Bankruptcy

[doodab]

Got to ask the question, where the fk has all your money gone over the years??

I certainly could have done better at saving when I was younger, I wouldn't dispute that for a minute.

Over the last 5 years or so it's really been setting up home and about a year of paternity leave and bench time that has wiped out the savings.

But there wasn't that much saved (30 grand maybe) as before that, it was living in a central London bachelor pad and generally living it up in nice restaurants and bars nearly every night, decent holidays, a season spent snowboarding, a lot of technology e.g. photo equipment, a small recording studio setup, and quite a lot of quality cooking utensils and other things for the home.

Oh, and a couple of K invested in a plan B that went nowhere.

There is a surprising lack of flash cars though.

[cailin maith]

I certainly could have done better at saving when I was younger, I wouldn't dispute that for a minute.

Over the last 5 years or so it's really been setting up home and about a year of paternity leave and bench time that has wiped out the savings.

But there wasn't that much saved (30 grand maybe) as before that, it was living in a central London bachelor pad and generally living it up in nice restaurants and bars nearly every night, decent holidays, a season spent snowboarding, a lot of technology e.g. photo equipment, a small recording studio setup, and quite a lot of quality cooking utensils and other things for the home.

Oh, and a couple of K invested in a plan B that went nowhere.

There is a surprising lack of flash cars though.

Have you got any of that stuff left? Can you ebay it and whack the cash onto the cards?

[sasguru]

But there wasn't that much saved (30 grand maybe) as before that, it was living in a central London bachelor pad and generally living it up in nice restaurants and bars nearly every night, decent holidays, a season spent snowboarding, a lot of technology e.g. photo equipment, a small recording studio setup, and quite a lot of quality cooking utensils and other things for the home.

.

And the central London bachelor bad didn't rise in value? Or were you renting?
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Frankly its your own fault you're in the position you're in.

[doodab]

That's a very good question.

I have no sympathy on this one, and no advice to offer other than if you were really earning £700 a day for years, you should have a house, no mortgage and lots of cash in the bank.

Where the **** did I say I was earning £700 a day? Read back a bit you'll see I said £450.

I'd agree the big mistake was not buying a house. I should have gone with a self-cert and taken the plunge at the first opportunity.

[doodab]

And the central London bachelor bad didn't rise in value? Or were you renting?
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Frankly its your own fault you're in the position you're in.

Renting. Shared with a mate.

[lilelvis2000]

Got to ask the question, where the fk has all your money gone over the years??

Well, if you're as dumb as me, and you put money away in mutual funds...your're money is still there and it hasn't earned a penny.

I haven't had a lot of work in 8 months and yet still my nest egg can support me for another 5 years easily! I am lucky that my monthly total expenses - company and family - are only about £1200 - which for some people is not even their mortgage!

Maybe doodab is just soo used to his lifestyle that he can't see anything he can cut back on. The neighbour whinges on about lack of money..yet he's got a new 60"TV - SKY subscription, stacks of pizza boxes, a new Wii with several games..I have none of that.

Its hard to be sympathetic because currently I'm not working at all whereas doodab is.

[doodab]

Have you got any of that stuff left? Can you ebay it and whack the cash onto the cards?

Yes, some of it. I have thought about selling it but the march of technological progress is rarely kind to the value of such things, what £20 or 30k or more over the years is now worth perhaps £5-6k all up.

The lights & lenses for my DSLR are probably worth about £2k, the body a lot less than the £1150 I paid for it, that would fetch £250 tops but of course then I wouldn't be able to take photos. Digital compact cameras that cost several hundred quid each in the late 90s or early 00s were almost worthless after a few years, I threw the ones that didn't sell on ebay away when I had a clear out around 2005. I have a semi-pro video camera that would currently fetch about £300. Photoshop 7 cost several hundred quid but is now worth nob all.

A lot of the hardware music stuff went in 2005 (at a loss) to save space. The few things left are worth considerably less than I paid new, the most valuable item is a keyboard worth perhaps £700 now (actually picked that up second hand for £400 as well ) the rest I would estimate is worth another £1500 or so. Somewhere over £2k worth of the software and upgrades I've paid for over the years is now worth nothing as it's 3 or 4 versions out of date having not been updated since 04/05.

A lot of the computer stuff and consumer electronics has either died, been given away, dumped or simply isn't worth anything. A laptop that cost the best part of £2k in 2005 is worth very little, especially as it's dead, the older computers are long gone on ebay or to relatives at a fraction of what they cost as are things like 10 and 100 mbit switches, a 32 bit sun workstation, 802.11b wireless networking gear and so on. I've had 3 or 4 "as big as I could reasonably afford" LCD monitors over the years, every new one bought when the old one died. That's another £1000 or more that is never going to be seen again.

[doodab]

I haven't had a lot of work in 8 months and yet still my nest egg can support me for another 5 years easily! I am lucky that my monthly total expenses - company and family - are only about £1200 - which for some people is not even their mortgage!

You are very lucky. Our monthly rent in the UK is currently £1400, that's been negotiated down from £1600 two years ago.

Maybe doodab is just soo used to his lifestyle that he can't see anything he can cut back on. The neighbour whinges on about lack of money..yet he's got a new 60"TV - SKY subscription, stacks of pizza boxes, a new Wii with several games..I have none of that.

The "contractor lifestyle" stuff stopped 3 years ago when I had been benched a few months and was running out of money. Sky cancelled, no takeaways, switched all the leccy and gas providers and so on. My lifestyle is go to work, go home, cook spag bol / chilli / a curry and surf the net / read a book / learn something / stare at spreadsheets and worry / maybe drink a €0.85 beer or two. I cut my own hair FFS!

I did used to go out for a beer with chef, which probably cost €30 a week, but he doesn't work here anymore. And we do sometimes get a Chinese on the weekends when I'm back, that's another €30 a month we could save.

I could save about £6-800 a month by moving out of London or twice that if she moved over here, and if I commit to being here another year or two I could save a few hundred on this side as well. That is where the savings need to be made, because every little doesn't actually help very much when you're hemorrhaging to begin with. I just had no idea how much more expensive where we were living actually was until someone suggested moving to Basingstoke.

[MaryPoppins]

My brief look into what the CSA would likely say (we had a rough patch a few years ago) would make me a lot better off. I don't want to go down that route though.

Not sure why people are suggesting the solution is that you leave your partner.

However, I'm also not sure why just because you split, the CSA would necessarily have to get involved.

[MaryPoppins]

You are very lucky. Our monthly rent in the UK is currently £1400, that's been negotiated down from £1600 two years ago.

I just had no idea how much more expensive where we were living actually was until someone suggested moving to Basingstoke.

That's a horrendous amount of rent.