'How close to the brink are you?' 2009 poll results/discussion

liberty1264

the present economic situation reminds of an old saying I once heard

I had the blues because I had no shoes, until upon the street I met a man who had no feet

When I'm feeling down and blue this is what I like to do, I take a pen and then a pad and write down all the joy's i've had.

Count your blessing's not your sorrow's

wheresmydoshat

funny how home owners haven't been using this statement recently:

"we're losing more money on our house each month than we're earning"

yet couldn't get enough of this one previously:

"we're making more money on our house each month than we're earning"

my heart bleeds.

rupe34

An interesting poll question imo - our situation is that we'll be fine....unless we lose our jobs and then we'll be completely not fine!:rolleyes:

TurnaroundSue

I put us down as a 2. We have no debt, a few savings, quite a bit of equity in our home and a manageable mortgage. I am self employed, but touch wood my work is still coming in each month on a steady basis, but if this were to dry up then OH is in the position where he can do overtime and a couple of shifts will bring him in what I am drawing from my business each month, so hopefully we should be okay.

I must admit though that without this site in the last 12 months in particular, we wouldn't be in the position we are now, so for that I am eternally grateful.

orlao

5.

I'm pretty sure I'll be out of a job soon ( as soon as my diva manager gets the guts to tell me and stops faffing about) but I will get a payout and I also have IP insurance that will pay 2/3 of my salary for a year so with the saving in travel to work (£270 pm) I'll be ok just as long as I get another job within that year.

I have to admit that, while I quite like my job I loathe the 3 hour daily commute and this might be the kick in [EMAIL="the@rse"]the @rse[/EMAIL] I need to get a job locally even at a much lower salary...hard to drop £5k a year without having to IYSWIM.

TurnaroundSue

orlao wrote: »

5.

I'm pretty sure I'll be out of a job soon ( as soon as my diva manager gets the guts to tell me and stops faffing about) but I will get a payout and I also have IP insurance that will pay 2/3 of my salary for a year so with the saving in travel to work (£270 pm) I'll be ok just as long as I get another job within that year.

I have to admit that, while I quite like my job I loathe the 3 hour daily commute and this might be the kick in the @rse I need to get a job locally even at a much lower salary...hard to drop £5k a year without having to IYSWIM.

With your petrol saving of around £3200 and you wouldn't pay so much tax and NI then the reduction of £5k in real terms might only mean a drop of around £1k, so if you look at it like that then it might be easier for you to take a drop of that amount if it means you are working alot closer to home; plus you would have the added benefit of 3 hours a day more to yourself - which equates to 15 hours pw, 60 hours pm, 720 hours pa (taking off 4 weeks holiday) which in real terms means that you will get a whole month off work - doesn't sound so bad when you break it down.

Good luck

Dikko

I own 2 Ltd companies and our income is dependant on the company. We have made 7 people redundant, rolcated to smaller premises to reduce our overheads but because of the credit crunch my turnover is down 80%.
We have 2 overdrafts which are nearly at the limit and secured against our home, and we have not paid ourselves since the end of November 2008.
We have used all our savings and now it looks like we be going into defaulting on our commitments. We have also put out house on the market and offered a house swop to reduce outgoings but nothing as yet.
If things dont get a lot better then at the age of 56 I'm going to lose everything. Researching going bankrupt as it looks the only option open to us as we have no income coming in.
What a state of affairs the bankers still get large bonuses and no one has been held accountable. The press dont help the situation and its time they reported positive stories. The political parties should park up their differences and concentrate on getting the uk back to normal instead of fighting each other.

soyabean

I got layed off before Xmas and up till Thursday we thought my partners job was secure. Now we've got to wait 3 months to find out if he stays or goes. There are no jobs here unless you want to be a care assistant.
We don't have a mortgage because we can't get on the ladder. Thanks to the last recession. We were saving up for a deposit in the hopes that house prices would fall, but thats out the window now. We'll survive but our only hope of having our own home is starting to look like waiting for a parent to die! The place we live is cramped, has peeling wallpaper, thread bare carpets, and we get an inspection every 3 months even though we've been living here for years and are ideal tenants.

Sorry for wingeing but I'm struggling to get out of bed in the morning.

Best of luck to you all.

fc123

dikko wrote: »

Researching going bankrupt as it looks the only option open to us as we have no income coming in.

What a state of affairs the bankers still get large bonuses and no one has been held accountable. The press dont help the situation and its time they reported positive stories. The political parties should park up their differences and concentrate on getting the uk back to normal instead of fighting each other.

I too am researching the effects of bankruptcy. Due to HPI, we would need to be able to raise Beneficial interest if we don't want to lose our house.....so house prices falling further would be a very good thing for us.

We have traded honestly and fairly for 23 years as a fully liable partnership.
We've had 4 different leases over the past 19 years carrying full personal liability.
Never ever incurred a CCJ but have had the odd run in with Business Rates during a bad year...and you make a payment plan with them.

We have had tricky times before and, battened down and worked our way through it, each time the business got stronger.

Our sector has changed and the independent retail part of our business is no longer viable....the other part has been subsidising it.

One of the key things we have looked at is the definition of 'Back to Normal'.

I am now planning on the basis that our current trading situation IS the new Normal.

We are about to lose our rent review and are already taking professional advice on the outstanding 9 years of the lease (no breaks). Our Landlord (a property unit trust) will not negotiate a reduction nor a surrender under any terms....they push and push until one topples over the edge. I am the longest standing trader in their portfolio (apart from 1) and have seen them bust trading neighbours in the past.

A rent increase of 40% min against a drop in turnover of, 50% (since October 08) is, clearly, not worth saving. The losses from this will take everything down eventually.

I have the 'freelance' work that will support us and we have been subsidising the shop for over a year now. It isn't going to 'Go back to Normal' anytime soon.....so that is my advice to anyone facing a slowdown in trade is plan as your trading situation is today... now....not 'if things pick up in the summer' .
If one more small business owner, of my aquiantance, says that to me again, I'll scream.

We accrued a lot of debt from losing our last rent review in 04, as I had to close down a seperate part of thye business (at great expense) in order to maintain the profitability of the current shop. We have spent the past 4 years paying the debts down.....and nearly got there.

If we had had savings, it wouldn't change the eventual outcome...as they would run out in the end........and then we would still have to jump.

If we go BR, it would be for all rent on remainder of lease plus 1 yrs business rates totalling £436k. The leftover CC debt is pretty small in comparison.
To go BR for a sum like that when you didn't actually 'Spend' any of it feels quite odd. All our suppliers, VAT etc. plus personal bills are up to date.

At the moment, we are still taking advice but one person I really trust and respect took a look at our figures and just said ''FC, you gotta close that shop now...it'll drag everything else down within 12 months''.

Money_maker

We're a 5.

Possibility of redundancy if things get toughter - dh in construction industry. Mortgage is fortunately paid off however we don't have enough in our savings account to do the 6 month worth of wages which is what is generally recommended.

Will still be money saving when we can.