What Would You Do In My Position?

[Midnight rider]

If my home sale ever reaches completion (just entering 9th week)! I'll be walking away with aprox £130,000 equity

My single father has offered for myself, my wife and 2 kids to rent his large home for £400 a month all in. He uses a single room as a bedroom downstairs. I think I'll take him up on the offer as we need the extra space over my currently cramped 2 bed flat. Also, as per HPC I don't think its a good time to buy and at any rate I'm not sure I want to tie myself down to another morgage at 46.

I've been working for LA for last 10 years currently earning mid 40K per annum. Looks like a job for life but is pretty souless. I've been paying in the pension since I started there.

I'm an only child with divorced and single parents who are both home owners. Both parents are approaching their 70's and have said that they will be leaving me their homes when they pass.

Anyway, I keep finding myself pondering whether its worth me working up to retirement age or whether with what I've got and what will be left to myself and family in the future that I could probally retire around 50/55.

Apparently, LA offer an option to retire from 50 onwards although I have no idea what I would get at that stage?

Of course my ingrained work ethic is telling me to keep slaving, spoil the kids and live for the next holiday. But is it all really worth it when I could be spending long periods abroad at my wife's place of birth surfing and sunning it up?

But then again what about the kids (pre school) I supose they'll need to settle at some point.

In the end I may just take a year out in a couple of years and see how we get on. I could always return to any LA later on.

So given the UK's current prospects what would you do with my current hand?

[D Vardy's Shadow]

....

So given the UK's current prospects what would you do with my current hand?

I would forget about house and job and pension and just think.

I would think "OK, I can continue to work as a Lettings Agent, but that does nothing for me, so what do I really want to do?" and I would make no changes until I had an answer and then I would go for it. If I felt like surfing about, I would not until I worked out what I wanted to do and then allow for the surfing about in the plan of getting to do what I wanted to do. Your work ethic will probably trouble you if you surf without a plan.

[Harry Monk]

Spend it. There's no point being the richest man in the graveyard.

[Bloo Loo]

local authority, 40K, can barely string together a sentence.

[cashinmattress]

What would you do in this guys position?

[50%deposit]

in your position i would spend more time having sex with your wife.

is she fit? does she go? huh? Thats what i would do.

i'll leave the rest up to your imagination.

[OMG]

I would use the opportunity to take stock, figure what you really wanted to get out of the rest of your life and then use the safety blanket of cheap rent and a bunch of cash in the bank* to re-tool and peruse that career or business opportunity you've always thought about but never got around to doing.

* or whatever investment strategy you use to retain the wealth

[Giordano Bruno]

In my experience, while working one often dreams of not having to work. But if one is not working for more than a month or two, one will often wish to be working. Because work gives a routine to one's time, a different place to go where one belongs, a sense of belonging to society. I think there's more to it than that. I think it is part of one's psychology to want to work. I think work is good for a person.

If you really do have the work ethic, then I would either keep working, or change job or career. It could be that you have some great interest that could take the place of work, like researching a book or writing or something creative. If not I think you might regret giving up work.

Just my opinion. Only you know what you want to do. If you do decide to retire, I would check that your income will be enough for your future needs.

[three pint princess]

In my experience, while working one often dreams of not having to work. But if one is not working for more than a month or two, one will often wish to be working. Because work gives a routine to one's time, a different place to go where one belongs, a sense of belonging to society. I think there's more to it than that. I think it is part of one's psychology to want to work. I think work is good for a person.

If you really do have the work ethic, then I would either keep working, or change job or career. It could be that you have some great interest that could take the place of work, like researching a book or writing or something creative. If not I think you might regret giving up work.

Just my opinion. Only you know what you want to do. If you do decide to retire, I would check that your income will be enough for your future needs.

I agree

Unless the OP has something planned there is no reason to stop working and if you are active enough to create a new career from scratch or be able

to occupy yourself fulltime then you wouldn't dream of not having to work, but more time to work.

/// Aside

Recently a friend asked me about his job options in taking redundancy cash or taking a wage cut, I advised taking the wage cut because if he was

going to find a new job he could do it then; and after a couple of months out of work if just gets harder and harder to motivate oneself.

One of the great Hollywood and TV lies is a Souless Job is a weight around us, where we all just need to break out and set ourselves free, what b ollocks.

You can break free instead of spending time watching TV, nothing is as soulless as the media.

Channel Average Weekly Viewing Hrs:min per person

ALL/ANY TV 25:45

http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyViewingSummaryOverview

[R K]

Hide your money somewhere your wife can't find it. Dreams can quickly turn into nightmares.

[Limpet]

Of course my ingrained work ethic is telling me to keep slaving, spoil the kids and live for the next holiday. But is it all really worth it when I could be spending long periods abroad at my wife's place of birth surfing and sunning it up?

But then again what about the kids (pre school) I supose they'll need to settle at some point.

