A house of cards - help

youngandreckless

Hey Squiffy,

Sorry to hear about your job, I was made redundant last year, but I am much happier in my new job - these things happen for a reason, even if you don't know what it is yet!
Sounds like you have a lovely family and you've made so much progress in such a short space of time, you'll be debt free sooner than you ever thought possible.
What a great thread, I was flagging, but this has really inspired me xx

Squiffy

Well, I'm still concerned that I won't be able to get a job at anywhere near my current salary of £63K.

But let's be positive. It will be almost £11k to pay off the debts.

And if I can negotiate it, hopefully I might be able to get my three months notice period paid off too without having to work it. That would be an extra £15k to £16k!

Got a meeting this Friday with the department head and HR to negotiate what is going to happen.

Thanks so much to everybody for the kind words and support.

welf_man

Hi, Squiffy - you sound like you're doing really well! I'm in a similar position in some ways - lower debts and mortgage, but much lower income too. Unfortunately my partner would go through the roof if I let on, so I don't have that support.

Re. the job - what line of IT are you in? Is contracting a possibility? Do don't have to be self-employed - there are lots of IT umbrella organisations so you're technically employed.

My partner is contracting at £36 per hour - it's only for 3 months, but it mounts up.

Good luck - and well done!

Squiffy

Hi Welf Man.

A couple of years ago I was a Lotus Notes / Domino contractor, and doing very well out of it too.

But I took a permie job (only because it was supposedly secure and at such a high salary), but my skills began to go out of date. About 15 months ago I had the chance to maintain my salary but to move into IT Service Management in ITIL, so since then I've been doing that. My current job is "Service Assurance Manager", which is a new discipline in ITIL, and therefore not widely recognised (yet). In 12 months time it should be. Shame I couldn't keep my job until then!

In the meantime I'm looking for all sorts of jobs. Project Management, Disaster Recovery, Development Manager, etc. I've got a very varied background but it is somewhat a case of jack of all trades master of none at the minute.

gazroe

hi squiffy i will keep my eyes peeled at work as we currently are taking on experienced IT staff, feel free to PM with cv
I work for a big multinational which curently requires extra IT for large contract.
regards
Garry

Squiffy

Well, I had my formal notice meeting today.

We've agreed that none of the internal jobs will be able to meet my minimum salary needs.

I'm trying to negotiate on whether they would accept Paying me In Lieu of Notice, and if so from what date. I hope they do.

If they agree to PILON me from 1st July, I estimate I should get a total redundancy & notice package of around £25k. Obviously this will pay off a big chunk of the £68k debt, and reduce my outgoings enough to enable me to take a somewhat lower paid job.

I should find out Monday at the latest (hopefully today though) whether I can get this.

Wish me luck!

JAMIEDODGER

hey, good luck squiffy....have read quite a few of your posts on here and its sounds like you are really determined to pay off all your debt and do what you have to do to reduce your outgoings...WELL DONE YOU!!!!!!

Squiffy

Thanks Jamie.

Lots going on!

They've agreed to July 1st for a PILON, and it would be tax free. :beer:

But they want me to move to one of these other jobs. (Even if they aren't prepared to maintain my salary to do it). I've made it clear that I could only accept the wages they are offering (£45k ish) if they pay the redundancy & PILON in full first.

I don't think they can do it, but the dept manager and HR rep are still in the meeting room ringing round to see how they could do it. They've already offered £45k plus my straight redundancy (£11k) but I cannot afford to accept that.

I'll keep everyone updated! :rolleyes:

Kippsy

Just wanted to say that I am really glad you told your wife, good luck with whatever they decide about paying in lieu.

Also, and I'm sure you will do something like this... The redundancy money... If you do not have a job to go straight to are you going to hang onto a chunk of it to support you while you are not at work? That way you will be able to meet all your current bills and have some breathing space while you find work.

I remember that a good peice of advice was that you should try and have enough money saved up in the bank to cover you incase of redundancy etc for about 6months.

I know this is unlikely to happen and I would be happy to have three months saved up but my job is very secure so I am lucky.... Except if I could do something else, some days I would!!!!!

Squiffy

Oh well. Redundancy it is from July 1st.

I am getting payment in lieu of notice. They say that this should be tax free, so fingers crossed this will mean about £25k. Of course I'll have to wait and see what happens. If it is taxed, it would be at about £19k to £20k

We are also awaiting an investment trust to be closed down which should return about £7k.

So we will have £26 to £32k to put towards the debts. On the other hand, we will have no money coming into the house so obviously need to hold something back to cover the mortgage and minimum payments.

What is my best course of action with regards to the various debts?

Should I suspend my loan / credit card direct debits, write to the companies and ask them to freeze interest / accept token payments?

Should I make an offer of settlement with the money we have?

Just really not sure how to proceed with this.