Er, yes it is.
The problem comes when people decide they cant live without certain things that in all honesty, they can.
Lowering ones expectations to fall in line with spending power is one of the biggest jokes this decade because seemingly intelligent people convince themselves they NEED things that actually are more WANTS.
True, in the South money doesnt go as far as some other places, but unless its the case that the average wage there is over £50k, presumably it is indeed possible. I expect the vast majority of the difference North/South comes from property prices.
It would be a more interesting point to compare the average wage in any given area looked at against the spending power in that area.
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It's more than enough. But if both parents work then those will be better off than if only one of them works and earns 50k. Rather misleading as both of them down south earning 25k each would mean they'd have another 6k a year in tax allowances. I read it as only one of them works.
Don't the northerners have only the one car? Makes a lot of difference if they make do with one car and have both of them earning. That would probably mean £800 a month more disposable income....
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It might be quite surprising to some how little a lot of northern jobs pay by comparison to the same sort of occupations in the southeast anyway.
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Oop 'ere en north we av lots ov fings dat monee canot by....:-)
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I expect the vast majority of the difference North/South comes from property prices.
No doubt about it, Stu, and the article makes that point. Interestingly both families make up their £50,000 from two incomes - so they have two personal allowances - and have teenage children, so no child care expenses (although I'm sure university costs in one case more than make up for that.)
What it doesn't mention, perhaps because of the Mail's political affiliation, is what's keeping salaries down even in the affluent Southeast: unemployment. Four years ago, people here were merrily jumping jobs in search of higher pay, and employers had to pay more to retain and attract staff; now that pressure has gone, and many here are still being paid what they were in 2007, although retail prices have risen 20% since then.
But the article rather simplistically implies that we could escape all this by moving to Northumberland - or Bolton, or Belfast, all of which have good points, no doubt, but also far fewer jobs that pay anything like £50,000.
It is - or should be - only a temporary situation, but it does highlight the danger of a thatcherite if-it-isn't-hurting-it-isn't-working approach to the economy. Without disposable income in the consumer sector there can be no recovery. Exporting our way back to growth is plainly a nonsense, unless we can discover extraterrestrial markets, so reducing unemployment has to be the priority. Sadly, no-one seems to have told this government.
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Roll on the interest rate increases, that will sort a few out!
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>> Roll on the interest rate increases, that will sort a few out!
Yes they are far too low. But I fear for those over stretched with cheap mortgages who will be forced onto SVR.
But 0.5% is way too low.
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>> >> Roll on the interest rate increases, that will sort a few out!
>>
>> Yes they are far too low. But I fear for those over stretched with cheap
>> mortgages who will be forced onto SVR.
>>
>> But 0.5% is way too low.
>>
Just checked out our deeds. When we took on our mortgage.
In 1980 our mortgage rate was F I F T E E N point F I V E %
A return to that level would cull the present younger population !!!!i
Last edited by: henry k on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 17:55
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We used to pay that as well.
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And me, no sympathy for those who have planned poorly. It is self inflicted living beyond your means.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 18:42
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I have little sympathy for those who assumed mortgage rates would remain for a long time and did not budget for the effect of a rise. Or for some reduction in equity meaning you don't qualify for the best deals.
But some of the blame again is on the lenders. When we got rid of the mortgage in 2009 we'd switched to the standard variable rate because it was the cheapest option. And we intended to downside so no point paying fees and being locked in. From when I took the mortgage on and when I got rid of it, the monthly payments had dropped about £200 because of interest rates. But if I were buying I'd assume they went back to at least the 2001 level and save the difference.
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>> It might be quite surprising to some how little a lot of northern jobs pay
>> by comparison to the same sort of occupations in the southeast anyway.
>>
Yes, but.. much as it pains me to say it, the folk working in the southeast need more pay because cost of doing just about anything, including travel to work, is much higher than elsewhere.
One rather odd flip side to this is trying to get somebody to move from the southeast to another place doing the same work - few want to move: witness the meejah types not going to Manchester.
And regarding the original question - it depends how much of the £50K you actually get to play with (you don't mean £50K in hand, do you?) and what outgoings you have..
mortgage and young children - pushing things a bit
retired and everything paid off - quite comfy...
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BUt its the North init. Its worth many sacrifices not to move up there.
