"Incomes back to pre-crisis level"

Phil_aka_Pip

Drew_fx said:

Better off financially and musically. Worse off socially and mentally.

In 2008 I was getting approx £200 a week out of private music lessons. As I didn't have to drive to work it was probably as worth as much as a minimum wage job, but with better hours and T&C.

I am now getting twice that for a full time day job to which I have to drive. I have less time to myself and more expenses. I don't feel financially any better off. Musically, socially, and mentally I feel a lot worse off.

CabbageCat

Assuming the BBC item headline is, "Phil Definitely Better Off Than Pre-2008" I think I would have to join in the condemnation of the shoddy, inaccurate journalism. If it's average or total income that the article it about then I guess they're working from slightly more comprehensive data than what is left in Phil's wallet after a night out.

Drew_TNBD

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Drew_fx said:

Better off financially and musically. Worse off socially and mentally.

In 2008 I was getting approx £200 a week out of private music lessons. As I didn't have to drive to work it was probably as worth as much as a minimum wage job, but with better hours and T&C.

I am now getting twice that for a full time day job to which I have to drive. I have less time to myself and more expenses. I don't feel financially any better off. Musically, socially, and mentally I feel a lot worse off.

In 2008 I'd just started at FXpansion, on an internship. I'd just left uni the summer before, and worked a bar job to pay my rent. I was struggling, and I was having regular panic attacks about my future. So I'm better off in every way now. But still doesn't mean I'm happy!

Danny1969

In 2008 I was driving around in a supercharged Jag and took home around 55K after taxs

These days I have a share in a van and own an old  pushbike ..... fuck it it's only money it means nothing really. I feel a lot richer now

thomasross20

ICBM said:

The truth is that it is going to continue getting worse, for the simple reason that the years of it getting better were an illusion supported by unsustainable borrowing.

+100000. 

I did ok by changing jobs. 

Might do again in future for a place that offers share options. 

You've got to do it for yourself as nobody else will. 

Most you'll get staying at the same company is 10% every now and then. 

Move company and between 10-40%!

I have to save a SHEDLOAD for my (private sector) pension, and even then...

Phil_aka_Pip

thomasross20 said:

I have to save a SHEDLOAD for my (private sector) pension, and even then...

... there's no guarantee you'll get any of it back

rsvmark

In 2013 which was the last complete year for which figures are available, Britain spent £76.7bn more than it made, which equates to 4.5% of GDP. Like it or not we, as a nation, spend more than we earn.

So we either tax more, spend less, or both.....

If you believe the current administration, our economic recovery will continue to narrow the gap.....

(Lights blue touch paper and runs for cover)

Panama_Jack666

Phil_aka_Pip said:

thomasross20 said:

I have to save a SHEDLOAD for my (private sector) pension, and even then...

... there's no guarantee you'll get any of it back

If it's a private pension, surely he will?

I dunno how pensions work, put me right!

thomasross20

I just upped my contribution to 20% of salary, too..

I've got the option of ~25-33% pay rise moving to another company but it will be a bit more pressure..

Phil_aka_Pip

Panama_Jack666 said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

thomasross20 said:

I have to save a SHEDLOAD for my (private sector) pension, and even then...

... there's no guarantee you'll get any of it back

If it's a private pension, surely he will?

I dunno how pensions work, put me right!

Pensions are mainly for the benefit of Pension Advisors, Insurance Companies, and Bankers. "The value of investments can go down as well as up". Statistically you might expect to get something back, but even so it could still be a lot less than what you put in, and there's absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that you'll get back as much as you put in, or more than what you put in.

Mkjackary

rsvmark said:

In 2013 which was the last complete year for which figures are available, Britain spent £76.7bn more than it made, which equates to 4.5% of GDP. Like it or not we, as a nation, spend more than we earn.

So we either tax more, spend less, or both.....

Or increase immigration. 

:O Did I just say immigration could be a good thing? Immigrants a lot of the time come in pre educated and ready to work, at an age where they have missed out on free dental care and free education, so we don't have to pay for them in their early lives. They spend their working lives giving back to the government (taxes), and then a significant amount leave to retire with their family in their home country, so we don't have to pay for their state pension and later life health care. As a ratio, immigrants contribute much more than non immigrants, for those reasons.

Economically Immigration is good for the UK. In many other aspects it is a hot subject however. (ie not saying it is good or bad in general, just economically speaking.)

I'm not pro immigration, nor anti immigration. I have yet to make up my mind, god knows who or what I will vote for in the election...

Also fun fact on the topic of pensions, the average life expectancy in glasgow is below the state pension age; the average male in glasgow doesn't get his state pension...

Sambostar

And then the immigrants decide to stay and need pensions themselves.....so we increase immigration...and then those immigrants stay and need pensions themselves,,,so we increase immigration again.

The population has gone up by 200 to 300k a year for twenty years.

But then pensions in the future?  No one is paying NI contributions, least alone the employers employing immigrants on slave labour deals, so there won't be any.  However that will have to be a universal, otherwise there will be anarchy.  Which will probably happen anyway if the population keeps rising by 250k a year.

holnrew

I don't mind immigrants as long as their culture has tasty food. The jury's out on eastern Europeans

capo4th

There is no better way to save than a pension that gives you 20-40% tax benefits + employer contributions.

Snap

2008 doesn't seem that long ago tbh. I'm doing the same work, just more of it, suits me. Main thing different in 2008: my beard was black, not the mix of black and white it is now. Disappointing.

Sambostar

capo4th said:

There is no better way to save than a pension that gives you 20-40% tax benefits + employer contributions.

Erm...except if you are self employed you pay the tax first at your income tax rate, the amount put away isn't tax deductible from your earnings so contributes towards your higher rate and you don't get the employer part either.  In theory you are reimbursed the 20 or 40% when you draw the pension, but seriously, who knows if the pension will even exist when it comes time to pull it.

A house down the street sold for £270,000 in 2001.  They are moving...they are asking £925,000 for it and so far two viewers have smashed their brand new 4x4's into the neighbours gate whilst reversing around, without leaving so much as a hand written note of apology.  Says a lot for the character of a new potential owner.

This is why there are dirty practical, wannabe fenians renters like me around in their rusty Transits to even the social score.

In 2001..I was only charging a few quid less than I do now.  Literally around 20% less at most. 

Meanwhile houses have seemingly shot up by a staggering 343% and this is in the middle of nowhere relatively.