About working once retired.

margaretclare

L-J-R wrote: »

Please - isn't there enough vitriol in the world without adding to it?

There is. I said in a recent post that I shall not respond. Nor have I accused anyone of cowardice.

Since Thursday I am too happy to fear being insulted by anyone. All is good. Just a year ago I was offered a date for revision of hip replacement. The day I was meant to go in it was cancelled at the last minute due to non-availability of special blood - I have antibodies from previous transfusions. The day I was eventually discharged by the ERAN team 6 weeks after surgery, I got the news that my DH was facing leg amputation. Thank God that didn't happen.

About attendance allowance, we both still qualify for it, still need it, and it has been extremely useful. We help each other with the things we can't do, and you're allowed to do that.

dorothy52

Oh my goodness, this thread has really taken a sinister turn, hasn't it? There is no boasting or smugness, just a sharing of knowledge to demonstrate that you don't need a great deal of money to live well. This message is the lynch pin of this site.

Take the debt free wannabe section, and the roll of honour. hundreds of inspiring stories of people paying off eye watering debts by adopting the strategies they have learned here. I see no smugness, just dogged tenacity and determination, helped with encouragement and support from others in the same situation.

LL described her post uni career in direct response to a question from me. We could have pm each other, but we didn't and now I wish I'd kept me big gob shut as this seems to have set the haters off.

I don't know what rule of 72 is but by God I am going to find out, right now. I expect to find some useful info that I can use to ensure that my savings are put to best use.

If you don't agree, or rather you choose to deliberately misinterpretate the essence of this thread, then may I politely suggest that you refrain from posting?

Living_proof

If anyone has been bullied it was the first poster by a group of smug old women.

So RevTimms, vitriolic, ageist and sexist to boot. Shame on you.

lessonlearned

Ah Dorothy. I wished I had kept my "big gob shut" too because my Reply to you seems to have done nothing but unleash a tide of hate and jealousy.

You asked a perfectly valid question and I gave you what I thought was a straightforward innocuous answer. But my reply was twisted out of all recognition. I never thought for one moment that I was being boastful and that was certainly not my intention. I don't do boasting, I don't need to, I am content and happy in my own skin.

When I tell how I managed to succeed against all the odds that were stacked against me, I do so to hopefully inspire others. I don't do it to brag.

My reasoning has always been that if me, a poor working class girl born with a nasty facial birthmark and who developed a stutter because she was so timid and nervous can make a reasonable success of her life in her own small quiet way then anyone can.

I was lucky I had a lot of help and support along the way, some great teachers and mentors, a lot of people who were very kind to me and who took me under their wing. SHaring my experiences, passing on my hard earned knowledge and a few little tips and shortcuts I have picked up along the way is my way of trying to "give back".

If my straight talking has offended anyone then of course I apologise. I am just someone who tries to be honest and open and who when asked a question will try to answer truthfully. I have nothing to hide and I have done nothing in my life to be ashamed of. I can hold my head up and walk with pride.

Dorothy.....If you are seeking to "make your fortune" then join us on the Millionaire Thread on the Boost Your Income Board. No haters there, just a bunch of happy campers determined to improve their lot in life.

The original OP has fallen by the wayside (or maybe she's just playing a long game) but there a few of us who soldier on with dogged determination.

lessonlearned

Ps Dorothy. If you want any help understanding Rule 72, just PM me. But it's basically just a simple maths equation which you use for investing.

lessonlearned

Margaret.....I must say what happened with your husbands leg is a minor miracle, thanks to the wonders of modern science.

But also I think a testament to his monumental courage and strength of will. And of course your tender loving care.

margaretclare

lessonlearned wrote: »

Margaret.....I must say what happened with your husbands leg is a minor miracle, thanks to the wonders of modern science.

But also I think a testament to his monumental courage and strength of will. And of course your tender loving care.

Thanks you so very much for the kind words. Yes, his strong will and courage. He's one of the few genuinely brave people I've met in my life. He was even told that, if amputation proved inevitable, he'd be in a wheelchair because he was too old at 82 to adapt to a prosthesis. His answer to the surgeon 'You don't know me very well'. I said that to the people who were trying to impose a care package on him - he'd need a commode, would never be able to use the bathroom etc etc. They didn't know him, didn't know either of us.

