Is it just me/my age/cynicism or has the focus on the £/stress/pressure on everyone really stepped up in every way?
Random examples - no doubt others can do better! Stuff like:
1 .Tour winners relying on their team to keep the pressure up on every stage (remember Lemond winning with really weak teams in the 80s?)
2. At my "local" train station (Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city), where I have to go to book bikes on trains, the reservations counter is now open only to 6:30 (was 8:30), as it's not revenue producing, so I more or less have to go into town on a day off (even last year I could go in after work, tho I'd wait 30m). This is the UK's 2nd tourist destination. mobbed with tourists during the summer.
3. Seemingly everything bought (by those of us with moderate incomes) on price and price alone.
It's easy to get sucked in when times are tight, I know I do, but it just seems to reduce EVERYTHING to money and pressure. Am I alone in thinking this way? Not sure why I am posting, the severity of all of this just occurred to me recently I suppose.
2. - I always do my train bookings over the phone.
Overall though, I think we've all been conditioned - mostly by TV - to expect more. More of everything. So, we are struggling to get everything with our normal income, hence trying to get it all cheap.
I hate to admit it, but I would be happier if I had more money. It's horrible, but true.
3. Seemingly everything bought (by those of us with moderate incomes) on price and price alone.
I agree. I really want to replace my broken iphone 3gs, but am struggling to justify the doubling of my monthly payment. If I could stay on £17 per month I'd get one tomorrow.
But on the other hand, people point and laugh at our 32" widescreen CRT and say we should replace it. But why? It works really well.
I used to work with a guy who's favourite phrase was 'the bean counters rule the world'. I wrote it off as him being a middle aged cynic.
But slowly I'm realising that he is right. At the end of the day, everything boils down to finances. Not wrongs or rights, not truth, not justice, just money. So Jessie J is most certainly wrong.
Its not [i]just[/i] about the $$$$, don't forget about the hoes, drugs & fast cars too ❗
PS: P O W E R is really where its always been at!
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The £ (without grafting for it) and the obsession with needless crap. I would also add the unrelenting selfishness of 99% of the populace and their unstinting belief in 'their' rights.
Can you imagine a world without money?
Can you imagine a world without love?
[I think there is a song in this somewhere]
If someone asked me I'd say I could quite happily live on half our income and without all my nice things. I kind of realised Ive been lying to myself over this while I was at the checkout in dunelm for the third time in as many weeks having spent another £150 on stuff that really is just frivolous crap but makes my house feel nice. Everything is money orientated these days.
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Yep as I get older things mean less time means more.
I often think that if I never saw another advert for anything ever, I would be so, so much better off.
@ ska49,
there is a lot of truth in that quote.
i often think how nice it would be to (for example) win the lottery, or at least have a bit more money than i do now, but speaking to other folk tells me that most people want 'a bit more' than they have.
i think the truth is more like, 'i was happier when i didnt have to think about money at all'
truthfully, if i won £100m on the euromillions i would probably give most of it away to family/friends.
the truth is more like, 'i was happier when i didnt have to think about money at all'
truthfully, if i won £100m on the euromillions i would probably give most of it away to family/friends.
oh nice.. share the misery why don't you..!! 😉
Given the amount of threads on here whinging about how people who do job x/y/z earn too much/don't do enough hours/don't contribute to the economy then you would have to say there is a fair amount of truth in the thread title
ska...an amazing image. Where is it from?
lol @ yunki, and you mate, id give you some too lol.
Duggan - MemberI often think that if I never saw another advert for anything ever, I would be so, so much better off
Get yourself to Cuba. I went there a couple of years ago and it was so refreshing to be somewhere where you're not bombarded with inane adverts.
I saw it on some ones blog and I love it. Thought I should share the idea. Think I'll get it printed.
Makes me feel bad for pursuing a career in oil and gas but I may try and follow the EM side of it. Im still at Uni and I am so grateful that I dont have to pay taxes and other costs to the same extent as an 'adult'. Still burying my head in the sand somewhat.
Went into law for the money. Discoevered that, while the money is there, it's only available for a few, and it's insanely hard work on the way.
A lack of time has always been made up for with money, but TBH I can always find ways to spend far more than I have.
And that's the point - if you let your guard down, you find yourself handing over money for a more and more complicated - but no more sophisticated - lifestyle.
Need to adjust my attitude to the conveyor belt.
Overall though, I think we've all been conditioned - mostly by TV - to expect more. More of everything. So, we are struggling to get everything with our normal income, hence trying to get it all cheap.
^This, but I also blame the ourselves/shops/banks/UK economies need for us all to spend to keep it going.
We as a family have really tried to do things now buying good, longer lasting goods, either saving for new or buying second hand. We buy from companies we think (maybe overly hopeful) are more ethical.
We run second hand cars, second hand bikes, take a UK holiday (house swap if we can) etc etc.
