Budget changes: did I miss an announcement?

Triumph13

I can entirely understand that, for someone in chuck's position, that kick in the teeth each month from seeing 70% of your earnings taken away (whether you actually needed them or not) would hack you off enough to make you walk just from the sheer annoyance of it.
Giving all your earnings to your favourite charity via GAYE might be another option to consider if the issue does raise its head again as then you not only get to feel virtuous and charitable, but get the pleasure of sticking 2 fingers up to the chancellor.

chucknorris

xylophone wrote: »

You enjoy work.

You enjoy other activities more.

The work gives enjoyment plus a salary - even after tax there is a net benefit. That benefit is the bonus.

The other activities give enjoyment which is greater than that given by working. The benefit /bonus here is the extra enjoyment.

The question is which benefit/bonus do you value more?

That is indeed the question, but a cost benefit analysis is never easy when it has non financial aspects to it. As long as I'm not quite sure, I am happy to work on a bit longer. It might not be for much longer now anyway, because my mother in law died last week, and my wife is seriously thinking of retiring this December. If she does that really does increase the value of retirement to me, because we can then start going to Spain/Algarve during the winter months. So when I retire will probably be more to do with when my wife retires.

chucknorris

RickyB2000 wrote: »

I Still don't get it though. You say there are other more enjoyable things, so why keep working if you don't have to? Or is this ultimately down to a fear of not having enough? You keep working because you are worried you have miscalculated or some unforeseen event hits you? Thus if you don't earn much after taxes, then the job is no longer helping to mitigate this fear and so you would stop? Is that the finacial argument?

There is absolutely no fear of not having enough, apart from the wealth being quite significant, my main hobbies don't tend to cost much anyway, i.e. jogging, cycling, hiking, walking my dog, swimming, cinema, bowls and chess. I think the problem here might be that you don't fully appreciate that I actually like doing my job, do you not like your work? Although I like other things better, it is also good to have plenty of diversity in one's life, work adds diversity to my life.

As you can see from the post above things are going to change in our life anyway, my mother in law died last week, and it has prompted my wife to seriously think about her retirement.

mania112

The latest rumors suggest that there will be very little change to pensions on Budget Day, due to the Tories wanting to hold on to IN voters @ the EU Referendum.

RickyB2000

chucknorris wrote: »

There is absolutely no fear of not having enough, apart from the wealth being quite significant, my hobbies don't tend to cost much anyway, i.e. jogging, cycling, hiking, walking my dog, bowls and chess. I think the problem here might be that you don't fully appreciate that I actually like doing my job, do you not like your work? Although I like other things better, it is also good to have plenty of diversity in one's life, work adds diversity to my life.

As you can see from the post above things are going to change in our life anyway, my mother in law died last week, and it has prompted my wife to seriously think about her retirement.

Yes, I do enjoy my job. That is probably why I find it hard to understand that you would give it up based on not getting as much money as you did before, when the money isn't that important to you. My thoughts were based on your original sentiment that a change in how much you get paid would be the key factor in driving you out of work.

I still don't think I understand your position fully, but I do understand that seeing the money you earn vanish in tax is never a nice thing. It is also always harder to lose something you had than to never have it (e.g. If you worked voluntarily).

Good luck in making your decision, and sorry for your loss.

chucknorris

RickyB2000 wrote: »

Yes, I do enjoy my job. That is probably why I find it hard to understand that you would give it up based on not getting as much money as you did before, when the money isn't that important to you. My thoughts were based on your original sentiment that a change in how much you get paid would be the key factor in driving you out of work.

I still don't think I understand your position fully, but I do understand that seeing the money you earn vanish in tax is never a nice thing. It is also always harder to lose something you had than to never have it (e.g. If you worked voluntarily).

Good luck in making your decision, and sorry for your loss.

No it isn't a key factor, it would have merely been the last straw that broke the camel's back. I've been very close to retiring anyway, last September I informed the university that I intended to retire in 12 months time, at the end of the current academic year, but just before Xmas I changed my mind, because I thought that I would probably miss working. I have done voluntary work before, for a dog rescue centre, and I will probably do so again at some point.

Thanks, yes we were both quite shocked that my MIL passed away, she was only 72 and as far as we knew she was otherwise healthy. My wife went to visit her 2 weeks ago yesterday, found he unconscious, went to the hospital with her (in an ambulance) and she died the following Tuesday morning (of pneumonia).

xylophone

Thanks, yes we were both quite shocked that my MIL passed away, she was only 72 and as far as we knew she was otherwise healthy. My wife went to visit her 2 weeks ago yesterday, found he unconscious, went to the hospital with her (in an ambulance) and she died the following Tuesday morning (of pneumonia).

I wonder whether age has much to do with it ( despite the fact that pneumonia used to be known as "the old man's friend") - I have an elderly acquaintance (now 95) who has had bouts of pneumonia over the last two or three years and survived them. It's all in the individual's resistance to infection I suppose.

If you do wish to spend extended periods abroad, then retirement from regular employment for you both clearly makes sense - there would be nothing preventing occasional lecturing in the UK or in Spain if you fancied it?