Stop the world I want to get off....

danban

As I’m sure with a lot of you the world seems to be going to hell in a handcart especially here in the uk.

House prices are going through the roof and becoming more unattainable due to the current offerings by the government. To be honest I struggle to conform with what society requires you to do/be to become a respectable adult.

Peoples attitudes also seem to be becoming more aggressive and in a lot of respects...a self entitled/me culture.

I’m fed up of having to work full time, on-call and overtime with very little pleasure outside of work and the pandemic has made me realise I want to work less and enjoy life more.

Lately I’ve been looking into saying stuff it all and buying a Narrowboat rather than get intro the property ladder - find a Part time work from 
home job I can carry out whilst continually cruising.

Sure I could do this when I retire which is 30 years away but like a lot of mine and my partners family when they retire they either become physically unable to or don’t live long after retirement - seems like a con for slogging your guts out all your life.

I can’t believe I’m the only person who feels like this?

skunkwerx

I feel ya. 

Around here in East London they are building flats on every bit of land they can get a hold of and advertising it as ‘xx amount of cheap/affordable housing’.. 

Anyway they built one such complex in a year and I drove past it the other day and, affordable my ass.. 

Each home has its driveway. Theyre like small houses I guess, not sure the technical name for such plots, but on each drive is Mercedes, Audi, Bmw, big suv’s or sporty type vehicles.

Sure as shit the broke people needing a hand didnt get the homes! 

Meanwhile the council tax goes up £100 a year to boot in the borough.. 

Danny1969

F#ck the property ladder. I gave my ex wife the house when I left ... all of it. Also gave let her have everything else. Walked away with my tools and my clothes .... nothing else. 
I live in a large detached bungalow with big gardens. The rent is a fair bit but I like the fact if something breaks I make a call and someone else comes out and fixes it. I also like the fact if I want to I can move very easily with none of the stress of selling, chains, estate agents and surveyors etc. 

Personally I don't want to work 40 hours a week. I want to work when I want to. For the most part I've achieved that. To me time has more value than money. I would rather have the time to play guitar, write songs and work on electronics projects than have a nice car and a contract phone, gym membership and all the other things people pacify themselves with to try and forget they basically are on something they can't get off without a lot of things crashing down. around them. 

I think we are meant to buy a house so we can leave it to our kids, ultimately mine will get that house to sell and share but my parents never brought and left us a house. They were council tenants their whole life and very happy with it. My dad was one of the most contented men I have ever known and I am too. 

Make enough money to live and pay the bills but remember the point of life is to enjoy it. There's so much more to life than buying a house. 

danban

skunkwerx said:

I feel ya. 

Around here in East London they are building flats on every bit of land they can get a hold of and advertising it as ‘xx amount of cheap/affordable housing’.. 

Anyway they built one such complex in a year and I drove past it the other day and, affordable my ass.. 

Each home has its driveway. Theyre like small houses I guess, not sure the technical name for such plots, but on each drive is Mercedes, Audi, Bmw, big suv’s or sporty type vehicles.

Sure as shit the broke people needing a hand didnt get the homes! 

Meanwhile the council tax goes up £100 a year to boot in the borough.. 

Ah the age old affordable housing farce and they say they will fine the property developers if they don’t build them however, it’s far more profitable for the developers to not build affordable and pay the fines regardless.

Council tax increases are laughable.....for what?

Shrews

I echo most of what @Danny1969 says, all fine points for sure. Personally, I do like having my own home, but have only ever wanted a small one. 

I was pretty much the same when I left my first wife, other than she didn't get it all.  She had lots of money in shares tied up which she never told me about (but I found about), I settled for a third of what those shares were worth, also the house had lots of equity following one of the housing booms.  It was bought for 60k and worth 150k when I left. 

However, my daughter was 8, I didn't want her to witness a poisonous divorce, so we reached an amicable agreement, divorced over the internet and we're still friends today. My daughter grew up having all the things she had been accustomed to in her early years.

