Im one of the lucky ones at the moment. My PAYE job is in a commodity industry so im still being paid the same, still busy whatever the state of the economy. People need energy and we already run with minimum staffing levels. I had considered this before getting into the industry as I remember my Dad struggling in the 80's as a sparky. I'm also into buy to let, as im not mortgaged up too high I took a chance on tracker mortgages. I was running at a small loss to avoid tax and banking on the houses being worth multiple times there mortgaged price by the time I retire. The mortgages are now almost halved, rents the same and im now in profit. Day to day im better off, only current downer is that equity has shrunk so I don't want to pull any money out to buy anything else incase we see further drops and without selling the car can't raise another deposit which is frustrating given the bargains out there. My pension pot has also shrunk but will hopefully recover somewhat before I need it. The car like everything else has dropped a chunk but its likely replacement has dropped by similar amounts or more. Everything else is cheaper as less people have money so all in all im on a winner as long as 25 years down the line my houses are back up in value but as they already have equity at current rock bottom prices im pretty confident. Basicly my feeling is anyone who has been sensible with their money and is still earning as before should be better off. If you have big piles of savings get out there haggle hard and hover up some cheap property, even if it drops a bit more in 10 years time it could be worth double or more!
I can't say I feel too sorry for the people who have constantly remortgaged when the property market was flying and lived way beyond their means, pretending they earned double what they do by blowing a huge tax free sum every few years which they pulled off their house. I have friends who earnt half what I do yet lived a far more extravagant life then me, they now sit on the edge of repossession. When they could no longer do that and the bills caught up with them they got a reality check but not only were they on a low wage with no remortgage money to supplement their lifestyle but also had to use that low wage to firefight a load of interest payments to keep them out a hole leaving them with little to work with. Im afraid these people dug their own holes and many now blame the companies for lending them the money rather than admitting what they did was a bit daft. Would they jump of a cliff if someone told them its a good idea?
The people in this whole mess I feel really bad for and believe deserve all the help they can get (and will likely get fook all)are those who have been sensible, done all the right things, kept away from the loans and excessive remortgaging but through no fault of their own found themselves made redundant or their businesses dried up. Thing is those people are hard working, responsible and are man enough to sort their own shit out so will likely get no help. Even if they are skilled people will if necessary to survive find work in a factory packing fruit or whatever, trim down their spending, not have loan interest to fire fight, so with hard work and giving up hard earnt luxuries they actually deserve will pull through without any outside help. I just find that a shame as they find themselves in hardship from a recession created by those less sensible when they should be seeing rewards.
The spend addicts at least lived the life of riley for the past 8 years and now will probably be bailed out by the govement at least to a degree to keep their roof over their childrens heads. Its this culture of borrowing that brought America down and ultimately everyone else, looks like this is going to be a hard lesson. I doubt they will learn as when the financing is available again the borrowing will just continue as its a culture kids are now growing up with. Everyone wants everything regardless of what they earn. Wanting the nice things for yourself and your family is what previously motervated people to work hard and smart, a proportion of people now expect all this without actually doing anything and breed children who also think this. Too many people seeing available credit as money available to spend worries me. Whats wrong with making money through hard work and good management then rewarding yourself, surely its ultimately more satisfying?
