Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

My kids do not finish school for another 11 years so I can't imagine being able to retire before that point - although I am looking at whether I could reduce to exactly 24 hours/week from next April as potentially the remaining 13.5 hours might only be worth 4k net. Combine overpaying pension with downsizing and a frugal lifestyle and I guess retirement in 11 years is not impossible (a la pastures) and any future inheritance would make things easier still although hopefully not for many years. The problem of factoring this in is that it won't happen until after it is too late to do anything about it if it doesn't happen.....

I understand you justification for minimising income to maximise tax rebates, tax credits etc To me that has 2 main flaws:

1. To earn at much higher level (status/ responsibility/ pay) means going through the thresholds that you find so painful in order to get to the greener pastures the other side.
2. Living within the means you have artificially set yourself in order to maximise the percentage retained of your income has been happening for a good few years now, so a sizable chunk of your working lifetime has been spent having a lower income than maybe you and your family deserve.

michaels

I can probably decide best what is the trade off between work and retirement that suits me best. I hate the fact that the house is full of carp. Having more disposable income and more carp would definitely not make me happier and hopefully my kids will have some chance of learning that it is not material things and definitely what you have compared to others that lead to happiness.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

The court noted that the daughter giving evidence had been in the papers before as she'd been selling watercress at the gate of the big biscuit factory and a worker had bought a halfpenny-worth of watercress from her and accidentally given her a sovereign (conversion for young people: (he paid £1.10 instead of ¼p)). She'd alerted the security guard and the worker had been found and his sovereign restored - so the factory staff had a whip round for her family + somebody got her a "proper job" in service as she was so honest.
..

Brilliant story!:T

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

and accidentally given her a sovereign (conversion for young people: (he paid £1.10 instead of ¼p)).

I thought the sovereign had a nominal value of 20 shillings, i.e. £1.00?

The Guinea was 21 bob - £1.05 - although it started out with a nominal value of 20s but its real value fluctuated with the gold price, sometimes reaching 30s, before the value was fixed at 21s until Britain adopted the gold standard, at which point the guinea value was replaced by the pound and the coinage by the sovereign.

Although the guinea value is still used for some auctions (principally livestock and racehorses) and the buyer pays in guineas, the price the seller receives is the bid number in pounds and the "extra" shilling goes as the auctioneer's commission, i.e. 5% on top of the sale price free from commission.

The Scots did mint some 22s coins, but I'm not aware that England did.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

I thought the sovereign had a nominal value of 20 shillings, i.e. £1.00?

The Guinea was 21 bob - £1.05 - although it started out with a nominal value of 20s but its real value fluctuated with the gold price, sometimes reaching 30s, before the value was fixed at 21s until Britain adopted the gold standard, at which point the guinea value was replaced by the pound and the coinage by the sovereign.

Although the guinea value is still used for some auctions (principally livestock and racehorses) and the buyer pays in guineas, the price the seller receives is the bid number in pounds and the "extra" shilling goes as the auctioneer's commission, i.e. 5% on top of the sale price free from commission.

The Scots did mint some 22s coins, but I'm not aware that England did.

It gets worse, or better!

A halfpenny in 1841 was worth about £1.90, according to an online reckoner, and £1 was worth almost £92, so she really was a very honest little lady! :

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

I can probably decide best what is the trade off between work and retirement that suits me best. I hate the fact that the house is full of carp. Having more disposable income and more carp would definitely not make me happier and hopefully my kids will have some chance of learning that it is not material things and definitely what you have compared to others that lead to happiness.

Very true, it is all your call.

I was thinking what we have done in the past re career choices and the 3 main consequences of that have been in the education choices we have made for the kids, the house we live in now and the holiday home.

Horses for courses etc

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

It gets worse, or better!
A halfpenny in 1841 was worth about £1.90, according to an online reckoner, and £1 was worth almost £92, so she really was a very honest little lady! :

One of those two figures has to be wrong - £1 was 240p, or 480 ha'pennies.

So, either the ha'penny was worth around 38p in current values, or the pound was £912 in current values - or both should be somewhere in between.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

One of those two figures has to be wrong - £1 was 240p, or 480 ha'pennies.

So, either the ha'penny was worth around 38p in current values, or the pound was £912 in current values - or both should be somewhere in between.

I probably got a decimal point wrong! :rotfl::rotfl:


The pound was deffo £92. I got muddled trying to work out a 1/480 th of £92!




In my defence I have drunk a 500ml bottle of Fuller's Golden Pride, which is 8.5%!

Doesn't do much for maths abilities! :rotfl:

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

I probably got a decimal point wrong! :rotfl::rotfl:
The pound was deffo £92. I got muddled trying to work out a 1/480 th of £92!
In my defence I have drunk a 500ml bottle of Fuller's Golden Pride, which is 8.5%!
Doesn't do much for maths abilities! :rotfl:

Come on, that's only a bit over a pint - a British one anyway :rotfl:

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

Come on, that's only a bit over a pint - a British one anyway :rotfl:

Yes, but most beer is 3-5%; this is 8.5%!