My small pay-off was enough to put down as a deposit on my own small home, which I love!

For sure, 100%, do not ever let things chain you down, whether that be a mortgage, a woman, family ties or many other things.  The greatest things we have to value and cherish are our health and our freedom. Without either life can be pretty darn miserable. 

I know not many will agree with me but the other thing I found that was of great help in my recent past was believing in God. I found God after the death of my second wife and now I live life with a smile on face, with her in my heart. Every day I wake up feeling thankful and looking forward to it. I have no fear of anything regarding myself as I am happy I am in God's hands and he can do whatever he likes with me. So far, all has been good and I'm looking forward to whatever life brings and what I will learn on life's great rollercoaster.

James 4:8 - "Get close to God and he will get close to you." 

danban

Danny1969 said:

F#ck the property ladder. I gave my ex wife the house when I left ... all of it. Also gave let her have everything else. Walked away with my tools and my clothes .... nothing else. 
I live in a large detached bungalow with big gardens. The rent is a fair bit but I like the fact if something breaks I make a call and someone else comes out and fixes it. I also like the fact if I want to I can move very easily with none of the stress of selling, chains, estate agents and surveyors etc. 

Personally I don't want to work 40 hours a week. I want to work when I want to. For the most part I've achieved that. To me time has more value than money. I would rather have the time to play guitar, write songs and work on electronics projects than have a nice car and a contract phone, gym membership and all the other things people pacify themselves with to try and forget they basically are on something they can't get off without a lot of things crashing down. around them. 

I think we are meant to buy a house so we can leave it to our kids, ultimately mine will get that house to sell and share but my parents never brought and left us a house. They were council tenants their whole life and very happy with it. My dad was one of the most contented men I have ever known and I am too. 

Make enough money to live and pay the bills but remember the point of life is to enjoy it. There's so much more to life than buying a house. 

That’s fair enough, we don’t have kids ourselves so as much as it’d be nice to own a house that’s ours we won’t be passing it on to anyone and I’ll be blown if it ends up going to the state either.

We’re currently renting where we are which is a detached bungalow but rent prices here have rocketed up over the past 5 years and I’m starting to resent paying £950 a month for the privilege (Adding that up over 10 years would equal to £114,000 not including inflation increase on rent every so many years) but there’s slim pickings and the condition of a lot of rental properties are awful too.

I wouldn’t mind having to work full time plus any overtime for the next 10-15 years if I could own somewhere outright and afford to go part time, at the moment I’m struggling to see an end game and it’s completely depressing me.

Neill

I honestly think when folk consider their unsatisfactory lives,  much of it comes down to the lack of social interaction compared to 40-50 years ago.  People were much more content back then, but without the modern conveniences such as central heating, TV, cheap take away food and drink, etc there was so much more human face to face contact.  Granted, some of was hostile... but having a really active social life is quite unusual these days.  I'm not talking about nights down the pub, I mean knowing your neighbours, having chat in the street, taking part on a communal activity, the sort of things people don't seem to have time for.  

Having travelled extensively on the canals for many years, I've witnessed an explosion of people choosing to live on boats over the last few years.  When I started canal boating it was quite rare to meet a liveaboard, now it's the other way round and you rarely meet a genuine "leisure" boater these days.  In some cases the driving force is finance, ie lack of it, but by no means all the time and even then it is only one factor.  Most people highlight the sense of community, the pace of life, the friendliness, and the classness nature of the canals, as the real reasons they chose a life afloat.

This is not to say that you don't get arseholes on the inland waterways, there are inconsiderate people on boats too, but overall I reckon the canal life is as near as you get to the world I grew up in. 

What I would say though is if you are thinking about this as an option and you don't have that much experience, do please think long and hard about it, and do plenty of research.  It is a heck of a commitment and I have met people who will admit they made a big mistake but can't get out of it.  Getting through the winter months is the biggest obstacle and the reason my wife and I decided against it years ago.  We decided to keep it as a hobby, but then again I am retired, financially self sufficient  and lucky enough to live in a nice quiet village where I have lots of friends, there's nothing to escape from basically.   I can imagine if I lived in certain parts of the country and worked in a job I hate, I might be looking for a different lifestyle.

