To want to know how all these people earn a living titting about all day?

[Pipbin]

Seriously, there is a guy on countryfile right now who is an expert on foraging, and there was another guy who was a free diver. Not to mention the two women who were artists.

I want these jobs. I want to spend all day just titting about and somehow still earn a living.

How did you all stop yourselves from killing him by hitting him repeatedly over the head with his board and then driving his campervan over his half dead body whilst shouting die, you wanker, die??

There was a guy on the radio earlier who walked from London to Rome following ancient pilgrimage routes. He was a writer and so I guess he either had an advance or had made enough money previously to be able to do this. What I want to know is how did he cover the cost of rent or mortgage and bills like council tax on his house in the uk while he was titting about?

And as for Mr windsurfer there I don't know how you didn't kick him to death.

That said, I had a friend who had a very similar lifestyle. She simply couldn't understand why I did a job I hated.

My dad is an artist. He hasn't had a proper job since 1972. Come to think of it, he hasn't sold any of his 'art' since 1989. He has NO money. He doesn't care.

Pipbin I know quite a few people who have gone abroad for a few months/year (not necessarily to tit about, sometimes to work abroad for a bit, sometimes just to travel). Lots of solutions to leaving a property behind - sometimes they were just renting anyway so just ended tenancy, sometimes they'd rent it out, sometimes they sold up completely and bought again when they got back.

But what do you do with all your stuff?

I am constantly wondering this too.
TBH depending on where you draw the line there have been all sorts of ways of getting others to subsidise your lifestyle, you can earn just enough to ensure you can get large bursaries for private school fees, you can keep your hours down so you get tax credits to top up your lifestyle, you can rent a property from various trusts or more distantly related family members and get housing benefit to pay the bill.

there are of course a whole heap more which might be the wrong side of legality but I have heard about them many years ago there was a vogue for having city bonuses paid in kind or ?overseas so either not declarable to IR or they didn't now about them, you can live overseas and have your spouse receive all the money, you can split income between earner and non working spouse to maximise tax allowances, you can go self employed and pay yourself in dividends (taxed at 10 or 19% I can't remember) all of these are also ways of financing a bit of titting about.

(Love the phrase BTW)

Some people are just loaded and some just have very simple (i.e. uncluttered) lives!

Actually, thinking about it, an old friend of mine (now mid thirties) has spent all of her adult life titting about. She has the occasional job but never sticks at it, and drifts from college course to college course. I can't remember her ever doing one thing for more than 6 months. She has also upped sticks and lived abroad several times; Spain, France, Tunisia, then comes back to the UK and always seems to fall on her feet renting lovely houses.

I really don't know how she does it; she always seems to have nice clothes and things, as do her DCs, and does lots of nice things too such as trips to London, spa weekends and the like. At the moment she has moved 200 miles away to live with a new boyfriend and is doing a part time floristry college course, but not working. Her boyfriend isn't rich, and her parents are far from rich so I really don't know how she manages it all.

I guess they put them into storage, or live very minimally anyway, or in the case of one friend (no dc) pretty much sold/gave his stuff away. For one friend who rented to family, they just left everything in the house - it was a cheap rent so they didn't complain.

My friend's husband titted about as an artist (and buying and flogging paintings on ebay and antiques fairs - was on bargain Hunt as a stall owner a couple of times).

Unfortunately, he didn't have rich parents or a wealthy wife (in fact his pride at being the breadwinner meant that he refused to let her work) so he didn't do very well at all.

There were periods of good times, but also winters with no gas, carefully hoarded electricity and no food in the freezer.

It also left his children with the impression that to 'work' for a living you could do it sat on your sofa with a laptop on your lap for an hour a day.

Not good.

I must be living in a different world. Most of the people I know are making (a very modest) income from acting/singing/dancing/instrumentalist type jobs. They are all hugely qualified and experienced and work really hard.

Most of them have to also teach/lecture/write about their niche skills to make ends meet. They work unsocial hours and live frugally but still support families and children by being careful. Just the same as anyone in a more traditional job.

It may look like titting about because there is a bit of outward glamour/publicity but that's all just show. They are working hard and living modestly.

All the people I know who tit about are on handouts from their parents.

It's hard to draw the line between titting about and going for your dreams sometimes. I know people who do work hard at what they do (am thinking of a freelance art critic/journalist, an artist and a vintage clothing sourcer) but their chosen profession just doesn't and will probably never cover their living expenses. As I said, all these people get by because their parents are constantly helping them out. The oldest one is in her 40s...

Is 'titting about' defined by the usefulness (or lack thereof) of the activity itself, or the wider context in which the person is doing said activity?

Dancing's funny titting about though - even when you're very good if you're an amateur you still generally pay to have lessons, and even if you are in huge demand for demonstrations etc, you can't be paid or sponsored above a certain level (shoes, maybe dresses, that's about it). But you have to do that until you have a well established base so you can turn professional and start charging. The people I know who do it either turned professional young and have small schools and maybe work too, or are working shifts, competing, doing demos and trying to work out when to turn pro in order to have big a fan base for business vs. immediately wanting to start a family.

Although I do know somebody who tits about playing bridge. He's very good, but not top. Instead of paying to join a club and play, he charges people to come and play with him!

I so love this thread - particularly after The OP spotted the beach-comber on Mastermind and thought...oh so titting about. I know how I fund and do my titsaboutmehouty, years of practice, years of hard graft, years of generally peeing people off, yet still wanted for her hard-grafting abilities, intelligence and loyalty, etc...so what happens here is incredible bursts of hard grafting, including behind closed doors so y'all think I'm knitting tit-covers, followed by a relaxing period to rethink and regroup.

Yep, hard work is easy once you know how...and it certainly looks like titting about to the unwise, inexperienced...

I had to really fight the urge to be my usually bitter n sarcastic self during the Q&A session. I stared around in amazement as the rest of the company clapped like open mouthed sea lions.

What didn't help was that he was a real life Giles Wemmbley-Hogg (2 MMs 2 GG's) which immediately got right up my crack.

They always are the 2 MMs type - usually the useless youngest offspring of Lord 2 MMs who have absolutely no hope of doing anything remotely academic with their lives, or of getting a basic job, so is funded via Daddy and Daddy's connections to go and become a professional kite surfer, or explorer, or self-proclaimed food critic.

I love the guy who charged people to play bridge with him! Genius. Ds is good st snap..

You can be an expert on foraging whilst having another job can't you?