pay and then back to full time for me :eek: Nothing else available back then, I'm so old :rotfl:

What annoys me about Council Tax and Water is that there is no ability to shop around, only move house and downsize to a lower band and move to a different area for a different water company. Bit OTT I think for now, but wait til DS has finished local education and I can look again I preferred the Poll Tax personally, but that's a whole other can of worms :eek: :rotfl:

I've been to the Post Office in my zero tax car (yay!) and there was no queue, have I missed something big on tv? :rotfl: Washing on airer, another load in the machine and I really ought to do some proper housework now.

Ah yes, my back MRI was an interesting one too, cue surgery

Weather is grey, cold, windy and generally yuk. Shall be quite happy in the office this afternoon and not missing being outdoors.

I'm probably matching your coffees with my teas :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Dansmam wrote: »

Lilt (sorry Ali I'll shut up after this) that's sort of my point. Lots of people in all sectors have had pensions battered but no one is shouting loud enough for people to rethink their preconceptions about the public sector and council workers in particular. So the myth that benefits and salaries are over super generous isn't getting busted. Hence my one woman mission. Slinks off x
(It was Brogden what started it, mind!)

Tell me - why the public sector and council workers inparticular? What am I missing? It was Gordon Brown's tax on company dividends (which included councils) that has brought the whole final salary pension schemes to their knees, ie. those dividends were reinvested to fund those schemes but the value was knocked to the floor by that tax, let alone people living longer.

in_need_of_direction

My personal gripe is state retirement pension. When at 19 I started to pay national insurance contributions, it was in the expectation I could, with more than 40 years contributions, retire on a full pension at age 60. That's now been moved to 67. I've been cheated!

Ali-OK

And politicians and councillors wonder why we don't believe or trust them :rotfl::rotfl:

Think I've a retirement age of 67 or 68 too. Blow that for a game of soldiers, I'm going to do an Alex now and be open in that my inheritance will see me well. However, I've always stood on my own two feet (and not in a couple as I'm odd that way :rotfl:) and am planning on retiring early and using savings - when I have saved enough :eek:

liltdiddylilt

My retirement age shall be somewhere between 75 & 80. I highly doubt I will live to see state pension if it has not been abolished by then :rotfl: Hence auto-enrolment pensions. Which I will pay into and hopefully see a little more of now, thanks to the changes coming in!

DansMam in response. I am currently living in the South East. My friends mentioned are both in Kent, (which you can say what you like about division etc but it was proven yesterday only that the SE has the highest costs compared even to London) and my previous home for 26 years, Nottinghamshire, which is where my father worked and lived/lives all of his life. The fact that you have a choice to move/make changes and yet don't but complain, seems to be to be completely pointless. I was unhappy with my job, my salary, my home and my life. I picked myself up and moved 250 miles. I got a new better job; a comparable salary which has increased through 5 and a half years of very hard work including a lot of time on maternity leave spent actually working. I have no pension scheme. My employer offers one, but they do not pay in to it. By 2016 we will have auto-enrolment pensions which will start on a 1% employee and 1% employer basis, based on qualifying earnings, and eventually move to 3%. I could choose salary sacrifice. But there is no longer any tax or national insurance saving on that basis. Therefore I will pay tax on my contribution and then have it replaced and be thankful for that. And were I to continue to pay into this until my retirement age, I would have enough saved to cover me for a couple of years most likely. So please continue to complain about your much better package than 90% of others. Meanwhile I will continue to better myself and save for my own retirement, as, like Ali, I choose to stand on my own two feet.

I apologise to anyone this may upset and sorry Ali for this being on your diary. I shall remove it shortly I am sure. x

Dansmam

Yep 67 for me too. I was a young mother. Ali I wasn't being personal or asking you or anyone to pay a penny more (I'll cope just like I always have - years of just me and 3 kids prove I can do that), just saying council jobs are no longer bringing the benefits people think they do and it upsets me that people continue to think I'm ripping them off. Looks like it could take a while;). I trade services to keep tax down and absolutely understand where you're coming from on price increases. We're on the same page just reading the book from opposite directions maybe? No offence intended, sending kind thoughts x

Ali-OK

No apology needed Lilt - it's all relevant money talk

Though for the life of me when I spent a year living and working in Yorkshire, a county known for it's frugal folk, can I still not work out how they managed to afford to go drinking in the pubs on a Monday night - it was more like a Friday night down here :rotfl:

Dansmam - I know some of the benefits are being cut, staff no longer have free town centre council owned car parking for work for example and that's a cost you may now have to bear, similarly with subsidised nurseries. My old company we had to pay for parking years before that though and no freebies with nursery or flexi time to help - so I think you have to be careful that you're not poking those who pay your salary through tax/ni, which is people like me and Lilt who also know others that moved from private to public sector and got paid quite a bit more for an equivalent role plus better benefits. I bet your sickness policy is still alot better than many private companies too. Year full pay, year half? Try one month full, one month half as a single parent and off for 4 months with a back operation, mortgage and £600 a month nursery fees to pay.

Our actual council part of the tax has gone down here by 0.2% this year, if you re-read my post, you'll see that I said 15.8% increase was for the Police part - which has triggered a referendum and could result in a refund if the vote is a big fat No to it.

I'm glad you're in a money saving role - it was always laughable how companies over-priced hugely for council work as there was so much red tape to get onto the preferred suppliers list that cost a fortune in people time and paper work, and then once on the list, talk about quote me happy - they'd double the price and get the job just because they were now "in".

No-one is blaming you personally for increased council tax bills and though it may gall to see people do that when you work your hardest and do your best to keep costs down within the council, it's still another bill out of my income and I have to find a way to balance my monthly budget by reducing something else - luckily for me this year, it'll be savings affected and not debt that gets less paid to it. Alot of others will be hit in much worse ways