Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Looking forward to seeing one of the new £ coins and the jokes have started:- 'Why does it have ten sides? So that you can use a spanner to remove it from a Yorkshiremans hand.' A bit overcast and breezy at the moment but the forecast is mostly dry.

 

What passes for Pet Shop Boys entertainment on US TV these days:

 

lowbrow-humor-memes-funny-images-2.jpg

 

Oh, Lord - just remembered I have to be up by 5:00 am this morning, G’night, Pete.

 

 

Pete,
I put funny as a tick...but really it is scary as asking someone like this to vote on a complex issue does cause concern.....

Baz

But what if they said it was a correct answer?

So long for now, be back later.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Still got a sore froat.  Mrs H hasn't heard about the job, so that means a no.

 

My early retirement worked out a treat, although it was scary taking the jump.  With my merchant navy pension and NHS/Civil Service superannuation all taking the actuarial hit due to taking early (5 years - 55) I had to work part time, working with best mate John at Trackshack fills the void very nicely.  As I paid the mortgage and camper van loan off with my lump sum we are entirely debt free, and at 58 I am very glad I did it!  Mrs H is 5 years younger so will continue to work full time until her retirement, we think we'll then be OK until state pensions kick in by which time I'll be ready to cut back or leave work altogether.  Absolutely no regrets, especially since political interference and in-fighting office politics has ruined my old team.

 

Reg. numbers - I can remember them back to our Fiat 600 when I was a toddler, but not my current 'new' car which for some reason won't stick!  Age?

[Happy Hippo]

Slipping into the suds..................some of us have been in work for the last 35mins. !

Better than slipping into Twll Cacha!

 

I hope you enjoyed your Spanish trip?

Edited March 29, 2017 by Happy Hippo

[trisonic]

Of course it may actually be this:

 

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

[trisonic]

 

 

My early retirement worked out a treat, although it was scary taking the jump.  With my merchant navy pension and NHS/Civil Service superannuation all taking the actuarial hit due to taking early (5 years - 55) I had to work part time, working with best mate John at Trackshack fills the void very nicely.  As I paid the mortgage and camper van loan off with my lump sum we are entirely debt free, and at 58 I am very glad I did it!  Mrs H is 5 years younger so will continue to work full time until her retirement, we think we'll then be OK until state pensions kick in by which time I'll be ready to cut back or leave work altogether.  Absolutely no regrets, especially since political interference and in-fighting office politics has ruined my old team.

 

 

 

I think it is worthwhile to do something completely different once retired. 

I felt my brain atrophying sitting around the house, now I work, on average 2.5 hours per day, get to meet a diverse range of people, new issues to solve and earn pocket money of an average of $50.00 per day (if 2.5 hours worked).

 

Frankly I get more satisfaction now than before....

 

Best, Pete.

[Happy Hippo]

This also reminds me that we'd previously had huge amounts of waste heat convecting out of the exhaust pipe - I'd thought about heating  my greenhouse with it during winter. Now the exhaust gas is much much cooler and the condensate actually froze on the protective grill. So, whilst we haven't measured the efficiency we can hazard a  guess. 

 

 

When they replaced our old boiler, there was an 'issue' with the exhaust, as it would generate steam that would blow past out neighbour's kitchen window.  There had never been an issue or complaint in over 20 years,but..........

 

After much deliberation, which included the possibility of changing the boiler location (Can you imagine the disruption that would cause?) I suggested to the qualified idiots that all they needed to do was to carry the exhaust pipe up the wall to an appropriate height where dispersing steam would not be a problem.  I then pointed out that they would need to fit a drain pipe at the bottom of the 'chimney' to allow any condensate to drain away:  And this could be connected to the rainwater downpipe to make it all neat and tidy.

 

I'd fitted the same to a  small De Winton loco to stop the oil dropping back onto the ceramic burner, although in this case the oily sludge is merely dropped into the ballast.

 

At a show some years ago one child remarked to his mother that the engine was blowing a bogey out!

[New Haven Neil]

I think it is worthwhile to do something completely different once retired. 

I felt my brain atrophying sitting around the house, now I work, on average 2.5 hours per day, get to meet a diverse range of people, new issues to solve and earn pocket money of an average of $50.00 per day (if 2.5 hours worked).

 

Frankly I get more satisfaction now than before....

 

Best, Pete.

 

I couldn't imagine not working.  Being currently totally house bound it is driving me mad!  Half way tomorrow....

 

Working in the hobby is a risk, as it can dull your home enjoyment but in my case we are so busy running the business I have no time to play trains.  I do buy a few though....

[New Haven Neil]

What was it that the old car sticker said? In.cest: keep it in the family.

 

That'll be Foxdale.  Ask anyone here..... dealt with some disturbing cases in my old job.

