Effects of recession?

HammersFan

mewbie wrote: »

I'm not...

Who gives a flying one?

bo_drinker

bryanb wrote: »

How has the recession affected you and your family?
As someone drawing state pension and a smallish private pension, I have felt very little effect. A small loss of interest on savings (most of savings were in fixed bonds) the rates seem to be rising again just as some bonds are coming up for re-investment.

Why start the thread if it doesn't affect you I could spend all night starting threads about things that don't affect me but do affect thousands of others, but why.

tommy75

swish,...burgers

fc123

bo_drinker wrote: »

Why start the thread if it doesn't affect you I could spend all night starting threads about things that don't affect me but do affect thousands of others, but why.

Perhaps to read a bit of misery? Or maybe he is worried for the future? Afterall, there is a lot more to play through the system (IMHO) and it's difficult to tell who it can affect next.
The public sector cuts will be felt hard in a year or 2 's time.

tommy75

tommy75 wrote: »

swish,...burgers

Sorry, was choking on a kebab..:o

Davesnave

I'm not sure how it's affected me. If it hadn't been for Northern Rock, we'd probably have sold in Autumn 2007, made £50k more and spent it immediately on another overpriced property.:rolleyes:

As we were forced to wait, none of that happened. Fixed most of our money at around 6% just before interest rates plummeted, but those deals all end this autumn. It was a bit scary having over £100k in some accounts though, when things had so recently gone t1ts-up. Sorry, Martin, didn't heed your advice on safe savings in the end - too bloomin' greedy!:p

Eventually sold, rented for a bit, then bought something a bit weird in a completely different place from where we'd been looking. On paper, it was among the best deals done in the county this year, but it would have become available recession or no recession. We spent over £100k less than we expected, but still have much work to do.;)

So, the main benefit of the recession, and its beginnings, was of making us wait and giving pause for thought. However, in my opinion, it's far from over yet and it's effects will be with us for a very long time. Far too early for anyone to crow how well they did....survived....etc.

SingleSue

Cleaver wrote: »

In terms of money, aside from selling a house for a bit less than we paid for it, it hasn't really had much impact on us. We've been lucky enough to keep our jobs, our mortgage got a lot cheaper and our savings were tied up in 2008 at 6%. However, I think that the recession has had more of a physcological effect on me, rather than a financial one.

It's been pretty scary to see how fragile and interlinked the world is, and I think it took the recession to show how dependant we are as a society on just a few basic aspects that, when gone awray, can cause chaos. It's a strange thought now, but just three or so years ago the thought of major banks going bust would have been unthinkable, and yet it would have happened without various governments throwing billions at them.

Like most posters on here, I don't really see much change in the culture, policy and behaviour of governments, fincial institutions and big business and that is pretty scary to me. Obviously, there's not a lot I can do about it so it's best just to get on with life. But to answer the original post, I think the recession has given me a certain cynical, untrusting and uncertain outlook which I certainly didn't have before. On second thoughts, maybe it's this forum that has done that to me?

The last recession did that to me Cleaver and is why I am of more bearish and some would say, negative nature.

We survived the initial 90's recession well and couldn't understand why everyone else was running around like headless chickens saying the end was nigh....then it came back to bite us in the bum.

Ever since then, I have been far more cautious, more untrusting of the media and can certainly think worse case scenario a lot better than a fair few others....but even I was taken aback by the scale of the bank crisis.

This time around, well no job to lose but finding that already pretty elusive one has been made harder with less jobs available and more people going for them, so no progress there.

Fuel prices being on the increase again is having a negative impact on the finances despite my school run now being slightly shortened and the resultant increases in food prices is futher impacting on it (anyone notice that the value items like fresh value chickens etc have now disappeared from Morrisons? Could get them a couple of months ago but not now....and now for the last couple of weeks, value yorkshires have gone too!).

Savings? Errrr..would be nice!
Pension? Not a scoobie, it was only a small one to start with and only paying a nominal amount in it to keep it active.
Debts? Phew, didn't have any of those so no nasty surprises from credit card companies upping the interest charged as others have experienced, even with good behaviour with their account.


Personally, the recession gave me the kick up the bum I needed to further my education and get myself ready for when the children are more independent (well I can dream can't I) and I can then re-start my full time career in my choice of sector instead of things to fit into the childrens needs.

zappahey

Hmm, let's see.

Changed jobs (more than doubling take home pay).

Changed country.

Sold house in June 2008, lower than peak but still a fair chunk more than the same is going for today.

Unwilling to tie up money for too long, as we'll be looking to buy once we know where we intend to live for the next decade or so, so taking a pounding on savings rates.

Did a bit of hedging by moving half of our cash into Euros. In hindsight we should have moved it all across.

So, on balance, fairly up but more to do with personal change than the recession.

fc123

Davesnave wrote: »

I'm not sure how it's affected me. If it hadn't been for Northern Rock, we'd probably have sold in Autumn 2007, made £50k more and spent it immediately on another overpriced property.:rolleyes:

As we were forced to wait, none of that happened. Fixed most of our money at around 6% just before interest rates plummeted, but those deals all end this autumn. It was a bit scary having over £100k in some accounts though, when things had so recently gone t1ts-up. Sorry, Martin, didn't heed your advice on safe savings in the end - too bloomin' greedy!:p

Eventually sold, rented for a bit, then bought something a bit weird in a completely different place from where we'd been looking. On paper, it was among the best deals done in the county this year, but it would have become available recession or no recession. We spent over £100k less than we expected, but still have much work to do.;)

So, the main benefit of the recession, and its beginnings, was of making us wait and giving pause for thought. However, in my opinion, it's far from over yet and it's effects will be with us for a very long time. Far too early for anyone to crow how well they did....survived....etc.

That's how I see it too. Some stuff would have happened to some of us anyway, recession or not.
At least I don't feel we 'missed' out on the HPI/Equity/Gearing up game any longer.....in fact, makes one sound a bit 'in the know' to say; ''Hmph, BTL? Nah.....wasn't for us''.

I know of businesses who only saw a drop in T/O this May/June and are hoping 'things will pick up'' rather than making cost cuts straightaway. Seeing as I have been there and done the same years back, I understand the mindset though.

Paper losses though...had house valued at quick sale (in case we had to go br) and she had 'lost 175k from peak. But it wasn't ever in hand, so, whatever....:rolleyes:.

thriftybabe

The recession has had major impact on finances! Pensions down, wages down, savings down and moral down! OH and I had a very sleepless night and did not get to bed until 3.00 am due to some news we received. We are by no means the worst in this situation but the horrible thing is the not knowing. We do not like living day to day and not being able to plan for the future. We have savings and no mortgage - thank goodness. However things have been pretty bad since January this year and it does not feel that things are getting better certainly where we are from!

One good thing is that family life is better. There is definitely a bit less stress and enjoying more time with the kids. The only thing with that is at the back of your head we are always thinking about what we are spending!