Financial crisis - Has it affected you? How?

I am just curious. I know that the financial crisis has huge economic impact on Australia's economy and many individuals have been negatively impacted. I have seen the impact that it has had on specific areas which directly or indirectly affect my employment, and I cannot go anywhere without people talking about how 'bad' the economic crisis is.

Now having said all that, Mine and DH's personal financial situation has only been benefited by the financial crisis. I feel kinda bad admitting that.

DH is a federal government public servant in a very secure employment. His work are offering redundancies, but all voluntary - he wouldn't even consider taking one, and forced redundancies are extremely unlikely. My job is also quite secure, but wouldn't woryy me if it did dissapear - I am taking 12mths unpaid maternity leave shortly anyway, and am not sure if I will go back. So no job worries.

The lowered interest rates mean that we are paying off our mortgage at double the repayments we are required to make.

We are entitled to the government bonus' coming out, so will have the extra cash there.

Basically the financial crisis has been a blessing on my family:redface:

So how has the financial crisis affected everyone else out there?

We were unexpectedly hit hard...

Me, not so much as I'm taking the year off work on maternity leave. But I work in a private school and student numbers are down. My position wasn't filled for the year I'm off (only part time in my subject area) so I really don't know if I'll have a job to go back to next year. The scary part of it is that numbers were down before the financial crisis really hit.

For DH... He works in corporate events. Sound, lighting, production work. Over Christmas it was really obvious. There weren't so many big corporate Christmas parties and things... less hours for him, less money for us. This has continued. The company has laid a lot of people off, and it's a huge blessing to us that DH still has a job, but he has been asked to work less hours. He's often not paid on time as wages tend to bounce at times.

On top of all this... the owners of the previous place we lived in were forced to sell, so we were forced to move. This means we are now paying more rent and getting less money...

It's all a bit scary, really.

BW

We have benefitted in that we bought a newly renovated house at a mortagee auction and got it for $75k less than the last buyer paid for it.
We have lost a few clients for one of our businesses because they are having financial troubles but not enough to make a big dent. Luckily it's an industry that is needed more in financially troubled times.
Our other business imports stuff so we will have to raise our prices to compensate for the lower exchange rate but we will still have a good profit rate as will our clients.

The main way in which I'm affected negatively is that a lot of my dept's projects are getting roadblocked or coming to a standstill because the govt is trying to cut spending as much as possible, so my current position hasn't yet gotten confirmation of continuity past June, and other job vacancies aren't there so I can't apply for something else.

But at worst, I go back to my substantive position, which is a very secure, no-way-in-hell-will-they-make-the-position-redundant sort of job, and at not a lot less pay too, so in that respect, both me and DH (who works in the same dept as me) are secure.

On the positive side, the interest rates going down means we're paying off my mortgage faster.

Interesting thread!

BW, that is no good at all I hope things improve for u soon!

Personally I have felt the same...I don't feel as though we have been negatively impacted, although I am not the most informed person when it comes to national or global economy so perhaps i have been effected more than I realise.

DH has had a lot of people at his work made redundant, hours changed around etc. But his position is a necessary one and one that not a lot of people are qualified for (he is an industrial electrician/fitter and turner and also has a telecommunications licence so has 3 trades and knows the plant he works at very well has been there for 6+ years) there aren't many electricians who are experienced with industrial and his plant basically its him and the second sparky) so basically if he gets made redundant it means the plant is shutting down, they are happy with him and without someone in his position the plant can't run. However, I know he does still worry a little as the only income earner in our family. He's applied for a few jobs lately with recommendations from ppl he knows already in the companies and both of those would be very stable and higher paying and new things to learn etc so perhaps its a positive nudge to bigger, better things??

And then also the stimulus packages have/will be a good help for us!

DH's brother has just been made redundant for the 2nd time since it all started though so not good for everyone. SIL is a nurse though so at least she is in an area where job security is good

It's been an "interesting" week for us.

DH does tech support for a small business which folded this week. Fortunately he was offered another job with better pay the following day, but the business he was working for had been operating for 10 years and it just up and died over a few months. Scary.

