ColinD

mortgage cleared yay; one advantage to living in a semi smaller than most 2 bed flats being built locally Now I have to pay for a car

Why can't I get of this dam treadmill.....

Question is should I get off, for if I do will the feeling of work not be even more depressing for not having a reason to go in at all

But without work, the mind will fail and then getting back on will be f'ing nails.

So is it better to be on and in for something or off and going mad /skint.

No rest anyway once house is sold we move again, so looks like I'm stuck.

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anonymouse

Yup, unfortunately a game that 99% of us have to play

I pity the poor b*ggers who've paid off etc and are too knackered (or worse ) to be able to enjoy it.

Have you thought of joining a commune ?
Whilst still maintaining Brisky, of course

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"Stupidity, if left untreated, is self-correcting." - Heinlein

devonutopia

I find work keeps the brain cells ticking over, but I'm not even really on a "treadmill" yet - got that to come.

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Jason - Only a Skoda.
Custom Fabia Bonnet Lifter Kits - £45! Click Me.
Cheesy bonnet lifter video to "raise me up" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnGECEi5Oc

See the mongrel's 260bhp Dyno Video!

auroan

I find my self getting more and more bored at work. Think I need a change or a new challenge.....

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'05 Audi A4 2.0 Tdi SE - no mods until the warrenty expires ... yeah right... interior light pack, 3 spoke mfsw.
'00 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro - Gone.... (bleeding money pit )
Audi A4 2.6 Avant (Breaking - Check out http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/auroan)

Octygone

You have got to admit it's a nice feeling having paid off the house though

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philc

We hope to pay off our mortgage in the next couple of weeks, Norwich Union providing, as our last, 26-year-old endowment finally pays out.
It'll be nice to see it off, but it's not a vast amount these days.
I've often considered what I'd do if I didn't have to work, but apart from travelling for a year or so, I've no idea!!

Phil

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faboka vrs

Not even got a mortgage yet I'm waiting for the day our loans are paid off.

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John

2004 Skoda Fabia vRS - Xenons - Heated Seats - Cruise Control - Passenger Airbag Deactivation switch - Side Airbags

Lummox

Still got 29 years on ours

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ACSC

Paid our mortgage off 2 years ago now (redundancy helped!!) not really noticed a better lifestyle as the Mrs syphons off all the extra cash into savings now and the extra cost living has incurred since then (my scooby!!)
AC

octimark

Ive got a good 20+ years left on mine and we are still in the first house. Looks like we cant afford to move up the ladder so at least the amount/term wont increase

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

04 Silver Fabia VRS & 54 Silver Octavia VRS........Skoda all the way

matchmaker

14 to go

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Alan

"Darth" - Black Magic Octavia VRS with Forge DV, BMC CDA induction kit, Milltek cat, Supersprint exhaust, Xenons, ESP, cruise, parking sensors and Kumho 225/45/17 tyres Been to Star sufficient bhp & ample lb/ft All time low - 7.8 mpg

ap0gee

I wonder what Welshy would have made of this?

FWIW, we have mortgage, car loan and two credit cards (although one was used to buy SWMBO's car) We have often had the debate that if we hadn't moved house and drove old bangers, we could probably get by on one income and so not have to pay for childcare etc, however we wouldn't live in such a nice house, have two decent, reliable cars (make that two decent, one reliable car based on recent experience - although the vRS has never actually broken down; it just thinks it's about to!) and so on.

I think even if we had gone down that route, once the next generation of Ap0gees had started school, whichever of us had given up work would end up having to do something to pass the time. I quite fancy doing as a friend of my dad's did, and have an old Triumph that I never quite manage to finish restoring...

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daiking

Quality of life is far more important than money.

However, I've been offered an opportunity with the potential for a far better quality of life. Its there on a plate, waiting but I cannot work up the courage to take it

postmanpat

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Postmanpats car Fabia vRS Zennons, ESP, autochanger, 3rd headrest, heated seats, cruise control
SWMBO Octy Mk2 vS maxidot, duel zone wotsit, cruise, parking sensors, 18" alloys

ColinD

Actually it's a viable way of getting almost 0% for a long time on non new cars.

Then use cash back cards in that operiod for say all fuel, servicing. Keep the cash, use that to pay the balance transfer fee; circa 2% in 2009 and so on.

It's good if you can manage it and keep aware of dates / timing. I can't so won't but I'm sorely tempted to try.

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ColinD

I'm on that potential wagon. Potentially all of this is irrelevent, potentially it's going to be painful as hell having burnt a lot of midnight oil from both ends for almost two years.

Hence the risk in buying a new car as a lump sum over finance, or not buying at all.

Not to mention the suffering kids of <insert any country>, moral compass way of the scale there.

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mikeSM56

7 years 1 month

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ap0gee

That's kind of it. We have now stopped chopping and changing cards because the days of free balance transfers are long gone and applying for too many cards knackers your credit rating, however the cards we use a) have an interest rate that works out about the same as the BTF anyway in the long run, and b) have an APR much lower than we could get the equivalent loan for, at current small loan interest rates.

Sure, SWMBO's car will have cost us an extra £500 or so in interest by the time it's paid off compared to paying cash for it, but that's less than £14 a month for driving a decent car now rather than taking the Welshy approach and buying a 12-year-old Fiat Coupe to run whilst saving up.

At the end of the day, like I said before, our chattals bought on credit afford us a much better quality of life than had we rented / driven bangers whilst saving up, and have you any idea how long it would take to save up enough to pay for a house!?!? We realise that credit is not 'free money' (one of the reasons behind the Credit Crunch) and budget accordingly. It's a means to an end, and one we're more than happy with...

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ap0gee

Me too (unsurprisingly! ) Don't know about your particular area of expertise or if the 'opportunity' you're describing is the same that's been handed to me on more than one occasion, but I know for a fact that I could walk into a £55-per-hour job dahn Sarff. That's over £100k per year!

If I were single, I'd have packed up and headed down there long ago, I think. But SWMBO, Ap0gee Jr and I are plenty happy enough where we are, and we don't need that kind of money - some things are more important, and it all boils down to how you define 'quality of life'...

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daiking

Fortunately that's not what I'm on about as its a non-technical completely leftfield opportunity. We'd be poor again but boy would we be free-er in many respects.

I've seen quite a few people going to Aldi but not seem to last long. I would fancy it as I think we'd re-locate which is the only way it'll work properly. I've recently seen one friend go contracting locally and after a few months he's looking for his next job as its not great there and another good friend move over your way as staff and he's been seconded elsewhere which I think he finds difficult in hiw home life. So I'm not planning on doing anything rash at the moment.

ap0gee

Must admit, I moved from quasi-contractor to staff to get the shorter hours and better benefits (and an extra £12k per year ). I also know of at least one colleague who did the full 'conversion' at the same time for much the same reason. I don't think he will have got the immediate boost to finances that I got, but he and discussed our decisions at great length at the time. Sure, I don't get to pick and choose my work, but that takes a leap of faith that I don't dare do either with a baby to support.

Of course, once I get round to filing my patent, I can just sit back and watch the 000s rack up in the old bank account!

PS: 'Aldi' - I like it!

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