Preparedness for when

AnimalTribe

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Does anyone know how I can make or where I can get a metal/foil reflector to use behind a lit candle. I can find them in America and I'm obviously not asking google the right question as it isn't being very helpful with my 'how can I make' question. I know I could use a mirror but I'm sure the tin ones you used to be able to get are 'folded' into a fan pattern and slightly concave, does any one of you clever craft people have instructions on how to please?

Online hydroponics stores have various light reflectors and light reflective sheeting. Probably not exactly what you want but it might be close enough or at least give you some ideas on how to make your own.

Frugalsod

Ryanna2599 wrote: »

I've been preoccupied over the last few weeks so am just catching up,on all the posts (all very interesting reading).

I am definitely not an IFA, however I wanted to share this link in relation to some recent comments on the stock market:

http://www.economicconfidencemodels.com/

Martin Armstrong advises governments on trends, cycles etc., and he reportedly predicted all of the last market crashes correctly. According to the posts he's been making for months the next crash is anticipated for the end of Sept/early October. Make of it what you want...

He has more credibility than most analysts even though I think Bloomberg have banned him. Probably not the narrative their big customers the banks want to have heard.

This is interesting.


If he is right then we can see falling property values for another 20 years. This is really where much of the bank lending has been for the last couple of decades. It also means that banks are going to be in serious trouble, just look at Japan to see how that turned out.

It also has a serious impact on all homeowners as property values fall possibly faster than the ability of owners to repay any debts on them. It will also significantly impact buy to let landlords who have borrowed the majority of the property value. If property values are falling then rents will also fall and if you have borrowed money to buy an asset that is falling in value and its income is falling as well you might have to cut your own spending significantly to pay the mortgage or lose the property to the banks.

The problem will also impact the government. With taxes from home sales and stamp duty collapsing the government will probably look to ever more stealth taxes to avoid raising income taxes, especially on the rich who are the main backers for the big 4 parties now. With banks failing and accumulating every greater tax losses they may never pay taxes again. So that big slice (40%) of total tax income that the governments came to rely on will be gone for good which is why we have to have austerity. Even worse the government will ruin the public finances to bail out the banks just like Japan.

[Deleted User]

Just when you thought it was safe.......Hi everyone I'm back!!! What happened yesterday? did we get that 'horrible to the eyes' format thrust upon us without notice again? I hope TPTB do retain the option to stay with this one, I know we are just a small fraction of MSE but I don't think I'm the only one who would HATE to lose the friends I have on these OS threads because I couldn't cope with the stark white and bright colours of the new incarnation.

Thanks so much for the input on the reflector, NUATHA thanks very much for the idea of the photographic one I'll have a look at them in 'real life' and see if they would give me back enough reflection and ANIMAL TRIBE thank you for a good idea, I'll see if I can track down some metal sheeting as we could bend that to the right sort of curve for maximum reflection. One very do-able option I found online is to use the case for an aluminium outside light and set a candle holder into it rather than a light bulb. Not pretty but I think that would work very well too. I'll get He Who Knows on the case and see if we can win an old one from anyone.

Having travelled home from Zebraville by train and bus this morning I'm appalled at the state of the transport infrastructure in this country. In an emergency when you NEED to be somewhere in a hurry there would be no chance of it happening. The train was continually called as late over the station tannoy, no explanation and eventually, having been told it would be anything from 7 to 20 minutes late in it arrived 10 minutes late and stayed late all the way back home which caused me to miss the bus I was intending to catch. So I walked to the bus depot and waited, and waited, and waited..... The bus was there waiting too.....so were a lot of other passengers.....and we waited and someone asked the inspector if we were going to get a driver any time soon? and he said' Oh your driver is arriving on another bus, which is unfortunately late!!!' and so it was that 20 minutes after we were due to depart the driver arrived and took another 5 minutes to sort out all his bits and pieces before we left.....AAAAGGHHHHH!!!!!!! I'd like to say this was a one off but I'd be liying if I did!!! Off for tea, nerves shattered!!!!!

Frugalsod

I do not know if any one here has their own chickens but I thought that this would be useful for some.

http://thepoultryguide.com/10-best-free-chicken-coop-building-plans/

Doveling

Thanks for that Frugalsod - not the time to invest in a little buy to let then!
Articles like that make me want to batten down the hatches even more but what will be will be and I think we are ok. For now.

MrsLW - I've noticed that public transport is getting gradually worse. I don't drive ( I never have and Mr D needs the car for work anyway) so was used to walking or biking. Having had to use buses etc in the past couple of years I'm aware how bad the system is, buses and trains don't seem to work together! And if I'd wanted to travel by coach I would buy a coach ticket not a train ticket. Grumble, grumble. I've joined the weight loss thread and am suffering chocolate withdrawal symptoms:rotfl:

Frugalsod

TBH I would not think that the situation is that much different from 2008. When it became a matter of return of assets rather than return on assets.

