View Full Version : I love the Credit Crunch
Now, don't get me wrong, I am worried about what's happening out there, but...
...I can now book a hotel last min in this country and get decent rooms!
Hurray, Mr Lou won't shout at me for leaving our weekend away till last min.
Anyone else found an upside to these hard times?
dizzyblonde
07-10-08, 09:10 PM
errrrrrrrrrrr nope :-(
Biker_Billy
07-10-08, 09:14 PM
Yep - we are waiting to buy - have a decent deposit, and prices are falling....
just need to wait for banks to start lending now!
You can get more Euro for your Pound. Well last 2 days. Shares are cheap too ;)
injury_ian
07-10-08, 09:18 PM
loads of deals on motorbikes.... which one tho... hmmm
If you believe what you read in the papers/news, you'd think that there were no property deals on at all at the moment.
If so, then why is Sarah - my conveyancing assistant - fully occupied with property deals? I think it's because we have never sought to fleece clients, we have alwys offerd a quality and value for money service, and clients remember that. Most of our property work is from existing clients or recommendations, and not through agents.
However there is another upside. People are wishing their hand back on contracts they entered, and I have an explosion of civil litigation work:D
The company that I work for do better in times like this so I ain't complaining :D
nik_nunez
07-10-08, 09:28 PM
personally its ok, at work its good, work for the post office and we are getting loads of people coming in to take out accounts .
p.s. if anyone gets anything from the post office let me know so you can use my branch code ;-)
The company that I work for do better in times like this so I ain't complaining :D Legal firm too then ;)
Legal firm too then ;)
Nope. http://www.belzona.com/
People repair instead of buying new :p
dizzyblonde
07-10-08, 09:51 PM
Yep - we are waiting to buy - have a decent deposit, and prices are falling....
just need to wait for banks to start lending now!
we're a bit unsure. I have a small house with a not so large mortgage. Last year the mortgage was for just less than half of what my house was worth. Now I'm not sure of value, and if I could sell it with enough of a profit towards a larger house, and when the best time to take advantage of lowering prices would be, and if we could get a larger mortgage etc.
Its a wait and see...hold onto your seats
MR UKI (1)
07-10-08, 09:58 PM
I hate it, work for a Building Society which is in the middle of a merger with the big Building Society :(
I don't like it!!!!!!!!!
Since Sunday I have been writing redundancy letters and comp agreements along with one of my bosses and my/her colleague. Everybody knows we are up to something. Nobody has spoken to me or my colleague since Friday we have been seen as the b!tch’s. We are constantly being looked at and spoke about and really my last two days at work have been hell.
Tomorrow everybody who is going will know including my best friend at work. Have known that she will not have a job within a couple of months and had to lie to her face when asked what was going on. I don’t want to go to work tomorrow but have to.
However the silver lining which is all that’s getting me there is that I am not losing my job and they are hoping to not have to get rid of any more staff but will be making no promises.
Paul the 6th
07-10-08, 10:29 PM
im staying at the travel lodge in toxtteth (liverpool) tonight.
on the flip side, I'm in the process of buying a house which was £60k more expensive this time last year :)
I don't like it!!!!!!!!!
Since Sunday I have been writing redundancy letters and comp agreements
ooh, compromise agreements. Means that a solicitor has to give independent legal advice to the hapless recipient. If you need my number...;)
on the flip side, I'm in the process of buying a house which was £60k more expensive this time last year :)
& this time next yr will be worth another £60K less :???: Good luck :rolleyes:
In the morning I will be emptying the company's bank account before the bank goes bust. (unfortunately not into my a/c but into another company a/c with a different bank)
My mate and I will probably be going into business soon as collection agents. He's done it before, and this means we'll be the ones knocking on doors asking for the keys to cars that haven't been paid for and shunting them to auction sites on behalf of finance companies. My mate has done this before, and when things picked up last time he went back to his normal job of arranging loans. He's ok whatever the situation, lend the money when times are good, repossess the stuff the loans bought when they're bad.
Hasn't done him any harm, he's 35 and owns a lovely house outright, drives a nice motor, owns a couple of bikes and has lots of spare cash in the bank.
I love the credit crunch , in a resesion proof job. so other than a few price rises dont care too much.
