World economy - a positive case?

[Tiago]

Hi everyone.

In this actual global economy problem, there are a lot of people that will have a lot of problems in there lives, but others that will go in oposite direction.

If you can keep your job, it could happend that for a certain period of time you start living "better" (talking about money).

In my case, i have a nice salary here in Portugal, and if i keep it during the next months, i will pay less for the major expenses:

House - i do not rent one, i bought one with a bank loan, and the rates are getting lower, so i will go from +/- 560 euros/month to +/- 490 euros/month

Car - i will pay the same, the car is not indexed to euribor, it's a fix rate, but gasoline is getting cheaper....

this 2 together combining with the price drop of many products gives me a better life....
i just hope i can keep my job for a long time....
Very strange as some are getting in a lot of problems and other could go to a better situation.... not fair i would say... and i must confess i don't fell to comfortable to see so many people getting fired around me, and me getting a "better" life ....

what is happening in your countries?

[Harrison]

It is definitely a 50/50 chance at the moment, whether you can benefit from the current financial crisis, or suffer.

Those with fixed rate mortgages on properties are the ones who will suffer the most because as interest rates drop and index linked mortgage payments therefore drop, those with fixed rates will be left paying higher amounts.

However the credit problems around the would are definitely helping lower fuel prices because people can't afford to travel as much so the demand for oil has dropped, meaning the petrol companies have to drop their prices to try and make people buy more. Prices of Petrol in the UK have so far dropped from £1.23 at its height last year, to £0.82 at some petrol stations at the moment. This is a huge drop by a 1/3 in the price of a litre of petrol and I for one have noticed the difference as I can't change the number of miles I have to travel each week.

And I don't think that many jobs are 100% secure at the moment. Teaching is probably one of the only professions that is quite safe as far as I can see. Finance has to be the most unstable profession to be in, so I hope you manage to keep your job. I'm sure once we get out of this recession the tables will turn and finance will again be a very secure area to work in.

[J T]

Thing is with finance, even if it is a bit hire 'em-fire 'em the pay is usually so good it's worth the risk.

I for one am pleased about petrol getting cheaper, although it's amazing how the economic hoo-hah has made many people just forget about the green issues, peak oil and that sort of thing.