Still can be a battle internally to not get sucked in - for example I am wrestling the it is old/high miles car vs do I really [b]need[/b] a new car at the moment
I agree with all this. I am trying to get a stress free (or at least less) life and work less so I can spend more time doing the things I want to and to. See my family grow up. Unfortunately my wife wants a bigger house and spends too much on clothes/food. Whereas I am trying my hardest to pay off our mortgage so we can be free of debt and stress.
What's the point...
johndoh,does your wife work?
i'm lucky, we live on benefits, so we don't have issues with too much money
😆
Yes she does - part time because our children are pre-school age.
Money is fine - I earn plenty, I spend plenty more. It can bring happiness, it can bring misery. When it becomes an obsession, it becomes a problem. Don't lose sight of the really important things and let it take over your life and it isn't a problem. I earn money, I spend money, I have debt - I rarely get worked up about it though.
I spent my first 14 yrs of work underpayed and doing 50 hours a week, I then went self employed and then earned a slightly above average wage for 55 hours a week.
I'm now father to a 21 month old boy, I'm 41 and have cut my hours to 41 a week.
So I have earnt a crap wage, a half decent wage and a now I earn less again. I have never cared about fancy stuff and my only loan apart from mortgages was for 3 yrs of fast motorbikes, the fact that I needed a loan proved that I couldn't afford them!
At the end of year you will remember the time spent with friends and family doing great stuff not the new handlebars/shoes/car you bought...
Trains are a good example.
When the train network was created, it was all private enterprise, and only the rich could travel. Normal people could afford one trip a year, to the seaside. And the rest of the time they had to walk.
So maybe modern life is LESS about the money than it has been.
People all over the world have children from the wealthiest to poorest and no real economic reason for having kids for either.It's the reason why we are all able to comment on here.Don't give up on everyone just yet.The future isn't ours .
I've been thinking about this and the "does money make you happy" thing for a while. Whilst having no money to survive is just plain impossible, I think there is never a limit where "if only you hard a little bit more, it would be so much better". Whatever you had or have it's never quite enough.
I certainly think the old adage "money doesn't make you happy" has a ring of truth about it. But it depends on where you think you are on the wealth scale. Someone who doesn't have enough to cover the basics will certainly agree more would be better. But what about someone who has, say £40k a year. They will definately cover the basics and still more than enough for the nice things. But do they need the nicer things than they already have? They will be in a position to be wanting the even nicer things, and so starts the "if only I had a little bit more, everything would OK" cycle.
By earning your way to more wealth, I don't think you would ever break the cycle. By winning the Euromillions multi-rollover, going from an average income to becoming a multi-millionaire, would "solve" all of the wants and desires. But it would just bring other worries and stresses.
Mind, I would like to try it out for a bit, just to see. 😉
Money doesn't make you happy obviously, but it does enable you to do lots of fun stuff which in turn can make you happy.
Reminds me of this.. (apologies if posted before!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/14/do-britons-feel-rich-poor
Dunno, I reckon people need to feel happy within themselves. No amount of money can buy that.
It can, if your burning desire is to travel the world. No money, no travelling.
Or, say, you meet the love of your life and they live a long way away. The money to buy travel tickets will be the money that buys you a good chunk of happiness 🙂
No, you just have to get real. We all need to learn some humility.
Money doesn't make you happy obviously, but it does enable you to do lots of fun stuff which in turn can make you happy.
At the other end of the scale it also keeps you in the basics of life. Not quite that serious, but my wife found out that one of her relatives could be spending winter (where winter = -30C) in an unsealed property because she couldn't afford to fix the windows.
One thing I have realised getting older (41 next month :D) time is more important than money.
[b]BUT[/b] to enjoy that time how you wish, you need the money 😯
Aye, money gives you time. You just need to understand when to stop earning it and when to start spending it.
I like that this thread-
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/will-i-ever-have-disposable-income-again
Is right underneath this one!
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It's how everyone's thinking right now. Just about to go to bed.. before starting another week of the daily grind. ;O)
I never go on holiday. I can't be bothered dealing with the hassle (i know it could probably be no hassle at all if it was done right,but I'd consider it a right hassle no matter what!) so I just laze about here in the highlands and go biking locally. On a nice day I could be in heaven on the bike,over the west,listening to my music.. pottering along at my own pace. Not a soul in sight. All for the price of fuel (7 quid if that) and a few energy bars to keep me going.
Todays ride was only 19 miles from home and I rode some new singletrack that brought me out onto a beach. A beach I have been on many times but the trail spat me out at a different part of it. I wasn't expecting to end up so close to the beach as I thought I was further inland so it was quite a nice surprise to be greeted with the scene,blue sky,nobody around,some very fitting music.. and a warmth in the air that nobody was really expecting today. Again,£5 quid fuel and 2 energy gels.
:::shrugs::: :O/ :O)
^like^