I don't like it!!!!!!!!!
Since Sunday I have been writing redundancy letters and comp agreements along with one of my bosses and my/her colleague. Everybody knows we are up to something. Nobody has spoken to me or my colleague since Friday we have been seen as the b!tch’s. We are constantly being looked at and spoke about and really my last two days at work have been hell.
Tomorrow everybody who is going will know including my best friend at work. Have known that she will not have a job within a couple of months and had to lie to her face when asked what was going on. I don’t want to go to work tomorrow but have to.
However the silver lining which is all that’s getting me there is that I am not losing my job and they are hoping to not have to get rid of any more staff but will be making no promises.
Lily do you work in HR?
me i hate it i work in construction albeit a big construction company but we are gonna lose 150 people in my region - since they installed oracle they have made our training dept redundant, also our submissions depart which leaves me and my team to do any submissions which isn't a hassle but its not good for them and also 2 of our regional offices are closing on top of the office that closed recently in bromborough.
on a personal level as we only bought our house last year we won't be able to afford to move until things improve drastically
not good at all
No not really. Couldnt get a deal on our holiday and if RBS go pop we are up brown street!
things are just starting to slow down in my industry, and we are in a potentially horrendous position. prices falling, hight priced stock and sales slowing. my colleague and i are trying to make our boss wake up and smell the coffee...
oh and can the world please start calling it a recession not a credit crunch!
Lily do you work in HR?
yes..........well kind of.........its a bit confusing my job...........
i kind of float between company secretary work and HR work. Work for both the co sec. (and doing my training for that) and the HR manager (who also wants me to do my training for that) :rolleyes:
Ed- you never know if they take the argeement rather than fight it.
I wonder how many of the people who have signed off in the Army are now trying to revoke that given the current situation outside??
I reckon being an undertaker will be good money soon :Dall those rich baby bankers topping themselves because their stocks and shares have been wiped out.
dizzyblonde
08-10-08, 08:17 AM
according to the informative news, manufacturing isn't doing too well. i should imagine it slows down as much for huge companies as it does for the little ones. I would hope I'm reasonably safe working for a huge company, but if they have to make cut backs it will be more likely that mine and Im Indoors shifts will go first(weekends), even though ours are the most productive
Lily do you work in HR?
me i hate it i work in construction albeit a big construction company but we are gonna lose 150 people in my region - since they installed oracle they have made our training dept redundant, also our submissions depart which leaves me and my team to do any submissions which isn't a hassle but its not good for them and also 2 of our regional offices are closing on top of the office that closed recently in bromborough.
on a personal level as we only bought our house last year we won't be able to afford to move until things improve drastically
not good at all
Similar situation I work in construction but I'm relatively cheap compared to some of the senior people.
My girlfriend works for a bank that was bought by Santander but is in a good position so should hopefully be safe,
And we bought our first hour 3 years ago, although we got it stupidly cheap and prices on similar house locally are still a good 35% up on what we paid for ours.
Things are fine, I have no intention of moving and could get a job elsewhere no problem, so unless things got considerably worse I'm ok.
Made the most of cheap bikes going about though lol :cool:
Don't mind it - my jobs wages are already being cut before this - on protection for three years - got a fixed rate mortgage which i have in writing will not be affected and honoured for the next 5yrs. the payments aren't a quarter of my wages - the credit card is paid off the cars my own i ain't interested in moving so apart from a few prices rises and watching what i spend i'm sorted. (sold my shares at the last peak and made a killing and bought my bike)
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 08:42 AM
oh and can the world please start calling it a recession not a credit crunch!
I know what you mean. Like 'carbon footprint', the term is beginning to grate. But, a recession is termed as negative growth, which we're not experiencing. Well, yet anyway.
Speaking of 'carbon footprints', amazing how quickly everyones forgotten about that since this financial catastrophy began.
It will be back when the goverment have money to waste again :rolleyes:
Speaking of 'carbon footprints', amazing how quickly everyones forgotten about that since this financial catastrophy began.
yep! since i began to "tighten my belt" i've burnt sheep and flew across the atlantic twice as i figured global warming/cooling was all sorted.
