Are earnings too low / living costs getting too high??

Psycho Sonny said:
How so? Is a magic fairy going to come round and give everyone free homes and wage rises? If so then it's not me detached from the real world.

There is nothing you can do about rising costs or house prices. If there is then let us all know.

There is however something you can do about your own income. Moaning about it will change nothing. Doing something constructive however will. I've seen window cleaners on £40K a year for instance. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to clean windows. How many of you pay around £10 to get your windows cleaned either every other week or monthly? Also how long does it take the guy? 10-15 minutes. So he's on £40-£60 an hour which is all profit. All you need is a bucket and a bottle of fairy liquid and couple of other things. But no rather than go out and work for yourself you will await this magic fairy coming along with your free house and wage rise.

This is how the world works. If you want something you need to go out and get it nobody is going to hand it to you on a plate unless your very well connected and have an affluent family.
Click to expand...

Tell that for instance to a friend of mine who is an assistant manager in retail - already on the upper end of the pay bracket, physically unsuited to a job like window cleaning and with all due respect to them about as far as they will ever get with the skills and capabilities they have plus family, etc. situation meaning they can't dedicate the hours required to move upto store manager and struggling with rising cost of living despite having a fairly modest lifestyle (doesn't help her kid's father has pretty much skipped out of any responsiblity).
 
Psycho Sonny said:
How so? Is a magic fairy going to come round and give everyone free homes and wage rises? If so then it's not me detached from the real world.

There is nothing you can do about rising costs or house prices. If there is then let us all know.

There is however something you can do about your own income. Moaning about it will change nothing. Doing something constructive however will. I've seen window cleaners on £40K a year for instance. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to clean windows. How many of you pay around £10 to get your windows cleaned either every other week or monthly? Also how long does it take the guy? 10-15 minutes. So he's on £40-£60 an hour which is all profit. All you need is a bucket and a bottle of fairy liquid and couple of other things. But no rather than go out and work for yourself you will await this magic fairy coming along with your free house and wage rise.

This is how the world works. If you want something you need to go out and get it nobody is going to hand it to you on a plate unless your very well connected and have an affluent family.
Click to expand...

On a individual basis that's fine and it makes sense, however this is a system-wide issue that requires some major investment.

As I mentioned, personally I've altered my expectations when it comes to buying a house and we've also decided against having more than one child.

Two of my sisters are living with my dad into their late 20s/ early 30s in order to save for a flat each (one is aiming for a 30% deposit, the other isn't on much more than minimum wage).
 
jonneymendoza said:
na actually i speak in behalf of people that dont earn say more then 50k

My income is fine, i can afford a 400k place at the moment but i am on about the average wage of 28k that was mentioned earlier on this thread. Those people will struggle to buy a property at say the 300k mark.

200k is none existent! :(
Click to expand...
Any property is hard to buy regardless of how much you earn, it all depends on your lifestyle and how you manage your money. However, sometimes a little reality check needs to set it. So if buying a house in London is your dream, you'll have to accept to work more, higher salary, or buy with someone - or save, and wait until you can afford it.

I'm not suggesting the house prices are to be accepted, but there is a market out there that people are willing to pay these amounts for a home - so it keeps the prices up. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and there are plenty of people willing to pay a lot for very little property. It sucks, but I'm not sure what can be done about it.

We weren't willing to pay the house prices in London, neither were we wanting to stay in London, and accepted the commuting requirements.

grudas said:
just out of interest, what area have you bought a house in? :) I'm handing in my notice tomorrow.. leaving the job I have in paddington and moving further south, after 4.5 years, 2-3 years down the line I'm hoping to be in the market for a house..
Click to expand...

We are in Kent right on the border of Surrey, West and East Sussex. 5 min drive in each direction and we're in the 4 counties. Lovely part of the world. Lots of amazing walks, countryside lifestyle, fantastic pubs, safe, quiet, large properties with big gardens/land and still get 80mb broadband ;)
 
UTmaniac said:
I'd love to know what is planned by government for when the first batch of part rent part buy home owners reach retirement age, who own ~50% of the property, but cannot afford to pay the rent on the other portion plus the (often extortionate) monthly service charges.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why the government needs to plan anything for them - what happens now if they can't afford to pay their rent due to say losing their jobs? What happens if a retired person can't afford to pay rent in a place they're renting outright?
 
dowie said:
I'm not sure why the government needs to plan anything for them - what happens now if they can't afford to pay their rent due to say losing their jobs? What happens if a retired person can't afford to pay rent in a place they're renting outright?
Click to expand...

Are they going to cover the shortfall through Housing Benefit, to those who cannot cover the rent and service charges, until the part owner occupiers die (at which point the property is sold and the will executors share out any money after sales fees)?
 
