How did you perform during the recession?

noodle_doodle

6/10

Same job, same-ish money

Not made anything financially, not lost anything either, at least one kid in nursery care since 2006 has meant I have no spare cash to gamble with :-)

Biggest boon was moving from a flat to a house before the edinburgh stat notice scandal and subsequent collapse of the council repair scheme. If I was in a e'burgh flat nowadays I'd be worrying about the literal roof over my head.

Linton

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I am in a very good position to determine this because I retired at the start of 2006 with a detailed financial plan that didn't includes a recession.

.......................

Having held off for 8 years in adjusting my original plan (that I still stick to), I am starting to think it worthwhile consolidating the substantial "surplus" and ramping up my lifestyle. Anything left will ultimately go to charity, but although I'm happy with that, I would rather spend most of it myself......

Having retired in mid 2005 at a relatively early age, I am in a similar position. The unplanned recession in practice hasnt affected me as my shares more than recovered from the crash.

I base the assessment of my economic state on the predicted value of my savings at the age of 90. This has increased 10-fold since I retired thanks to lower than expected inflation, higher than expected investment returns and unplanned income so I find myself, like L. Monkey, in the fortunate position of trying to spend more.

michaels

Linton wrote: »

...higher than expected investment returns and unplanned income so I find myself, like L. Monkey, in the fortunate position of trying to spend more.

If you or Mr Monkey do need any help in spending, I could introduce you both to my wife

Loughton_Monkey

michaels wrote: »

If you or Mr Monkey do need any help in spending, I could introduce you both to my wife

That's a very kind offer.

I've just been (this morning) down the road and placed my order for a new car - delivery 1st March. Fortunately, this doesn't detract 1 penny from my analysis below because it was fully 'funded for'. In fact the purchase will add another £3k to my 'contingency fund' since I got a fantastic deal......

sarahevie

Personally I'm in the process of losing £25,000 all in selling the house I bought in 2007.

However, I have moved to a lovely detached house in the catchment of the best school in Yorkshire according to last summer's SATs results. We bought the house for £140,000 less than the previous owners paid in 2006 - so can't complain.

(The market near us hasn't moved that much, around 10% generally although picking up now.) Our previous house as a starter home terraced has seen the worst drops.

The detached we moved to was a repossession at auction so that's why it was so cheap. Think the previous owners probably paid a little bit more than it would be currently worth as it was a new build in 2006 and they appear to demand a premium round here.

Jobs wise I'm largely looking after my three girls. The OH has recently had a £15,000 a year payrise but has waited 9 years for it. He now earns £34,000 so not a bad wage for Yorkshire, but certainly not huge money by anyone's standards.

Overall we are very happy with our lot, we have a nice house, three lovely kids and food in our tummies and I don't ask for anything more.

the_flying_pig

it's a really difficult question to answer.

better/worse off today than you were on 8 january 2008?;

or

better/worse off today than, back in january 2008, you might reasonably have expected to have been the case by now?

for a youngish person especially the two questions might give you very different answers. since then i've got married, had two children, moved house, & so on, all big changes.

but FWIW, in very loose terms [i.e. not answering any single very precise question]:

1 - wages: somewhat better off in nominal terms but not loads, down a fair bit in real terms.

2 - interest on savings - i had a decent amount of savings between 2008 & 2011, that source of income dried up drastically, unsurprisingly.

3 - mortgage repayments - i'd paid off my small mortgage [on a small flat] in full by 2008 but was delaying upsizing for various reasons, mostly procrastinating about marriage & children, also some financial [i strongly expected to see a few years' worth of low or negative HPI], so the cut in interest rates didn't initially benefit me. but then from 2011 onwards, by which time i'd become a net borrower again, it did.

4 - asset value/outlay on property - by 2011 the london properties that i bought & sold were, due to London HPI, both a little more expensive than if i'd bought & sold in 2008, i.e. i was worse off [needed to borrow more] as a result of waiting. did the recession help me though, i.e. would the properties have been more expensive still if there hadn't been a recession? i kind of doubt it personally. i suspect that ZIRP, QE, & various global capital flights meant that London property in 2011 was worth much the same as it'd have been worth even if the 'party hadn't ended' [though the mind boggles to think what that could possibly have meant].


overall i'd say that the recession made me moderately less well off than would otherwise have been the case but not as badly hit as many others.