Interesting Links for 01-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• The BBC asks if a family can really live on £40,000 in an article that makes me _really_ angry.
  (tags: income uk salary spending bbc )
• Landlords Use Computers to Arrive at the Right Rental Fee
  (tags: rental housing computers )
• Evidence at the inquiry into journalistic practices shows that some journalists are just scum.
  (tags: journalism uk )
• How

Comments

[autopope]

"I could easily impulse-buy a new car." And routinely buys a newish car every couple of years.

Right. This is why you find it difficult to live on a family income of £40K a year.

(Says a guy who drives a 15-year-old car he's had for the past 9 years.)

[andrewducker]

Yeah, that was the bit that made me very angry. Of course things are tight if you constantly buy horribly expensive things!

[danieldwilliam]

Aye that would do it.

Difficult to see past Mr Micawber on financial happiness if you* earn an okay salary.

*I nearly wrote if you are fortunate enough to earn an average salary and then I thought - you shouldn't *have* to be fortunate to earn an average salary - just average.

[andrewducker]

I'm now curious as to whether they've used median or mean.

[bracknellexile]

Wow, you've got quite the collection of rage-inducing links this morning.

[bohemiancoast]

I swear the £40k article is a massive piece of trollbait; it's just designed to wind you up. The couple who regularly change their cars have no children, so of course they have plenty. And the family who are massively in debt are clearly misbudgeting. The financial adviser who points out that you can't pay two sets of school fees on 40k, well, no you can't, but almost nobody who pays school fees does so out of current income; they save from when the child is born and go into debt if necessary. And don't get me started on the family already in debt who are buying £60k of snake oil for their sick child

[cartesiandaemon]

I actually had the impression the journalist was implicitly mocking the "must impulse-buy new cars" people, but I think that was just me assuming... :)

[poisonduk]

I pay one lot of school fees out of current income which is pretty damn close to £40K - I didn't decide to go private until she was about to enter Primary One so saving wasn't an option. School is £10K a year and I consider it a worthy investment of my money. Everyone is different. I luckily entered the housing market when I was 20, so have 23 years of mortgage/property behind me which makes managing my income much easier. I'd prefer to see an article showing someone younger on a £40K income - i.e. someone who hasn't yet entered the housing market or is attempting to take that first step on the property ladder as that must be damn difficult these days. My first mortgage was a 100% one for £32,500. I worry most about what legacy I pass to my daughter as 100% mortgages don't exist these days and I guess you're looking at £100K+ mortgage to even get a basic place.

[undeadbydawn]

ex-wife and I are seriously considering private education. Mostly because autistic daughter is having a spectacularly shit time and we're utterly sodding sick of it.

if we're very lucky we'll get a good deal somewhere decent. Working on it now, pretty much.

[danieldwilliam]

Very keen on new railway lines.

Particularly keen on East - West lines in the south of England. This is entirely personal as I spend at least one day a month trying to get from Bristol to Edinburgh via Chippenham and it can't be the right answer that this involves going through London.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it's understandable that the earliest lines are spokes to the largest hub, but you'd expect other lines to come in later on that covered other popular journeys.

[danieldwilliam]

Agreed.

There seems a dearth of East West routes in the UK.

I suspect that any of the East West routes, or any of the railway improvements, on the drawing board won't be completed by the time I stop travelling so frequently. However, I'm sure other Edinburgh based fathers of Wiltshire based daughters will enjoy the extra travel options.

Of course, it does give an extra nudge to my daughter to apply to Oxford. Now they're building a new railway line it would be almost rude not to go.

[bohemiancoast]

That would be the Pennines; I don't think this is entirely an development failure. We don't actually have all that many roads crossing England East-West, and roads are much much cheaper to build uphill than railways.

[naath]

Dear lord, new cars and package holidays might be NICE but they are hardly ESSENTIAL. I've never bought either... (I waste all my wastable money on craft supplies instead, but I'm not about to claim that I NEED that money).