Stretching your legs!

I do understand we are all financially at different stages in life but it also depends on how much you want something. In the last recession my wage was reduced by 25% and I was told don’t worry there is plenty of overtime if you want it. Who “wants” to work longer and longer for the same wage. The pension calculation also deteriorated so I put more in to keep it the same but it was a final salary so it deminished. I’m not rich but it’s also about choices. I camped out of the back of an estate car for 5 years with a mattress and top box on roof to make sure I could get away and to save money to get a Motorhome. Mattress in the back by the way and a solar bag on dash to heat water for a shower which was taken outside in between the doors. I would go back to that in a flash to be able to keep going away. When I go away I don’t spend more than when I’m at home so just running costs to find
 
Because of the virus, I seem to have reverted to what I was doing while still at work. Daydreaming, or rather, making mental plans of future trips. Norway is occupying my thoughts at present.
I’ve had plenty of experience of doing this. During the extra six years I worked, to save the money to buy and use the van, it was what I was doing most of the time. If asked, I’m sure I could have bored for England. The plan’s varied from a estate car, large SUV, Japanese import, self build. It mattered not. The travelling was the important bit.
I do realise how fortunate I am, at the moment. Still being away. Enjoying some level of freedom. Planning future trips is one of the ways I pass the time. I even started planning the trip after next. That would depend on when we’re allowed out again.
Let’s hope the vaccine I heard about today on radio 4, pans out, and we would be able to get on with our lives.
Stay safe.
 
Well a little glimmer of hope for me as yesterday I had 2 serious job enquiries. One small porch extension but the other a couple of new houses and after quoting some figures both seem eager to get on!!!!! Perhaps we may be ok and I see Rishi has now done these bounce back loans where no repayments for a year and gov do the first 12 months interest. That's fine but you've still got to pay it back whereas those grants for folk with those 2 years accounts don't need paying back!!! Where's the justice when my old mate can get a grant and me doing same job a loan!!! Arghhhhhh - suppose being up to £50k cold be a cheap loan for buying an essential California for work :rolleyes:
 
The grants may not need paying back, but they are classed as taxable income, so will need to get declared on the tax return - so not totally just free money.
 
I'm afraid this post may well upset a few but I have to write it................... It would appear from this topic that most are either retired with nice pensions or are wealthy enough to be able to even consider going away for any period of time exceeding 3 weeks! Please spare a thought for those of us who even before the virus outbreak could only take 5 weeks holiday a year but now find we might have to sell our beloved camper to survive. My wife is an NHS community nurse who reduced her hours and at the age of 60 is worn out since the virus outbreak, and since the company I used to work for went bust in April 2019, as a self-employed architectural technologist (whose work has dried up due to social distancing etc) I do not have enough accounts to get the gov. grant or UC; in other words not a penny coming in from me. Work was fine and I was hoping to retire in couple of years with the wife but now with no work and since my personal pension pot has now been slashed by around 20% I will have to continue working somehow (perhaps shelf stacking) for the next 4 years till I get gov. pension and possibly beyond. I'm one of those Rishi Sunak is unfortunately using as collateral damage! Therefore it is highly unlikely we can even consider any form of holiday for some considerable time......................I hope you understand where I am coming from - sorry but it's quite upsetting reading these posts where folk are looking at months away in Europe.
As a merchant seaman that has not had a holiday since I went to sea in 1971, I have had my seasonal leave which is nice too spend at home with my family as long as I get relieved!! For the past 6 months I have been off with stress and the company I work for thought it right too put me on SSP(statutory sick pay) as they didnt consider my stress to be genuine. I will look for work with another shipping company when this Wuhan flu ( s##t) finally sorts its self out. I am due to retire on the 7th, December, 2021, that's when I think I'll take 5 months off on the continent in MY converted van. I don't find myself privileged but I think me and the missus deserve a break, get a taste of that dream we always talked about. I don't feel hard done by. That's life! I hope i live long enough to realise MY dream.😉👍
 
Jim, I understand why you get upset by many people's ability to plan trips away, but remember things aren't always as they seem. Some on here have retired early due to serious illness, my husband being one....we decided to change our lives completely, downsized, sold as much as we could and bought a ruin in portugal to spend winters while doing it up very slowly (14yrs!!) thus saving winter fuel costs and living for today. As a nurse, I took early retirement ( lost a lot of pension, but life was more important) and we had our first van which was a builders van converted by Dave on a very small budget. It breaks my heart seeing people struggle through this crisis, my son has been furloughed till july and has just taken a 12 HR job in caring to make his money up so he can pay his rent, brother in law is having serious mental health issues and has now had to choose between SSP or going back to work against drs advice. He can't afford to live on SSP. Having lived on the edge of financial ruin when Dave was ill and not entitled to any financial help, I understand how awful it is to have such an uncertain future. Free to dream though...and sometimes the dreams happen. Hope things work out for you too!
 
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Well a little glimmer of hope for me as yesterday I had 2 serious job enquiries. One small porch extension but the other a couple of new houses and after quoting some figures both seem eager to get on!!!!! Perhaps we may be ok and I see Rishi has now done these bounce back loans where no repayments for a year and gov do the first 12 months interest. That's fine but you've still got to pay it back whereas those grants for folk with those 2 years accounts don't need paying back!!! Where's the justice when my old mate can get a grant and me doing same job a loan!!! Arghhhhhh - suppose being up to £50k cold be a cheap loan for buying an essential California for work :rolleyes:
You may get other small jobs as well... as lockdown lifts
People stuck in their houses will encourage them to make minor improvements.
Others may go for a major project rather than a move !
Suitable advertising called for (I suggest)
 
I think most retired people have worked for their pensions, we certainly have
 
Well another small job came in yesterday which might prove to be a light at the end of the tunnel - I also had a quick look at my personal pension with Scottish Widows into which I have been paying for the last 41 years - little soul destroying see it's lost nearly 19% since February this year previous to which it had been doing quite well. 4 years to gov pension so hopefully personal will improve reasonably well in that time or I'll simply have to work longer :( I know everyone's life style is different but I had worked so hard to build pension up so when we both retire (my poor knackered nurse wife still has 5 years to go) we would be able to tour around the whole UK coastline in campervan (hopefully a California) doing it in perhaps 2 - 3 month stints but perhaps this will never be........................we'll just have to wait and see which way this virus goes next!
 

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