Speaking of 'carbon footprints', amazing how quickly everyones forgotten about that since this financial catastrophy began.
Plainly you haven't. It must be very close to your heart:D
As for this morning's announcements, I dunno... a necessary evil I guess. Who's coming with the rescue boat to everyone else?
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 08:59 AM
yep! since i began to "tighten my belt" i've burnt sheep and flew across the atlantic twice as i figured global warming/cooling was all sorted.
:D excellent!
Plainly you haven't. It must be very close to your heart:D
:p Nah, it was just my general feeling that people were only pontificating about the environment because they had no real problems to moan about. Now they do have real problems, suddenly the environment gets forgotten about...
As for this morning's announcements, I dunno... a necessary evil I guess. Who's coming with the rescue boat to everyone else?
I spoke to someone in the know about all this business the other day. Surfice to say, this is far more complex than greedy banks needing a bail out.
But as the US is now socialist, perhaps black will become white and the world will turn its self inside out - who knows!
Paul the 6th
08-10-08, 09:10 AM
oils running out, credit is broken, the ice caps are melting and i need some new tyres for my bike. Bit of a tight situation for all of us :(
How many banks reported ginormous profits last year.
And in just a few months we're bailing them out with £50bn.
Perhaps their auditors can explain.
Can somebody please square this circle?
Plainly you haven't. It must be very close to your heart:D
As for this morning's announcements, I dunno... a necessary evil I guess. Who's coming with the rescue boat to everyone else?
Im in the the lifeboat and very grateful for the seat thank you
.
Hint: Contractor who pays himself monthly, and icesave. I'm feeling slightly more relieved now.
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 10:01 AM
How many banks reported ginormous profits last year.
Ginormous compared to what though? A profit on its own is meaningless without context. You need to know how much money was invested to earn that profit.
A bank might earn £1bn in profit, but if they invested £100bn, then they're bringing in less than inflation and so essentially losing money.
Ginormous compared to what though? A profit on its own is meaningless without context. You need to know how much money was invested to earn that profit.
A bank might earn £1bn in profit, but if they invested £100bn, then they're bringing in less than inflation and so essentially losing money.
Profit is profit....your refering to turnover.
'Turnover is for vanity....profit is for sanity'
Iansv II
08-10-08, 10:11 AM
Not really affecting me at the moment, just waiting on my outsourcing agreement to be signed and then i have my job guaranteed for 14months and then redundancy at the end of it if I don't want to stay
Looking to relocate to be closer to my girlfriend at the end of that time anyway and all my debts will be paid off by then so won't have any real overheads so currently its all good
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 10:30 AM
Profit is profit....your refering to turnover.
'Turnover is for vanity....profit is for sanity'
I'm refering to profit as a % of turnover. Think of it as savings if you like - you stick £10 in the bank, you might expect £11 back at the end of the year for your investment. If you get £10 back, or worse £9 back, you won't bother. Business is the same, just with more zeros on the end.
I'm refering to profit as a % of turnover. Think of it as savings if you like - you stick £10 in the bank, you might expect £11 back at the end of the year for your investment. If you get £10 back, or worse £9 back, you won't bother. Business is the same, just with more zeros on the end.
Yes but picking up from what Ed said and using your example, it doesn't matter how much the bank invested, they all made a profit. So they all got their investment back plus some extra, ie, they put their £10 in and got their £11 back.
They didn't make a loss.
I personally think it's disgusting that this situation has been allowed to occur by our government and the BOE, etc. I appreciate that the government is guaranteeing people's savings as it would be unfair for the banks to collapse taking people's hard earned with them; but I will be paying for this out of my taxes for the rest of my life. And then I'll have no state pension at the end of it.
Answers on a postcard.
It's a very big mess.
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 11:43 AM
Yes but picking up from what Ed said and using your example, it doesn't matter how much the bank invested, they all made a profit. So they all got their investment back plus some extra, ie, they put their £10 in and got their £11 back.
They didn't make a loss.
Of course it matters how much the bank invested. A small bank needs a small profit, a big bank needs a big profit. If it doesn't get it then it can't grow, if it can't grow the shares aren't going to go up in value and they won't pay a dividend, so there's no point having them. If the shares have no value then the bank folds.
