Decent wage

[Odin]

I could go to London and work on the agency. I would more than double my current salary.
I would then pay more tax, not live Devon 10 mins drive from a dive site. No pension - other than a private one (which I have already).

At the end of a crappy day I come home (10 mins on the bike) walk down by the estuary, have a chat with various people that have I may meet. We have the time to stop and say hello. Look over to see who is on my mooring so I can demand a beer from them!

Quality of life is very important to me. I managed 6 months in London. Hated every minute of it. Worked in Saudi - had good times and bad times. But although originally from Lancashire, I consider Devon to be my home, Been here 20 years on Friday!

So, briefly, money is not my driving force. I would like more - but can manage a pretty good lifestyle on what I earn now.
Paul

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by Odin

I could go to London and work on the agency. I would more than double my current salary.
I would then pay more tax, not live Devon 10 mins drive from a dive site. No pension - other than a private one (which I have already).

At the end of a crappy day I come home (10 mins on the bike) walk down by the estuary, have a chat with various people that have I may meet. We have the time to stop and say hello. Look over to see who is on my mooring so I can demand a beer from them!

Quality of life is very important to me. I managed 6 months in London. Hated every minute of it. Worked in Saudi - had good times and bad times. But although originally from Lancashire, I consider Devon to be my home, Been here 20 years on Friday!

So, briefly, money is not my driving force. I would like more - but can manage a pretty good lifestyle on what I earn now.
Paul

Odin is right, London isn't all its cracked up to be , higher cost of living etc and I am only here because my wife teaches here and isn't in the shadow of her parents who were both top teachers in our hometown. I could get a job back home that pays a damn sight less than London and still be better off but you have to lok at happiness from all angles not just the fiscal side of it, I have a really good working relationship with my teams in work and more friends in London and the south east than I ever did in North Wales.

A decent wage really is what you make out of it.

[aclivity]

this thread has drifted a bit (don't they all) but I thought I would add my tuppenorth to the comments about London life. I've been in the south east for something like 11 years, and the light is now at the end of the tunnel - we've sold up and are in the process of buying a house back in the cold and frozen north. I'm lucky in that I have an employer who has sites all over the UK, so I can move without changing jobs.

So after living and working in the SE for 11 years (9 years living in London, 2 years commuting) I agree that London is NOT the be-all and end-all that we sometimes think. I have enjoyed being here, made some good friends, done some stuff that you just can't do further away (like, we used to pop down to Dover for a booze cruise as the fancy took us, it would be harder to do that from the north west) and of course there is a lot actually IN London like the museums etc. Tomorrow we are going on the London Eye, just because it's there.

But I am still looking forward to the move back up north; we will be nearer family, nearer to the sea, nearer to open countryside. The air quality will be better. I will not have to spend 5 hours a day on the M25. The children may grow up with "Wiggin" accents but I'm sure occasional beatings will help to address that!

So don't write London off. Remember, though, that it is possible to do London as a visitor, and often I think we haven't done half as much of the available opportunities here in 11 years as some visitors do in a couple of weekends!

And trying to get back to the original post subject, salaries... I've taken a 20% pay cut over the last 12 months (wasn't entirely voluntary, my presence was requested at to that dance ... the redun dance). I feel richer now than I did 12 months ago. I enjoy my work more than I did, I am adding value in my role now rather than managing others, and when we move I will see lots more of my family.

So I'd sort of back up Mike (resting Rifleman) in saying that 'enough money to live, eat, keep clothes on your back and a roof over your head' is really the important thing. Enjoying life shouldn't cost money? I sometimes look back to pre-kids days; two big salaries, we could afford to buy anything we wanted. A new hifi? See it, like it, buy it. Now if we want something, it gets added to the list of things we want. If, as and when the money is available, we'll buy it. We don't get stressed if we can't buy it now, (we also don't believe in getting into debt, that's another subject), and when we do get it we'll enjoy just as much. It's not a hardship, it's just the way things are.

Of course, in hindsight we could have planned the reduction in family income with the children arriving so that it happened a couple of years AFTER I had started diving, but such is life!

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by aclivity

...wasn't entirely voluntary, my presence was requested at to that dance ... the redun dance)...

They've just started playing that tune at my place today, only been there 14months