I Don't Buy...
The National Lottery tickets and haven't for many, many years. I long since gave up using the same numbers week after week as I decided the one time I perhaps forgot to buy a ticket, it would be my luck that my numbers would be successful.
I don't buy the Euro millions tickets that often either as annually that's going cost...£312. But if you are going to try and win a reasonable sum that's still the one to go for especially when it rolls over...I also just do a lucky dip, then forget the numbers...
Then again, if I save a couple of taxi rides my tickets are paid for...
If I won millions I would do a lot of good with my money charity wise and I have a few people on here I would like to share my good fortune but you know all I really would like to win is enough to tell the Government to "Stuff" their benefits and stop jumping through all the hoops I have to get it, the stress that it may be withdrawn and that I lose a roof over my head.
I don't take it because I want to, I take it because of circumstances some on here know what they are but contrary to what some who comment on my blog think, I do keep some of medical details private...
I would be happy(wouldn't we all)to win enough to be able to put my heating on when I wish, the same with electric, eat a healthy diet and if still renting as opposed to owning property to be able to pay the rent and community charge for the next say 25 years(assuming I last that long)you have to pick a figure out of thin air possibly a little longer if I need to have care in the home or go into a dreaded nursing home...so lets say 30 years(rent and community charge that would be approx £210,000)If we then say £2,000 annually for electric and gas that adds another £60,000 so we're already up to £270,000.
Now what should we add on for food and some little luxuries to make life worth living?
If the TV license remains at the same rate but allowing that when I reach 75 years age I may get it for free there's another £2,490, if I can still be bothered with the internet and phone that adds approx £10,000 so we're now talking of £282,490 and I still haven't factored in the cost of food yet nor the odd item I may have to buy when something needs replacing or repairing, possibly clothes and an odd CD or download here and there...
What's an acceptable spend on food weekly for a single person? If you did £20 a week that would come out at around £1,400 annually so that adds £42,000 so we've already reached £324,490 and finally what about paying for my care? I think I'd need probably approx £500,000 to be reasonably well off. And just maybe if I could have such an amount in savings I may get a little interest or as VQ mentioned perhaps I could invest a sum in something like Premium Bonds and hope I could win some extra cash.
I don't that there are very many ordinary people with that kind of money behind them whether they've worked all their lives or not...it's rather frightening.
On the sums I have worked out on the back of an envelope, there's not even the chance to own your own home.
That's approx £16,500 per year...
No wonder with what most jobs really pay and the expenses incurred to travel to and from the venue and other things that get added into the equation is it any wonder people still have ask for help from the state? How many earn what is always trotted out in statistics that the average wage is £26,000 annually? How much tax do you pay on that £26,000?
I don't buy the Euro millions tickets that often either as annually that's going cost...£312. But if you are going to try and win a reasonable sum that's still the one to go for especially when it rolls over...I also just do a lucky dip, then forget the numbers...
Then again, if I save a couple of taxi rides my tickets are paid for...
If I won millions I would do a lot of good with my money charity wise and I have a few people on here I would like to share my good fortune but you know all I really would like to win is enough to tell the Government to "Stuff" their benefits and stop jumping through all the hoops I have to get it, the stress that it may be withdrawn and that I lose a roof over my head.
I don't take it because I want to, I take it because of circumstances some on here know what they are but contrary to what some who comment on my blog think, I do keep some of medical details private...
I would be happy(wouldn't we all)to win enough to be able to put my heating on when I wish, the same with electric, eat a healthy diet and if still renting as opposed to owning property to be able to pay the rent and community charge for the next say 25 years(assuming I last that long)you have to pick a figure out of thin air possibly a little longer if I need to have care in the home or go into a dreaded nursing home...so lets say 30 years(rent and community charge that would be approx £210,000)If we then say £2,000 annually for electric and gas that adds another £60,000 so we're already up to £270,000.
Now what should we add on for food and some little luxuries to make life worth living?
If the TV license remains at the same rate but allowing that when I reach 75 years age I may get it for free there's another £2,490, if I can still be bothered with the internet and phone that adds approx £10,000 so we're now talking of £282,490 and I still haven't factored in the cost of food yet nor the odd item I may have to buy when something needs replacing or repairing, possibly clothes and an odd CD or download here and there...
What's an acceptable spend on food weekly for a single person? If you did £20 a week that would come out at around £1,400 annually so that adds £42,000 so we've already reached £324,490 and finally what about paying for my care? I think I'd need probably approx £500,000 to be reasonably well off. And just maybe if I could have such an amount in savings I may get a little interest or as VQ mentioned perhaps I could invest a sum in something like Premium Bonds and hope I could win some extra cash.