Gazza77
08-10-08, 11:46 AM
I personally think it's disgusting that this situation has been allowed to occur by our government and the BOE, etc. I appreciate that the government is guaranteeing people's savings as it would be unfair for the banks to collapse taking people's hard earned with them; but I will be paying for this out of my taxes for the rest of my life. And then I'll have no state pension at the end of it.
Answers on a postcard.
It's a very big mess.
You're right it is a big mess. You might benefit though if the shares the government have taken in banks bring a decent return, which given time they might.
Yes but picking up from what Ed said and using your example, it doesn't matter how much the bank invested, they all made a profit. So they all got their investment back plus some extra, ie, they put their £10 in and got their £11 back.
They didn't make a loss.
But (and to take this example to clarify what FS was saying) if you invested £10, got back £11, but inflation was at 20%, you would lose money, while still making a profit. Context.
I love the way everything is trying to be seperated out by the media.
Taxpayers, shareholders, greedy bankers...
If you have a pension, then your pension fund would be a shareholder in the "greedy bankers", and while the going was good, you made a nice profit. Now it all turns to 5hit and everyone looks to find out who got it wrong. Anyone who ever forgot that "Investments can go up as well as down" and "There's no such thing as a free lunch" is who.
Of course it matters how much the bank invested. A small bank needs a small profit, a big bank needs a big profit. If it doesn't get it then it can't grow, if it can't grow the shares aren't going to go up in value and they won't pay a dividend, so there's no point having them. If the shares have no value then the bank folds.
Maybe I didn't word my reply correctly, I meant using the example, it didn't matter how much was invested. But the fact remains, as Ed said, that these banks made a profit; and all of a sudden they are collapsing because that profit was gained on risky trading conditions. A big bank doesn't need to make a big profit, or grow. It wants to, because the directors / managers and shareholders want to get richer, ie, they are greedy. If people were satisfied with a little bit of growth then it could be sutsainable.
But (and to take this example to clarify what FS was saying) if you invested £10, got back £11, but inflation was at 20%, you would lose money, while still making a profit. Context.
I completely appreciate what you're saying and of course you are correct there. But why is the inflation at 20%? Because people were getting richer, borrowing and spending more money and creating the bubble. IIRC correctly from my economics textbook it is demand pull inflation because people were / are prepared to borrow and spend more in the blind faith that the bubble will not burst.
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 11:56 AM
Maybe I didn't word my reply correctly, I meant using the example, it didn't matter how much was invested. But the fact remains, as Ed said, that these banks made a profit; and all of a sudden they are collapsing because that profit was gained on risky trading conditions. A big bank doesn't need to make a big profit, or grow. It wants to, because the directors / managers and shareholders want to get richer, ie, they are greedy. If people were satisfied with a little bit of growth then it could be sutsainable.
EVERYONE is, or at some point, will be a share holder, as Rigor points out. By your logic, everyone should stash their pension fund under their matress.
Unbelievable. 20 years of massive growth, and the inevitable hickup of cyclical capitalist economics comes around and everyone wants to revert to communism.
Unbelievable. 20 years of massive growth, and the inevitable hickup of cyclical capitalist economics comes around and everyone wants to revert to communism.
No no no, taking my comment and twisting it to an extreme. :(
Regarding the economy, there has to be a balance and economic theory says there can be a balnce but unfortunately our 'leaders' wouldn't know where it was if it hit them in the face.
I admit, I'm not clever enough to knowthe answers but I would hope that our illustrious government would.
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 12:31 PM
No no no, taking my comment and twisting it to an extreme. :(
Regarding the economy, there has to be a balance and economic theory says there can be a balnce but unfortunately our 'leaders' wouldn't know where it was if it hit them in the face.
I admit, I'm not clever enough to knowthe answers but I would hope that our illustrious government would.
Oh, that comment wasn't aimed at you specifically anyway, it just seems to be the way the general public at large are reacting.
You can't aboish the economic cycle, as much as that idiot Brown seems to think ("end of boom and bust" - hahahaha). Investments are a risk (which incidently, is why you do 'need' profit, otherwise where's the reward for risking your money in any investment). It's rather worrying that this whole risk adverse culture from safety to money seems to be spreading like poison through, well the entire western world, I guess.
