On Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:50:36 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> Holy hell, I just bought a house. o_O
>>
>> Well done. :)
> 
> You can congratulate me *after* I actually get the keys. ;-)

It's a step in the right direction - especially since I recall you saying 
a few years ago that you couldn't understand how anyone could afford to 
own a place of their own. :)

>>> (And now I'm suddenly feeling awfully twitchy about whether my job is
>>> as secure as I think it is!)
>>
>> Welcome to adult life. :)
> 
> o_O

There's no certainty in life.  When I bought my first home, I had moved 
1200 miles from where I grew up for a job with a company I'd never heard 
of (other than being referred by a friend and doing an interview when I 
was in town for a conference).  I stayed with that friend for about 6 
months before getting my own place.

I stayed with the job for 18 months.  Nearly lost the house because I 
didn't have the savings to pay the mortgage while I looked for work for 3 
months - and did a contract that didn't pay when they said they would 
(got paid 3 weeks after starting the new job, and the new job's first 
paycheck took 30 days to be paid - they were on a monthly pay schedule, 
and I started on the first of the month and payday was the last day of 
the month).

Having to deal with that uncertainty - by balancing income and 
expenditures, savings, and getting the bills paid - that's "adult life".  
My wife and I constantly are saying "I don't want to be an adult!", but 
we do it.

I'm nearly 2 years out of being laid off (next month, actually) - still 
in the house, still balancing income and expenses, and planning another 
move (this year) farther west.  I'm what's known in the US as a "1099 
employee" - essentially self-employed, but someone else handles my 
billing and organizing my contracts, and all my income is pre-tax, so I 
have to make quarterly estimates and pre-pay my taxes.  (The name comes 
from the form - a "1099" government form - that my income is reported to 
the government by my employer).

What I'm trying to say is that feeling twitchy about the job being secure 
is a good thing - that being twitchy about it is a normal part of adult 
life.  In life there are no guarantees, so keep doing a good job at work, 
and everything may well continue to work out well.  But I learned the 
hard way that even doing a good job at work isn't absolute prevention 
against being laid off (in my case, my contribution and ROI wasn't even 
considered - how much I cost was the only consideration, according to the 
decision maker who laid me off).

So keep feeling twitchy and be assured that that's normal and healthy.  
Move into the flat and have fun. :)

Jim

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