I don't that there are very many ordinary people with that kind of money behind them whether they've worked all their lives or not...it's rather frightening.
On the sums I have worked out on the back of an envelope, there's not even the chance to own your own home.
That's approx £16,500 per year...
No wonder with what most jobs really pay and the expenses incurred to travel to and from the venue and other things that get added into the equation is it any wonder people still have ask for help from the state? How many earn what is always trotted out in statistics that the average wage is £26,000 annually? How much tax do you pay on that £26,000?
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 1:16 pm
21 Comments:
Good day Anthony!
I have always tried to save for a rainy day, the problem is when rainy days come along too often!!
Keeping cars on the road (essential for work), dental bills (not too long ago had to pay £3,500 if I did not want to be toothless!)and other myriad expenses (none of them luxuries) - I am more or less wiped out.
Actually we replaced our old ginormous tv not long ago as it was going all funny and we purchased a flat screen (wahey) for £179.99 from Tesco. I expect they are so cheap as the smart ones are all coming in. All tools of B Brother IMO and not something I want in my house.
I am currently trying to live in the moment as thinking of the future sends you crazy. Not always easy.
Hope you enjoy the celebrations Anthony. I am not interested I'm afraid, not in that, the Olympics (grrr) or Euro 2012. Will try and get into some good book or get on with house tasks. I am just glad to be home. Love being at home.
Cx
Anthony, have you ever been employed for salary/wages and for how long, before you came too ill to worK?
What qualifications, if any, did you leave school with and where would you seek employment if you were able or wanted to?
So many nosy questions but ones I am sure you'd answer.
Nick of Kent - where's it's warmer but crowded
What would I do if I won a million? I'd pay off my sons' mortgages and buy a little, two bedroomed cottage somewhere near to a bus stop. It would have to have a working, open fireplace so that I could sit in front of a blazing fire in Winter and a patch of garden at the rear so that I could watch the birds and grow a few flowers.
Not too much to ask, is it?
Unfortunately, to win the lottery, I'd have to start buying ticket but, you never know, I might just win a million on the premium bonds. Someone's got to.
I worked virtually as soon as I finished school. Then circumstances changed everything. Dad took ill and I was needed to care for him. The employer was awkward so I had to resign. He was terminally ill...
Over the years I did an odd job here and there, attended all the work programmes various Governments made you attend to get your "Dole"
I did do some evening classes at the local technical college...
Placements and so on...
I did ok at school but the qualifications after 34 years mean nothing nor do the qualifications obtained in IT 20+ years ago...
I became ill in 1997 and had such a job to be classed as ill(to be honest they made me sign on for JSA and the people at the job centre could see that I was ill so they worked within the rules but were not so hard regarding my claims)
Until they could help no more...the DWP or whatever it was known as then would not allow me Incapacity perhaps over the years I could have applied again but no one has ever suggested that I should. The Dr who wrote the original assessment of my condition lied.
The CAB got involved I had another test and that Dr said that I should not be being called in and she reversed the first examination.
I was heading for dialysis, transplant or death...
All I claim is DLA which is to be scrapped next year(Unless you include the other benefits many are allowed but I don't get in my hand)
The future is scary...I have no way of knowing that I will be awarded the replacement which will be 20% less before anyone is awarded it.
Like Carol I live for the day...I dare not think about the future...
Carol, My teeth are a disgrace...and eventually I will have to have what's left taken out and have dentures...
I always looked after my teeth but maybe the drugs I have had to take for my health have not helped...Mum always blamed the medicine she was on for losing her teeth.
If she hadn't become ill with what she had Mum was always going to have a set of dentures made.
I haven't enough to save...
Very few think that I have purchased too many gadgets and think that I have done the right thing to buy what I am able whilst I can as they'll have to last for sometime into the future.
Of course a TV may be new at some point but as you say it doesn't take into account that items wear out or that you have perhaps waited years to replace it.
I bet the new TV's will not last as long as the older one's did...and to some extent they've been forced onto us often on the pretext that we are helping the environment and global warming...
I only get flack on here...but at least I do not censor what comments are made which would be so easy to do...
I missed your comment VQ...
That would suit me fine and like you I don't want a lot...people find it difficult to accept that not unlike Carol and yourself, I like pottering about doing very little but it would be nice to be able to treat yourself without watching the pennies...
Should I admit this???
I have been laid on my bed for most of the last 36 hours...
Firstly because I had no energy and needed to get some decent sleep. Then I am listening to the radio and its warmer and more comfortable here...
I have no reason to go out(I have enough food and milk)and its cold and raining outside...
I will get up and watch the Jubilee though...
I'm not terrifically excited but it is an historic occasion...
