mikel

5 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

 

The BOE are bailing out industries to the tune of many millions, while telling workers not to ask for a pay rise...

And propping up the £ on a daily basis. 

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

My working life took over everything in my life. I gave up bands and other hobbies because i simply didnt have the time. I was working ridiculous hours many of which were unpaid and i never got those hours back. I cancelled weddings i was invited to, come  back early from holidays or went straight to work as soon as i dropped my cases off at the house, i was continually called at all hrs of the day and night incl weekends and even while on holiday. 

My worst period was working continuously for 39hrs over a weekend. I worked for 11 weeks without a day off and only got a break because i was taking 2 weeks holidays abroad.

When i got the chance to take early retirement at 55 with 40 yrs service and voluntary redundancy meaning no penalties on my pension it was a no brainer. Good pension meant my wife was able to stop working as a graphic designer at age 50.

Since retiring i've realised how much i've missed over the years, the simple things like time together, spending Xmas day with my wife without work calling me, enjoying holidays, going for that coffee as and when i choose and of course playing in 2 different style of bands.

If i had to do it all over again i probably would have taken a different view on life and what it means. That's hindsight tho.

Dave 

Don't ever apologise for early retirement. If you flogged yourself for 40 years at the expense of everything else, then enjoy it. I only ever worked to pay for the things I like, never more than a job, and I could leave it behind every night. Swings and roundabouts I suppose. I have, and am still having, a great and varied life, but without a big pension. 

As for weight and fret spacing. Plenty of lighter basses out there, and semi or hollow body models. And short scale for smaller hands. I only mention as I am a bloke but vertically challenged, and I have small hands so I can empathise. 

12 minutes ago, Tim2291 said:

From what you have said above, you are a successful person, you have found the things that make you happy.

 

I'm nowhere near retirement (35 plus years away) but have thankfully already realised this! The world is full of shiny new things that are well advertised to make people think they "need" them. The more money people earn, the more they spend on pointless things that don't fill the emptiness in their lives and holidays to mini England resorts so they can post photos on a beach! Success is measured financially rather than on happiness and contentment. Nobody says "she's doing well, look how happy she is!"

 

I know plenty of "successful" business people who are being sustained by cocktails of antidepressants and all sorts of other drugs. For some people, a bit more money would be incredible and would increase their quality of life unimaginably. The difference between supporting a family on £15 K and £30 K for example would be extreme. But the same person then moving from £30K to £45K isn't going to have the same impact, yes it would help them retire earlier in theory, but in reality it's likely that they would take on greater overheads and end up retiring at the same point anyway!

That's why I put successful in italics. 

46 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I've finally found my perfect path in life...............retirement.

Nothing beats it. I'm my own boss, i arrange my day around me, no stress, no worries, no complaints from those above or below me.

I do have to plan when i have my coffee and that's another benefit .............. i can have coffeee whenever i like.

Dave

Agreed. I also realised the secret of contentment. Its not being wealthy or having lots of shiny new stuff, or being "Successful". It's small pleasures, like a good coffee and a pastry, learning a tricky song, Mortimer and Whitehouse, walking the dog on a frosty morning, the latest photo of my grand daughter. Its about realising that however little I have, it's enough for for me. 

1 hour ago, Nicko said:

I'm slightly confused by this notion of average salary and average house prices.

 

I bought my first house in 1992, my second in 2002 and the one I live in now in 2012 (I don't plan to move every ten years - that just how it worked out).

 

If I look at my first house - a sh1tty 2 bed one reception new build on a large housing development which was priced at £85k, there is no way that it is now worth 800% of £85k, in fact I saw it was on sale a year or so ago for around £350k - so around half the increase predicted by this chart.  My second home increased by about 80% whereas the chart suggests it should have trebled.  Similarly my current house (a pleasant 3 bed in a "posh" outer London 'burb) has increased in value by less than 100% in the last 10 years - in fact it's under offer at the moment at 160% of what I paid and that's after me spending quite a lot on replacing windows, new kitchen, bathroom, solid wood floors and so on.

 

I can only assume that the prices have increased for slightly different reasons than simple inflation.  Here are some ideas of what may have skewed the prices.

 

People my age tended to buy properties that were virtual slums in crappy areas, and worked hard to make them into homes. In some cases those areas have also been developed to make them more attractive.  The number of doer uppers seems to have dropped - probably because the BTL landlords have already bought them.  Some of the crappy areas have been deliberately gentrified  - think East London, Salford Quays, and virtually anywhere along a canal.