FS - surely the point is that banks are happy to make huge sums (however you measure it) and pay dividends one minute and equally happy to pass the begging bowl the next because if we don't bail them out we'll all go to hell in a handbasket.
Hypocrisy in the boardroom.
Usual story. Owe a thousand, it's your problem. Owe a million, it's the bank's problem. Owe a billion, it's the government's problem.
Miss Alpinestarhero
08-10-08, 03:57 PM
Yep - we are waiting to buy - have a decent deposit, and prices are falling....
just need to wait for banks to start lending now!
+1
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 05:19 PM
FS - surely the point is that banks are happy to make huge sums (however you measure it) and pay dividends one minute and equally happy to pass the begging bowl the next because if we don't bail them out we'll all go to hell in a handbasket.
Hypocrisy in the boardroom.
Usual story. Owe a thousand, it's your problem. Owe a million, it's the bank's problem. Owe a billion, it's the government's problem.
I think you have to look at it from the POV that economics is very much like politics. Everyone can pick holes in what's wrong with the system, but there aren't really any viable alternatives that would be any better.
Banks take risks with our money - it's the only way you get any growth. The obvious problem that we're having now is that occasionally people lose confidence and the system takes a big hit. But what's the alternative? Give full economic control to the government? Considering how much national dept we're in, I'd consider Brown far more reckless than anyone in the banking system. At least in the private sector you can take your money elsewhere.
Paul the 6th
08-10-08, 06:26 PM
"only when the last tree has been cut down, and the last river has been poisoned, will man realise that you can't eat money and reciting old proberbs makes you sound like a tw*t."
Banksy, 2007
Biker Biggles
08-10-08, 06:28 PM
Im not an economist,and know very little about its theory,but how come it was blindingly obvious to me that house prices were way too high and a collapse was inevitable?Ive seen this coming for a couple of years and said so,including on here.
The other thing that has been obvious to stupid old me is that our economy, GB ltd, is insolvent and has been for a couple of decades.So is America now,and maybe that is what is really happening in the wide world of capitalism.The so called self styled "experts" have finally realised it too.Thus no amount of government bail outs can change the fundamental economic reality and we are all in the ****.The problem is that somebody else owns the energy,the raw materials and the factories that produce the goods,so when they have had all our money,what are we producing in order to regenerate our wealth that we have just blown?Very little it seems.
Paul the 6th
08-10-08, 06:32 PM
strange how no one did anything to prevent it - even though everyone's been saying it for long enough, experts, neighbours, the news, my mum "ooh they're predicting a massive house price crash next year" ref: my mum, oct 2007.
Paul the 6th
08-10-08, 06:34 PM
oh and isn't the average house price meant to be 5 x the average wage, so if £20k average annual wage = £100k average house price?
The ratio was way out of balance just before all this credit stuff became daily headlines
Flamin_Squirrel
08-10-08, 07:26 PM
Im not an economist,and know very little about its theory,but how come it was blindingly obvious to me that house prices were way too high and a collapse was inevitable.
From what I understand, the reason is pension funds. Essentially, US and UK governments ****ed their financial reserves up the wall leaving no government bonds, which would be the normal bedrock of pension fund investment, available for purchase.
Companies providing pensions were then in the predicament of having billions of pounds of savers money that desperately needed investing in something, otherwise there would be lots of skint OAPs. That something turned out to be mortgages.
So, suddenly billions of pounds of credit becomes available to the housing market, which causes the housing boom. Then, as you say, people got the jitters when the prices didn't stop rising. Combined with the sub-prime business mixed into all the mortgages packages that pension providers bought, confidence suddenly took a nose dive and the rest as they say is history.
I wouldn't profess to understand all this in any kind of detail, simply enough to say that it's far more complex than it simply wasn't seen coming.
Nick762
08-10-08, 08:48 PM
oh and isn't the average house price meant to be 5 x the average wage, so if £20k average annual wage = £100k average house price?
The ratio was way out of balance just before all this credit stuff became daily headlines
Too right!
