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The good morning, good night thread

Started by Ed, October 22, 2007, 03:49:05 AM

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Russell

Ed, I think I've lost my mojo for a full time office job, and with the weather we've been having even a part time job feels like it might be a chore!

Anyway, a friend who runs a consultancy offered some ad hoc work last night and I think that might do me. My Financial Adviser has a plan for the pensions I have.  It just about gives me the income I need, plus the flexibility I need, and the attention that investments will need through brexit, but comes with an annual 2.5% (of the investment pot) fee. I've no idea if that fee is good, ok, or bad, so I'm currently waiting on a similar proposal from Fidelity (who hold one of my workplace pensions).

It's all a bit complicated.

Ed

Quote from: Russell on July 06, 2017, 02:07:53 AM
Ed, I think I've lost my mojo for a full time office job, and with the weather we've been having even a part time job feels like it might be a chore!

Anyway, a friend who runs a consultancy offered some ad hoc work last night and I think that might do me. My Financial Adviser has a plan for the pensions I have.  It just about gives me the income I need, plus the flexibility I need, and the attention that investments will need through brexit, but comes with an annual 2.5% (of the investment pot) fee. I've no idea if that fee is good, ok, or bad, so I'm currently waiting on a similar proposal from Fidelity (who hold one of my workplace pensions).

It's all a bit complicated.

Personally, I've heard so many horror stories about pensions being worthless at retirement that I don't trust the high street names. My uncle watched his pension pot grow by a meagre one or two percent for years and, frustrated by this, he asked his accountant what the hell was going on. What it boils down to is you give your money to 'Jones the Pension', or whoever else, and they invest it in funds. If the funds make money, so does your pension, but the problem is Jones pay their fund manager and take a profit for themselves, and by the time you get your share it's diminished quite a bit. What makes this doubly sickening is that the fund Jones buys into with your money already has its own fund manager, making the Jones fund manager pointless. The fund manager at the coal face buys and sells shares for the fund, spreading the risk and using his expert knowledge to choose which ones to keep and which to drop. Since then, my uncle chose to invest his pension into directly into the funds. The company he uses is Hargreaves Landsdown, and that's where I have invested mine now. He keep a close eye on his and makes strategic buys and sells. He manages to get growth anywhere between 8% and 12% per year.

I don't like financial advisors either. The commissions they take can be massive. You have to watch them. I invested a lump sum in a pension years ago as a one off. Then the net year the pensions company wrote to me asking where that year's payment was. It turned out the financial advisor had signed me up for an ongoing committment and taken a massive commission for his trouble. I managed to get it frozen, but he had taken a quarter of the money I put in as commission. I've never been to one since.

Good luck with the new part time job -- sounds good.

Jerry -- hang in there. I'm a firm believer that it'll come good one day and be better for the wait  :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

Just read the critique notes from a story I posted way back and recently rediscovered. Man, this place was a gold-mine for a period of time. I think (hope) I'm a better writer now, but if I am it was in no small part thanks to the critters back in the day.
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Ed

Quote from: delboy on August 01, 2017, 03:37:58 PM
Just read the critique notes from a story I posted way back and recently rediscovered. Man, this place was a gold-mine for a period of time. I think (hope) I'm a better writer now, but if I am it was in no small part thanks to the critters back in the day.

Hi Del, good to see you dropping in.

Maybe we will resurrect the beast someday, get it going again. I do miss it. I'd much rather somebody had taken it over and kept it running, rather than me letting it slide. It was often a problem getting enough folks together at the end of each month to get a crit session going, but when writing a story to enter for a comp, or an anthology, it was really good to have a few people giving good crits to keep everything on track.

I'm writing factual stuff mostly, these days. Proposals and web site content, that type of thing. I sometimes take for granted the skills that I learned. Things like editing out pleonasms and word repeats. The frugality of words you learn from the flash challenge, and editing down to a eord count without losing meaning. All useful stuff :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

omega1300

Just dropping in - been a long while since I've been here. Looks like flash competitions have dropped off? Hope everyone's been well!

elay2433

I know there's not much activity here as of late, but I thought I'd post this just in case any of you pop in from time to time like I do.

https://darkregions.com/blogs/news/writing-contest-open-submissions-free-to-enter-with-1-000-in-prizes

Check it out. Could be fun.

delboy

Nice! Thanks for the heads up, elay,

I shall have a bash at this - it's about time I wrote a horror short again!

