I try to spend about about 15 weeks a year on holiday…. In answer to the OP….what steals my income. All my choice, I could change the situation if I choose too -the yacht. See above for the 15 weeks. Worse financial decision ever…horrifically costly but I love it! -school fees -cars -nights out. I do love interesting & new restaurants. I don’t expect any sympathy lol
Went to Tom Kerridge's The Hand and Flower for a meal and night away. Great food and service, but not sure I could justify the price tag often even given that quality.
Bigg Market nights out, currently saving from my first corporate job (I’m much younger than you lot) to go see my mrs whilst she’s in Kyoto for a year. If anyone has been out to Japan and has any recommendations etc I’d love to hear them
Not me, as my missis can’t drive, I’ve had to do all the usual mum stuff. School runs, groups and clubs, birthday parties etc. Definitely don’t regret not spending more time at work
I see a lot of posts saying that it’s all about the kids & grandkids, where the money’s spent. For me, I have no kids, never wanted them, luckily the wife is the same. I enjoy what I can, when I can. When I was younger, I thought I’d have kids, but I’m so glad I never, the world is a **** tip now, more people born than die every day, it’ll turn eventually, a war to wipe out a huge amount of the population, or natural disaster. Movies suggest the solution to problems sometimes, I think Thanos had the solution in Avengers Infinity War.
I was very aware of the work/life balance when my kids were little so I'd often turn down weekend overtime to make sure I spent the whole weekend with them and I could take them both to City in the 90's even though we were **** then, we had a fair size mortgage but we'd just have one car between us and holiday abroad every other year, we enjoyed uk holidays just as much anyway. When our disposable income finally increased and my wife went back full time I started doing extra pension AVC's and over payments on the mortgage so was mortgage free when VR came up at work, the long downsizing of BAE Brough gave me plenty of time to prepare and I'm now happily early retired, time rich and just starting on our grandparenting journey. When you have a young family you don't need the new car and the massive house, your kids foremost need their Dad to be around, I'd learnt this lesson from never really spending quality time with my own Dad, never a football afternoon together, cars and holidays can come later and they do, no regrets here, being time rich is more important than being cash rich.
Absolutely. I think there is this toxic culture here where ‘grafting’ is seen as something to be proud of. And I don’t mean working hard for your normal 40 hours but doing 12-13 hour days and weekends making lots of money for your boss to buy a new Porsche with. The wealthier the person and the bigger the salary the worse they tend to be in my experience, like people are just addicted to money.
Spare money at the moment is going on over payments on the mortgage, got just over 2 years til my fixed rate ends, trying to get it down as much as poss to soften the expected hike in payments that are looming
I always saw overtime as a recognition of your effort during your working week.If you worked for your money you were asked if you wanted a Sat/Sun at an enhanced rate of pay. Nowadays it's mostly at straight rate(a lot of Companies have adopted this form of robbery) and it's whoever can stick their head the furthest up a gaffers rear-end,hence the reason I no longer partake. I don't go with the 'Porsche' theory as I'm only interested what goes into my bank account on a Friday,not his.
I spent a lot of time at work also but didn't really have much choice being self employed in a Brickie gang and missus only casual work . My dad was a long distance lorry driver and was away all week and he said he regretted all the time he spent away when we where young when we went out one afternoon. I said don't worry dad it was ****ing great we got away with a lot more
You may be a spoof poster but I'll answer you for once, grafting isn't toxic within a work/life, good provider/good Dad balance, but being a greedy bast*rd is. I knew people who had kids and yet grabbed all the overtime they could, bought themselves new cars then drove their wife and kids to caravans, dumped them off for a week, worked the week, then took their holidays at the end of the year when their kids were at school, basically never spent anytime with them! Not totally about cash wealth though as high earners can be amazing Dad's and provide brilliant childhoods, everyone gets the same hours in a week.
I have known one or two like that, friends parents when growing up. But that wasn’t my point. More that there’s this sort of toxic culture in this country where doing loads of hours is seen as this great social badge of honour that you’re a grafter that everyone should strive to. Particularly when a lot of it is just down to companies trying to stretch their workforce as far as possible and keep their costs down so the bosses can pocket more.