I don't understand how the pundits thought that the housing market would continue to grow indefinately. Surely if a couple on an average salary could not afford an entry level home then there was something wrong with the system. First time buyers who supposedly drive the housing market were being priced out by bye-to-let investors and then having to waste money renting instead of being able to save a reasonable deposit ending up being pushed out of the market completely.
I'm amazed how atitudes have changed in less than 20 years. When I first looked at buying a house in the late 80's I had to meet the building society manager to discuss the arrangements. I expressed surprised at all the additional expenses involved as being a first time buyer my budget was really tight. He said to me that if I was concerned about several hundred pounds for whatever expense it was then perhaps I should reconsider whether I could afford to buy a house (I did and decided I had no alternative but to rent.) Last time I needed a mortgage I met with a junior staff member and they just added all the incidental expenses into the package... In retrospect I wonder who had the right idea.
Paul the 6th
08-10-08, 08:53 PM
aye, wish i knew who my bank manager was instead of "jonathon hanley" of the central underwriting unit at hbosbc
You know, when I posted this last night, I really thought you lot would hammer me for being heartless. When I saw 48 posts earlier I was a bit scared to open the thread, but it's nice to see that it's not all doom and gloom out there, unlike what the media would have us believe.
In fact, going by what has been said about bike prices, I'm off to surf for a second bike, always fancied a dirt bike, so I'm going to go and see what I can get!
Good luck to everyone house buying, and fingers crossed that our jobs are ok.
Seggons
14-10-08, 07:55 PM
On a big plus it does lead to some mildly amusing songs.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s_iMS31mqmU
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tvllSpeZuoM&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kQdNLFVdwfQ&feature=related
:D
And the hotel is now booked. Snowdon here we come!
timwilky
14-10-08, 09:46 PM
The problem with the credit crunch is the innocent victims caught in its wake.
New builds have died. My lad was/is a tiler. He has been laid off.
No work round here to be had. everybody is scrabbling after what used to be the foreigners etc. everybody thinks they can do that etc. He is now working on minimum wage. 4 weeks of 40 hour weeks does not pay his mortgage, and to top it all because he is only 21 the minimum wage he gets is less than the full minimum wage.
He applied for one job and was told he had to be unemployed for 6 months first as it was a training position for the long term unemployed, as if he is going to sit on his backside for 6 months.
He has gone from £24,000/year plus bonus to £4.77/hour though no fault of his own. Please don't gloat about the credit crunch it is destroying families.
Ceri JC
15-10-08, 09:36 AM
I don't 'love' it, but I'm fairly indifferent to it. The basics have gone up, but luxuries have come down, so for me I'm only marginally worse off in practical terms. I imagine people who earn a lot (and don't have the money tied up in shares/property) are actually proportionally slightly better off. Of course, it's the poorer people who would buy fewest luxuries that are the worst effected by it all.
Speaking purely personally, it's not really affecting me at all. Local authoritiy employee carrying out a statutory function (therefore job safe), final salary pension scheme, etc..... steering the middle path - we lose out relatively when times are good, gain relatively when they are bad. I don't have a mortgage either. I do have some dosh in a L & G Private Pension, though. Think I might leave it there - no point bailing out at the moment.
Doesn't stop me "feeling" for others, though - a lot of the people I know aren't so fortunate and are really worried about the immediate future.
The whole sorry situation is caused by a lack of confidence and a few banking types "waking up, smelling the unsustainable coffee and getting twitchy". They play with other peoples' money like gamblers in a poker game.... one more little risky investment won't hurt.
As for an upside........hopefully house prices and the earning/mortgage ratio will mean that first time buyers can afford to buy a house, although if it were me I wouldn't take the plunge just yet.
Hope that everyone on here survives the coming couple of months unscathed :thumbsup:
Ceri JC
15-10-08, 04:04 PM
Speaking of 'carbon footprints', amazing how quickly everyones forgotten about that since this financial catastrophy began.
Oh yes. Sales of Fair trade, organic and eco products are down almost 40%, illustrating that when it came down to it people cared about them about as much as they do about other "fashion" goods. I'm not suggesting everyone who buys them doesn't buy them for the right reasons, but for many (a significant wedge of those who've stopped) it was more a matter of suburbia latching onto the latest fad as opposed to the individuals concerned having a strong personal moral belief in the importance of such goods.
