[Misc] I'm in the wrong job

[Arthur]

Can someone tell me what value mortgage brokers give? They usually just seem to come back with the same quotes it takes 10 minutes to Google ?!?

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Yes I can and I speak from very current experience as I'm in the process of remortgaging using Uncle Spielberg

Generally (not always granted) they tend to have access to better rates that are available to Joe Public.

They will follow your mortgage term, assuming you are on a fixed rate and be proactive about finding new deals when that time is right.

If any issues arise they'll have a much better in with the lenders to get said issue resolved.

Yep, you can do it all yourself but for the sake of a couple of hundred quid every few years I think it's very much worth spending the money.

 

[wuntbedruv]

The problem here is that the Tories have abolished the "Middle Classes" in the good old days you knew your place , you had the toffs and big business owners and senior managers earning a decent whack, below them your middle classes, Civil Servants ,Bank Managers, Doctors, Dentists, middle managers ,Draughtsmen ,small shop keepers all earning around 4 times less Then you had your scum.People like me Technical workers, builders, plumbers down through the grades to dustman, railway workers, shop assistants. All perhaps on half of the Middle Classes.

Today top top rate pay has grown out of proportion as a multiple of the other grades,( for example when British Gas was privatised the pay of the chief exec went up overnight from £60,000 to £ 360,000) Senior staff now "earn" multiples of 100 x average wage +++. Take our Chief exec on a pay and pension package of £2.500,000 as an example.

The skilled working class can demand and get earnings exceeding £100,000 outstripping the earnings if the old middle class and they resent this ( I have seen people dismissing the £60,000 pay of a train driver as excessive . This is because the traditional middle class have been squeezed between the obscene pay growth of the "elite" and the growing pay of those "beneath them"
Instead of ranting about the injustices of excessive rewards packages of people they aspire ( but have no chance of joining) to be. They feel threatened those who do jobs beneath their station.

They are hitting out at the wrong targets But that is the way the system works.

 

[Happy Exile]

Can someone tell me what value mortgage brokers give? They usually just seem to come back with the same quotes it takes 10 minutes to Google ?!?

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Probably mostly with non-standard situations. My first mortgage I got through a broker because I didn't know any better but they also made it simpler dealing with loads of paperwork around a loan I'd taken out to consolidate some debt a few years previously which seemed to be a sticking point with some lenders. Ever since then I've done it myself, and even going along with the estate agent recommendation to see what their brokers can find they've never found a better deal than I can get, probably because I'm boringly average in my circumstances and situation.

 

[Insel affe]

A Team (Main and a lad) of Carpet Fitters for the day doing approx 120sqm carpet would set you back £900.00 about.
One LVT (Amtico or Karndean) doing approx 35sqm a day would cost about £875.00.

Remember that is not what they get though, they would get over half that.

A good fitter is worth every penny of that, back breaking work, and why I gave it up about 13 years ago.
PS: The money we allow here has only just reached the London rates that I was getting when I left to move back down here, you can add at least 25% to that if you live in the smoke.

 

[Springal]

A good mortgage advisor is well worth the fees (or mine is at least) - as said generally they can find deals not available directly and every time I have remortgaged this has beaten anything I have been able to find.

They also have a good idea on criteria and willingness to lend in certain areas / criteria. And a good example was my brother in a flat recently after the cladding issues - and after 2 applications himself where the lender wouldn't lend, my advisor had already done a remortgage in that building and knew how to get the application done - rather than having to keep wasting time until my brother would have found one.

 

[theboybilly]

Train drivers, Especially TFL. about £60k?!

As an ex-Train Driver I got this a lot from other drivers (mainly coach drivers) bemoaning their lagging behind pay-wise. I always asked them to bring all the stuff they needed to do their job (including paperwork) and I'd bring mine. I also asked them if they'd get out of bed a 2am for a 3am start or would they prefer getting home at 3am (after a 10 or 11-hour shift) . Silence.
We got paid good money not for what we necessarily did when things were hunky-dory but for when the pie hit the fan and you were alone to sort things with 1,000 angry commuters stuck between E Croydon and Norwood Junction (what a place to fail that). It wasn't a particularly easy job to get into either when only a small percentage pass all the tests and exams. We weren't paid good money for nothing and it irks me when people would rather Train Driver wages were pegged than trying to get more money for the less well-paid. I include some Union reps in this.