The main effect it's had for us is that we're thinking alot more about long term plans, long term security. When things are good it's easy to forget that times like this come around eventually. We'll be making lots of changes over the next few months in our work and living arrangements, lifestyle and money habits because of all this. It was a bit of an eye opener how quickly DH went from having stable employment to not. With me self employed we are doubly exposed.

We also have to move soon - the owners of our house are returning from a few years OS - and it quickly became apparent we won't be staying in this area. Rent prices have increased by $80-$100 a week around here. Our rent hasn't been raised since we've been here and to get a comparable house we're looking at that sort of increase which has occured in 18 months. It's ridiculous and we aren't paying it. We'll probably move further out.

I really feel for all the 20 somethings though. They have never known anything but economic boom, low unemployment etc and they are all in for a very rude shock this year me thinks.

We have been negatively impacted. :(

DP and I lost $50 000 of our own money on the share market and now only $5 000 left (which is not in the stockmarket anymore)! DP is extrememly depressed about this and it has caused alot of relationship problems.

DP's mechanic business is almost down the toilet because people aren't getting their cars serviced nearly as much anymore as it seems cars are the last thing people want to spend money on unless they absolutely have to. He has now had to get a second job working security in the city at nights and I rarely see him :(

Our rent prices went up over a year ago because of interest rates but have not come down.

My credit card interest rates went up over the years but have failed to come down since the interest rate cuts.

I will get $900 from the government for the stimulus package but it hardly makes up for losses.

We cant really blame anyone else. I suppose it is just the time in the cycle that our economy is in. We are lucky that we are healthy and have plenty of years in front of us that we can work and regain the money. I am sure there are a lot of people in worse situations than us.

I am also extremely lucky that being a government employee I am being paid maternity leave and my job is very secure.

Ali, we've lost a lot of value on the stockmarket too but they are a long term nest-egg so hopefully after about 10 years they will have gone back to where they were.

My DH is a financial adviser and our business is down by 50%. Thankfully he has a contract to work for someone else atm that is keeping us afloat. We are really exposed and if DH looses his current contract due to that business struggling then we are up the creek.

Many of my friends husbands are self employed and they all seem to be pulling in their spending. It is scary

We lost about $8k on the stock market, but will save that back easily with the drop in interest rates and not dropping our repayments. I am not currently working due to having a bub soon and don't plan on going back any time soon.
DH's job is secure and will be taking a new position within the company in a few weeks at $10k extra which will be a big help now that we're down to one income.
We honestly feel secure and considering we have lost one income are in a fairly good position.

We've been affected too. I lost my part time job just after Christmas, I'd been there 5 years and thought I was safe. I don't really think anyone is.

DH still has his job thank goodness and is thinking about taking a new position which could mean a pay rise but there is also talk of cutting back hours and if that happens, things will be a lot tighter around here.

We locked our mortgage in at a fixed rate for 5 years when we brought this place, we still have about 16 months to go so we're not seeing the benefits of reduced interest rates which is frustrating, that would help us out in the future but we're weighing it up against the money we've saved over the last 3.5 years and still think we'll come out in front (we're on a really good fixed rate).

I must admit I'm getting more and more worried about it, especially with another baby on the way. DH has been told his job (with a large company) is safe, but people all around him are loosing their jobs or working reduced hours.

Still, we are in a fairly stable position and have worked hard to clear all debt over the last 12 months apart from our mortgage. We have some money still to pay off our credit card but hopefully the stimulus package payments and/or tax will pay out the last of that.

I would say that we are only just seeing the negative impacts here.

DH is self employed as of 10 months ago. He and another guy started up a business, and worked really hard at getting it off the ground. Things have been going well, but I think we're starting to see some slowing down, although it hasn't impacted us very much.......yet. I think things will get worse.

I work in a dental practice that is usually VERY busy. Things have slowed down quite a bit in the last few weeks, which I never thought I would see. And again, I think it's only going to get worse. Like cars, I think teeth are not high on the list of priorities. I have had to reduce my working hours by half this year, but that's due to childcare issues, not my employers. If things get really quiet though I will be the first in the practice to lose out on working hours, as I am there the least :( I told them about reducing my hours some months ago, before the crisis. At that point we figured I would probably be able to get paid a bit by DH's business to make up the difference. I don't see that happening now.

