credit crunch

[MK11]

It was tough, but we pulled our belts in, made do without carpet and nice decoration or fancy TV's etc

It will just mean people will have to wait till they can afford things..........a life skill I am trying to instill in my 2 young adults (not really kids anymore)

I agree whole heartedly with the wait until you can afford it mentality.  However, the more I look round and talk to people the more I see that approach is dissappearing.  

There are far too many people who have no idea of self control and want things right now and damn the consequences.  The number of young girls who work with my wife that have a monthly mobile bill in the £00s or spend all their money the weekend after pay day on new clothes that they will wear once then never again.

Some people seem to think that full Sky subscription, huge flat screen TVs, big name brand clothes/shoes etc are a devine right rather than a luxury that should be purchased only once everything else is paid for.

[Crazy Eddie]

I seem to see more dumber people every day.

Are those the same dumb people that keep you in work, because they want to learn to drive  

Not at all - quite the opposite in fact.  

The people I have wanting to learn to drive do so because they want to gain independence or open more avenues as far as careers and jobs go.

I don't quite know how you came to that conclusion from my previous rant (but that is the problem with rants isn't it     )

The people I'm talking about are the ones that whist we are on lessons they are out decorating cars with their footprints and "key-pens" or watching their sky TV in their subsidised house and then going to the pub well before the rest of us finish work!

Naturally this is tounge in cheak and I know that there are unfortunate people that would like to find work but can't (for whatever reason??? ) but on the whole it just seems a bit of a joke, especially as the ones that have got off their   and got on the property ladder could now be the ones in trouble.

One thing I have noticed about my students though is how relaxed they are about buying a car on finance. I would never have dreamed of it and saved hard for my £150 Fiesta   where as quite a few go out and buy new or nearly new cars on finance. My old school student's car park, for example, has better cars in it than the staff car park!  

[Tubs]

It'll get worse before it get's better.

Too many unknowns to accurately predict the short term future.

George W Bush is not responsible for high oil prices. Indeed, he invaded Iraq in an effort to keep it down.

Oil prices are high becuase oil suppliers like it like that, but also because the price was so low for so long no investment was made in the extraction infrastructure as a result not enough can be pumped shipped and refined to meet our needs. It will take many years for this to be corrected, if indeed it ever can be.

Credit Crunch. Problem is the banks don't know which other banks might go belly up and take their money with them. Lending to each other is high risk therefore more expensive. The Bank of england has set the rate at which they will lend at 5% but there is only so much that they will lend. Once this runs out banks need to borrow from each other. This is why many rates are so much higher than the Base Rate.

The biggest cause for this is the hedge fund managers. They used cheap loans to gear up the funds they managed where they made huge commission (100s of £millions) if the fund performed well but suffered nothing if it didn't.

The biggest problem at the moment is the remit given to the Bank of England by Tonyordon. They are supposed to keep inflation down when most of it is imported and out of their control. To be seen to do soomething they are keeping interest rates higher than is good for the economy.

The Govt. has also made matters worse by spending money when times were good, and now that they aren't, they can't help cash flow by upping their spending 'cause they're maxed out. s.

I feel sorry for those who will suffer because they were encouraged by those who should know better, but at the end of the day if we want the freedom to be able to make these choices we must pay the price when we get it wrong.

Tubs

[Carl]

Kind of ironic that on the Westfield (i.e luxury expensive toy, that damages the environment as well) that we are slagging people that are irresponsible with there money / credit.

However I guess everyone here has always caluclated what the car / upgrade will cost, never gone over budget and alsways saved up the pennies before purcahsing

[david.c]

My Westfield is on loan from the tax man       ...........so long as I keep earning enough money between tax bills, I don't have to sell it    

Plan has worked for 7 years now    

As for upgrades...........theres lots I could do, but can't afford.........so it stays as it is

David

[westfield_bumble]

Well i've recently realised how much beyond my income i've been living before its too late. So i've consolidated me 2 credit cards and paid me overdraft off. But i could not believe how hard it would be to close my credit card accounts. What part of i want to close this account dont they understand. Well you can have this deal that deal. In the end it was a case of re explaining that i wanted to close the account several times. Also when i tryed to pay one of my cards off online it flagged up as fraud at the bank and had me account froze. Rang upto sort and it was suggests i use the money for whatever purpose and get there credit card and take advantage of the 0% rate. No wonder people end up in trouble.      

