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I ran into a bit of a quandary this week. The short version is that I've been saving up heavily for solar panelling, which under the current government is a good deal as you get paid back about three times the value of the electricity - it means people are more likely to install panels as an investment. Fair enough, I was up for that, and the cut-off was about March next year. That fell through and even if Ihad the money right now the stuff couldn't be installed until after December the 12th.
I'll not bore you with the details, but effectively I've been saving fairly heavily for a while and I have a chunk of change (not that huge - could spend it tomorrow and not notice - could get a smart phone and a computer and some car repairs that aren't urgent and see most of it go) that I now have what I recognise to be first world problem syndrome over. Sure, there are several things I could use it on, up to and including building up to what my Grandad always said of keeping three months worth of income in the bank just in case. He ... had many jobs in his lifetime.
Of two main mates I'd consider asking for advice, I'd get radically different advice. One would mostly be of the attitude of not being able to take it with you, so spend it on foreign trips and ladies of negotiable affection. Heh, Holidays and Whores, not a game you'd get from TSR etc. He has a few investments at the moment anyway, so it's fine for him. The other would be trying to attain a high score at any and every cost. Both suggestions have their good and bad points. Mix and match?
So, I'm doing the first world problem thing and thinking about this as I arrived at my parents today. My father's basically an idiot when it comes to money and they only owe seventy percent of their house as a result. He's also heavily in credit card debt and so on and so forth. The details aren't fun, but suffice it to say where money is concerned he's a moron. He's mid-sixties and still having to work. Should be retired by now.
So, I get up there and as usual their computer's going funny, but not replicating it while I'm there. As usual, he can't tell me what the messages were, and he never writes these down. As usual, I tell him to write them down as well as what he was doing - in one ear, out the other. As I'm there, he's jabbering on about how he thinks he'll just get another computer to stop the troubles he's having. With sodding what?
Oh, and they've had a bloke around to measure up for new carpets, and someone's around tomorrow to price up replacing three sealed units in their double-glazing...
Hang on a fucking minute. He was falling over himself to tell me all this. What's gone on? He then excitedly starts to show me paperwork from a bank. There was a pensions mis-selling thing a while back and the banks were forced to pay compensation for selling shit pensions. Apparently he had four things taken out with them and there's a five-figure chunk of change coming his way. It seems like he's got most of it spent already.
Granted, the carpets in question are somewhat tatty, and yes there is condensation in the sealed units in the double-glazing, but not really the sort of things you'd consider major investments if you were broke. I asked the obvious - you're going to make inroads into your debts with this, aren't you?
Let's just say that I didn't consider his reply to be satisfactory. Then he said he'd had a bad couple of weeks for work (courier driver - self-employed) and could he borrow half a grand for a few days? You know, until this money had come in.
The fuck?
I can't do as much overtime as I used to. That money is time out of my life - over a week's income on top of the ordinary work I do. Sure, I've got it and don't have plans yet, and I've lent him stuff before and got it back (eventually). Yes, I've seen the paperwork and the money's coming in in the near future, but the daft fucker can't spend it fast enough.
*sigh*
Rapscallion
I'll not bore you with the details, but effectively I've been saving fairly heavily for a while and I have a chunk of change (not that huge - could spend it tomorrow and not notice - could get a smart phone and a computer and some car repairs that aren't urgent and see most of it go) that I now have what I recognise to be first world problem syndrome over. Sure, there are several things I could use it on, up to and including building up to what my Grandad always said of keeping three months worth of income in the bank just in case. He ... had many jobs in his lifetime.
Of two main mates I'd consider asking for advice, I'd get radically different advice. One would mostly be of the attitude of not being able to take it with you, so spend it on foreign trips and ladies of negotiable affection. Heh, Holidays and Whores, not a game you'd get from TSR etc. He has a few investments at the moment anyway, so it's fine for him. The other would be trying to attain a high score at any and every cost. Both suggestions have their good and bad points. Mix and match?
So, I'm doing the first world problem thing and thinking about this as I arrived at my parents today. My father's basically an idiot when it comes to money and they only owe seventy percent of their house as a result. He's also heavily in credit card debt and so on and so forth. The details aren't fun, but suffice it to say where money is concerned he's a moron. He's mid-sixties and still having to work. Should be retired by now.
So, I get up there and as usual their computer's going funny, but not replicating it while I'm there. As usual, he can't tell me what the messages were, and he never writes these down. As usual, I tell him to write them down as well as what he was doing - in one ear, out the other. As I'm there, he's jabbering on about how he thinks he'll just get another computer to stop the troubles he's having. With sodding what?
Oh, and they've had a bloke around to measure up for new carpets, and someone's around tomorrow to price up replacing three sealed units in their double-glazing...
Hang on a fucking minute. He was falling over himself to tell me all this. What's gone on? He then excitedly starts to show me paperwork from a bank. There was a pensions mis-selling thing a while back and the banks were forced to pay compensation for selling shit pensions. Apparently he had four things taken out with them and there's a five-figure chunk of change coming his way. It seems like he's got most of it spent already.
Granted, the carpets in question are somewhat tatty, and yes there is condensation in the sealed units in the double-glazing, but not really the sort of things you'd consider major investments if you were broke. I asked the obvious - you're going to make inroads into your debts with this, aren't you?
Let's just say that I didn't consider his reply to be satisfactory. Then he said he'd had a bad couple of weeks for work (courier driver - self-employed) and could he borrow half a grand for a few days? You know, until this money had come in.
The fuck?
I can't do as much overtime as I used to. That money is time out of my life - over a week's income on top of the ordinary work I do. Sure, I've got it and don't have plans yet, and I've lent him stuff before and got it back (eventually). Yes, I've seen the paperwork and the money's coming in in the near future, but the daft fucker can't spend it fast enough.
*sigh*
Rapscallion
is that even though they're in debt...they've done some expensive repairs to their home. The most recent? They redid their family room...including new carpeting, furniture, new windows and doors. I know what that stuff costs, since my dad told me. He was a bit annoyed about it, because he knows that they're in debt...and thinks that they should be more worried about that, instead of what their family room looks like.
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