Also on a fixed rate here (albiet a good one), so not seeing any benefits with our mortgage repayments. All in all, things are getting very tight. Tobily is right, I am a twenty-something, and this is the first time I really remember things being hard.

Like Misty we are doing better for it. Interest rates dropped just as we were signing the mortgage documents, so we were in front before we even made the first repayment. DH works for an essential service, so he is pretty safe and even if he lost his job it would come with a decent redundancy payout. Also he is sought after and has has head hunting attempts. The stimulus money has also been handy.

Financially we are better off than we have been in the 5 years we have been together. We are only in our early twenties and are very happy atm.

we are now able to pay double of our minimum mortgage repayments, we qualify for all of the stimulus bonuses, we also are entitled to FTB A and B and Dh's wage keeps getting an increase every 6 or 12 months.

The only down side is that the interest rate on our "high interest" savings accounts has dropped very low, so we now have that money sitting on our mortgage which is free to redraw. SO we aren't "earning" interest, but we are saving it.

We haven't been hit as hard as some...but DF is really starting to feel it, he runs his own small business doing IT/web hosting type stuff and the business is really struggling at the moment with cash flow...so many bills to pay but nowhere near enough money coming in to pay for them all. My job is secure, I recently landed a permanent position in local government, after being there in a temp position since December, and before that for 12 months on a traineeship, so my job outlook is fine.

I'm just so worried about what we are going to do for money once I go on maternity leave in a few months time...the money just isn't there for DF's business to pay for everything (including groceries and things like that...I think DF just thinks they fall out of the sky or something :rolleyes: ), we are still 2 weeks behind in rent and don't look like catching up anytime soon although they keep threatening us with termination of our lease...we'd really be up the creek then... and we have virtually no savings to get us through as I've used what I had to help DF get out of hot water with a bank, no doubt they'll be jumping up and down again soon :rolleyes: I am quite stressed about how we are going to survive financially once I leave work, DF however doesn't appear so worried, which makes me worry even more!

Not been that bad. DH is self employed - and his two major clients are sticking it out, although we can't be sure things won't change between now and the end of the year. Fingers crossed there.

We paid off the car before it hit so that put us in a good position. I am a full time student so there is little that can affect me there - just helps come stimulus time I guess. We plan on ridding ourselves of our last lingering debt with that (I don't care - I LOVE my Kirby!) and with luck its going to make upgrading the car easier to do without getting another loan.

We are considering the possibility of a home loan when the housing market finally bottoms. While it leaves us feeling guilty - if we don't get one, other people will so we might as well take advantage of it, right? At the right price with low interest it shouldnt be much more than rent is now. Although - we have been really lucky with our landlord and they have never upped the rent at all - so I am assuming that means they own this place outright and barring any catastrophe on their end, we should be secure here anyway.

We're in a bit of a unique position. yeah, our shares have halved in value, but they were long term investments so it's not a worry. A few weeks ago I saw a list in the Daily telegraph about groups of careers and their security during economic hardship and DH is at both ends of the scale - traditionally farming is the most secure industry to be in, and the lower the AU$ goes, the better our commodity prices are but because of the drought he also works in the mining industry, which was in the least secure group - but the advantage he has is that it's a gold mine, and in times of crisis people/countries stockpile bullion, so his job is quite safe. Shares in gold mining companies are on the rise when every other mining company is on a downward trend ATM.

Also we are better off with our business mortgage because the fixed term just ended and he renegotiated a rate that was 2% less.

For me, nothing changes because I am a SAHM, and we've qualified each time for the stimulus packages. So I think we'll actually stay pretty insulated from any real hardship at this point.

I too think a lot of people are in for a very big shock and this was some of the point I was trying to make way back when we were discussing the election, that any Gen-Y's (and some Gen-X's) just wont know what hit them. They have had it pretty cruisey thus far and were insulated from the end of the last recession (that we had to have ;) ) simply because they were all too young to know and understand what was going on. The difference between now and then though is that the last recession was almost purely from mismanagement and this one is beyond our control, hence why we as a country aren't doing too bad yet., and now we do have the luxury of interest rates being so low, when back then they were sky high to start with and that's what crippled most people. I think we are yet to see the worst of it though, so there will be intersting times ahead.

