# 86 (2013) I'm Not Lazy, I'm Just Uninspired

Every time I get a phone call from my agency my heart sinks. Because although I have signed up for admin / office work here in town (my background is as a PA) I know in my heart that the last thing I want to do is get sucked back into some sterile office environment shuffling paper around and trying to deflect office bitchiness between bored secretaries.

I had a temp job back in late Spring and when the six weeks were up I couldn't have been happier. Although to be fair it did lead to more interesting and better paid work two months later.

Sometimes I wonder how I managed 17 years in office work, being enthusiastic and happy. I guess the huge wads of cash I was earning back then sugared a bitter pill. Wages that just don't exist in admin these days. 

The truth of the matter is that despite being a bit short of cash at times as a freelance clothing designer, I would rather be doing this than working the 9 - 5. I am creative at heart and you can't reign that in for long. It needs an outlet. It was why I freelanced whilst I worked full time. But I was less jaded then, less cyncial about the industry and far more enthusiastic about long hours for little money.

(source)

I think if my regular job was industry related I'd be happy with that. But I have no retail experience so one of the areas I'd love to try (working in a fashion retail outlet) probably isn't going to happen any time soon. My other job of choice is as a writer, but who pays for writers these days?

So sometimes I deliberately sabotage my chances of getting temp jobs like not returning phone calls fast enough. Other times I just keep my fingers crossed that I won't get them - which I haven't. The wages are generally appalling, (the tax man makes it almost impossible to believe) and the work is mind numbingly easy. There seems to be no real challenge in office work these days.

In the short term I am still happy muddling along. There is some kind of buzz that I get from not knowing quite where the next pay check is coming from. A big sale (like the one I've just secured) will keep me going for several months but they aren't always so easy to come by. And until the right permanent job comes along (I feel it will somewhere along the line) this is how I'm going to play it.

# 76 (2013) How Much Is Enough?

Going back into the job market after a four year absence (three years of Uni plus one year of running my own business full time) it's easy to see why your average Joe in full time employment is struggling to make ends meet. Even living in a house share with fairly basic outlays I still have to factor in an additional £287 a month to cover tax and national insurance contributions to leave me just enough money to live on.

This means I still have to find a job that pays me over £1000 a month in order to survive. My second trade before I decided to go to Uni as a mature student was in administration. I spent years as a PA in London and the surrounding counties mostly in the temping market. Then, it was a lucrative business and often lead to good secure full time jobs. But things have changed a lot and temping just scrapes minimum wage these days. Temps aren't trusted as they used to be and I believe this may have something to do with the screening processes at agencies and the lax attitude of some staff. Attitudes that were few and far between when I was working in London. Companies now, seem to presume you're temping because you're not much good, otherwise you'd have a full time job.

I genuinely cannot work out how people with financial commitments like mortgages, children and debts, manage to survive at all. Maybe they don't. Maybe that's why foodbanks are so essential these days. There are plenty of employed people using them. Perhaps we're all living hand to mouth to a certain extent - living in fear of redundancy and hoping things will change.

It's changed a lot from when I was last employed and that wasn't all that long ago. Tax was 17.5% back then. Now it's 20%. The old rate would have saved me £22.38 a month. That may not sound like much of a saving but over the course of a year that's about £268. For a couple that's a holiday or home improvement, or tax and an MOT on a car.

Where does it end? Will tax go up again next year? Will the price of food continue to rise? Will we all just have to get rid of cars, mobile phones, turn off the central heating? The knock on effect of all these things on our economy is catastrophic and in turn makes the little man have to pull in the purse strings another notch.

What's the breaking point? When do we finally say enough is enough, we cannot live like this any more. It strikes me there's probably a way to go yet and more awful stories of how people are struggling will come out. It's going to get messier and more brutal.

And for those of you lucky enough to have no idea what I'm talking about, I hope you never have to.

Last October food bank numbers reached record levels (source)

# 72 (2013) Where Work Ends and Life Begins

Many of us struggle with the work life balance. And there are those of us who struggle with the work - career - home balance.

