Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Those who can't see or won't see the bubble are those who will be hit hardest when it pops! With most of the economies who are producing the cheap imports we get are on the brink of their own crisis I wonder for how much longer they will be able to carry on making those goods so cheaply? As mineral resources etc. are depleted and fuel resources become more scarce and expensive to obtain I think that in the not too distant future the 'easy' money will not be enough to source the throw away society that is prevalent now. It's going to come as a really big shock to at least 90% of the population of the western world, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Better by far to get used to a different lifestyle from choice before it happens, buy as well as you can IF you have to buy and find your priorities in life and learn how to make a good life from less, it's in your own interests and makes sense, no?

Yes this is a basic premise of the website Peak prosperity

I totally agree that we should be making the changes before they are forced upon us. You will then have the scope to tweak it to suit you better as you change things as you discover problems. If you leave it too late then any mistake will mean you are trapped with the solution that you have chosen.

I try and warn friends and family to save more and clear debts before the debts wipe them out in the next recession.

thriftwizard

This has further ramifications in that it will slow down household formation as couples find that they cannot buy a home together and so will delay family creation.

Excellent point, Frugalsod, and one I myself should have picked up on, being as we still have DS2 and his Intended and most of their belongings crammed into a 12' x 12' bedroom! They can't afford to rent somewhere round here and save up for a deposit so we've had the pleasure of their company for more than a year now, whilst they try to save. And we're better off than several sets of friends - and indeed one of my own brothers - who have not only had their youngsters move back in, but grandchildren too. There's no room in this house or garage to swing a cat - just as well, as they don't appreciate being swung - so none of us will or can buy anything new unless the old one has actually fallen apart!

1Tonsil

Well, I thought it was too good to be true when they said no deposits would be used for a bail in....crafty, sneaky beggars! Look at this, its worth a read... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-17/greek-deposits-become-eligible-bail-january-1-2016

Frugalsod

1Tonsil wrote: »

Well, I thought it was too good to be true when they said no deposits would be used for a bail in....crafty, sneaky beggars! Look at this, its worth a read... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-17/greek-deposits-become-eligible-bail-january-1-2016

That effectively means that if you have more than €8100, basically what you can withdraw at €60 a day for the remaining 135 days of the year is going to disappear in a bail in.

I doubt that they can maintain the status quo until then.

The fact that they allow protected depositors to be legally robbed by banks will cause problems eventually. The public cannot stand by when they have what little savings left stolen by the banks.

moneyistooshorttomention

Karmacat wrote: »

I totally agree, Mrs LW - for instance, I watched a programme on iplayer last night, about a musician I'd never heard of buying a smallholding in Camarthenshire. The ignorance was apparent after a minute or so, and it even stopped being funny it was just awful. The programme had put them in touch with experienced people living there permaculturally, and you could just *see* them so plainly, gritting their teeth at the complete detachment from reality

I'll admit that (as a recent mover to West Wales) I was watching that programme killing myself laughing. Oh boy....that cockerel in the kitchen was classic:rotfl:

Lesson No. 1 in West Wales - get used to mud.

Lesson No. 2 ditto - get used to rain.

Lesson No. 3 ditto - get used to wind.

Right...now that's for starters.....:rotfl:

If I think I was a bit naïve in some ways - they positively get the Gold Medal for it.

My heart sank for them at the sight of that house and land (well...it would have if I wasn't sitting there wondering if they still owe people money - courtesy of that previous bankruptcy...).

I will be watching the rest of this mini-series with interest...

Living_proof

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'll admit that (as a recent mover to West Wales) I was watching that programme killing myself laughing. Oh boy....that cockerel in the kitchen was classic:rotfl:

Lesson No. 1 in West Wales - get used to mud.

Lesson No. 2 ditto - get used to rain.

Lesson No. 3 ditto - get used to wind.

Right...now that's for starters.....:rotfl:

If I think I was a bit naïve in some ways - they positively get the Gold Medal for it.

My heart sank for them at the sight of that house and land (well...it would have if I wasn't sitting there wondering if they still owe people money - courtesy of that previous bankruptcy...).

I will be watching the rest of this mini-series with interest...

What is the programme please? I have missed it. Just back from West Wales myself. A wet week in a campervan! But the Botanic Gardens are to die for, whatever the weather.

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

There are unintended consequences of people being unable to afford once-modest homes which have now become expensive, and not just in terms of unbought furniture etc.