Trill we had shares in an iron ore mining company. We should have bought in gold!!

We've been affected - but not too badly. I lost my job last year when the Firm I worked for went Bankrupt. Since then I haven't been able to find permenant work, however I was fortunate to get a temp role. I hate it, it pays bad, but at least it is bringing in a few ?'s. I currently live in the UK and it is awful over here - everyone is being made redundant! The candidate market is real tough.

Also the exchange rate has dropped - once you could transfer ?10,000 back to Australia and get $25,000 - if I transferred today I would get $21,000.

Our financial goals have been put on hold - but really we could be so much worse off!

On an upside, we asked our landlord to reduce our rent, because rental market property prices has decreased in the UK. She said yes and we know pay ?80 less month. All helps!

I feel bad in saying but its done us great favours, all our savings went into our house 18months ago so now we have a mortgage and with interest rates dropping we are paying well above our minimum repayments.
Plus we are both in jobs that we don't need to worry about.
I feel selfish saying this when people are doing it really tough. We just been lucky it happened when it did in our stage of life.

We got our mortgage last june and fixed our interest for 3 years so are paying heaps more interest. DH and I both work in govt jobs so are secure but DH's pay is pretty low and he has been getting less overtime which is what makes his pay a lot less than we need.
Despite having a lot less to live on than other people who qualified we got none of the children bonus monies (the joys of a mortgage) but we will get the Rudd tax money as we earn under 80K each.
My friend's DH has a mowing business and they are being hit hard.

DP and I were saying only the other night how lucky we are. His job is secure - he's a train driver on passenger trains. It would be a bit of a different story if he drove freight trains - those jobs are being affected because they're carrying less stuff because of the financial crisis. My job is a semi-government one and is pretty safe too and the organisation is heavily unionised.

So for us it's meant that we can do our renovations and be paying the same in repayments as before interest rates started going down.

The only negative is that DP's XW is American. Will try not to write a novel at this point but her financially precarious position because of her own silliness with money and the situation economically in the US, may make it more likely that she will chase DP for money. He didn't represent himself at court for the divorce hearing (would have had to fly back to the US) and she was awarded a high sum in alimony for the rest of her life. We've been told by lawyers since that this was highly unusual and DP was basically penalised for not bothering to turn up to court. So she could chase that backpayment and we could end up fighting an international legal case which could leave us $50K down the tubes. Silly DP - this has caused a lot of tension between us as you can probably tell!

well I am also one who has benifited from it ... All the Krudd money has helped me get way infront of my bills and moving to another bigger house is now not just a wish but it's beginning to happen! I have been able to save money where I never would have before!

The financial crisis has not impacted our family at this stage.
Both of us are in industries where our jobs can be affected on the economy - I work for a major bank and dh is in the agricultural industry. At this stage we are both safe.
We will benefit from the government bonus as we both earn less than $80k p.a. and we fortunately sold our second house earlier this year, so we have no mortgage.
The downside is our savings are not earning very much interest due to the lower mortgage rates and our share portfolio was affected, but overall this makes very little difference to our overall financial position.

Our finanicial position has actually improved dramatically in the last year....but I know we are very blessed and don't take it for granted thats for sure.

DH was promoted, and also the company he works for was bought out by another company that are moving all their operations to the site he works on. This is great for dh because the new company pays much, much, much better than the old company, but it meant that about 400 people that worked at the old site lost their jobs, unless they were prepared to move from the city to the country. On the upside, once full opertions have moved here, there should be about 500 extra jobs eventually.

I work for myself part time in the hair and beauty industry, and suprisingly in any finanicial crisis, our industry seems to boom, people spend money on looking good to make themselves feel better when they can't afford a holiday etc. Go figure!

Our mortgage is fixed, but this unfixes next year, so I think it was a good move, because we rode out all the interest rate increases, and the savings of being fixed out weigh the savings on the reduced rates now.

when it comes to employment that's where we have been effected several job interviews a week and nothing this has been this way for 7 months