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It's also worth a few sacrifices to ensure it's unattractive to southerners...
:-)
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>> It's also worth a few sacrifices to ensure it's unattractive to southerners...
>>
>> :-)
>>
All the rich people with taste live near Alderly Edge up north anyway!
I'm sure all those southerners slaving away for a better life living in a shoe box would be really annoyed to find out how much green space and how much cheaper and less congested it is up here. If you earn double the salary but the same house costs 4x as much then you're onto a loser.
Cost of living is much lower up here. Much easier to live rather than work to pay a massive mortgage on a house you're not even in all that much as you're always at work!
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>> >> It's also worth a few sacrifices to ensure it's unattractive to southerners...
>> >>
>> >> :-)
>> >>
>>
>> All the rich people with taste live near Alderly Edge up north anyway!
No, thats where all the Man Utd players move to, so make that rich with NO taste.
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It depends on how you've set yourself up and how stretched you are.
I can't imagine that R36 Passat on the driveway in Surrey is cheap to run and I doubt there is a big queue lining up to pay anything like market value for one. They probably won't be able to get out of it for a few years if it is a privately owned and funded car.
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>> It depends on how you've set yourself up and how stretched you are.
>>
>> I can't imagine that R36 Passat on the driveway in Surrey is cheap to run
>> and I doubt there is a big queue lining up to pay anything like market
>> value for one.
We dont buy cars down here, company cars my old fruit.
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>> We dont buy cars down here, company cars my old fruit.
>>
We don't know what % of the £50k the R36 driver earns but the company car tax on a list print of almost £35k car is going to smart a bit I should imagine.
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cheaper than buying it brand new and changing it every three years.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 11 Jul 11 at 20:08
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Something not adding up here.
How has a couple with a joint income of £50k got a £600k house?
It's been some time since I had a mortgage but I thought you were limited to something like three times your income.
I realise there may have been external money come into the deal and we don't know how many years the family have been in the house but at that valuation would mean a deposit of around nine times the annual gross salary. Even if the house was bought for half the current valuation that is still six times the current joint income.
Incredible ! and not something I would feel very comfortable about taking on.
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>> Incredible ! and not something I would feel very comfortable about taking on.
>>
I refer you to my 19:30 post. :-)
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>> I refer you to my 19:30 post. :-)
>>
That ON is going to sort loads out and is a whole new ball game.
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at one time it was possible to get 100% mortgages on 4 or 5 times joint income, more if you "self certified" your earnings.
At one time it was also possible to get a 100% profit on your old home. easy to move up to a 600k home.
Its not going to be easy when his cheap mortgage disappears tho. I dont say it in the same spiteful and gloating manner that someone else does, because when it happens there are going to be a lot of families in trouble, and that means trouble for us all, including the smirking & gloating types.
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I'll smirk and gloat all I like, the financial disasters caused by overstretched mortgages, car loans, and maxed out credit cards when the interest rates go up are self inflicted.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 11 Jul 11 at 20:34
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I'm not laughing or gloating about this, it is not what is intended at all.
As you say there is going to be some serious fallout from this situation and not something you would wish on anyone wherever they may be located.
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>> How has a couple with a joint income of £50k got a £600k house? <<
If you read the article, it states the house is WORTH app £600k, it didnt say their mortgage was for that amount. When my parents moved from Sussex, their house was worth £180k in 2002, their mortgage was £40k because they bought it 15 years earlier.
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If you read my comment I tried to qualify it by saying we don't know how much the property was bought for, how long the family have been there or what the deposit was.
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>>If you read my comment I tried to qualify it <<
I know you did, but your question was faulty because it seems quite likely they didnt buy a £600k house at all, the question is and of course the info hasnt been provided in the article ( wheres a phone hacker when you need them... ), is whats their mortgage amount, that would be the right question. :-)
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>> We dont buy cars down here, company cars my old fruit.
There are plenty of us who buy our own and pay parking plus season on top. My own travel is bordering on exceptional but £2500 for a season (out of taxed income) will let you live about as far as Hemel Hempstead.
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>> >> We dont buy cars down here, company cars my old fruit.
>>
>> There are plenty of us who buy our own and pay parking plus season on
>> top. My own travel is bordering on exceptional but £2500 for a season (out of
>> taxed income) will let you live about as far as Hemel Hempstead.
