Money matters

When you are made redundant at 58, you have to consider whether you really want another similar job and also whether you are likely to get one anyway.  If the answer to both these is "no" then you are effectively retired.  It has taken me some time to get used to that idea - well, just about three days actually!  There then arise two further questions: firstly, can you survive on what you have; secondly, how will you keep yourself from getting bored?  The answer to the first of these meant that we would have to leave our posh flat overlooking the Thames in London in order to forsake mortgage and service charges, in order to buy a place without a mortgage "somewhere in the country".  The second question indicated that a refurbishment project might be just the thing for me.  So we sold our flat and moved to a rented house in the heart of England in order to look for that elusive property which I would know when I saw it.

After seeing the house, I did some budgetary sums on a Post-It note.  Overall, I reckoned that it would need around £100,000 to fix this (famous last words!) and so with our own sale agreed we needed those proceeds to pay for this purchase and the refurbishment.  The asking price was obviously OTT, so we made an offer about £50k less on the afternoon of the day we looked at the house.  This was rejected but the agent played it well and a second offer was accepted.  She called to tell us but we had gone out, but we made the deduction from the tone of her voice-mail, and went to bed rejoicing.  The next morning the website showed "Sold STC" so we were quite sure (well, I was anyway) that it was ours.  Then the agent called to say that yes, our offer had been accepted BUT someone else had gone in a few minutes ago and made a higher offer, which they would have to put to the vendor.  So our hopes seemed to be cruelly dashed, and we spent the next two hours realising just how much we had actually wanted this house, and how disappointed we were not to get it.  Back to the drawing board.

Then, another phone call.  The house is (will be) ours, as the vendor had been persuaded that our position with a house already sold (STC) meant that our offer was a better one.  Great rejoicing.

Now we just have to get our previous place exchanged and completed, rather than drifting as it has for over 16 weeks (don't get me started on solicitors!).