On a personal level, has the recession effected you?

marklv

Strings wrote: »

For my wife and I, it has made no difference what so ever.
The only downside that we have had is not being able to sell our place, but that was mitigated by renting it out with a view to keeping it for the medium term.

Work wise, and while I contract I have managed to get increases to my day rate on a yearly basis.

Has it effected you at all?

As a civil servant, this rotten Tory-Liberal government (not the recession) has affected me by freezing my pay for the next two years and limiting my pension indexation. Thank you Nick and Dave! :mad:

The lower mortgage payments don't really make up for the loss of income, and my savings are not keeping up with inflation - the CPI sort, let alone RPI.

silvercar

OH's lost a bit of bonus.

I've benefited by the Euro exchange rate (I export), but volumes reduced about 10%; probably 20% up overall on 2008.

Interest on mortgage fallen from 5% to 1.25%, so laughing there. Paid for a couple of holidays (yes I know I could have offset more of the mortgage, but why bother when I'm only saving 1.25%). Interest rates need to go right up to base=4.25% to get back to starting, budgeted point.

Now looking to do something interesting with money sitting in offset, as we've budgeted for paying 5% on the lot and are now paying 1.25% on a small portion that isn't offset.

Thrugelmir

Strings wrote: »

Has it effected you at all?

Jury's still out. As we've most likely yet to feel the pain of several years of minimal\low pay inflation while costs continue to rise.

So benefit of having a low rate tracker mortgage could be wiped out in the years to come.

As personally I see average wage jobs never recovering the ground lost . There is a permanent change as economies fall further into line across Europe.

Cleaver

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

Yes, inflation is frittering my savings away.:mad:

But surely this isn't a major problem, because if you have a significant amount of money you'll have a good percentage of it in some form of investment that hedges against inflation? If you haven't then this would suggest that you don't have a high amount of savings, therefore getting less interest might not be much of an issue.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Overall, between the above, I figure I'm "losing" £30k/year from various income potentials that would have existed if interest rates had stayed where they were and if job losses hadn't been part of the recession package.

Without wanting to sound harsh Pastures, you've also lost out on income through your unwillingness to want to understand any other type of investment other than savings. The last 18 months has seen a huge rise in a massive range of equities and assets that you could have got involved in with a percentage of your money to hedge against inflation.

kriss_boy

My mortgage has dropped dramatically meaning Ive paid more off it in the last year that I would have otherwise paid over the next 3.

Cleaver

Strings wrote: »

For my wife and I, it has made no difference what so ever.

Yes it has, but maybe just in a indirect and futuristic way.

The recession has meant that public services will be cut so, for example, if you require treatment for illness in future years it may not be quite as good quality or as easy to get. If you have children they may grow up in a country where the education system isn't as good because of reducing funding. There's loads of potential examples such as this.

I'm not suggesting they will definately happen, or that you should even worry about it much, but saying "nah, this recessions not effected me at all" is a bit like when you wake up in bed after a night of drinking and think, "ooh, I feel surprisingly fine", then about three hours later you realise your optimism and over-confidence was a bit misplaced...

marklv

kriss_boy wrote: »

My mortgage has dropped dramatically meaning Ive paid more off it in the last year that I would have otherwise paid over the next 3.

Why are you so keen on paying it off early?

wageslave

Wage freeze at work last year and a risible 2% raise this year. There have been (and continue to be) redundancies in my sector but I am in the fortunate position of being fairly necessary to my bosses. I consider myself extremely lucky compared to others

Lost a wee bit of cash when the stockmarket dive bombed. Heating bills have shot through the roof and general living costs seem to be a bit higher. I expect things to get much worse before they get better:(

I was distraught when Faith shoes went bust, they were wonderfully comfortable and really well priced. I do miss Woolworths too.

Looking at my spending patterns, I have cut back in places without seriously affecting our quality of life. EG lowered the thermostat a few degrees, bought cheaper cuts of meat etc. I am unsure whether this has saved me much dosh but it has made me feel slightly less at the mercy of forces beyond my control.

All in all, I have been one of the more fortunate so far.

But only so far..........

EDIT Like Cleaver, I worry that the effects of this recession will linger for a long time.

Davesnave

Found it blimmin hard to sell our house and got less than we wanted for it.
Decided to rent for the first time in 32 years, at least while we could still get 6%+ on the house money.
Bought a 'lifestyle' property at the bottom from a distressed seller (but she'd just landed a £60k job elsewhere and a bloke, so no violins!)
Changed our lifestyle to match property. (agricultural) :eek:
Had government freeze my teachers' pension. :mad:

Sitting here, knackered from manual 'lifestyle'-type work, but pretty happy overall with our err...retirement.:j

pink_princess

Massively,I work in debt control and im seeing a huge increase in people not being able to afford their payments due to being laid off etc.Its not nice ,my jobs getting more secure as other jobs get more insecure .I get very close to my clients and when they get into difficulty it really is not nice for me.Just because some of you s are not affected directly ,indirectly it is hurting us all except the very people who caused it all.
PP