 

People commute further than they ever have - people living in south Hertfordshire are mostly commuting to London, earning London wages and pushing up the cost of homes beyond local salary multipliers while complaining about the price of season tickets.  Towns have expanded outwards, and town properties close to facilities tend to be more expensive than villages with no transport links.

 

We went through a period of selling off social housing at a discount (both councils and housing associations).  Those prices are included in the average, but were not market values, and when resold were sold at a gain far exceeding the average increase. My second home was one of those - the previous owner had bought it cheap and sold it to me at market price.

 

A typical family home when I was growing up was a three bed - irrespective of how many kids there were.  I'm one of four and we shared rooms (I did until I was 16 when my eldest brother moved out).  Kids these days don't seem to do that unless the parents simply can't afford to buy a larger house.  Those that can afford to buy bigger houses than we used to - more bedrooms, and an extra room for the kids to play in.

 

On the flip side, average salaries have also been skewed by an ageing workforce - people either have to or choose to work past the old retirement age, and they earn less.  Young people are more likely to go and do degrees and start work later,  My starting salary when I left school was a grand total of £2500.    However a school leaver now leaving and working a 40 hour week on minimum wage would earn nearly 7 times that amount - not an increase of less than 50% as predicted by the chart.  However, I had a career and my wages increased rapidly - especially when I changed jobs.

Yep. Lack of new build over decades. Selling off council houses at knockdown prices and not replacing them, so the private rental market booms and rents go sky high. Also, in Cities with Universities, lots of older property bought up and renovated solely for the student market. You can make a killing renting a 3 or 4 bed out to 3 or 4 students rather than one family. 

34 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Saying that property was easier to buy for boomers is not the same as blaming them for the current financial woes

We all know who to blame for the current financial woes, and its not the ordinary person, working or retired. 

23 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

Oh. You missed the unsustainable final salary schemes the Boomers had that those who followed either had closed part way through or were denied completely. 

 

Boomers may have started "poor" and got richer,  but later generations will start mediocre at best and get poorer.

Not to worry. Life expectancy is beginning to fall, so it'll even itself out in the end 😉

 

I agree,  though.  Led by Donkeys. Or maybe Ostriches.

I got "Richer" because I was always careful with the little money I earned. Never owned a new car, very few foreign holidays. At one point out mortgage interest rate hit 16%. Paid off the mortgage 7 years ago, and since then interest on my hard earned savings is laughable. Don't tell me we had it easy, or are now reaping the rewards. Swings and roundabouts. 

On 06/10/2022 at 18:09, Woodinblack said:

 

I wasn't specifically talking about housing, although there are issues there,  more education / social structures, although with housing, although it was tough with interest rates, you could actually get a mortgage, even going without carpets and curtains. I got a mortage as a junior engineer on my own salary (on a small house). that same house now, on an equivalent salary I would have no chance to get - in fact probably on my actual salary.

 

I am not blaming the people who have the houses, I am blaming years of underinvestment in not building houses, and people not really voting for that as a priority. All people ever really want to do is pay less tax and moan that there are no services any more, but that is human nature.

Don't get me started. A few pence on income tax and NI 50 years ago and we could now have a half decent state pension. It's not rocket science, if you have a baby boom, you will have a retirement boom 65 years later. Led by donkeys. 

4 minutes ago, Passinwind said:

Same here. I can walk around NAMM all day and barely even notice 95% of the FSOs. I wouldn't necessarily call them ugly though, just a bit boring. Andf as other have mentioned, safe and boring has its definite place.

 

As far as what I do like, a proper upright bass looks worlds better to me than any bass guitar ever has or ever will. No paint, no plastic...ah, so nice!

Nah, it's just a big violin. 

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Not blaming the students, blaming the governments, although the governments of the day and the people who vote them in are often the people who benifitted from those things.

OK, but I keep hearing people saying its all the fault of the baby boomers, they had it easy, cheap housing, full employment blah blah. That was then, things have changed, not better or worse, just different. Yes, I got my first mortgage in 1977, but it swallowed both of our salaries and we had no carpets, curtains or furniture. Couldn't afford a foreign holiday till 1988 and could not afford to have children. You make life choices and what to spend your money on. Whining about the past is futile, and mostly sepia tinted. 

41 minutes ago, msb said:

It’s been some years since I’ve owned a Jazz Bass , but this has been described as a Jazz on steroids.

They’re not common , but they’re out there.

After some years of looking at them for sale everywhere but Canada , finally found one in Toronto for a good price.

Now I like that. The body is upside down, but it works. Not too quirky but different. 