The best way to treat your kids is to spend less time at work and more time with them.

[juvenal]

In my experience, while working one often dreams of not having to work. But if one is not working for more than a month or two, one will often wish to be working. Because work gives a routine to one's time, a different place to go where one belongs, a sense of belonging to society. I think there's more to it than that. I think it is part of one's psychology to want to work. I think work is good for a person.

If you really do have the work ethic, then I would either keep working, or change job or career. It could be that you have some great interest that could take the place of work, like researching a book or writing or something creative. If not I think you might regret giving up work.

Just my opinion. Only you know what you want to do. If you do decide to retire, I would check that your income will be enough for your future needs.

Very sound advice that accords with my own experience.

On the question of the two houses you hope to inherit. Nearly half a million elderly people (the majority women) are currently in residential care. This may very well happen to your mother, as women live longer. If so, that will quickly - at £400-£600 per week fees - take care of the sale proceeds of her home, unless she has very substantial cash reserves. Both parents may go this route. If so, your father's house would also be sold to pay fees. Many HPC posters have seen hoped-for inheritances eroded or disappear this way. See The Observer Cash section 15.5.09 for a very good article on this.

So you have a reduced pension to come; £135K in the bank earning £6K pa less tax. Two kids to fund (with university costs one day possibly? and maybe a free home someday. A large house you have to heat and maintain.

I don't think you can afford to retire. You ain't rich.

[ralphmalph]

Do not bank on inheriting your parents houses. If they have to go into care you may well have to sell them to fund the care (unless you are in Scotland of course).

Do not assume you can take a year of from the LA (Local Authority) and in your words "Walk into a job with another LA". UK PLC is basically bankrupt and all public services are going to be cut. A lot by labour, even more by the conservatives. So jobs in the public sector are going to get scarcer and you sound like a prime target for cutting middle manager 45K non job.

Work out what you spend every month the divide your 130K by it and that will tell you how long you can survive.

[Spark]

Your Father is reaching the age where he may need help with looking after his house, especially if it is a large, old house with a big garden. I would take up the offer as this will give you the opportunity to spend more time with him in his twilight years.

Keep working at the LA and see if you are offered voluntary redundancy over the next couple of years.

[HenryWeston]

I've been working for LA for last 10 years currently earning mid 40K per annum. Looks like a job for life but is pretty souless.

Probably not for much longer.

[Harry Monk]

in your position i would spend more time having sex with your wife.

"Sex" and "wife" are two words which really don't sit well together.

[givemethegun]

Is this a wind up?

[durhamborn]

Is this a wind up?

Of course it is.Nobody works for a LA on 40k+ and doesnt know the reduction rates on a final salary pension,do they?.If they dont then they wont miss it when the Tories turn it to "defined contribution"

[DementedTuna]

"Sex" and "wife" are two words which really don't sit well together.

There's no point being the richest man in the graveyard.

Heh, I love these little pearls of wisdom.

[eightiesgirly]

There are a lot of things in there, the first being your inheritance, as many before me have already pointed out it 'may' come to you in time. It would seem prudent not to count chickens before they are hatched.

You are planning to live with your father, he may have made the offer in good faith but it would be wise to make sure all parties involved understand what their roles will be in this arrangement, including your wife.

I love my father dearly, but I couldn't live with him full time for a host of reasons. If you gave up work you may find you have to spend a lot of time with your father, even the very best of relationships can become strained under such circumstances.

It would seem you are at an age when your job is getting a little dull. Almost all jobs come to this stage, the challange wears thin. I would make some sense to keep the secure job and find the challenge in hobbies or interests, this would also serve you well in your eventual retirement.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope it goes well for you.

edited for double negative

Edited May 24, 2009 by eightiesgirly

[three pint princess]

Spend it. There's no point being the richest man in the graveyard.

The whole hedonistic 'live for the moment' brigade are about the stupidest people any one person will meet, they often

turn up begging for money or suffering their excesses. I would class them along with children in people to take advice from.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Tom Peters

[tim123]

Do not bank on inheriting your parents houses. If they have to go into care you may well have to sell them to fund the care (unless you are in Scotland of course).

IME most parents only have to go into care because their offspring CBA to look after them.

If you do enough to help your parents through their old age, their need for expensive paid for care is minimal

tim

[kara gee]

£130k will disappear pretty qickly if you gave up work and lived off that. You and your family could live on about £12k per year if you cut back on hols etc. In the meantime, savings are dwindling. Your parents could live into their 90's (or more). I'd be worried that once I've spent up my pot, I'd be wishing them dead.

I'd agree with a previous poster and say to keep working if you like your job or look for re-training, or education to set yourself off on a different tangent. Do something you really love.

I think it's really hard not working (bizarre as that sounds) but after a year of beach/surf life, you probably will want to do something more constructive.