As I say if you have only yourself to please what are you going to do, you can read a book, go on a computer, listen to a radio, cook a meal, no one can do much more...
Most of the time its a daily routine.
If the weather was better I could sit on a chair in the porch and watch people going by the house and look at the garden Mum loved even if I am a bit short on flowers.
At least I do have bulbs that come out each year such as daffodils, snowdrops and tulips...
If they are still available on Monday/Tuesday I have found some Geraniums(4 for £2.50)so perhaps enough for one border or to do a couple of tubs...I think I'll need 24 so that's approx £15(I grow them cheaper than that and may next year.
You can tell by this post I have been out!
I have a nosy question!
Why were you needed to look after your Dad when you should have been working? You have said you were young when he died, so presumably your Mum was capable of looking after him during the day, with you doing all you could when you were home.
That's how families have done it that I know......just wondered.
He didn't have much time, if you think care is bad now we received no help of any kind, hardly saw a Dr...Where I worked wasn't busy, I wasn't missed If they'd waited two or three weeks I might've been able to return but they kept pestering(I wasn't even taking any money)
Mind it was tinpot organisation lost in the 1930's and 40's the management was hopeless, If you think of Are You Being Served you would not be far wrong...
Its not very nice for anyone who is caring especially when they are coughing up blood. And have lost so much weight...
I'm not going to get into what's right or wrong and then I had to help Mum come to terms with the loss of the love of her life and again, I don't think the care was all that it could've been...
Why didn't your Dad see a doctor very often, wasn't one called out ? I seem to remember you told us your Dad died 27 years ago . Did you just not turn up for work , or did you ask your employers for compassionate leave ?
I seem to remember even back then it was possible to arrange for the district nurse or other people to come in & help with your Dad. Your Mum must have only been in her late fifties then, was your Dad really so difficult to care for, that you just walked out of your job ?
My neighbour in her 80's nursed her husband for 2 years before he died of cancer, her children didn't have to leave their jobs to help her.
Summing up, it seems you havn't had paid employment since about 1985, when your dad died. What were you doing for the next 12 years before you becme ill. It all sounds a bit strange to me !
It seems you're getting benefits after only having worked and paid taxes for about 12 years of your whole life !
I'm not going to list all the jobs I have done voluntary or paid nor all the training courses that I attended. I was ill before 1997 but it took that long to convince those in charge.
You have no idea how bad my health problems are/were and I don't put everything on my blog. I did ask for compassionate leave and if I had done something wrong I would not have been helped so I did all that I was supposed to.
As said previously there are quite a few beneits I never claimed.
Don't know why you feel that you have to be so nasty, I even attended a training programme when there was every chance that I would die!
How can you govern when you will become ill or what you'll get...
I've responded which I did not intend to do...
I'm just getting over you lieing in bed for 36 hours !
I wasn't being nasty, I was just pointing out you don't seem to have had paid employment or paid any taxes since about 1985, yet you complain you're not given much to live on !
What were these symptoms that made it impossible for you to get a job between 1985 & 1997
Also I seem to remember a few years ago you saying that you & your Mum hadn't been to your Nat Health dentist for over 2 years for checkups & you got taken off his list. That was a bit daft wasn't it ? !
Should I respond? Did I say that I did not work between the years that you mention?
Fancy bringing up about the dentist, you don't know what happened regarding the dentist we were with(it ended up in court with him being a crook)and the carry on regarding getting registered, you remember the problems there has been about getting an NHS dentist.
We should never have been removed in the first place.
I also explained that I wasn't so well and had no energy and was out for the count except for getting up and weeing quite regularly. Its an exception.
I suspect that I am getting rid of toxins in my blood as well as water retention(remember my kidneys are not working well)
They will probably get worse. And I am on very strong medication. I knew that you'd pick up on my saying about being in bed...my computer repairman was concerned for me when he visited and said that I didn't look so good. He didn't see things as you did...
I've been out today, I've been doing some tidying up, made a meal, done some more flowers in tubs, there's still a limit what you can do when ill or on a budget.
You'd probably find fault if I was reading a book or watching television. I don't think I can please you whatever I do...
Are you talking to me, or the other Anon?
I'm talking to the Anon that seems to be having a go at me about my health, care of Mum and dad, my working record, what I have paid in taxes and so on. If that's not you, then I'm not talking to you :-)
At least some people who leave comments do leave names, even if they are Anon. It makes things a little easier for us all.
Or maybe the other Anons........
Nope, I can find no fault with anything you mentioned in your post before last ( :
The jackpot for the EuroMillions is outstanding, I wonder how long it is going to roll over?! I will certainly buy my ticket today at http://bit.ly/WinMegaMillions
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