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

They didn't raise their prices in line, they were a government created institude made after the war to answer the problem that most people unless they were well off didn't have a chance to get to university (not just the fees, the need to work), and as such they were subsidised. That subsidy was removed in 2010, so the masters I was doing had to be abandoned, as they had to charge what they charge now. So my degree cost me 6k. Now it would cost over £20k. I would have never been able to do that, I felt guilty enough taking that much money from our income at the time.  Still, handy pensioners still have access, its a shame the 'people like me' never will.

Seems like modern life is very much about doing something, pulling the drawbridge up so the next generation don't get that oportunity and wondering why kids are moody and don't want to do anything.

 

 

Well possibly, but that is the way it was back then, can't blame the students. You could blame the government of the day for removing the funding though. Education used to be free, my wife did a librarianship degree back in the day, you need one to be a librarian, and it was free, and you got a grant. Without the grant she would not have been able to study. Apparently now we can't afford higher education, so it's become an industry. I believe employers should be training their staff, as they will benefit from it. 

5 minutes ago, Tim2291 said:

 

I think the best teachers can sometimes be those who are reluctant to be at a school, they understand that the kids don't want to be there! 

 

A lot of people I went to school with are now teachers, most of them complain non stop about it, and to be honest from what I have seen, went in to teaching as a "backup" because they couldn't get their degree to work for them in any other way! There are some incredible teachers out there who do it because they enjoy/love it and it sounds like you were one of them so well done!

 

I've been contemplated teaching bass to boost income as we have a baby on the way, but I always come to the conclusion that I don't know enough or feel that I'm not good enough! 

Go for it. If you can pass on your love for an instrument and inspire someone to play and improve, it's a gift in itself. 

3 minutes ago, Tim2291 said:

I love learning things to be honest! Hated school with a passion but always love learning new things, no matter how irrelevant it may be. What I don't understand is spending nearly £6000 a year if you aren't planning on using it for anything useful!

Don't get me wrong, I learn stuff, but more by ozmosis. I read lots of books because I enjoy them, not to learn, but you pick up stuff by default. I simply never saw the appeal of quiping in Latin or quoting Shakespeare. 

31 minutes ago, Tim2291 said:

A surprising amount of people do it for "fun" to be honest! It seems like a very pricey hobby... but then again I'm saying that on a forum for people who spend thousands on planks of wood!  

 

Agreed. I personally never felt the need to learn or study something unless I could put it to almost immediate and practical use. Hated school and acedemia. 

1 hour ago, Tim2291 said:

Yeah! I did the first 2 years part time and then decided I like punishment so did the rest full time! It is a lot of work, I have spoken to a few other engineers who have done degrees at "traditional" unis, and they have all said that the OU degree goes way further into the subjects as well! Only downside is the lack of practical work!

Respect to you. My brother did an OU degree, and masters, while working full time in quite a demanding job. He did it for "Fun" as he has always loved History. Traveling on the train to a meeting or in a hotel he would get his study stuff out and work at it, and every weekend. I was well impressed. I asked how he could work full time and study and he said "I can focus". I think he is on the autistic spectrum somewhere. 

6 hours ago, Tim2291 said:

Having known technicians in the RAF... the planes are held together by a terrifying amount of duck tape!

It's Duct tape. 

I hate basses with ridiculously long horns. Just aesthetically wrong to my eyes. 

Think It's a new chat up line "Nice amp". Fnar Fnar. 

About time. Companies trying to tie people in by using their specific charger is just wrong. 

36 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Pilots got to eat, pilots got to be told where to fly?

Pilot has to be able to trust the functioning of his aircraft, completely. Trust the mechanics or technicians. 

A friend of mine has a daughter who wanted to be a vet, really wanted to be a vet, from the age of 10. She did a work experience at 16 in the local vets practice, and hated it. Boy was he relieved, saved him 3 or 4 years of extra University bills. How we laughed. 

Try D'Addario short scale. I only use them after much trial and error. Very consistent. 

2 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

Isn't it just jealousy that you have a job that sounds infinitely more fun than some carp like corporate accounts manager or not as menial as council tax supervisor or some shtit like that?

 

My brother is a football coach for kids, and making a good living out of it. He was never more than a pub player and has a degree in history. If anyone gets sniffy about his job it's just jealousy that he can make a good living out of doing something a lot of people have a go at on a volunteering basis.

Good on him. I was an athletics coach for 10 years, all voluntary, and loved it. Quite a few times I had to put people right when I questioned their motivation and they countered with "Well you get paid to be here". Nah, athletics is based on the club system, and apart from National coaches and admin it's all volunteers.