You dont live down south, your a midlander.
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>> You dont live down south, your a midlander.
Settled in Northampton since 1990 but by birth I'm a northener. You can still hear the West Riding when I speak.
Working in London I see this from the southern perspective. I could certainly live on £10k less if I worked locally. I've loooked at postings here but there's very lile except generic office manager posts. The trouble then is the next one, certainly on promotion, would mean going back to London.
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I've been lucky enough to have had some jobs and occupations which paid quite well. I've also been very close to the financial edge more than once. What I've never had is a fixed income, always performance related to a large extent and when I was self-employed fully so. I simply have never known what I'll earn next year. Half of this year? Maybe. A quarter? Possibly. Nothing? it could happen. Double? Might do. I've got a job now which pays what some would regard as quite a lot but it won't last. Nature of the business.
Having a few quid certainly helps to ease things along but it certainly isn't everything. Some of our happiest years were also by coincidence the leanest. It doesn't scare me to have to be careful, you can do quite well on very little if you have to. Makes you sharper in some ways.
I know it's possibly glib to say so but I really do believe you largely make your own luck in this life but also have to accept that sometimes the cards don't play your way. If you can control something it's worth worrying about it but if you can't influence a situation you just have to deal with it and get on with things. No one can change yesterday but everyone can change tomorrow. Especially if you start today.
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Is 50K really what people aim for these days? Sounds a bit shy to me.
I noticed the range topping passat on the drive. Also noticed that they claim to have not had a holiday to pay for the new carpet in the lounge......only in the pics they have a wooden floor....
I though the 50K for the couple in the south didnt sound right - Area sales manger and a ocupational therapist on 50K combined?????? Would have expected a decent area sales manager to be pulling in the 50K + on his own
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Does that mean it will be in the Express tomorrow, the house in the North valued at 150k and Surrey 750k ? :-)
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>> Does that mean it will be in the Express tomorrow,
>>
Perhaps..... but it won't be in the News of the World on Sunday!
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Well, I wasn't going to say that Mikey for fear of upsetting any apple carts but while it would be greatly influenced by which industry the guy works in, but an area sales manager earning less than 50k probably isn't very good at it...
:-)
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>> Well, I wasn't going to say that Mikey for fear of upsetting any apple carts
>> but while it would be greatly influenced by which industry the guy works in, but
>> an area sales manager earning less than 50k probably isn't very good at it...
>>
>> :-)
>>
Said he works in the construction industry, so I wonder if they failed to point out that his income had dropped. Cant see that this all hangs together to well - likely to be a company car, and if he wasnt very good I doubt that he would have been entitled to that model of passat
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Also just noticed that the couple down South have what looks to be a nice size 4 bed detached, whereas up North they have what appears to be a 70's semi.
A more interesting figure may have been the families net worth
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if she was a part time occie, she would be on 15-18k. leaves him as sales manager earning 32-35k. your right, it dont fit.
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>> Is £50K a year enough to live on?
Of course it is but not enough to have a nice house down south and a nice comfortable living I would think.
There's got to be quite a few on here earning £50k or more (with benefits) as individuals on this forum I would think. And some on a lot less.
I don't but come close(ish) with the car. And probably could earn more but there's more important things to life than working on the projects that get all the brownie points and promotion. Followed by all the crap you then have to deal with. Better to be comfortable in life and mortgage free I say.
Does anyone know where Cameron was in Canary Wharf this afternoon though.... I saw a lot more police and also some sniffer dogs at 4pm.
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The couple down south used to go on three holidays a year with the children - 15 and 17 years old. Well they aren't going to want to go on holiday with the parents now. And the parents probably won't leave them when they go away. The carpet in the lounge was ruined and now they are down to a wooden floor ;-)
Doesn't add up though if I am serious again.
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>>Does anyone know where Cameron was in Canary Wharf this afternoon though.... I saw a lot more police and also some sniffer dogs at 4pm.>>
I saw him live on Sky News at that time talking about the NoW, the takeover bid etc.
As for living in the north, surely it's far better to earn a bit (lot) less but be content in your world rather than trying to impress those who probably couldn't care less anyway?