Cheers
Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Ed

Yeah, thanks Jerry. Good one. Hi Del -- nice to see people still dropping by from time to time. How's life, folks? :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

Hey Ed.

Yes all good here. Still bashing out westerns and the occasional short. Still plucking a guitar. And still commuting too far and too often. But I can see a time coming when I might be able to knock the commuting on the head and focus on being a Renaissance man. Maybe a year, maybe two... but there's light at the end of the tunnel. How's you?

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Geoff_N

I thought I'd pop in and look for evidence of life here. Umm, bit like searching for organic compounds on Mars and yet there is...

Besides these chats I welcomed the critiques and honed many a short horror story for them to end up published somewhere - often on Jeani Rector's The Horror Zine. Now my shorts are still critiqued, as are novels, on the BSFA Orbiters email groups. That works well too - many experienced writers there.

Good to see most of the Cafe Doom people on facebook from time to time and even on twitter.

Write on and prosper.

Ed

Hi Derek -- Renaissance Man time sounds good to me. :afro: Glad to hear you're still outputting westerns. Hope the Northern Line woes haven't troubled you too much.

I'd be happy with a bit of spare time. I'm time poor at the moment, and have been for quite a while now. I think I've said before that I had planned to work flat out for four years on a big push, and then ease off and do something else, but it hasn't worked out like that. I'm now six or seven years on and though things have changed a lot, and in some ways for the better (no longer working with my worn out body), I'm in the office most of the time these days, trying to find enough work for the guys, pricing jobs, doing all the ordering and organising. That's stressful on the mind rather than the body. When I was on the tools I'd be bored most of the day and on autopilot, doing repetitive tasks. That led on to evenings doing something more creative, to stay sane. I suppose it's just the old private hell thing -- whatever we do has its drawbacks. You tend to forget the past was probably worse in just as many ways as it was better. Hah, still. It could always be worse! I've been trying to retrain myself to see the things that stress me out as exciting opportunities instead. It's not working yet, but I'll keep trying.

Hi Geoff, glad to hear you're still getting on well with the BSFA Orbiters group. Yes, apparently there is occasional life on Doom -- every so often it's nice to drop in and touch base. I keep thinking one day I'll have a bit more time on my hands and there will be a waking of the dead. Put on a new competition and breathe a bit of fetid air into the old dungeon. Get the place kicking again. One day... :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

No Northern Line woes for me, Ed. I'm out in the west country - though my commute is up into Birmingham and I have M42 woes most days, although I have cut back to just 2 or 3 days a week commuting and am managing a few days working from home. Did hit London a couple of times in the last few weeks with work and even went up the Post Office tower. An excellent experience.

Keep on keeping on!
Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Ed

Ah, yeah, aren't you Gloucestershire way, Del? My memory is shot :idiot:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

Hi Ed

Yep, I'm in Gloucester.

Some news on the writing front - the latest western (#7 - the final part of the trilogy made up of #5, #6, and now #7) is now out on eBook. It briefly peaked at number seven in one of Amazon's lesser charts. The hardback version is due out on Halloween. Western #8, which isn't part of any series is due out in February. I've now made a start on #9...

Also, the first part of the trilogy (#5, Dead Man's Eyes) has been sold on for reprint to a large print publisher - which is good news because (a) it means more readers, (b) it means someone has decided it's good enough to reprint and pay for that reprint, and (c) it means a few more £s to me. Not a lot, but it's all welcome.

Then, on top of that, the publisher has decided to dip their toe in the world of paperback publishing and have selected 10 back-list westerns to publish - including the aforementioned Dead Man's Eyes. Again, it's good because  it means more readers and it'll be nice to finally be out in paperback, but also it means someone at the publishers thinks it's good enough to be in that initial ten.

So all good, on the writing front  :cool:

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Ed

That's fantastic news Del -- well done that man!

I'm just slogging away at the daily grind. Looking forward to having some time off at Christmas. Haven't managed a holiday this year, not yet, but I'm thinking I'll get some peace between Christmas and New Year, then I've got two weeks booked off in the sun for the first two weeks in January -- usually the bleakest days of the year, so glad to be outside of the UK for them.

Anybody else around but us chickens? :smiley:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]