After a year of running my own business full time I am conceding temporary defeat and looking for more reliable work. But I still have to honour my business committments and I'd hate to sacrifice it all solely for the 9 - 5 which is a mistake I have made in the past and ALWAYS regretted.

But if I'm doing the 9 - 5, where does that leave my business dream? And where does that leave everyone else in my life? How do you get a three-fold balance to work? Can it work? And when do you call it quits and simply be thankful for any paid employment you can get even if you may well end up turning around in 15 years and wondering what the hell you were doing with your life.

I don't have the answer. I'm sure some people do. This will be the second time I have visited this way of working. And the last time my life existed for the 9-5 and the career dream and little else. Now I am a bit older and have other interests to enjoy and people in my life who I don't want to exclude I don't want to be a slave to the grind all day every day.

It's not an easy balance.

# 24 (2013) Financial Forecast

(source)

You know you're getting old when you're worrying about the interest rates on your savings accounts. Every April I re-evaluate and move things around. Because someone has to.

I've worked out that if I can keep my ISA at a 3% rate for the rest of my working life I'll be able to retire at 62 with a marginally comfortable pension using today's prices. Which is kind of sad but clearly a necessity. But with no end to the recession in sight, finding that 3% deal is proving tricky. And that's how I know the recession is a real problem.

I didn't have a pension when I worked full time and money was the least of my worries. I spent my money, and spent and spent. And now I have a lot of catching up to do. Let that be a warning to you.

If I want to retire at around about state pension age I've only got 21 years left to muster up about £220,000 which may just keep me in food and heating if I live into my 80s. And who knows how long I'll live after that if I get that far.

Today, for the first time, a person in their 80s 

has higher living standards than someone 

working in their 20s

It's disconcerting how all through your twenties retirement is a whole other existence away. But then suddenly your thirties arrives and you think uh-huh. Real life. But those vital years do make all the difference.

Of course if you think I'm worrying now you need to read this to understand how catastrophic things could get not only for younger generations but also those approaching retirement now. The pension you might be putting away now, isn't actually there. It's being used to pay for a generation of retirees who are already there. But if fewer people are now putting away for their retirement where are current pensions coming from? The state pension may now in some cases be comparable to an early twenties income but an increasing number of pensionable age workers are now hanging in there and still working because they cannot afford to retire.

Many children are now living at home into their 40s because the costs of moving out are too prohibitive and older mothers who have held off starting a family due to careers and money concerns are being blamed for the steep rises in births in the last decade.

(source)

I posted a link to a savings calculator above so you can find out how much work you've got to do to give yourself that comfortable retirement package you might already be dreaming of.

Of course, you might get lucky and make your millions, but if you don't this could be all you have so it's worth planning ahead to save yourself from years in poverty or an extended working life when you're older.

Sadly it won't be practical for a lot of us but be armed with the information and make informed choices wherever you can. That holiday in the sun might be just what you need right now but one week and it's gone. Put that money away and it could be paying for that retirement cruise instead.

# 35 This was the week that was....

Another incredibly busy week means I have really left it to the last minute getting today's blog out. In fact, I have failed. Boo! So what can I tell you to fill the space?

Perfect hottie

Well it snowed yesterday -  the first snow that has settled in 2012, although to be fair it didn't stop play. The absolutely freezing temperatures however have frozen my brain and just about everyone elses. We long for spring. I have craved water bottles all week but got only one. And toasty it was too. But that's another story.

In other news I have 3 weeks until dissertation final hand in and 2000 words still to go. This is poor in my book as I was doing so well up until Christmas. And then they went and insanely gave us a month off Uni for the festivities. Trying to back into work mode has been horrendously difficult. Also, I sneakily booked a few photoshoots in on Mondays which are essentially 'Dissertation Day' so that probably hasn't helped.

I am planning to redress the balance next week although I find working from home a struggle as I treat Uni like the 9 - 5 so in the evenings I just want to come home and chill out, not do more work. But as University work is only half of the story at the moment this is proving to be a bit of a tricky balancing act. Weekends tend to be work related these days, but I only have to be bear with it until the end of March and then I can take a breather until business officially begins mid May. Watch this space.

Have a good weekend all.