The pace of life in the north, apart from the fact that we are far more friendly and sociable, is considerably less stress producing than the hectic shenanigans of the south...:-)
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For the last 10 years I've managed to earn enough and work mostly from/in the north. Either our offices in say a 30-40 mile radius or even home. I could have worked on high profile accounts and been away all week and every week. And probably had to travel a bit in my time to get there/back. No thanks :-)
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>> As for living in the north, surely it's far better to earn a bit (lot)
>> less but be content in your world rather than trying to impress those who probably
>> couldn't care less anyway?
>>
>> The pace of life in the north, apart from the fact that we are far
>> more friendly and sociable, is considerably less stress producing than the hectic shenanigans of the
>> south...:-)
>>
Ditto for West Wales. But don't encourage them Stuartii, they'll be down here in their hordes before you know it, putting up their leylandii hedges, installing their electric gates, complaining about the cow****, the cockerels and the hunt and telling all their friends how wonderful life is in the countryside. ;-)
Keep it grim; it keeps them out!
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Oh it's really grim on Anglesey as well horrible, we have to cart water in in buckets, the roads never get repaired. And Waitrose don't deliver ;-)
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>> And Waitrose don't deliver
What about Ocado? :-)
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>> Ditto for West Wales. But don't encourage them Stuartii, they'll be down here in their hordes before you know it, putting up their leylandii hedges, installing their electric gates, complaining about the cow****, the cockerels and the hunt and telling all their friends how wonderful life is in the countryside. ;-)
Keep it grim; it keeps them out!>>
Oh it's grim alright. The worse part is having to exist on fried bread, cheap Asda/Lidl tins of baked beans and peering through dimly lit pub windows wishing you could afford a half-pint of mild slops.
But there are benefits. Most towns have several soup kitchens, supermarkets give away their out of date stock that hasn't attracted interest on the Reduced counter and senior citizens who've been hard pressed to save up to manage in their old age can enjoy a free meal at least once a week thanks to various charities.
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>I don't but come close(ish) with the car.
If you're in Canary Wharf, that surprises me.
About 10 yrs ago a young AIX sysadmin who reported to me accepted a job offer of £60K + benefits in Canary Wharf.
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I was visiting a customer site and will mostly do the work from home ;-) in the north west. I don't work in Canary Wharf. Got the outbound ticket down to less than £60 today though. £139 for the return leg. £6.60 for the underground. All expensed of course but someone is paying it.
Could I be on £70-80k now if I set out to achieve that ten years ago. Easily. But I've enjoyed the last ten years mostly working from/near home :-)
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 11 Jul 11 at 23:14
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>> >I don't but come close(ish) with the car.
>>
>> If you're in Canary Wharf, that surprises me.
>>
>> About 10 yrs ago a young AIX sysadmin who reported to me accepted a job
>> offer of £60K + benefits in Canary Wharf.
Yeah, int he days of Y2K, big bang, banking consolidation, and the dot com boom you could write your own Solaris pay cheque.
The banking money has dipped a bit since then.
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It was in the 4 years from joining the company I more than doubled my salary... increases slowed after that because I chose project close to home. :-)
In real terms my salary must have gone down in the last year or two - lucky to get 2% or thereabouts plus bonuses. I am glad the mortgage is gone.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 11 Jul 11 at 23:34
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>>About 10 yrs ago a young AIX sysadmin who reported to me accepted a job offer of £60K + benefits in Canary Wharf.>>
Surely all relative. Living expenses would have equalled or even surpassed those in the frozen north?
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My take on working down south on projects is - I would not be home with family etc and give up on a personal life. We don't go out much to eat but I enjoy cooking and do most (all?) of the food shop too. Work on a southern project and that goes out of the window. So I might as well contract and earn triple the money.
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To all the dodgy Southerners on here - what DOES make the South a good area to live in? I can only think of negatives, to be honest.
- Arid
- Expensive
- Congested
- Unfriendly
- Expensive
- REALLY expensive
- Requires a trip into London for anything vaguely interesting
- No hills
- No national parks
- Crap access to the South West
- Crap airports
- Nasty soft water which makes rubbish tea and leaves white scale inside my kettle
- Everyone speaks funny (OK, you might be able to claim that up here, too)
- Useless transport links to the South West (look children, the A303 again!)
- Overcrowded trains
- Phenomenally expensive public transport
- A public transport network (cough TUBE cough) that stops running at midnight despite the drivers earning more than me.