People who own their home are likely, over a lifetime, to make substantial expenditures on things which most private landlords would not entertain; refurbishments, conservatories, custom window-treatments, fancy bathrooms and kitchens, and landscaping, to name but a few. If you're tenure is a rolling 6 month contract, you're unlikely to spend money on anything which isn't portable and applicable to your next home. You'll not maintain your rented home the way many a homeowner maintains theirs, and there are plenty of landlords who sit by and allow the fabric of the building, plus the fixtures and fittings to deteriotate (apologies to landlords reading, I speak in the generality rather than casting nasturtiums at you).

Also, if tenants are churned in and out of their homes, they will have more and more costs imposed on them, costs which are unproductive such as letting agent fees, removal costs etc. All this will restrict their ability to save for a deposit. We will see the social divide becoming ever steeper, with more and more people feeling disenfranchised. This phenomenon has been tagged the rise of the Precetariat (play on precarious proletariat, I guess), and I have seen a book in the library about it, which is on my to-read list.

People shifting around will destroy any community feeling which takes time to develop, disrupt childrens' education and contribute to adult and child mental ill-health. We have a lot of churn in my block, and each time we acquire a new neighbour, the process of settling them in takes time. When a flat comes empty, even if the departed neighbour was a cast-iron PITA, the pleasure of their absence is diluted by the dread of who we might get in their place.

If you're going to have to gypsy around with all your hard-earned going into someone else's pocket, you might start thinking that buying a motor home or a caravan and camping on the waste ground at the edge of town is a viable option. First step to the favela..........

MTSTM, haven't seen this prog on the TV I haven't got but it reminds me of the happenings at the allotments, as people who have deliberately sought out their very own veggie patch to rent try (sometimes very feebly) to make ago of it. I talk to people who have had an allotment for 18 months, the place is long grass from one side to t'other and still feel aggrieved because they were served an improvement notice. Meanwhile, folks like me are wrestling with the germinating seeds which have dropped over the fence from their 4 ft tall weeds, grrrr.

I think a lot of people get romantic about smallholdings, allotments, living in the countryside and doing things ye olde fashioned way, without a clue that it's actually pretty hard work a lot of the time.

If you can't stand the mud, stay out of the countryside, I reckon.

jk0

I know a lot of you won't have much sympathy for us landlords. I think some of the problem of landlords treating their properties with contempt originates from the difficulty of getting a tenant to compensate you for damage he has done.

Recently I asked a PITA tenant to leave when he started demanding I go round & change lightbulbs for him.

I knew the place would need new carpets and decoration, and made no claim for them. (Carpets cost £1669.20. Decorating cost £1,776.00) Also a new oven was required costing £600.

My tenant also managed to dent the bathroom door, a kitchen drawer, the bath, and the kitchen sink. The sink was unrepairable and a replacement cost me £336. The other items I had repaired by a specialist firm and cost me £386.40.

Cleaning which I asked the tenant to reimburse me for was £144. Thus for expenditure of £4911, the TDS award was £380.

Perhaps I should have gone and changed his bulbs.

moneyistooshorttomention

Living_proof wrote: »

What is the programme please? I have missed it. Just back from West Wales myself. A wet week in a campervan! But the Botanic Gardens are to die for, whatever the weather.

"Country strife: Abz on the Farm" - it was on BBC2 yesterday.

EDIT; guess the title is a play on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Y7cBLJWgI

for a musical interlude you might enjoy.

moneyistooshorttomention

The lack of "community feeling" about ones home has a knock-on effect to those nearby who actually own their own homes.

One of the reasons I felt I had to sell my starter home (many years belatedly to what I thought it would be...:mad:) was that I could see that the area that house was in was changing from being owner-occupiers to being rented. I was watching the steadily increasing proportion of these first-timer houses that were swopping to rented and I could see the knock-on effect it was having on the neighbourhood as a consequence.

Goodness knows...but there are owner-occupiers who will busily neglect their houses (and I had one of them as a next door neighbour on one side - ie I don't think that pair had done a stroke of work to the house in the several years they owned it before I moved and they were certainly having their own knock-on effect on my property).

However - by and large, and most owner-occupiers will pay that bit more heed to maintenance/have that bit more of an emotional "investment" in their homes than renters (there are, of course, exceptions to every rule - and I knew some proud renters too). But the odds were changing - and not in my favour...

Sure enough - when I came to sell the place and the bidding war at the end was between a FTB and a BTL landlord. The FTB won.

But - yes indeed...and I wince at the thought that every time a renter changes home it looks as if some hundreds of £s get thrown away (ie on agents' charges, etc). Add in - removal costs (whereas, back in my day, I seem to recall it was the norm for rental houses to come fully furnished) and that's money that's not available for anything constructive.