The Economic Crisis: Let´s Be Honest For A Moment And Share

Originally posted by VelmaLu
There is no safe haven, no way to prepare, nothing you can do to avoid being swallowed up by this Depression. I've decided to get rather philosophical about it, and just let it all go.

Holy Mozes, that´s quite the situation you have there VelmaLu...

The +++ is that you are debt free, as I am (practically)

The downside is you will probably as you say need to vacate your house...

I would not wait with living off the land if possible.. No work = no food nor shelter. I am not at this point nor are you but it is a frightening prospect for sure..

Wish you strenght and wisdom...

[edit on 7-1-2009 by MoonMine]

I have a Plan B and a Plan C. It looks like I may just go ahead and jump into Plan C if I have to default on my mortgage. I am not going to deplete all my available cash, I can tell you that.

I guess what pisses me off the most is that I didn't over-extend myself, I got out of the stock market, I have been living debt free. I shouldn't be impacted by this so early. I expected it to have some impact, but not enough that I would have to default on my mortgage.

At this point, I'm hoping that so many other people default before me that mortgage company won't foreclose.

My next option is to bring in a renter to help cover the mortgage.

I'm in Sydney, Australia also. Personally, i havent been at all affected and i wont be anytime soon. I actually made sure a couple of years ago that i would be in a job that got busier in times of economic problems in anticipation of a slowdown (no one could have anticipated what we are seeing, though!). I'm mortgaged to the hilt, and could survive probably 6 months if i lost my job; after that i would lose everything.

There have been a number of people affected here so far. There was a round of redundancies in the city in December. I'd say a good 10-15,000 jobs went in that round before Christmas, primarily in the finance sector. Some major companies have already sacked 10% of staff. This hasnt been reported properly yet as the December unemployment figures arent yet released, although a couple of newspaper articles have mentioned it.

Another round of redundancies will happen in the first quarter of this year. Today i heard the first layoffs have started happening in the retail sector following the christmas and post christmas sales. The sales are still going on, but some retailers have started laying off staff.

Shortly, a round of reporting of half-yearly and yearly results will start happening and i think that will trigger another round of falling markets and general volatility that will hit confidence again. The holiday period has given us a respite, and i think a lot of people have kinda forgotten that a crisis is going on, but there will be plenty of reminders in the next few weeks.

There is no shortage of any kind of food or products here and i dont expect there will be.

Although we have had govt intervention, it hasnt been to the same degree as the US govt. So hopefully at least we can avoid some of the massive inflation that is bound to happen in the US once banks start lending again.

I wish all those luck who have fallen on hard times. Its a tough time, but you guys will get through it. The human spirit truly shines in times of need, and there will be people to help you when you need it.