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>> To all the dodgy Southerners on here - what DOES make the South a good
>> area to live in? I can only think of negatives, to be honest.
>>
>> - Arid
Pleasantly warm and dry, not dank dark and wet like t'north
>> - Expensive
Exclusive
>> - Congested
Lively
>> - Unfriendly
Only to Northerners
>> - Expensive
Exclusive
>> - REALLY expensive
Really exclusive
>> - Requires a trip into London for anything vaguely interesting
But London is REALLY interesting, and I can be there in 35 minutes,
>> - No hills
Except the Chilterns, the North Downs and the South downs,
>> - No national parks
The South Downs and the Surrey hills, both national parks and both SSIs
>> - Crap access to the South West
Better than t'north. We can be there on the M4/M5 before you even get to Droitwich,
>> - Crap airports
But they go to places other than spain.
>> - Nasty soft water which makes rubbish tea and leaves white scale inside my kettle
Yeah true, but we dont drink Tea, nasty northern drink.
>> - Everyone speaks funny (OK, you might be able to claim that up here, too)
We do
>> - Useless transport links to the South West (look children, the A303 again!)
See the M4/M5 - anyway the A303 has Stonehenge. We were practising religion while you lot were still eating your babies.
>> - Overcrowded trains
Most of us work at home now, we get good internet access you see,
>> - Phenomenally expensive public transport
Work at home and we get company cars
>> - A public transport network (cough TUBE cough) that stops running at midnight despite the
>> drivers earning more than me.
Please come and kidnap Bob Crowe. Yes I know he is a Londoner, but he would really fit in well up there.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 10:23
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>> >>
>> >> - Arid
>>
>> Pleasantly warm and dry, not dank dark and wet like t'north
With the pleasant house pipe bans as well.
>>
>> >> - Expensive
>>
>> Exclusive
>>
>>
>> >> - Expensive
>>
>> Exclusive
>>
>> >> - REALLY expensive
>>
>> Really exclusive
>>
I think you mean really crowded, not really exclusive.
>> >> - Crap airports
>>
>> But they go to places other than spain.
And they do round here, there just not as crap as say Gatwick or stansted or luton.
>>
>> Yeah true, but we dont drink Tea, nasty northern drink.
Yeh gads man don't say you drink that foul brown liquid aka coffee? :o :)
>> >> - Overcrowded trains
>>
>> Most of us work at home now, we get good internet access you see,
So why are the trains still so crowded?
>>
>> Please come and kidnap Bob Crowe. Yes I know he is a Londoner, but he
>> would really fit in well up there.
>>
No really you can keep him!
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It's enough to live on, of course. But it isn't the comfortable, plush lifestyle that a figure like this would have been traditionally associated with, particularly if you are the sole earner and you have a family. And that's before the government take away child benefit next year, something which two people earning £25k each, or my self employed neighbour whose wife is on the payroll and "earns" half his salary on paper will not suffer.
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>> Arid, Expensive, Congested <<
Perhaps.
>> Unfriendly <<
Maybe because I was a local, I never found the place unfriendly, infact it is easily more friendly than anywhere in the Lake District that I went to which was depression personified, id rather holiday in Surrey than the lakes on that basis.
>>Requires a trip into London for anything vaguely interesting<<
Depends what interests you really doesnt it?
>>No hills, No national parks <<
No mountains you mean. South Downs arent exactly flat and if memory serves me, have recently become some kind of National Park?
I wouldnt say the south in general is a bad place although if they flattened most of London I shant be found crying, loathsome place.
Im no big fan of the south east, but I wouldnt go so far to say its all bad either, although ive never felt happier than when Im west of Taunton.
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Yeah, thats reading, where the people who only get 50k a year live.
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Rats are no respecters of income.
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They are down here.
Poor people get rats, we get wildlife.
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>>Is £50K a year enough to live on?
Depends what you want to do with it. If you're in a Council House try this (ex)one www.southwark.gov.uk/directory_record/3467/desenfans_road/category/82/houses )and paying a pittance a month for it, and you send children to state schools or don't have any, and don't need a car - and get free public transport because you have a "disability" then it's shed loads.