 

[Baker lite]

As an ex-Train Driver I got this a lot from other drivers (mainly coach drivers) bemoaning their lagging behind pay-wise. I always asked them to bring all the stuff they needed to do their job (including paperwork) and I'd bring mine. I also asked them if they'd get out of bed a 2am for a 3am start or would they prefer getting home at 3am (after a 10 or 11-hour shift) . Silence.
We got paid good money not for what we necessarily did when things were hunky-dory but for when the pie hit the fan and you were alone to sort things with 1,000 angry commuters stuck between E Croydon and Norwood Junction (what a place to fail that). It wasn't a particularly easy job to get into either when only a small percentage pass all the tests and exams. We weren't paid good money for nothing and it irks me when people would rather Train Driver wages were pegged than trying to get more money for the less well-paid. I include some Union reps in this.

[emoji1319][emoji1319]

 

[zefarelly]

The problem here is that the Tories have abolished the "Middle Classes" in the good old days you knew your place , you had the toffs and big business owners and senior managers earning a decent whack, below them your middle classes, Civil Servants ,Bank Managers, Doctors, Dentists, middle managers ,Draughtsmen ,small shop keepers all earning around 4 times less Then you had your scum.People like me Technical workers, builders, plumbers down through the grades to dustman, railway workers, shop assistants. All perhaps on half of the Middle Classes.

Today top top rate pay has grown out of proportion as a multiple of the other grades,( for example when British Gas was privatised the pay of the chief exec went up overnight from £60,000 to £ 360,000) Senior staff now "earn" multiples of 100 x average wage +++. Take our Chief exec on a pay and pension package of £2.500,000 as an example.

The skilled working class can demand and get earnings exceeding £100,000 outstripping the earnings if the old middle class and they resent this ( I have seen people dismissing the £60,000 pay of a train driver as excessive . This is because the traditional middle class have been squeezed between the obscene pay growth of the "elite" and the growing pay of those "beneath them"
Instead of ranting about the injustices of excessive rewards packages of people they aspire ( but have no chance of joining) to be. They feel threatened those who do jobs beneath their station.

They are hitting out at the wrong targets But that is the way the system works.

I trained as a draughtsman over 30 years ago, have climbed the ladder as a project engineer and manager, then climbed back down again as I like designing and drawing, and a stress free working life.

my salary is the same now as it was 20 years ago . . . . I'd earn more as a plumber, even at NSC rates!

 

[wuntbedruv]

I trained as a draghtsman over 30 years ago, have climbed the ladder as a project engineer and manager, then climbed back down again as I like designing and drawing, and a stress free working life.

my salary is the same now as it was 20 years ago . . . . I'd earn more as a plumber, even at NSC rates!

An example of the very group I mentioned, nice middle class job squeezed from both ends.

 

[RandyWanger]

Paid a brickie 400 today to run a 7 course plinth along the bottom of the front of my house. He was there at 8:30 and done by 13:00. It'll take me 4 times as long to earn that.

 

[zefarelly]

An example of the very group I mentioned, nice middle class job squeezed from both ends.

the situation for a lot of those skilled non 'professional' but qualified jobs has been squeezed by technology to a point, but also locally because there's hardly any manufacturing in the South east any more. . .according to the BoE inflation calculator I'm £15k a year down on 20 years ago.

It certainly feels like it,

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Also regarding vets the whole industry has changed a lot over the last few years. In times of old your vet was a local guy who had set himself up in practice and all you were paying for was to cover his expenses and for him to earn a living. Over time these small practices have been merged and taken over by venture capitalists who could see the money to be made by upping the prices and getting pet insurance firms (like the one I was working for at the time) to pay the bill.

