Preparedness for when

jk0

paidinchickens wrote: »

The more I understand the more I despair.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-owns-the-federal-reserve

Don't despair too much PIC. The Bank of England was nationalised in 1946, so at least no-one is routinely creaming off much profit from central bank shenanigans in this country.

(With quantative easing, the private banks are 'tipped-off' about Bank of England bond purchase requirements, and so can make a big profit there.)

Frankly, I'm amazed the Americans stand for theirs being privately owned.

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Don't despair too much PIC. The Bank of England was nationalised in 1946, so at least no-one is creaming off so much profit from central bank shenanigans in this country.

(With quantative easing, the private banks are 'tipped-off' about Bank of England bond purchase requirements, and so can make a big profit there.)

Frankly, I'm amazed the Americans stand for theirs being privately owned.

It was privately-owned from inception in 1694 until privatisation in 1946, but on 1st June 1998, the BOE was given operational independance over financial policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England.

The lines are pretty blurry about who is in control of what in the UK and I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could spit a rat. BOE is very wedded to the Keynesian easy money policies which are dragging the USA down the toilet.

I'm still holding out for my Zimbabwean trillion dollar banknote; collectable dealer pal is looking out for one for me. They sell as curios for pence. I intend to frame it and hang it somewhere worthy of it's status (over the WC cistern ).

jk0, am enjoying that link to Mary; sounds like she's hell-on-wheels to bureaucrats. Will dip in and out of that during the course of the day. I'd known for years that you aren't legally obliged to file a tax return in the US but a lot of their own people don't know that.

It's interesting about how she notes that the IRS seems to be plucking figures out of the air to bill US tax payers, and that she thinks that they choose a presposterous figure to sting the public into response and interaction.

One of my dear pals is a tax man. He bills business owners who haven't filed tax returns. They use a deliberately-presposterous figure which they pluck out of thin air. He used part of my former land-line phone number once when he needed a 6-figure sum. The first number was a 7.:eek:

We've had some 'fun and games' with people of a similar pursuasion to Mary over the years. The arrears officers have a right old time with the odd person who signs a tenancy agreement and then declares that they have no income, that they don't work for money only favours and goods-in-kind and that money is only tokens. It has been suggested that they make the exception for their landlord by earning some tokens and giving them to us and running the rest of their life how they will.

If they're not prepared to supply the correct tokens, they can argue it out in court when the council seeks legal possession of their home; they lose. Then we can evict them and re-let their house or flat to a person who can provide the correct tokens, those acceptable ones which we can use to pay our contractors and suppliers to maintain their homes.

Moral of this story is; if signing a legal contract, do read the regular sized print before going all alternative finance.

westlothianlass

HI all
We live in the country (outside Edinburgh), so near enough to get into work but far enough away that we are in the "country". We plan to have paid our mortgage off next spring which is a wonderful feeling, however there is no way we would be able to afford this house closer to the city.
However this does mean we have to have a car as we live in a very rural area, so that cost had to be taken into consideration.
All in though I feel very blessed, I love our life, we make do or save up for things , make, create and generally have a great time:).
Ragz we have managed to have pretty successful crops of veg. Outside we grow Potatoes, all beans (borlotti, green, runner etc) onions, cabbages, carrots, squash and lots of different fruit, especially apples, and berries.
We put up a polytunnel a few years ago, so tomatoes, tender salad, aubergines, basil, cucumbers and gherkins grow well inside. I think with a bit of playing around its amazing what you can grow in colder, duller climates.
Its a very grey and rainy day here, im hiding inside and DH is out trying to tidy up the garden oops:D.
Take care all
WLL x

Perplexed_Pineapple

Lining up a weekend of fixing, foraging and improving. I don;t want to be cleaning out the gutters in the snow, best tackle it now. Still trying to work out what to do with those sloes

JayneC wrote: »

The debt isn't being repaid at all, it's increasing. It's the deficit that is allegedly being reduced. Which basically means, if you use the analogy of repaying your credit card, they are getting nearer to being able to make the minimum repayments but can't manage even that!!! Anyone one else would be bankrupt!



The people on benefits account for a small proportion of the expenditure. More money is spent subsidising the banking system. The Bank of England are effectively printing money to give to the banks and the government are backing it with our taxes. As long as society continues to worship the god of economy without question nothing will change. It's all about the money, making it, moving it, defrauding us basically. the government is not trying to get 'us' out of the mess - it's trying to keep this system alive at whatever cost. What does it matter if we have a fabulous GDP if all the citizens are starving, ill, homeless. If the roads go unrepaired, the bridges collapse? This is what is happening because the government is fixated on money and counting everything in cash terms. The banking system is corrupt, they are in effect compulsive gamblers and they're getting money printed for them to continue gambling with.

And breathe....



Maybe his friend was being serious, sounds like a good plan to me;)

Exactly right I think. We have got into a situation where abstract entities like national economies and corporations are more important than people. As we exhaust the world's natural resources we really need to find a different model.

fuddle wrote: »

Renting allows you the flexibility of moving on when opportunities arise....
.....Reality is that we won't be getting on the housing ladder as it is, never mind moving to the more expensive south. Our financial plan consists of saving all through our working lives to buy a retirement property at retirement. We are now of the mindset of we work to pave our way through life and to secure our future for when we are not able to earn an income. Of course the same worries apply with funding repairs when owning but I think I'd have more sleepless nights worrying about paying rent on our pensions as I tend to think we will be on our own by then - what will be in the private pensions is what we'll most likely get.