[AndyB]

When they replaced our old boiler, there was an 'issue' with the exhaust, as it would generate steam that would blow past out neighbour's kitchen window.  There had never been an issue or complaint in over 20 years,but..........

 

After much deliberation, which included the possibility of changing the boiler location (Can you imagine the disruption that would cause?) I suggested to the qualified idiots that all they needed to do was to carry the exhaust pipe up the wall to an appropriate height where dispersing steam would not be a problem.  I then pointed out that they would need to fit a drain pipe at the bottom of the 'chimney' to allow any condensate to drain away:  And this could be connected to the rainwater downpipe to make it all neat and tidy.

 

I'd fitted the same to a  small De Winton loco to stop the oil dropping back onto the ceramic burner, although in this case the oily sludge is merely dropped into the ballast.

 

At a show some years ago one child remarked to his mother that the engine was blowing a bogey out!

 

Nice solution, especially the condensate drain. If I recall correctly there was some issue with emptying the condensate in modern boilers straight into the drains, but I may be wrong -- I am, frequently!

 

Mum's condensing boiler emptied into a downpipe and sump. We couldn't work out why it cut out so frequently.

Eventually we determined that it was each time it rained - the drain to the sump was blocked and the downpipe filled up with rainwater and back filled to the boiler.....

 

Off out now. Wearing a suit.

Catch up later.

Best. Andy 

[Happy Hippo]

Nice solution, especially the condensate drain. If I recall correctly there was some issue with emptying the condensate in modern boilers straight into the drains, but I may be wrong -- I am, frequently!

 

Although we are connected to mains sewerage, our rainwater drains are not so connected and keep muddy hollow (forward) topped up in the rainy season.

 

I had hoped that it would raise the temperature of the water, but my hopes were dashed!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Q that's one heck of a pension scheme that slams on a 50% reduction if taken at age 60   I didn't lose quite that big a percentage taking mine at 52 although I had very heftily topped it up from my redundancy money (also called 'making the tax system work for you') and I had the advantage of a 'level pension' which reduced when I reached state pension age.  But overall as you've worked out it all boils down to incomings and outgoings and the way they change when you pack up full time work and start drawing pension(s) - in my case the only saving was paying off the mortgage as I had minimal travel costs (the drive or 'bus to the station).  But paying-off the mortgage greatly reduced outgoings and I dropped out of the 40% tax band so notwithstanding a hefty drop in income the nett loss was only £10 per week and I immediately got some occasional consulting work but still remained outside the 40% tax band.  So it also pays to take into account any reduction in tax and NI although the latter might later have an impact on the state pension.

 

But as others have said you do need to keep active in some way or another and you definitely need to keep the brain working although sometimes even parts of RMweb can help the latter.

 

Herself has set-off to 'community gardening' in Mill Meadows so no doubt her handiwork will be admired once the grockle season gets busier (although it has started) - definitely a more amenable area for visitors than some of the lpocal roadside flower beds they also tend.

 

Have a good day one and all

[New Haven Neil]

40% tax - it's amazing what you forget after a few years away.....      

[Donw]

Better than slipping into Twll Cacha!

 

I hope you enjoyed your Spanish trip?

 

I was not familiar with that word so googled it. Interesting the example they gave was Caernarfon twll cacha.

Don 

[Donw]

I couldn't imagine not working.  Being currently totally house bound it is driving me mad!  Half way tomorrow....

 

Working in the hobby is a risk, as it can dull your home enjoyment but in my case we are so busy running the business I have no time to play trains.  I do buy a few though....

 

I have no problems with not being employed. I have always found more to do than I have time. I can understand that being house bound is a problem. I would greatly miss walking the dogs not to mention working outside the house. Should I ever find time on my hands I am sure the West Somerset Railway would find something for me to do. 

Don

[The Lurker]

Greetings all.

 

Seems like we will be able to share boiler replacement war stories....!

 

Have a good day

[Donw]

40% tax - it's amazing what you forget after a few years away.....      

 

I can remember the top rate of tax being about 90% Unfortunately my income was never enough to warrant paying that much.

 

Don

[The Lurker]

I can remember the top rate of tax being about 90% Unfortunately my income was never enough to warrant paying that much.

 

Don

With the surcharge, it was actually greater than 100% on certain unearned income at one point during the 1970s.

 

When I started work in a tax department back in the late 80s we hadn't got to independent taxation and husbands were still taxed on their wife's income. I seem to recall that the ambition was to earn enough to make entering into a wife's earned income election worthwhile.

[roundhouse]

I wish that I could pack up work but my pension is poor (after one day company I worked for 12 years took a lot of the pension scheme with it) although my savings are reasonable but they aren't to enough to survive to pension age.

