jacey: (Default)
jacey ([personal profile] jacey) wrote2009-01-22 05:38 pm
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Happy Birthday H

My friend and ex-singing partner, H, is 60 today.

Let me say that again.

Sixty.

We've just been for lunch at the Cooper Art Gallery in Barnsley (very nice) and then had a steady hike around the (charity) shops and bookshops.

We were laughing because as folkies we've always lived on the scrag end of nothing. No one ever goes into folk singing for the money, believe me. As I said to [livejournal.com profile] footlingagain  yesterday:
What would the folksinger do if he won a million pounds?
Keep gigging until the money ran out.

So bearing that in mind, H is now looking forward to her first state pension payment because for the first time in many years she'll have a steady income that's actually more than folksinger income[*]! Whoo-hoo. Yay for the state pension! Bring it on!
:-)
Ha!

[*] That's nett income after expenses of course

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2009-01-22 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy Birthday to H!

[identity profile] jhetley.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
If we (US) got pensions at sixty, I'll already be collecting . . .

[identity profile] birdsedge.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Women get them at sixty, men at sixty-five, but that's changing. They're putting women's pensionable age up to 65, so over the next few years there's a percentage change. I'm in the band that does not get the pension at sixty, but I get it at sixty-and-a-half.

Since women (on average) live longer than men it epuld have been nice to pull men's pensionable age down to sixty. Or a pity they couldn't have levelled them out and had everyone collecting at 62.5

You can choose to leave it longer, of course, but in fact you get very little extra for doing so. Private pensions are still taken anywhere between 55 and 70 depending on the circumstances and personal preferences.

[identity profile] mevennen.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Much like writing, unless one is exceptionally lucky. Sigh.

[identity profile] birdsedge.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes I have a knack for seeking out career opportunities designed to keep me poor. From folk singing to SF writing (sigh).
:-)

An aside

[identity profile] footlingagain.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
At last! At last I found out why I couldn't use my usual moniker on LJ!

Your friend signed up 7 months before me. And there was I, thinking that I'd signed up and forgotten.

*senior moment* ?!?

Which reminds me of my manners :)

~Happy Birthday!~ And happy new pension income to H ;-)
Edited 2009-01-22 21:32 (UTC)

Re: An aside

[identity profile] birdsedge.livejournal.com 2009-01-22 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Many apologies to both footling and you. I meant to say footlingagin. I don't know footling. KIt was purely accidental and I will edit my original post immediately

Re: An aside

[identity profile] footlingagain.livejournal.com 2009-01-23 10:49 am (UTC)(link)
No apology necessary, in my case - you've solved a mystery for me! :D