I have worked all my life, apart from a couple of years when Thatcher put me on the dole twice in five years.
I could have stayed on the dole but decided to get a job on the council, a job that others would have seen as beneath them.
When the kids were growing up I worked a full day plus gritting at night. I worked seven days a week, and have been working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day.
If any overtime was going I would have it.
When the kids had grown up I went to five days a week. I packed in the overtime in 2009. When I had done almost 33 years on the council I went for my redundancy.
I was 31 when I started on the council having worked in engineering up until then. I enjoyed my jobs and made some good friends. But now we are comfortably off and I am enjoying life knowing that I will never have to work again.
But, if I had been well off in the beginning of my working life I wouldn't have worked at all.
Just think how much of your life is spent working for others.