Quite a few years ago we had a cat which developed pancreatitis. The vet strung us along to believe that various treatments would be available to make her better, at a price obviously. It was only when I spoke to a consultant at work that they mentioned that this type of issue in an elderly cat is (1) painful, (2) not really treatable and (3) fatal. He said that an old school vet would have just recommended putting her down but modern vets like to prolong the treatment so they can get more money out of you/the insurer first, using your guilt as a lever.

My cat developed pancreatitis last May. The first thing we knew was him being violently sick everywhere, so I rang the vet as soon as it opened in the morning, was made to wait until 13.00 for an appointment, was told it was pancreatitis then. A few hours later we were told to take him to the hospital in Patcham to be kept on a drip overnight, and to pay for a scan. The next day at lunchtime, after the scan, we were offered further treatment or euthanasia. He wasn't insured and we had already paid out over £1500 so we went in and held him whilst they put him to sleep. He was almost 11.
The first vet told me he had pancreatitis so why all the blood tests and scan etc? When I looked it up, like you, I found out that pancreatitis is fatal. He could have been put to sleep on the first day without all the tests and drips etc.

 

[METALMICKY]

Dentists may earn good money but it has one of the highest rates of suicide amongst professionals. I guess looking down people's mouths all day not a bag of laughs

 

[Insel affe]

Dentists may earn good money but it has one of the highest rates of suicide amongst professionals. I guess looking down people's mouths all day not a bag of laughs

Either that or they simply can't live with the guilt over how much they charge.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

It's worse than that. It's the insuretech industry. And we do Cloud / SaaS.

*hides from [MENTION=21477]Dick Swiveller[/MENTION] *

I'm past caring these days. Probably because I am a jack of all trades and never really developer. Set up some SQL out of necessity and it works - sort of.. There are loads of ways of doing it properly that are better than my system and people can quote Azure/Power Bi/Data Lakes/Snowflake as much as they want and I just shrug. But £2500 to just get data out of a view that is already there? Might try and claim that on my pet insurance as well!

 

[beorhthelm]

Either that or they simply can't live with the guilt over how much they charge.

tad harsh.

though Dentistry is a profession that baffles me. accepting the skill and training required, why do treatments and materials cost so much? how is it possible to go abroad, where presumably the training similar, the materials comparable, but the cost a fraction? prices should come down to reflect the availability, somehow they remain high.

 

[Weststander]

My cat developed pancreatitis last May. The first thing we knew was him being violently sick everywhere, so I rang the vet as soon as it opened in the morning, was made to wait until 13.00 for an appointment, was told it was pancreatitis then. A few hours later we were told to take him to the hospital in Patcham to be kept on a drip overnight, and to pay for a scan. The next day at lunchtime, after the scan, we were offered further treatment or euthanasia. He wasn't insured and we had already paid out over £1500 so we went in and held him whilst they put him to sleep. He was almost 11.
The first vet told me he had pancreatitis so why all the blood tests and scan etc? When I looked it up, like you, I found out that pancreatitis is fatal. He could have been put to sleep on the first day without all the tests and drips etc.

Do you remember the name of the veterinary practice?

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

My cousin's daughter lives in the US. Got made redundant shortly after lockdown. She found out a few days later she was pregnant. Due to complications she had to go for a cecarian and hadn't thought about her health insurance expired. After 3 days in hospital she was presented with a bill for SIXTY TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Do you remember the name of the veterinary practice?

New Priory. They have a branch in Peacehaven and the big branch/hospital in Brighton.

 

[Insel affe]

My cousin's daughter lives in the US. Got made redundant shortly after lockdown. She found out a few days later she was pregnant. Due to complications she had to go for a cecarian and hadn't thought about her health insurance expired. After 3 days in hospital she was presented with a bill for SIXTY TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!

I believe that, my friend also married an American and she moved over here when they found out to have their baby and moved back when he was two. We do not know how lucky we are with the NHS and paid holidays, most Americans don't believe me when I tell them the NHS is free, what's the catch etc. They really don't believe me when I tell them I get 26 paid holidays and bank holidays a year, it is alien to them.

Land of the free my arse, Land of the Fee more like.