Blue_SV650S
15-10-08, 05:33 PM
I don't 'love' it, but I'm fairly indifferent to it. The basics have gone up, but luxuries have come down, so for me I'm only marginally worse off in practical terms. I imagine people who earn a lot (and don't have the money tied up in shares/property) are actually proportionally slightly better off. Of course, it's the poorer people who would buy fewest luxuries that are the worst effected by it all.
+1
Fuel prices are coming back down for the first time in ages ... as is anything else I care about ... people have stopped swarming everywhere I wanna be ... its all good!! 8)
+1
Fuel prices are coming back down for the first time in ages ... as is anything else I care about ... people have stopped swarming everywhere I wanna be ... its all good!! 8)
Have you got a job yet Blue? Or are you sponging on the rest of us?
The problem with the credit crunch is the innocent victims caught in its wake.
New builds have died. My lad was/is a tiler. He has been laid off.
No work round here to be had. everybody is scrabbling after what used to be the foreigners etc. everybody thinks they can do that etc. He is now working on minimum wage. 4 weeks of 40 hour weeks does not pay his mortgage, and to top it all because he is only 21 the minimum wage he gets is less than the full minimum wage.
He applied for one job and was told he had to be unemployed for 6 months first as it was a training position for the long term unemployed, as if he is going to sit on his backside for 6 months.
He has gone from £24,000/year plus bonus to £4.77/hour though no fault of his own. Please don't gloat about the credit crunch it is destroying families.
I have been a tiler for over twenty yrs and although things have slowed down ,I still have work from my regulars at the mo.
fizzwheel
15-10-08, 09:05 PM
Our parent company offer its employee's the opportunity to purchase shares at a reduced rate. Due to the cacky market and the fact that the building trade has been impacted our share price is low.
I can get shares at £1.09 on the current offer me thinks i'll be investing.
Our parent company offer its employee's the opportunity to purchase shares at a reduced rate. Due to the cacky market and the fact that the building trade has been impacted our share price is low.
I can get shares at £1.09 on the current offer me thinks i'll be investing.
If I give you some £ can u get some for me?
fizzwheel
15-10-08, 09:11 PM
If I give you some £ can u get some for me?
Open to employee's only I'm afraid...
Scheme is complicated to explain but basically I pay x amount each month for a minimum of three years and then I can either take the money out I've paid in + interest, purchase shares at the offer price and then imediatly sell them at the current market rate or I can purchase shares at the offer price and hold onto them.
Whatever happens I dont loose money so in that respect its quite a safe way of playing the stock market. Well as safe as its going to get I think.
Open to employee's only I'm afraid...
Scheme is complicated to explain but basically I pay x amount each month for a minimum of three years and then I can either take the money out I've paid in + interest, purchase shares at the offer price and then imediatly sell them at the current market rate or I can purchase shares at the offer price and hold onto them.
Whatever happens I dont loose money so in that respect its quite a safe way of playing the stock market. Well as safe as its going to get I think.
So its an SAYE scheme??? My company offers those but do them on a 5 year basis..... not fun for the poor member of staff that has to deal with it all............... O yer that would be me :rolleyes:
lot of our employee's are closing SAYE accounts from 2006 and 2007 and using the money they get back to buy shares in the open market rather than wait 3/4 years for the scheme to end.
fizzwheel
15-10-08, 09:28 PM
So its an SAYE scheme???
Basically yes. You can take out 3 or 5 year options. Alot of us are talking about cancelling our current ones and putting the money into the new option we've just been given.
Its run by a third party company so no admin for our HR department.
ethariel
15-10-08, 10:03 PM
Our firm does similar but matches share purchases on a 1 for 1 basis with bonus shares up to £75/month. At any time you can sell the shares but then have to pay tax on them or after 3 years you can sell just your own shares and loose the bonus ones but pay no tax or wait the 5 years from when it starts and choose to sell off all the shares or hold on to them.
Share pprices over the next 3 years are bound to pop bach up, tho they need to drop by a further 60% or so for me to actually loose anything over the 5 years so its a pretty solid investment.
