Maybe time for you to make some changes too, Iain? I think that your good lady has a hankering for a little farm somewhere.
As for me, I won't be changing my lifestyle as such, just shedding a few of the unnecessary aspects and concentrating on the things I've always valued most highly.
Tim,
Turning the clock back 20 years might not seem so appealing if and when this period is over!
Will be very nice if you can do it, but for lots of us there was no option but to work all the hours there were just to try and better yourself and give your family a reasonable standard of living.
And if you were an employee it didn’t matter how long you toiled, only your gaffer’s business improved, you just got a few more quid at the end of the week.
Being a farmer there is much scope to develop and grow depending on how much graft you are prepared to put in.
The more you work, the more you grow and the more stress you (Can) get.
I was made redundant in ‘87 and started my own business. Bought a 20K building with 5K cash and a 15K home improvement loan. (Good loan as it had tax relief).
Worked 14 hour day on my own for first year and the employed a worker the year after.
We bought a new machine one year and the company delivered it and commissioned it on the day we closed for Christmas. Came back after Christmas to no jobs in the pipeline (Small recession) until Easter. That nearly finished me, but with wifey working (As well as looking after 3 or 4 kids) we kept open.
My (And Wifey’s) idea was to eventually buy a small holding and try being as near self sufficient as we could.
Staff varied but never more than 5 and me and I was always hands on because I enjoyed my job, but also thought that any work I did myself, didn’t cost me anything.
In the end it didn’t work out because I got COPD through the job and had to retire. Lucky for me I did as once in clean air the COPD didn’t get any worse.(Had visions of going round with an oxy bottle on my back).
We didn’t believe in paying into pension schemes, but did manage to pay off the workshop loan and get a small portfolio of houses. (4 kids & 4 houses, their inheritance sorted).
That’s why I kept trying to do better, so my kids (All grown up long ago) will have something extra to look forward to when we’ve gone.
77 now, got a gun, titchy car and motorbike (And the same Wifey) and don’t need anything else. Still can’t eat any more than I used to.
About 15 years ago (After i’d Retired) a fast food chain approach us wanting to buy our workshop, Talk of 250k for something we paid 20 for. One of our kids uses the workshop so we turned the offer down. It wouldn’t have happened anyway.
As things turned out, at the time the bottom fell out the housing market and the fast food chain decided to revamp their existing restaurants instead of opening more. All those years on and there’s still not a Micky’s in our town.
If I had to go back, I’d still do the same again because it’s all I know.
I do envy your lifestyle Tim, but not everyone is in a position to have that lifestyle even if they wanted.
Will probably be great for your health to step back and take things easier, mental as well as physical.
Good luck to you.
Ken.
Ps. Just finished reading a book. ‘The Worst Hard Time’.
It’s about what happened on the Great Plains in America when the Farmers And Cattlemen move in (1901) after the Buffs. and Indians got “Moved”. Unbelievable what nature did and also how the greed and success of the Farmers was their downfall.
Let me know if you want it. Ken.