Fuddle, while I like your thinking, we aren't living in a "normal" financial environment at the moment. It is very hard indeed to find a way of saving that beats inflation, even. It is worth thinking about this very carefully - you could save all your working life and be left with worthless cash, like GQ's trillion dollar note. It's difficult to find the balance between saving and taking on debt, but if your ultimate aim is to own property the only type of investment that is sure to keep up with the property market,is, erm, property. It could go the other way of course - house prices could collapse and you might get something much cheaper - or maybe not. We made the decision to [STRIKE]buy[/STRIKE] borrow a house from the building society at the housing market peak a few years ago, but I think it will work out in the long term.

GreyQueen

It's grey but dry here in southern England. Have no idea what the temp is outside as have been indoors since 10-ish last night but it's toasty indoors with no heating on. Got bread rolls proving and have just sliced up the beetroot I boiled yesterday - it was cooking until I left for my pal's place at 3 pm. Doesn't seem to have taken any harm for sitting in 2 inches of water overnight.

ETA; ponder on this;

1919 6.7 german marks to 1 USD
1921 (first half) 60 marks to 1 USD
21/11/21 330 marks to 1 USD
1922 (first half) 320 marks to 1 USD
Dec 1922 800 marks to 1 USD
05/11/23 4,210,500,000,000 to 1 USD and 1 loaf of bread = 140 bil marks.

Every fiat currency goes belly-up and if you're holding all your "wealth" in fiat, or the digital representations of fiat, you lose everything.

fuddle

Unfortunately with no savings right now, no real way of saving at the moment and a bankruptcy holding us back - planning for the future is all I can do. Saving for a retirement property with 30+ years of working life left feels like the only thing that is achievable at the moment so that is what we'll focus on.

It may well change but we'll ride those changes as and when they come.

thriftwizard

Fuddle, here's hoping you find that our lovely beaches (many of them off the beaten tourist tracks) our beautiful countryside & our own private weather (we're often warmer than anywhere to the north and drier than anywhere west) are worth it all! We have many friends who rent down here as they can't afford to buy, but they have bought & let out properties back in Scotland, Wales or The North to eventually retire home to, where their families are. However the few who have retired, still seem to be here most of the time!

Margaret54

Good afternoon everyone:) What a sensible bunch you are on here, have finally caught up on all the reading of your posts:) Yesterday the rain didn't stop pouring down, so dried as much small stuff on the clothes horse as was possible. Today is dry and even a little warm, so have the washing machine on and am going to strip the beds after this load is finished and hopefully have it all outside on the line.
My dh and I made a start on the bedroom yesterday and stripped the wallpaper all off so he is going to paint on Mon and Tues as he is working today and Sunday. It will be nice to see it fresh again and then we are going to look at floor covering for the bedroom hall living room and bathroom. We rent our wee bungalow from the local authority, over here it s called the Housing Executive and they installed gas heating so we had taken up the carpets which were already down when we moved into here. Just doing stuff a bit at a time and paying for it as go along, not getting into any debt.
We too feel very blessed to have a roof over our heads a little garden and living in a quiet area with nice neighbours.
Have a peaceful weekend everyone and I send hugs to anyone who could do with them. Margaret xx

paidinchickens

jk0 wrote: »

Don't despair too much PIC. The Bank of England was nationalised in 1946, so at least no-one is routinely creaming off much profit from central bank shenanigans in this country.

(With quantative easing, the private banks are 'tipped-off' about Bank of England bond purchase requirements, and so can make a big profit there.)

Frankly, I'm amazed the Americans stand for theirs being privately owned.

I can't believe how much I don't know and I should be ashamed of myself.

When we were younger my Mother would not discuss bills or money at all. If you mentioned it the scowl would burn straight through you.

You had home economics at school but money was never taught at school. History was a relentless black board of writing about the Russian revolution but you never took any of it in as the teacher would rub it off the board if you wasn't quick enough to take it down and you would get home to illegible scribble that did not make sense.

Then I brought up two kids on my own while working three jobs so I can honestly say I have had no opportunity to really look any further than how much can I save on the things I need (not want)

I feel at my age I should be more educated about the world around me but even when I try and keep up with the news and current events you find they lie to you anyway :rotfl:

Should I just give up now and save myself the headache

fiftyeighter_2

I really don,t no what is best ie owning your own home or renting. Whatever is best for the individual person I expect,
I (owned) my own home with my late husband for 24 years. Then a disaster, too long a story to go into now. Enough to say it was sold and I had nothing from the sale. Actually I only had the clothes I stood up in truth be told. Anyhow fast forward 21 years and I now rent from the social housing and am very grateful for it. I,ve had the house for the last 18 years. It's the only social housing owned property in the street. The others are all owned.
It's a lovely bungalow, very small but massive garden and my daughter and I are very happy here. But to try to get any repair works done is a nightmare. They fob you off then tell you they will arrive a certain day then don't turn up. On average when they do come out to make a repair we normally get 3 visits before it is done, once to look at it then to say they will need to order the part then to eventually do the repair.
I,ve always been quite good at DIY etc but it's so much easier and quicker learn how to rectify the problem yourself.
I,ve learnt how to unblock the sewer drain. Mend waste pipes, put washers in taps, erect fencing, all sorts.
But I love my bungalow and where I live. (Lived here all my life) nearly 64 years. The only drawback we are 20 mns drive from the nearest larger town. But I have my bus pass now lol so all is good with the world.