LL, being a poor working-class girl, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I grew up in a time when poverty really was poverty because there were no benefits. None. And being the child of an unmarried mother, I was teased, picked on, victimised, chased home from school, yet I made it to grammar school when many of the other local kids didn't. And that changed my life.

lessonlearned

Lordy....it was a different world back then. A time when being Illegitmate was a real stigma. Now thankfully children are no longer picked on because they are born "out of wedlock". What a sonorous ring that phrase has. :rotfl:

Yes grammar school was a way out for bright kids born into poor backgrounds. It was my "escape route", a scholarship to a very prestigous fee paying convent for girls.

I nearly didn't go because my parents couldn't afford the uniform, it was my aunt who kitted me out. I wore the same blazer all through school because my parents couldnt afford to buy me another one as I grew. It was a bit small by the time I left, a fact which didn't go unremarked on by the nuns.

I spent the final summer term sweltering in my winter gymslip because I had outgrown my summer dresses and my parents couldn't afford any new ones. The nuns kept nagging me to wear my summer uniform but I was too proud to tell them we couldn't afford It, so I just pretended to be a rebel and got regular canings for flouting the rules.

How mad is that - that I was so proud I would rather be caned than admit how poor we were. :rotfl:

For a top coat I had to have my mums old raincoat, which we had dyed to the regulation navy. It wasn't really a winter weight garment and I was often very cold but I never told my mum because it would have upset her. She knew though, as mums do, and there was always a cup of tea and some toasted crumpets when I got Home from school to warm me up.

Again the raincoat wasn't regulation issue so the nuns were always pestering me to get a proper school coat. So when the nagging got too bad I simply stopped wearing the raincoat and made do with the blazer. I would go out in the raincoat so as not to upset mum and then before I got to the school gates I would fold it up and put in my school bag so as not to get picked on by the nuns.

And they say your schooldays are the best days of your life.:rotfl:

Oddly enough the other girls never bullied me, they just accepted the fact that I was a "scholarship girl" and that I must therefore be very poor. Perhaps they thought it was "romantic". They were nice to me and I made some lovely friends who took me home to their fabulous houses where their parents, for some unfathomable reason, would take me under their wing. Perhaps they just took pity on the poor shy kid with the birthmark and the stutter.

These lovely people were kindness itself, although at first I was very much in awe of their grand houses. I couldn't believe my eyes at first but I soon relaxed and just soaked up the luxury, the paintings, the wonderful antique furniture, the flowers, and the divine food.....all served on their beautiful fine bone china. They even let me ride their horses.

Of course I was all agog, wanting to know all about their lovely homes and their beautiful gardens. I think this was when I first fell in love with art, interior design and beautiful architecture. This is when the first seeds were sown for what would eventually become my interest in property although I didn't know it at the time.

So although I wasn't much of a scholar I did do well because I wanted to live like these fine and gracious people so I copied them. I learned nice table manners, how to arrange flowers, how to be a good host, how to dress a room and yes how to "talk proper". :rotfl:

My English mistress was a lay teacher not a nun, and she quickly spotted what I was up to, my self imposed regime of self improvement so she took me under her wing. She gave me free private elocution lessons to help me cure my stutter. She encouraged me to read, to visit museums and art galleries. She was a very snazzy dresser and she taught me about clothes and fashion. She gave me books on etiquette and old copies of Vogue magazine.

As I said in an earlier post I have been extremely fortunate to have so many wonderful and generous tender hearted teachers and mentors in my life. Which is why I try, in some small measure, to "give back" - a sort of "Pay it Forward".

This is why I have found some of the harsh comments directed at Margaret and myself today so depressing. I cheefully admit I am no saint but I definitely have not deserved the censure that has been heaped upon my head today.

And I don't think Margaret has either.

dorothy52

Ah yes the grammar school uniform. My parents had to get a provident loan to kit me out! My science overall reached my ankles and my hockey boots were still too big when I left five years later! School was not great, not at all but we endured and here we are today.......real trip down memory lane today

dorothy52

Thinking back though, I learned to cook at school, and to make clothes. Do they still teach that in school today? I seldom bought any clothes for years, made all my own and the kids. Our domestic science teacher was so strict, but she taught us so thoroughly, and I will always remember her.

We were so poor back then, egg and chips every night for tea, with loads of bread and butter to fill us up lol