ThePrettyDamned

We own a flat and love it, it's our piece of the world and was slightly more affordable than rent. Being a flat, we don't need to worry about the actual building, just the stuff within our walls, which is nice. It's a new build, so very safe, loads of insulation, thick walls, low bills, loads of floor-to-ceiling type windows.

However, it's not the most important bit of our lives. I love gardening and playing guitar and coffee and gaming and reading. My fiancée is passionate for cooking and reads and we are always nattering. Our lives are, realistically, simple. We save, too.

We don't have a nice car or anything - instead we try to make sure we're generous to friends and family, save for rainy days (nothing worse than stressing over money) and live well within our means. Mostly, a simple life is all we want. I'd retire tomorrow if I could, but would still need to "work" on something for boredom sake. 

phil_b

Work is a big one.

It feels like you are asked to do more and more for less ans less.

9 to 5 with a lunch hour is now 8 to 5.30 with. 30min break

Time and a half or double time now equals you need to work extra hours for free just to keep your job

Business people are now thinking in terms of more home workers but I can see this turning into people just being on perminant call. I already know people who  reply to emails and take calls whist supposedly being on holiday.

I have found my self working 50 to 60 hour weeks and still only being paid enough to cover basic bills. I don't mind working hard if I'm getting a reward . But to work that hard and still have no time, energy or money for yourself just feels like someone is robbing me of my life. 

monquixote

I own my own house but it took me until I was a lot older than someone of a previous generation would have expected.

My parents weren't well off but we lived in a nice detached house in the country. Even though I have a good job and earn a lot more than the national average I live in a fairly tiny bungalow and I had to borrow money from my mother to raise the deposit.

The mortgage is considerably less than I would pay in rent and will stay that way whereas rent just keeps going up.

I'm lucky enough to have a job I enjoy, but spending time with my family is always way more important to me. I'm torn between trying to get a bigger house and have more space and trying to pay what I have off early. 

Living on a boat sounds like something that would be great for about a month and then become a bloody nightmare especially when it's minus five or there are gale force winds.

Paul_C

I agree wholeheartedly - Once my Dad's flat is sold I'm planning to cut back on work (I don't do much anyway!) by getting rid of my Facebook page (and maybe even my website) so I just deal with people I've done work for before - which is quite a few after nearly 18 years.

I could retire completely, but that would be a little too stressful as it would involve watching my reserves slowly disappear with nothing coming in.

I've not done anything since the beginning of the last lockdown and I must admit I like it

As long as I don't buy too many Zoias then I can probably get away with working an hour or two a day, four days a week, for the next ten years until my pension kicks in.

That sounds good to me.

axisus

Mrs A had a rather bohemian pal at 6th form many years ago. She partnered up with this long haired guy and they bought a Barge to live on. They had a kid and eventually got married, still on the barge. We lost touch around 20 years ago but I often wondered if they left the barge in the end. They certainly liked living on one at the time.

Paul_C

I have some friends who used to live on a canal boat until they had kids (and moved to the US) and what I can recall from their FB posts it was a pretty good life apart from:

1. Winter.
2. Swans.
3. Getting the toilet emptied.

Axe_meister

We are asked to do a lot more in the same amount of time due to modern technology, so much I'm fact we can no longer be passionate about it, it becomes one task after another.
However consider what life was like in the 70s. We had no central heating, no carpets in our council flat.
My mum had to work two jobs to get good food on the table. 
I actually think we have all forgotten how to put effort I to our social lives as everything else is instantly available,  relationships and personal happynes is not.