Rroff said:
Tell that for instance to a friend of mine who is an assistant manager in retail - already on the upper end of the pay bracket, physically unsuited to a job like window cleaning and with all due respect to them about as far as they will ever get with the skills and capabilities they have plus family, etc. situation meaning they can't dedicate the hours required to move upto store manager and struggling with rising cost of living despite having a fairly modest lifestyle (doesn't help her kid's father has pretty much skipped out of any responsiblity).
Click to expand...

She could run her own shop. A franchise even. Then manage the staff without having to do any work. I'm not saying everyone needs to become a window cleaner. I'm just giving a very easy example. You could buy/rent a closed down petrol station and turn it into a car wash. Hire some polish migrants @ minimum wage and charge £4 per car. Sit back and keep an eye on them make sure they are all doing their job properly, etc. You would be raking in thousands every week.

Again nobody is going to hand your friend anything on a plate. If she wants more money then she has to go out and get it herself.

Does she have a hobby she likes? Become a Yoga instructor. Charge £5 per person per class. Have a class of 10 and that is £50 per hour.

I'm giving way too much help here. There is literally anything you or she could do.

I know 2 ex army guys who run a boot camp training session 3 times a week. They even now do package camp training holidays where you have to climb ben nevis, etc.

You could turn something you like into a job very easily and enjoy a very happy life too as you would enjoy your work 10 times more therefore put more effort into making it a success.
 
wez130 said:
I guess we're lucky because we'll move into the granny flat at my wifes parents house in Whangaparaoa whilst we save and decide whether we want to stay on the peninsula or move out to Tauranga or wherever. As a chef, $65k seems to be a decent wage and on a par with here in the UK at my level. My wife will be earning too and we should have an annual salary of about $110k between us all going well. My wife also has a kiwi saver which she's had for about 12 years with a nice little chunk in it too so she can use that straight away if we find a decent house. It's just a matter of fainding a balance of a decent job and a relatively affordable property. I worked out that if we had a joint income of $95k (underestimated), we could afford around $550k for a house, which still buys hardly anything on the peninsula, however, i'd love a renovation project.
Click to expand...

You may just want to watch those online ANZ/Westpac calculators. When we applied for a mortgage, I actually earned 95k and the gf around 70k. We had/have NO debts, no children (it matters) and around 130k (at the time) for a deposit AND her Kiwisaver which had around 24k in it. We just about got approved for a 500k loan. Not that I would ever dream of buying a house worth that much, but I did find it interesting nonetheless. Especially after the online mortgage calculators we've done practically said we qualified for a million dollar mortgage or thereabouts.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
She could run her own shop. A franchise even. Then manage the staff without having to do any work. I'm not saying everyone needs to become a window cleaner. I'm just giving a very easy example. You could buy/rent a closed down petrol station and turn it into a car wash. Hire some polish migrants @ minimum wage and charge £4 per car. Sit back and keep an eye on them make sure they are all doing their job properly, etc. You would be raking in thousands every week.

Again nobody is going to hand your friend anything on a plate. If she wants more money then she has to go out and get it herself.

Does she have a hobby she likes? Become a Yoga instructor. Charge £5 per person per class. Have a class of 10 and that is £50 per hour.

I'm giving way too much help here. There is literally anything you or she could do.

I know 2 ex army guys who run a boot camp training session 3 times a week. They even now do package camp training holidays where you have to climb ben nevis, etc.

You could turn something you like into a job very easily and enjoy a very happy life too as you would enjoy your work 10 times more therefore put more effort into making it a success.
Click to expand...

Really? to run her own shop she'd need a product to sell (and it would have to be something fairly original -as the area is fairly saturated when it comes to most small shops to the point some are having to close down due to not making enough money) and likely a lot of money and some business experience to set it up in the first place. I have no idea if she has hobbies that she is capable of turning into a job, etc. but knowing her if that was possible she'd be doing it already - she certainly isn't someone who just expects everything to come to her.

The reality is your ideas might work for some people but there is no blanket fix and a mix of circumstances and abilities and most of those ideas would barely bring in more than what she is earning now but at significant extra hassle and stress.
 
UTmaniac said:
Are they going to cover the shortfall through Housing Benefit, to those who cannot cover the rent and service charges, until the part owner occupiers die (at which point the property is sold and the will executors share out any money after sales fees)?
Click to expand...

housing benefit can cover some costs in this situation - depends on your income how much the rent/mortgage interest costs etc..

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/housing_benefit/what_is_housing_benefit

I don't think it would cover capital repayments though

I also don't see how this is too different to someone who can't afford their 100% rented accommodation any more or can't afford their conventional mortgage any more. For some situations housing benefit might not be sufficient and people will need to move out.
 
Freefaller said:
:p

I seldom go out in town for drinks so I honestly don't know if that's a lot or not. I still remember being at uni and paying around £1 but that was in the late 90s, and in the midlands so not really a fair comparison!
Click to expand...
True, we pay 48p for a Guinness these days
 
4 pun for a pint is ok ish I guess for London, not much cheaper up here in the swanky bars.

What a do like about my wages up north even after mortgage and bills are paid there is enough left to enjoy buying the materialistic things I like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom