How is the economy affecting your life?

R

realworksuks

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I saw there was a topic related for it already, but I wanted to start a general one so everyone can share about their own lives...

We are in one of the greatest financial crises in a long while, or so we keep hearing on the news.

How is it affecting all of your lives? Has anything changed? Are you saving more money? More fearful of the future? If you invest any of your money, where are you putting it in these tough times? Let's discuss..
 
Nothing has changed for me. Though the postal service is tlaking downsizing. Which I dont care about and wouldnt mind them letting me go.
 
I'm not buying anything unless it's the deal of the century, so I'll wait until after Xmas to make any major purchases.

The only stocks I have purchased are those paying dividends.

I have been buying precious metals and other commodities. I'll probably sell those in a few weeks' time. I don't like commodities as a general rule. They make me very nervous.

I also refinanced my mortgage so I would have more cash.

That's about it.
 
My mortgage is about to go through the roof as my fixed term ends soon. Usuallt I'd just port the mortgage to get a better rate but house prices have dropped so much that I don't have enough equity in my house to get a good rate anymore, it might even work out best to pay off some of my mortgage on a credit card to increase equity and lower the rate I'm on

Other than that everything is as it was before, but with 0% job security right now as everyone is laying off massive numbers right now. In the paper it predicted that 1 in 10 Londoners will have been made redundant by 2010

It's a geat time to have cash in the bank though (I'm overdrawn :() so I'm working twice as hard to get commission in and buy some bargains
 
Selling our old house was a nightmare, but now everything is back to normal. We're doing well an d I hope is stays that way.

My biggest fear is that the media's scare mongering will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
 
theGOOCH said:
My biggest fear is that the media's scare mongering will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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I think that's a given, I bet high street spending will be super low this Christmas and that could end up leading to retail jobs being cut too
 
My job is safe, which is good to say a lot have been made redundant here. Although no pay rise which im pissed off about as i was expecting one!

Also my shares account has dropped like f**k. I should have double the money i currently have.
 
So far no big changes for me. Maybe less travel but thats about it.

I agree with the comment about the media.
 
My 401K sucks, my mutual fund sucks...other than that, money wise, I just save as much of my checks as possible. My job is safe, my company has been hiring as a matter of fact, and our margins are up.

I definitely don't drive anywhere unless I have to, and I don't spend on clothes ever, no toys/electronics, nothing other than food really.
 
MarkMyWords said:
My 401K sucks, my mutual fund sucks...other than that, money wise, I just save as much of my checks as possible. My job is safe, my company has been hiring as a matter of fact, and our margins are up.

I definitely don't drive anywhere unless I have to, and I don't spend on clothes ever, no toys/electronics, nothing other than food really.
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I still buy hunting and fishing toys. Man has to have those. LOL
 
Everyone being afraid to spend money is what may actually bury us.

The stock market sucks, but unemployment really isn't that bad at this point (of course it's always bad if you're the one unemployed though)

P.S.
Down with corporate welfare! The American auto industry will be next with their hands out..just watch
 
theGOOCH said:
Everyone being afraid to spend money is what may actually bury us.

The stock market sucks, but unemployment really isn't that bad at this point (of course it's always bad if you're the one unemployed though)

P.S.
Down with corporate welfare! The American auto industry will be next with their hands out..just watch
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They already have their hands out. Even if they do get bailed out its not going to matter. Just prolonging the inevitable.
 
Kraken said:
I still buy hunting and fishing toys. Man has to have those. LOL
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Haha, yeah, that's reasonable. The problem with me is that cars is my biggest hobby, so spending 6K on the mint ass fox body Mustang down the street might be a little too much. :D

theGOOCH said:
Everyone being afraid to spend money is what may actually bury us.

The stock market sucks, but unemployment really isn't that bad at this point (of course it's always bad if you're the one unemployed though)

P.S.
Down with corporate welfare! The American auto industry will be next with their hands out..just watch
Click to expand...