[Lurksalot]

IIRC, many of the US oil companies capped their US based oil wells when it became clear that they would have some say in the middle eastern oil deposits. The thinking was that if it went bad, they would still have their own reserves to fall back on. Seems like the increasing price and profit has been a happy side effect for them  

I think I will side with blatman on that issue , what with Mr Bushes oil connnections

[Norman Verona]

Scott, Apart from selling you something the credit card companies will not close accounts because they do not know if you've used it for repeat payments.

Just cut them up, it's as easy as that.

Ed to ad, that oil prices are rising, and will continue to rise, because it's getter scarcer. One of the middle east oil sheikdoms reckons it has just 5 years worth under the ground.

It's just a case of supply and demand.

And greedy Texans  

[samcooke]

QUOTE

If I was in his position and I was sold an 110% mortgage that I now couldnt pay I would sue the building society for negligence! What the f*ck were they thinking of?   He should never have been put in that position to start with

Moomin put it more politely, but : what a load of b*****ks.

Bloke buys a knife from a supermarket and stabs someone. Who's to blame? Clue : not the supermarket.

House prices are dropping daily, if you've bought a house in the last 3 or 4 years pretty soon it won't be worth what you paid. If you've bought in the last 2 years it probably already isn't...

As Norm says, banks will soon want to lend, but first time buyers will only start wanting to borrow once they're sure the market's at its bottom and that won't be for a while.

Buckle up for a bumpy few years of recession.

[speedy jon]

im 20yrs old im worried i will not be able to move out of my parents house till im in my late 20's.

iv alway been told by my old man its much nicer to buy something and pay for it there and then and not take out finance ect ect.when i started working at 16 i made a decision to put most of my pay away each month into a saving account which i can only withdraw money from twice a yr.so as you might have guessed i have a little bit of money behind myself.iv learnt not to waist my money on unessesary things like food and drink when im out.im known as a tight   but when i pulled up outside my mates house the other day on my new bike he wanted to know where i got the money from.

if i want something il save for it out of the money i dont put away and then buy it when iv saved that amount of what ever i fancy not like loads of people i know from school who as crazy edd said go out and buy everything on finance. 1 lad i know whos same age as me has a bmw, 2 laptops on finance, a couple of phone contracts then out of whatever moneys left he spends at the weekend on drinking.

Jon

[scott beeland]

Well something needed to happen & I'm glad of it because I missed the boat on the cheap housing game last time round.

I am hoping for high interest rates & a massive house price crash to finally get on the ladder.

Cheers mate. Like I didn't feel bad enough already  I don't want to sell/ move from my house...but separation means I have to as I can't afford to buy her share out so...... house has been on market for over a year now. Started off as a decent buy...and now at £40k less it's a give away....but still no solid offers....apart from 2 investors who came in low....then backed out after offer accepted stage. I hate investors/ buy to letters!!!!!!!

[Norman Verona]

Scott, I know a chap in Sheffield who got divorced over 20 yaers ago. The house has been on the market since then, always about 5% more than the nearest similar house for sale. He expects to sell it one day.......

[Stuart]

The price of scrap has always been a great guide to the state of the global economy - the higher the scrap price then the more demand there is for steel so the more demand there is for construction.  Warren Buffett uses it as an indicator.

And scrap prices are at an all time high at the moment.  A very high all time high with no sign of it coming off.  Scrap company I work for is making record profits.  

Number of times I have seen in the paper or heard on the radio 'FTSE crashes 200 points'.  Following day it often rises by 200 points again but that never makes the headlines.  Good news isn't perceived to sell papers any more.

[juansolo]

The price of scrap has always been a great guide to the state of the global economy - the higher the scrap price then the more demand there is for steel so the more demand there is for construction.

You know I did wonder why I'd seen so many Rag'n'bone men around lately! Hadn't seen one in years now they seem to be around here every other week or so.

[samcooke]

QUOTE

Cheers mate. Like I didn't feel bad enough already   I don't want to sell/ move from my house...but separation means I have to as I can't afford to buy her share out so...... house has been on market for over a year now. Started off as a decent buy...and now at £40k less it's a give away....but still no solid offers....apart from 2 investors who came in low....then backed out after offer accepted stage. I hate investors/ buy to letters!!!!!!!

Giz your postcode Scott and I'll send you a special secret professionals only report that should tell you what needs to be done to sell it. Whether you tell her is up to you...