The march to financial freedom

Eager_Elephant

Ali-OK wrote: »

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

I had to at this comment.


My boss is always saying that I have no self-awareness and I was supposed to go on a course to learn how to be self-aware (basically I used to open my mouth without thinking) but I think I am gradually changing my ways!!


I do have to chip in and say that I am about Lilt's age but doubt I will ever reach retirement age - they just keep changing those goalposts!!


Although I am hoping to retire early and run my smallholding and maybe a campsite so hopefully official retirement age won't matter to me.

Dansmam

£2 increase here, I just checked. Includes fire and I gave fire some advice this year that saved £500k. Brought in £300k income in other services. This is the stuff no one sees unless I shout it out.. irritating boss pays no attention, but you folks may be impressed. I hope
Oh, and I have paid for parking for the last 10 years. Soft southerners may have had it easier. I have a soft southern family and I love them all, but my reality is not theirs...EE can I borrow some tact.
Pretty please x
DM

Dansmam

I confess to being entitled to 6 months full pay sickness. In theory. We are mainly good people. I have been lucky and just taken 4 days in 26 years. There are people who rip us all off but they're few and far between. This is part of the story no one tells x

liltdiddylilt

AH... sickness benefits. Absolute zero for one week. Statutory sick pay for 26 weeks thereafter. Yes, this soft southerner really has it easy, what with continual operations for spine issues/endometriosis. I have to admire the ignorant onward plod of some people...

Brogden

It has been mentioned that this current 'debate' was caused by me. I was only moaning about a big bill called 'Council Tax' or rather empathising with Ali's 'joy' at receiving her annual bill.

Dansmam - I do not believe that Councils are worthless and perform no useful function. The fact that I moan about a bill does not mean that I begrudge council workers their earnings. I recently had an excellent pair of builders in here sorting the damp course and plastering. Did they deserve their £800? Yes. Did I like paying it? No - it could have paid to a debt or gone into my pension but I paid them happily because it was good work well done.

If you don't mind my being brutally honest, the exaggerations you make do not enhance your argument but rob it of credibility. Some thoughts to hopefully make you happier about your position:-

- You cannot go to 'the City' and instantly increase your package five times over.

- Your pension has not been devalued in the way in which you suggest - nowhere near.

I have regrets in life too........I have always wished I had opted to work in the public sector. I believe I would have suffered significantly less stress and enjoyed greater stability and valuable benefits.

My other regret is that I opted for a job which involved the procurement of 'business' ie 'sales.' This has allowed me to be treated as a football for most of my working life or..........a donkey......always with the sight of that carrot hanging from the stick but never able to grip it between my teeth because the b+stards kept moving it further away :mad:

All of us have our axes to grind but you must stop thinking everything is so great in the private sector. Believe me.......it can be BIG PANTS to the point that you have to pinch yourself convinced it is a nightmare :rotfl::rotfl:!!!!!

Broggers x

Dansmam

Ooh dear, don't for one moment mean to suggest private sector is easier than public. Have family working hard in both.
Just trying to say there's not a lot of difference between the two any more, but the ancient jealousies remain. As some of the reaction here demonstrates. Brogden, sorry to have mentioned you in dispatches. We make our choices and we live our lives and I meant to explain rather than complain... got that wrong then...
DM

supersaver1000

Ali-OK wrote: »

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:

:rotfl: me too. DH had one day leave. I went to a party the other day, looked round the room and thought, 'there's a lot of shall we say 'mature' people here', then I realised they were all roughly the same age as me :eek: :rotfl:

Brogden

Dansmam wrote: »

Ooh dear, don't for one moment mean to suggest private sector is easier than public. Have family working hard in both.
Just trying to say there's not a lot of difference between the two any more, but the ancient jealousies remain. As some of the reaction here demonstrates. Brogden, sorry to have mentioned you in dispatches. We make our choices and we live our lives and I meant to explain rather than complain... got that wrong then...
DM

Sorry Ali - but its not just me invading your thread

Yes DM - we make our choices very young.....further down the line we potentially could change from A to B. There is , of course inertia but also the fact we are trapped as to switch would rock our earnings too much.....as I mentioned I do not accept the 5x salary jump into the private sector :rotfl: (that's what I'm doing when I read that!)

DM - I'd rather be friends than not and I do not, not, not begrudge you your wages. I'm wondering where that came from now!

Broggers x

Ali-OK

Hey no worries Broggers, me and Lilty bit the bait and it's only banter after all

Dansmam - It's fantastic that the public sector are being dragged kicking and screaming into the real world where there isn't a bottomless pit of money given them to spend willy-nilly and all the benefits, because that is what it came to back in the mid-noughties.

The public lot do like to dig their heels in and threaten unions and strikes as they don't like change, where in the private sector you put up, shut up or move on because change is constant and fast. Maybe experiencing that fundamental difference you'd see both sides. It's not for the faint-hearted though as Broggers so aptly notes.

I would say time to wake up and smell the coffee, but I prefer tea :rotfl:

On that note, I'm going to do batch chilli and then I'm heading off to friends as I'm on good form and in firey mood :rotfl:

I think I should join the Tax Payers Alliance Party now too :rotfl:

Brogden

Ali-OK wrote: »

On that note, I'm going to do batch chilli and then I'm heading off to friends as I'm on good form and in firey mood :rotfl:

Yeah....firey mood right on Ali :T

God help your friends tonight :eek: !!

P.S. I love a bit of passion :rotfl:!!!