Yeah, you are right about that. One of the biggest drags is the fact that people don't want to spend. It's really more a mentality than actual problems. The reason so many businesses are up ****s creek is that no one is buying their crap, plain and simple. Stocks are in the dumps because people are selling them off. If we would just keep our investments, and spend as we normally would, things would be better. I guess that why I also agree that the ****ing media makes this **** worse than it needs to be.

The government will bail out the car companies, they did for Chrysler back in the 80s, now they'll do it for all of em. I don't know how I feel about it, it sucks on one hand, but on the other, we're talking about millions of jobs of people working for those companies, or indirectly selling their ****.
 
Not too much of an effect....

Mostly it's the cost increase of staples that is getting to us, it's making it hard to keep putting money away in savings. However there isn't any significant difference. My DH's job is very secure, crime goes up when the economy goes down, so he's been busy....

If it weren't for me getting my tattoo, everything would probably be the same. It's just before we had more cash floating around....
 
Luckily I am in a field where there is almost always job security. I don't invest in stocks aside from what is in my 401K but honestly at 25 I don't worry much about how it reacts to the market. If everything goes down, then everything goes down and I can't do a damn thing to stop it.

I'm still spending my money as I need to. I tend not to drive anywhere unless I need to despite fuel costs dropping close to 50% since their peak. A lot of this is media stirring the pot but that doesn't mean there's not a real financial issue going on. What needs to happen is execs need to stop getting millions in bonuses and get their asses laid off so little people that make the economy what it is can continue to survive.
 
firefreak said:
Luckily I am in a field where there is almost always job security. I don't invest in stocks aside from what is in my 401K but honestly at 25 I don't worry much about how it reacts to the market. If everything goes down, then everything goes down and I can't do a damn thing to stop it.

I'm still spending my money as I need to. I tend not to drive anywhere unless I need to despite fuel costs dropping close to 50% since their peak. A lot of this is media stirring the pot but that doesn't mean there's not a real financial issue going on. What needs to happen is execs need to stop getting millions in bonuses and get their asses laid off so little people that make the economy what it is can continue to survive.
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I agree with the bonus part but CEO's as greedy as they appear are who keeps the little man working. They are the ones creating the jobs.
 
Kraken said:
I agree with the bonus part but CEO's as greedy as they appear are who keeps the little man working. They are the ones creating the jobs.
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OK let me rephrase. CEOs that get millions in bonuses should not be getting such when say 53,000 people in the case of Citi are losing their jobs for cut backs, nor should CEOs who received millions in bonuses be allowed to keep said bonuses should their company go under or be acquired by another firm.

I fear there will not be enough regulation behind the $700B rescue. I swear if I see one single exec get a bonus for his "good work" while his company is putting the rest of the country into debt I am gonna crack some skulls
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And as for the auto industry....there's a glorious answer out there that can save each single company. Producing smaller, fuel efficient, hybrid or alternative fuel cars. Why are the big 3 going down? They are going down because companies like Toyota and Honda got the drop on them. They saw what was coming, realized what they needed to do and adjusted their course to get themselves in a place where they decimate the competition.

Bail them out to save the jobs of all those people, but demand nothing less than a fleet of alternative fuel/hybrid vehicles that don't fall apart in 2 years time. No more big SUVs, no more gas guzzlers. I am not an environmentalist in the least...but I can still see the writing on the wall.


edit: of course that last part is unrealistic. big oil has a hold on everything in this world and in our economy. the bailout will need to happen soon unfortunately...and lets be honest...a failed oil tycoon will never require anything such as what I posted out fo the auto industry. he'll let them keep making big gas guzzlers so all his buddies can keep making the $$.
 
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I agree with that firefreak. Our big 3 need to consolidate. We have too many brands, too many dealers, and too little quality. Actually bankruptcy would be a better option for them. The only real issue is that could eliminate benefits for those who are already retired. There will have to be some compromise for that.

Aside from that you have all this unskilled labor making 80 grand a year to screw a widget into some part. We need to take a look at that. It created this standard of living that is not sustainable. Call me old fashioned but in order to acheive that standard of living one must work hard and have some skill. Not some schmuck who gets high and drunk on the job making that kind of money. Theres too much of that going on.
 
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