TforTele

I do tend to agree that things are pretty f**ked up.  I may be wrong, but I think a hundred years ago or so housing was cheap and food dear.  This has reversed to the point where the relentless suppression of food prices is partially responsible for destroying the environment, while much of the population has constant anxiety about keeping a roof over their heads.  On housing specifically, I think the "bubble" should have been allowed to deflate with the GFC, but that would have been politically "problematic".  We have been living under an ideological burden: that anything collectivist is bad.  Thus, we must all provide for ourselves against any eventuality, including financial provision for old age.  Homes became investments, part of pension plans.  This is starting to unwind a bit, but slowly.  Inheritance tax is seen as an evil.

Living on a boat (I did if for threes years) in old age would be tough, but if you're attracted do it while you can.  If you don't have a permanent mooring (rare and expensive) you will have to keep on the move.  You need to look at the total costs, they may be a bit more than you anticipate.

Some years ago I realised I had better do something about pension provision, since the company I worked for at the time offered nothing unless you were a director.  Via Equitable Life(!) and a stakeholder pension I have ended up trying to manage a SIPP.  This led me to an investment forum, where I recently read someone posting that he had made the full year's ISA contribution for his three children - £27,000 I think that is - oldest 8 years old.  He presumably maxed out his own at another £20,000.  How many people does this government largesse benefit?  Pension relief at 40% or 45% given to people who will ensure they never pay more than basic rate when they actually draw down those funds.  So much money is leeched away to those who really don't need it.

Council tax increased by 5% where I am.  Is this not simply the income tax increase the government committed not to make by the back door?  Cut direct funding to councils, give them extra responsibilities, then say they can increase council tax.  Voila.  Oh, and of course the bizarre banding system ensures the wealthiest pay the least share by income.

I could go on, but...

Hey ho...

The sad thing to me is that all this leads to a relentless focus on the least interesting aspects of this mysterious existence...

All the best working out your response.  Carpe diem, as they say, tempus fugit.

SurfinSirFari

I live on a boat. Winters are fine if you keep your fire in 24/7. And get some top notch slippers.
It makes you connect with your reality a bit more..in a house everything is taken for granted, on a boat/vehicle you've got to think ahead somewhat. So you budget for where you are with power, heat, water and how many more dumps you can have before your toilet needs emptying.
It used to be a cheap lifestyle under British Waterways but not so much now and the Canal and Rivers Trust is much more, er, vigilant about any irregularities and infringements. .. available residential moorings are much rarer than your '59 Les Paul's.
Also, if you like loads of stuff it ain't gonna work! 

p90fool

Through a series of redundancies I ended up working in a supermarket for 18 hours a week, which I thought was the ultimate humiliation after years in engineering, prototyping and meteorology, but it's the best job I've ever had and I've stuck it longer than any other. 

I work with lovely people of all ages and backgrounds, and at 11am I walk out into the sunshine, jump on my motorcycle and bugger off for the afternoon, or home to my studio. 

It took circumstances beyond my control to realise that a "career" truly is a mug's game. We get one shot at this life, don't spend all of it in an office. 

Logie

We're pretty good financially even though my wife was made redundant last year.

 House and cars paid for and because there was cock all to do last year due to Covid we didn't even really miss her salary.

However, I've been working week on, week off for over a year now ( good employer so no cut in wages ) due to separation/ shielding in my workplace and the thought of going back to normal working hours doesn't appeal in the slightest. 

I'm close enough to retirement age to appreciate the extra time to do the things I really enjoy doing and although my wife starts a new job next week, she's made the decision to go part time and I'm quite envious. 

I'd quite like to broach the subject of taking a pay cut to keep my current working hours but I'd get a kicking off the wife as it would impact our holiday funds

First world problems indeed.

richardhomer

A close relative has recently left a very highly paid job under a settlement agreement. The individual in question looks happier than in many a long year - a stressful, harsh, unpleasant working environment ruins your life....

Paul_C

richardhomer said:

A close relative has recently left a very highly paid job under a settlement agreement. The individual in question looks happier than in many a long year - a stressful, harsh, unpleasant working environment ruins your life....

My Dad retired early (aged 61 or 62 IIRC) from his job as a headmaster and looked ten years younger within a couple of months.

LastMantra

I have fuck all.