 

I may pay off the remaining mortgage so that if I am out of work then my other half will be able to pay most of the bills that I pay although a few would have to be slimmed back or better deals found.

 

Hopefully or layout mover will be ready to pick up from the garage after it's MOT and cam belt change. It cost £1500.00 last time the belt was changed so not expecting it to be much different this time. It's been a great vehicle so far and as long as it remains reliable it will be with us for a few more ore years.

Edited March 29, 2017 by roundhouse

[TheQ]

I'd definitely go nuts housebound.

For my retirement, I already have too much to do,

I would help the sailing clubs, sailing school on summer Wednesday evenings, up to 80 juniors learning.

The sailing clubs working parties,  alternate  Saturdays and Thursdays through the winter.

A sailing boat and motorboat to maintain / restore to good condition

 I may well volunteer at the RAF RADAR museum, where a large proportion of the equipment, I actually worked on!!

The MRC building is available for use any day of the week, I believe they have a couple of all day sessions plus the evenings on Tuesday and Friday that I attend at the moment.

 I have 1,5 acres of garden jungle to look after.

 I have my own model railway layout to work on and it was started as a future winter retirement project.

and of course I'm sure SWMBO has some ideas of things for me to do.

 

I had my boiler replaced there were no real problems with that. though I found out some years later my Earth bonding to the ground had been cut!!

The new boiler gave a 25% reduction in gas usage, the combi's are however nowhere near as reliable as the old conventional boilers, too many bits to go wrong.

 

I've never in the UK earnt enough to reach the average wage let alone pay 40% tax. Having to go to Saudi to work for 6 years,  when the value of the house dropped from 60,000 to 28,000, meant it dug us out of a big hole. But also meant with no mortgage now, we are comfortable. Remember 15.5% mortgages?

[Happy Hippo]

I can remember the top rate of tax being about 90% Unfortunately my income was never enough to warrant paying that much.

 

Don

I was in the same boat....but it always felt like it!

[Horsetan]

... Remember 15.5% mortgages?[/size][/size]

 

I can remember when current accounts paid as much as 6% interest on positive balances!

[TheQ]

I can remember when current accounts paid as much as 6% interest on positive balances!

So can i but I never had anything in them, it was all going against the mortgage...

[Danemouth]

I had a 30+ year old Baxi wall mounted boiler changed by British Gas last summer when they had an offer of a free boiler for certain customers with old inefficient boilers - you just paid the installation costs which were a bit OTT, but as the boiler was free ...

 

Had a Gloworm 30 kW model fitted replacing a 11 kW model. Our new boiler is a condensing boiler so we could retain the hot water cylinder and airing cupboard.

 

There were problems with the electrics but under the maintenance contract they replaced the lot, clock, thermostats etc.

 

However during the winter on several mornings we woke to no heat and the boiler showing an "F83" error code which is something to do with the boiler temperature - restating the boiler fixed the matter.

 

British Gas sent an engineer who reckoned it was air in the radiators and bled them. The fault reappeared after a few days and another engineer identified the problem.

 

It seems that when the boiler was installed a bypass should have been fitted in the airing cupboard - this is a short piece of pipe between the flow and return which allows for the pump to keep running for a limited time after the boiler stopped heating - it seems "pump overrun" is a requirement of modern boilers.

 

Our problem was fixed!

 

So if you are having a new boiler fitted it is worth checking to see if the new one needs a bypass and if so to ensure one is installed.

 

Dave

 

[Danemouth]

So can i but I never had anything in them, it was all going against the mortgage...

I remember when mortgage interest hit just above 15% in the 1980's, though there was MIRAS tax relief on that.

 

Dave

[Horsetan]

I have finally tracked down my late Irish client's property in Ireland. Remember, the one he stated in his Will turned out not to be owned by him. The one he actually owned was....wait for it....the house next door!!

 

This means the logistical nightmare can begin. I need:

 

1. An Irish Solicitor to deal with Irish Probate (£££);

2. An Irish valuer to value the property (££);

3. An Irish Solicitor (who could be the same one as 1 above) to deal with the sale of the property (hopefully as an investment since there is already a good tenant in there paying rent) and payment of the punitive Capital Acquisitions Tax (££££ + ££££££) at 33% over 16250 Euros, and to negotiate with the Revenue Commissioners over payment of CAT since the property will have to be sold in order to pay the bloody tax (there is insufficient liquid capital available to meet it, and my senior colleague has drawn the line at applying to the Firm's bank for a short-term Executor Loan)

 

 

That'll be Foxdale.  Ask anyone here..... dealt with some disturbing cases in my old job.

 

Is that a bit like the Manx equivalent of Norfolk?