Is the Economy Affecting you?

Soul Saver

Soul Saver

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What next for the global economy?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read/watch the news KTHX.

I'm surprised there isn't a specific thread about this.

Has the credit crunch impacted upon you personally?

Who/what is to blame?

How will things turn in the medium and long-term?

Should there be more regulations, or less? Will the Capitalist economic system, as we know it, change much?
 
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as of yet, i havent personally been affected by the credit crunch.

i think the governments seriously need to do something to prevent this from crashing the global economy. it may only start as banks crashing in one country, but loads of banks crashing in many different countries will have a knock on effect, and it may get to a stage where the damage is unrepairable, and if it does the entire world will be in the shit
 
It’s already been confirmed that the UK is entering a long-term recession and I’m betting other countries will begin to feel the impact soon. My biggest concern though is the £17,000 quid that I have stashed away in my NationWide account, my money is supposed to be protected but I just have a fear that I might wake up one day and find that it’s all disappeared. The cost of food is probably going to go up as well, so I’m going to have to start shopping in less expensive stores. Ah well, as long as I can still have my microwavable ready-packed meals I’ll be happy.
 
Personally, the credit crunch hasn't impacted us yet. Or at least I haven't felt the effects of it - perhaps in a few months time I will when we move back to California and me having a hard time looking for a new job then. That would certainly be fun.

This is really quite sad, really. It's making it so hard for people to buy anything, keep their jobs, businesses closing down left and right, etc. Today the Dow Jones went down over 300 points, but there was one day where it down 700 points in one day. It's already affecting the rest of the world and if this keeps up...well, you know the rest. It's definitely going to put everybody down. That 700 billion invested in various businesses certainly didn't do anything.

Let's see...Wells Fargo bought out Wachovia, and I think Chrysler and GM will be merging. I know they were talking about it last week, but this seriously shows how this economic crisis is affecting everyone, to the point where potential historic moves are taking place.
 
I know some of you might not be able to exactly feel the strong impacts on the economy quite yet, since you still have the luxury of bunking at home with the parents, but I thought I would throw this out there.

So the question really is.. how has the economy affected you or those around you?

I'll start it...

Being at a software development company we have seen many people filter in and out of the office because of the underfunding for Software Devs or Quality assurance or data and analytics or business analysts. Before 2008 hit we had a strong revenue but like all companies we were affecting greatly by the economy since we directly deal with loans and appraisals. So as a result many of my friends were let go.. and we lost the core group to our soccer team. Sad to say... but I didn't mind the pay I received because of the benefits of the community we had while playing sports outside of work .. whether it be Bball, soccer, or baseball.

The real thing about it though are my friends back at home that don't have the stable jobs they once did are being laid off.. Problem being that is 4 hours away from where I am. So I can't do a hell of alot to help.. which pisses me off even more... I mean we all heard that there would gloom and doom but the more real it becomes the quicker I'm learning to adjust.

It's not a sympathy plea.. but is anyone sort of pissed that the economy has drastically diminished? Also is anyone afraid of their own job security? How about unpaid loans or having trouble getting loans for a downpayment on a house/car? Are you having to over budget on things which seem ridiculous every now and again?
 
Hmm, I know there's a similar topic in TSF, so I'll move this there and merge it with the other thread. =]

::Thread Moved to TSF and Merged::
 
Most definitely the economy is affecting me. Lets start with the fact the not only was I not able to pay for my car payment. When I surprisingly got approved for another car loan, guess what happened I couldnt pay that car payment either. So to tally it up thats two cars reposed. Needless to say that put quite a strain on my job, for about 3 1/2 months I was able to get by hitching rides from friends. But with me the only one working in the apartment it got more and more difficult to pay bills. So we started getting behind on rent. About a month after we got our first notice that we were late on rent, we got an eviction notice. Here in Michigan we have 30 days to vacate the premises or pay what we owe. Well once again needless to say I didnt have enough money to even began to pay off what I owed so we got evicted. And by evicted I mean literly all of our stuff put out on the curb in the middle of December. It was not a very proud moment for me, and it didnt get any better when I had to call my mom and dad (the only people I could stay with). So I had to move up with them two hours away from my job. I called my work and tried to explain the situation but they just couldnt hold my job. So I got fired.:mad:

I am currently looking for a job and hoping that I get unemployment benifets. And even that is not going very good right now, Michigan job economy is almost non-existence. It just plain sucks. :sad2:
 
Im not sure if it has or not, im not that clued up on the whole subject so it might be affecting me and im just unaware of it.
I have however got a lot of friends who it has affected, they've lost their jobs because their companies havent got work coming in. Its sad seeing all these people lose their jobs especially those that are apprentices as their gonna struggle to find a company willing to take them on again seeing as theyre not officially fully trained.
 
I'm not really sure how much it is effecting me. For the most part the only thing that effects me is the rise of prices. When the gas prices hit past $3 to almost $4 it made the prices rise on a lot of food stuff. Now that gas prices have gone down, the prices are still high.

Yes, I think the Capitalist system in the US needs to change. Hopefully the change in party domination will help things some. But who knows?
 
The economy is definitely affecting me. My family is one of the many families facing foreclosure. Actually my house went into foreclosure on January 31st. a few years back we refinanced and at the time we thought it was a good idea, well the new mortgage company we changed to had a much higher interest rate than our old one. before we had like 4% interest or something crazy low, and now it is at 11%. payment on our 3 bedroom 4 bathroom townhouse is at $2000+ per month. My aunt and uncles' house is much larger than ours with more bedrooms and a garage and they pay less than us. I definitely didn't help my dad's boss decided that she couldn't pay him as much as she was and pays him $200 less a month now. He has been working for the same gutter company for almost 20 years. My mom works at a Safeway, she has also worked there around 20 years. and yet we still can't pay for a house we have lived in for 10 years. >_<
 
Wow $2000 a month for a townhouse. Does that include school taxes and real estate? I thought mine was high at $941 a month. The base mortgage was $540 a month. The rest covered taxes. Yes that is one thing Im glad I dont do anymore. Pay a mortgage. How many years is it?
 
Koloth said:
Wow $2000 a month for a townhouse. Does that include school taxes and real estate? I thought mine was high at $941 a month. The base mortgage was $540 a month. The rest covered taxes. Yes that is one thing Im glad I dont do anymore. Pay a mortgage. How many years is it?
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I honestly don't know much about it to be honest. I think it was a 30 year mortgage but other than that I really don't know much about it.
 
Mixi said:
I honestly don't know much about it to be honest. I think it was a 30 year mortgage but other than that I really don't know much about it.
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For 30 years thats pretty high. The price of real estate has really increased. People go into high debt for cars and houses. My father told me that he didnt think I would be able to afford a house with the way inflation hit. But I managed. But today its just tough to survive.

Well, I hope things improve for everybody. Rich get richer and poor get poorer. Thats the way capitalism works.
 
Sorry to hear about your situation, Mixi. Hopefully it'll get better for you guys soon.

About 4 months later after my first post, still not quite sure how the economy's affecting us. I mean we took advantage of the fact that houses went down in California and moved back out here in December, but gas prices are now creeping their way back up slowly and I'm still trying to find a job. I've just applied for "Mystery Shoppers" as a side-job at the moment (made sure to check through BBB for its legitimacy) while I'm still out searching for a decent job. So in that aspect, yes I guess it affects me in a way because I'm not able to generate some income for my family. We have student loans/financial aid to depend on at the moment, but 10 months from now that won't be of any use to us anymore and so we have to plan quickly ahead. We're considering selling our Dodge Ram 1500 truck (I would really hate to lose it) since it eats up a lot of gas and it would reduce our insurance cost, but we'll see how things go in the next few months.

I'm looking forward to that stimulus check coming though.
 
So has it really been confirmed that we're getting another stimulus check?

The economy has been affecting us off and on. We have our good months and we have our bad ones. Things are a lot better now that I'm working, but we're also looking at Dave's wages being garnished because of medical bills. That's about $130 lost out of his paychecks and they're doing this to us KNOWING that we're struggling financially...Oh who cares as long as the fucking medical company is getting their goddamn money. Greedy bastards. Oh yes, the US is in recession! Let's just start garnishing wages now of families who are low income! It pisses me off...
 