Have just exchanged on a sale of a resi property in Bayston Hill, near S'bury - asking price was £325K, sold at £249K. It's a 3 bedroomed detached house, Edwardian in style, huge garden, parking, fully refurbed. I know the client well. She bought it for £275K just a few years ago and spent a fortune on it. She's gutted.
Dappa D
16-10-08, 11:15 AM
i have love hate thing going on with the Credit crunch....
my job is purely running a team of sales people that ONLY sell to local government...councils....all the moneys in iceland so noone is buying so no bonuses..that sucks!!! had to let 2 people go....
on the flip side my job is secure (for the foreseeable future anyway as can set up a sales team in a different dept hence sell to a different demographic)
so we are wanting to buy a house with garden/garage..as we own a flat atm, have a nice chunk of equiety (excuse spelling)...yes we will lose some on the sale of the flat...but we would save more on the cost of a house and prices are falling rapidly....we can afford a larger house than we could have say a yr ago and/or, have a smaller mortgage...
so on the whole its pretty good...as long as it doesnt go to drastic and my company closes down..which isnt likely....
](*,)
Gazza77
16-10-08, 11:58 AM
Have just exchanged on a sale of a resi property in Bayston Hill, near S'bury - asking price was £325K, sold at £249K. It's a 3 bedroomed detached house, Edwardian in style, huge garden, parking, fully refurbed. I know the client well. She bought it for £275K just a few years ago and spent a fortune on it. She's gutted.
Why was she selling if she is that upset about the price? Was it a forced sale or her own free will?
Why was she selling if she is that upset about the price? Was it a forced sale or her own free will?
Somewhere between the two. She decided that she had made a mistake - didn't like the house, and her job changed - she was given a much bigger patch, so spent a lot of time away and the location was no longer convenient.
phil24_7
17-10-08, 08:26 PM
Things for the bike can be had for peanuts, house prices are dropping (just need to sort the deposit) and there's deals to be had everywhere!
i'm just waiting on the government hitting us with the big one...
due to britain being a little greedy and seedy dodgy dealing island and things have gone t!ts up we are now going to have to devalue the pound.
i'm just waiting on the government hitting us with the big one...
due to britain being a little greedy and seedy dodgy dealing island and things have gone t!ts up we are now going to have to devalue the pound.
:confused: floating exchange rate - it's happening already - now worth $1.72 rather than $1.95 a few years ago.
i'm just waiting on the government hitting us with the big one...
due to britain being a little greedy and seedy dodgy dealing island and things have gone t!ts up we are now going to have to devalue the pound.
Seems we arent as bad as the French. Imagine having to tell the boss you just lost 600 million euro in a derivatives trading incident. :smt075
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7675574.stm
Credit crunch hasn't majorly affected me yet. I actually only went out and bought the bike last month, well and truely into the credit crunch!
Then again...I live at home and only pay £200 a month to keep the mother quiet.
phil24_7
18-10-08, 09:43 AM
:confused: floating exchange rate - it's happening already - now worth $1.72 rather than $1.95 a few years ago.
Tis a right $hitter as I'm off to the Dominican Republic next month so need a good rate on Dollars!!
Everyone I speak to is either right down on takings or laying people off.
The local scrap yard has laid two people off(scrap is worth a quater what it was 8 weeks ago)
Local skip company has just laid off 6 drivers
Local tile shop is taking half wht it was taking last yr.
Yet today town was packed out.
Doesnt make sense
phil24_7
18-10-08, 03:43 PM
Ostrich syndrome!
Gordon B
20-10-08, 08:04 PM
I too work in a recession proof job.
Have to say its not affected me that much, we are not looking to move, we bank with First Direct (HSBC) which seems to be staying out of the news so we feel pretty safe.
I do think we will get alot more for our money this christmas though with all the supermarkets competing for our business.
Yesterday I bought 2 bags of frozen spuds in Morrisons for 80p and 8 yorkies for 60p. Bargain.
We also grow our own veg now too and I bake my own bread in a breadmaker.
My job is relatively safe, I'd never say totally, because you just never know. And we don't have a mortgage, so I'm trying to put some money back into the economy, we're going away a bit more often, and I've now even taken to walking to our local shops in my lunch time to get something to eat.
Our butchers does a mean pork bap, and he's finding times tough, so I'm just trying to support him.
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