How did you perform during the recession?

purch

I doubt that Mr Buffett ever said that, mainly because it is pretty stupid advice....he did say “I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.” which is far better advice.

N1AK

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all. I just thought this thread (and again, at pains not to highlight anyone or direct it at anyone) highlights the common theory that this recession has made the "rich" richer and the poor poorer.

I can certainly see how it seems that way. There certainly are issues of inequality in this country, but I think we're far too quick to blame everything on someone else.

My social circle of friends tends to be pretty left wing. My, single, mum was a cleaner in Manchester, and I ended up in a school for children with behavioural problems, so I and the people I knew were not "the rich".

I'm reasonably well off now. A huge factor in that is good fortune: having been born in a wealthy country, being accepted into a relatively good school and leaving university before the recent recession. But it's not all luck. I saved when I got my first agency job out of uni and I worked hard. I bought my first old and cheap car with money, not a loan, and I paid my insurance in cash so I paid less. I don't have Sky, I don't buy computer games on the day they are released, I save and invest, I don't drive a brand new car etc and that has all contributed to where I am now.

Now that I'm here and we're taking better holidays, hired a cleaner and are weighing up a bigger house or a BTL our friends don't know how we can afford it. They're friends who shared the vast majority of our luck and whose earnings aren't vastly different. Children have made a big difference to finances for some, but it's notable that even though we paid for our own deposit and our own wedding that friends whose parents paid for both are still somehow some of the least financially secure.

Having money does make it easier to get more money, there's no denying it. But having money can mean having £75 you saved by not eating out once last month and using that to pay off more of your credit card debt.

N1AK

purch wrote: »

I doubt that Mr Buffett ever said that, mainly because it is pretty stupid advice....he did say “I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.” which is far better advice.

You're right it was Getty who said it (and got extremely wealthy), though Buffet's view is often simplified to it.

It's not poor advice it simply needs consideration like any advice. Any moron could lose money buying tat just because most people are selling it. However you'd have also lost your shirt if you invested in Blackberry when it first dropped because that is what you thought would best feed your greed.

The advice of both views can be boiled down to the same basic premise. If you think something is worth owning then the best time to buy it is when other people want to own it the least.

The difficulty with the original Buffet quote is that it is vague. Greed isn't inherently smart, greed means an overriding desire for something which often leads to making stupid decisions instead of rational ones.

Prothet_of_Doom

In the boom years that Pre-ceeded the Recession, my salary was pretty much stagnant, I could barely make ends meet, and all this despite having a full time professional job, and decent experience and qualifications. My pension pot seemed to shrink, my savings dwindled and my relationships both personal and professional were strained.

The recession hit, I was made redundant.

Guess what? Best thing that EVER happened to me.

Bantex_2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Sorry, I haven't got hundreds of thousand of pounds to invest in several different areas and see "pots overflowing". And nothing really to boast about either.

So the only thing I can chip in is "I got by". Kids have food in their mouths, roof over their head etc.

Which is better than not, like some others who lost everything, so happy with that.

Don't think many have "lost everything" unless they gambled everything.

Percy1983

Well I must admit things just seem to be going well for me, the product of much hard work and a little luck.

chewmylegoff

N1AK wrote: »

You're right it was Getty who said it (and got extremely wealthy), though Buffet's view is often simplified to it.

It's not poor advice it simply needs consideration like any advice. Any moron could lose money buying tat just because most people are selling it. However you'd have also lost your shirt if you invested in Blackberry when it first dropped because that is what you thought would best feed your greed.

The advice of both views can be boiled down to the same basic premise. If you think something is worth owning then the best time to buy it is when other people want to own it the least.

The difficulty with the original Buffet quote is that it is vague. Greed isn't inherently smart, greed means an overriding desire for something which often leads to making stupid decisions instead of rational ones.

Perhaps this is pedantic but "buy when others are selling and sell when others are buying" is pretty rubbish advice given that you cannot physically buy something unless someone else is selling it and vice versa...

Every day I get the same old "there are more buys than sells so the price should go up" nonsense from AiM market spanners who cannot grasp that the number of buys and sells is always equal.

Thrugelmir

N1AK wrote: »

The advice of both views can be boiled down to the same basic premise. If you think something is worth owning then the best time to buy it is when other people want to own it the least.

One understated skill is to be emotionally detached from your investments. There's a price to sell at. Standing back and being objective is a failure of many investors.

Halle71

Made redundant in 2008 whilst pregnant.
In 2009 'swapped' a lovely 2 bed flat in a cool area of London for a nice-ish 3 bed house in a nearby, yet decidedly uncool area of London.
Had baby, got a job, updated and extended the house to 4 beds.
Fast forward to 2013 - new baby, uncool area of London suddenly up and coming, bought a 4 bed BTL nearby that increased in value by £100k between offer and completion and our house is up 70% on what we have put in. We want to start saving for another BTL but have been priced out of our area so need to look elsewhere or just start paying off our residential mortgage.

mayonnaise

percy1983 wrote: »

well i must admit things just seem to be going well for me, the product of much hard work and a little luck.

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