It hasn't really hit me or my partner yet. I'm hearing alot of talk about a recession soon though.

Fuel prices have finally settled on a decent price. At one stage I would have freaked out if I saw the fuel prices now a few years back. Food has easily gone up in value as well. >_< Trying to starve us they are!

After working full-time in retail for 3 years I have just managed to get another full-time permanent job. My partner has a full-time permanent job as well and we have no kids so we aren't really freaking out. At least if one of us loses our job we only have one other mouth to feed and plenty of savings are also there for us when we need it.

House prices have gone down at the moment as well. Currently moving into a house to rent for the moment though because it is so much cheaper then buying one when we still have a few loans to pay off. I hate townhouses like where I'm currently living. It's so annoying having someones bedroom window right across from the computer room I'm in. =/

But yeah there's no point in getting ourselves committed to any other loans such as a mortgage when we are already living comfortably, considering the way things are going at the moment. I hate budgeting and I won't allow myself to get caught in more than one loan at a time. >_<
 
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I hope to God there is a stimulus check, because right now the tax refund for my state and federal will be very laughable. I gotta invest the money anyways.. and for what? So I can see my mutual fund I've been putting money in since I was a kid drops by another 3k? .. there goes the ring money and chances of moving any time soon.

Also, sorry to hear Mixi.. hang in there, all I can say is I know a lot of people right now who are in the same boat as you. My buddy in Nashville was hired at a Tire plant and while he was on the job his boss thought it would be a good idea to let him go without any type of severance. When he went to the unemployment office they denied him of any return because instead of being "laid off" he was actually "fired" without much notice. The difference is.. you can get paid for one but not the other.. but he has no money to take his former boss to court. Since then he has had a job at borders who let him go after only a month, because of the economy.. so he's definitely rolling with the punches right now.

Also another buddy of mine was working on random house repairs (Roofing, Sliding doors, Paint jobs.. anything he could pick up) when he fell through a 2 story window. Take in mind this guy was over 300lbs, so the amount of weight he landed on shattered his right arm in 3 places. (his good arm of course). After that day he had of course a huge medical bill to pay and on top of that his business partner went a little nutty and left him out to dry. So he was jobless and now homeless because he couldn't pay rent. His dad helped him out and gave him a place to stay and has been there ever since. He still has not had a job in a year and a half and can not lift over 50lbs with his right arm. The only thing good that came out of it was a disability check came through, but it will only last so long.

So yea, the economy blows, but together we shall survive.. I say.
 
♥Aerith♥;493673 said:
So has it really been confirmed that we're getting another stimulus check?
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It's already been passed through the Senate as of yesterday, I believe. It's only just a matter of time.

Kandy-Sugar said:
But yeah there's no point in getting ourselves committed to any other loans such as a mortgage when we are already living comfortably, considering the way things are going at the moment. I hate budgeting and I won't allow myself to get caught in more than one loan at a time.
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That's the wisest way to do it, I say. 'Don't get too happy with loans and bury yourself with debt later on.' I hate loans, but we had no choice but to be dependable on student loans at the moment if we're to pay $1200 for rent each month (although my sister-in-law's covering $350 of that since she's living with us). But yeah, we're still living quite comfortably even with me not having a job, but I know this can't continue to go on like this.
 
Yea, actually it has quite a bit. I was fired from my engineering job back in July, which had far more to do with inter-office politics than it did the economy... but since then I've been looking for another position and there's simply not a lot out there. Engineering is fairly recession resistant because we're always in demand. Plants simply can't run without us, while they might be able to slide by a man down in other areas. Even so, this economic recession is so bad that finding work is really difficult. I've expanded my search radius a few times... but now it's basically out to the entire eastern half of the country and I'm still not getting a lot of results. It really sucks, to be truthful.
 
I think the economy is affecting everyone. One of the best things you can do right now is be a smart consumer. I use Shopwiki.com to find the best prices on games and other products. I discovered Shopwiki.com recently when the marketing company I work for did a promotion with them. Now I can afford to shop even in this economy!
 
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