I did read an interesting blog which had a comment from Robert Shiller who the US housing index is named after who commented that US housing between 1890 and 1990 basically kept up with inflation within a fraction of a percent but no more, but was something that required constant inflows of cash to maintain what is really a depreciating asset. So it was wrong to describe housing as an investment class. I suspect that very shortly that many who have shifted their entire pension portfolio into property will discover that sooner or later. In fact I think that some big hedge funds are going to suffer big losses, as they are the largest residential landlords in America right now. I suspect that the real reason that most have decided to invest in property is that they have concerns about the banking systems everywhere. In a bank money can be wiped out in a bank failure but if you own somewhere then even if everything halves in value it might be a lot less damaging that a bank bail in. It also has significant benefits for foreigners who buy because if things get really heated at home they have an overseas bolt hole. Though for most people if all depends on the exchange rate. There are many Canadians who own homes in the US but cannot afford to stay in them because of the falling exchange rate.

There is one thing to be said for owning a home in that if you own it outright if it is worthless you still have somewhere to live.

Longer term I think battening down the hatches is the only thing that the average person can do. Build up some cash savings for an extreme emergency and for the fortnight that the banks are closed. Though I suspect that many here will have enough food in anyway to get through without any problems. All I will need to get is milk and I keep 4 pints in the freezer as well.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

so if we are to go by what that guy thinks/reports/assumes because of previous trends etc if I wanted to sell a property.. in the next 3 months would be a wise move???


I appreciate what he has reported is only his calculated views etc.. and they potentially could be wrong, so I am not holding anyone to anything due to his views... lol..


but just wondering if it is wise to sell a property sooner rather than later..as estate agents and the government etc do say property prices are the best they have been in a long time..

GreyQueen

I often think that when everyone leaps into something, you are in the last stages of a mania, and a lot of people are about to lose their shirts.

Around here there are a lot of properties, modest single-family homes, often former council houses, which have been purchased as BTLs and are being offered for rent, mainly aiming at the student market, as multiple students can be made to generate more of a return than a single family.

In this city and in my (very working-class) hometown, the price which very humble homes command in rent has far exceeded the ability of ordinary people to pay for them. In the hometown, which has no educational establishments beyond schools, there isn't a demand for student lets, so the homes with multiple adults are mostly let to migrants with 4 or so wage earners. A home which was once affordable to a working man raising a family and keeping the wife at home with the children now takes 4-5 wages to pay for and still be able to live.

Landlords are often over-pricing very modest homes in unspectacular areas and have effectively failed to consider that the kind of people who can afford £800-£900 pcm can get something a lot mpre desirable than a standard terrace or semi for the price. And, that with rents that high, one might as well take on a mortgage and be done with it.

Insanity. Yet a lot of people have felt driven into the BTL sector due to the negligble/ non-existant returns to be had elsewhere, and have felt they have no choice. A woman I know is a professional landlord and her portfolio is extremely leveraged and too many properties void at once could see the whole kit and caboodle fall apart at speed.

And, if the banks do end up mass-repo-ing a lot of properties, and then offload them onto the market at once, it will depress the housing market still further, to the great detriment of other property owners, especially those with mortgages.

My colleagues range in age from twenty-somethings to near-pensioners and the youngest aren't trying to buy their own homes now. It's simply too unaffordable to pay a mortgage, plus repairs and maintenance, plus live, even with two full-time salaries. It may be that they will change their minds in a few years, but right now, they don't have their noses pressed against the estate agents' windows dreaming of their own four walls.

Yup, we live in interesting times and I think the next few months may well be extremely interesting, and not in a good way.

mardatha

GQ I do love your sig.

[Deleted User]

Times might be interesting GQ and likely become extremely interesting in the not too distant future but I think many of us are well equipped to live in 'interesting times' due not in small part to the participants of this Oh So Useful little thread. The 'hive' knowledge that exists and is shared readily is heartwarming, whatever question is asked is answered as fully as it may be and if it can't be answered there are always good practical common sense ideas tossed into the pot to help find solutions. I don't see that any one of us can change what is to come as life becomes problematic across the board for whatever reason or event that occurs but I DO KNOW that each and every one of us will be part of the solution in whatever way WE are able and have no doubts whatsoever that ALL contributors to this thread will be part of any rebuild of society that happens in that future. No matter how hard times get, we have the means and experience and knowledge to keep our families and friends afloat and help our wider communities to help themselves don't we?