If you work in London, didn't buy a house a few years ago, have children that you want to send to fee-paying schools and have to pay to commute then it's a pittance - even without skiing holidays, riding lessons and fast cars.
Like others I don't get how the Surrey couple earn so little.
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The question makes no sense,for some people 100 grand isn't enough others manage on 15000 thousand or less and have to.
Most inportant to me,good wife roof over my head quality food and a warm bed to sleep in.;)
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Of course it is enough to live on... you do not need a huge house and garden or pony for the kids to be happy and contented . Material possessions are irrelevant.
I earn in excess of £50K per annum .
SWMBO works full time and earns a good salary as well , above the national average but it is in the public sector and the future of her job is dicey so we remain prudent with our money.
We are well off by a lot of peoples standards but when SWMBO was in intensive care in hospital last year it brought home what the important things in my life are - and money is way down the list.......
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when SWMBO was in
>> intensive care in hospital last year it brought home what the important things in my
>> life are - and money is way down the list.......
>>
>>
Quite. There's a world of difference between standard of living and quality of life. Too many people seem to think that a posh house in a so-called "exclusive" area (which all too often is nothing of the sort) is the be-all and end-all of everything.
When I first moved down to Carmarthenshire, all my mates in the Midlands reckoned I was off to the back of beyond. I am two miles from a railway station with direct services to Paddington, an hour's drive from a decent international airport in Cardiff, and a hundred yards from the main road which is dual carriageway then motorway all the way to England and beyond. Main road surfaces in Wales are inevitably vastly superior to those in England.
Carmarthen itself offers a pretty comprehensive range of facilities, and what I can't get there I can get in Swansea if t'internet cannot provide. I have a two mile commute; wifey's is less than that.
Oh, and I'm only seven miles from one of the loveliest coastlines in the UK.
Sunny sarf? Yer can keep it! ;-)
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I couldn't agree more HM, 90 minutes from Manchester Airport - plenty of venues for the gigs we want, decent views all year round. Mind you the "invasion" starts again this coming weekend...:-)
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Lot of Welsh round there though. Odd coves. Seaweed eaters and suchlike. Some of them can sing a bit in fairness and they've turned out an odd half decent Rugby player but even so...
:-)
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odd half decent Rugby player but even so...
Probably double what Alba has managed !
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Aye, but things tend to lean more to the cerebral there. Plate full of seaweed for lunch providing the fuel for the flatulence and a chip on both shoulders to get the attitude tuned just right is bound to give the edge in the loose ruck.
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>> odd half decent Rugby player but even so...
>>
>>
>> Probably double what Alba has managed !
>>
Or probably not.
In 111 international championship competitions, England have won 26 times; more than any other nation. England have won the Grand Slam more times than any other nation.
England have won The World Cup, which, try as I might, I can't recall Wales winning.
Pah!
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With 20-30 times the population that's not an outstanding record.
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Same here, international airports at 20 and 60 minutes, Edinburgh, Perth, and Stirling 30 minutes, Glasgow, Dundee, and St Andrews within 60 minutes. All at our average journey speed of a mile a minute. Who needs London?
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If you carry on ON, you may even convince yourself.
The rest of us are not fooled.
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>> The rest of us are not fooled.
>>
Good, I know who has the better quality of life.
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I know what you mean ON, I really do, but it's the fleeces...It's just not on is it? Especially when large women wear them with leggings.
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Granted, but I have seen some of the London street fashion, distinctly odd. :-)
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>> Granted, but I have seen some of the London street fashion, distinctly odd. :-)
>>
Yes, but they are all Northerners down for t'day ;-)
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The only reason you are there is because that's where your last U Boat dropped you off and you didn't have the train fare home.
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Oh I forgot, the rail station and the (free) bus stop is four minutes walk. :-)
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Free prescriptions as well for everyone ON ?
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>> Free prescriptions as well for everyone ON ?
>>
Yes, but I've had them since I was 60.
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Free Bus? Oh yes, thats the thing where the seats smell of pee.
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>> Free Bus? Oh yes, thats the thing where the seats smell of pee.
>>
No, that's London buses. Ours are newish and always clean and many have free WiFi.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 22:16
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Another bus related quality of life facility we have is a free park and ride where we can leave our cars and get a 24 hour bus to the airport, all you have to do is inform the staff how long the car will be there. I don't and park at the airport, but many use the free parking for holidays etc.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 22:31
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>> we have is a free park and ride
>> where we can leave our cars and get a 24 hour bus to the airport,
>> all you have to do is inform the staff how long the car will be there.
>>
That's so they can tell their sprogs how long they have to rob your car.....
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Speaking as a born and bred Northumbrian who has lived in the south for 44 years ....
You need to understand your priorities in life .......
......both areas have much to recommend them and both areas have much to put people off as per the posts above.
Of course in both areas it is definitely better to be earning £50 k than living on the dole but you cannot relate happiness to money... I cite J Paul Getty as an example.
The happiest couple I know live in Crete with their two kids on a pittance, he works when he can in the vineyards and she cooks and cleans in the local taverna from morning to night....but they are always smiling and friendly and at ease with their life....
I envy them sometimes when the pressures of work build up ....
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>> >> The happiest couple I know live in Crete with their two kids on a pittance,
>> he works when he can in the vineyards and she cooks and cleans in the
>> local taverna from morning to night....but they are always smiling and friendly and at ease
>> with their life....
>>
>> I envy them sometimes when the pressures of work build up ....
>>
Yes, but is it because it is Crete, or is it because they have a positive outlook on life and would be happy most places in the world?
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Or are they just being nice when you are there because you are guests?
I am pretty sure she is not happy cooking and cleaning for naff all for 14 hours a day.
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>>>or is it because they have a positive outlook on life and would be happy most places in the world?
Spot on Duncan... we're OK wherever we are. It doesn't take a particular place to make us content... we make the place rather than vice versa.
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Yes, but is it because it is Crete, or is it because they have a positive outlook on life and would be happy most places in the world? ....
Definitely a positive outlook...... they actually moved to Crete from Albania to improve their lot .......I think that their family values and being part of a community where everyone knows and helps each other is part of their happiness as well.
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Bucolic happiness; the struggling but perpetually happy peasant.
You're not related to Marie Antoinette, are you ileh? At least Alexander II gave the serfs their freedom!
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I'm with you ON... I was brought up on the Isle of Wight, Uni in Manchester, graduate job in Reading. Couldn't wait to leave - managed nearly 3 years then upped sticks and moved to Lanark. Bought a 3-bed detached cottage for same price as I sold a 1 bed flat for. Regular vists down south to the in-laws, every time I go I want to go back less and less. What's not to like up here *
* oh look, it's raining again....!
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>> * oh look, it's raining again....!
That is pretty much the problem living here, rain. On a sunny day you can keep Spain, France and even some parts of Italy, certainly any parts of the south of the UK i've visited so far. I'd rather be out galavanting on the west coast of Scotland.
That damned rain annoys me something terrible though, and it's a deal breaker for me :-(
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Rain, its liquid sunshine! No rain and you live in a desert and have hosepipe bans.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 13 Jul 11 at 13:51
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>> its liquid sunshine!
Bet you've had a drop of that in your time, ON...
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It's not easy - even with no mortgage and being retired - to live on £15K per annum. (A modest lifestyle & running a ten year old car).
I can assert this from our current circumstances!
(Current financial dilemma - should we tax our car for 6 months or 12 months to save the nineteen quid extra for two payments, balanced with cash flow needs?)
Last edited by: Roger on Wed 13 Jul 11 at 22:27
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I understand where you coming from Roger.There will be lots of people worried about the bills this winter coming for heating their homes.
Money isn't the end and be all but I think in this country there should be more help for retired people.
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>> One of the reasons I live in the north is because my money goes much further
But wages in up North are not good either. Around London £50k salary (individual not family income) is not uncommon and many Tom, Dick, Harry get it, but once you go past Milton Keynes it is very difficult to get those sort of range (doing same job).
The wage falls exponentially (not linearly) further you move away from London. Now whether that is good or bad thing is a different matter.
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...The wage falls exponentially (not linearly) further you move away from London...
Too much of a generalisation, so here's another. :)
The wages for many occupations are similar, shop work is one example.
In my game, the staffers on the nationals earn more than I do, but the premium is nowhere near enough to make up for the increased cost of living, particularly accommodation.
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Iffy, I'm not sure why you think that your generalisation makes movilogo's generalisation untrue.
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Is £50K a year enough to live on? - Stuu
