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How is this economy effecting you?


pig devilz
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if it's effect or affect, what kind of impact is the economy having on your life?

 

holding off on purchases? trips? home improvement? kids clothes? investments?

anybody caught in a sub prime?.....job loss?

 

or is this a boom time for you and or your work?...there's a sunny side to every cloud.

 

for me, in the home improvement/construction related business, i've seen some pretty

high end customers stepping back and putting things on hold. kinda scarey. these are

people, who in the past had money to burn.

other folks, who thought they had very stable jobs, high paying jobs, have lost those jobs.

 

i use the high end clients as a barometer because in the past, past recessions, they skated thru.

not this time, at least so far.

 

it's not doom and gloom for me, by no means, but it is a bit different this time around.

just have to work harder and smarter.

 

so how /what are you doing differently? or not? for better or worse?

Edited by pig devilz
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my job has been booming. record years for most guys here. outside of work, no real change. was never a big spender to begin with. putting some money to work in the retirement accounts, will def be short term losers but looking 30y out. wife is thinking about starting a biz, told her next year will be the time. stores are empty everywhere in the city. commercial landlords are hurting.

 

 

one comment on your post. the high end clients, were they really high end or spending the easy money? we dont realize how little people really have. its scary. friend of mine is a banker in the affluent northshore burbs. says that you would be shocked at how much debt many of these 'rich' people have.

Edited by dmarc117
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I know that Detlef has said that nothing has changed in his resturant but I am willing to bet that overall the resturant industry is taking a big hit. People just are not eating out as often as they used to.

 

I also am getting some really great offers from Vegas from groups like Mandalay Bay that are just way better then they ever were in the past. It's not just Mandalay either but a lot of the Vegas properties are killing me with very nice offers.

 

But to the question of what I am doing different: I am driving much less. We are eating out less and we have cut back on silly purchases that we used to not even think about.

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The company I work for is being tighter with capital expenditures, so work has been a little more challenging.

 

We decided not to buy a larger home about a month before the real downturn hit - we're very grateful for that decision.

 

We're going out part to stimulate the economy. We recently bought a car, a new PC, some furniture and a few toys for myself. We're also finishing the basement in our home. Other than the car - none of this has been done on credit.

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Prior to about July, we'd seen same month sales growth in all but one month as long as we'd been around long enough to measure. Now we're just matching the previous year. Frankly, I see that as somewhat of a success all things considered.

 

I tried to be pro-active in dealing with the downturn by positioning my restaurant as a sort of save-haven of sorts. We retooled our wines by the glass program to focus on inexpensive gems rather than cherries, shifted our menu to feature tasty dishes made from humble ingredients, and launched a series of "Recession Wine Dinners" where I'm doing 5 course meals pairing these same inexpensive wines with creative dishes made from simple ingredients that I can offer for $40. The cost numbers work out for me and people are flocking to them. Our first dinner sold out in about a day and a half and we added a second night that sold out nearly as quickly. We announced the 2nd dinner in the series (scheduled for next Tuesday) and that sold out in barely an hour after the e-mail went out. The overflow was sold out a day later.

 

So I'm putting them together as fast as I can.

 

In the meantime, at the most unlikely of times, I was able to secure enough of the funds I was looking for to go forward with a project that had been stalled for lack of investment for some time. We invited some prospective investors over to my home for a meal and sales pitch on the Monday following the bailout and subsequent market collapse. My pitch went somewhere along the lines of "Nobody has ever confused Restaurants as being safe harbor investments, but looking around, I don't know what is any more. You can't just pick sectors these days, so why not bet on someone, on something you can see and touch, something in your own town that, btw, is an area that's doing better than most." Turns out, they agreed.

 

Fortunately, lacking kids, living in a home whose mortgage amounts to less than 10% of our pre-tax income, and drawing on two incomes (my wife's being more stable than mine), we're not being faced with any major issues right now.

Edited by detlef
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I would be drving my (very modest) quarterlife crisis car right now . . . but I'm not. With the rates and terms for used car loans, it's no cheaper per month to buy a $8K used car than it is to buy an $18K new car . . . it's ridiculous.

 

Peace

policy

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I recently jumped back to collections from an attempt at morgage broker. As long as the company stays afloat (and if it doesn't, we may all need to buy trailers in the wilderness) it, unfortunately is a secure job.

 

Haven't spent much of anything in a couple of years. The living room TV, is a 27 incher with one remote for the volume & one to change the channel. Could I get a flat screen w/ a credit card, sure, but not gonna do it. This type of thinking has become a major minority.

Edited by Ramhock
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well, gas prices are lower. :wacko:

 

hasn't really impacted us yet. the one decision it's affected...we've got enough cash to do a major kitchen renovation we've been looking at for a while. I sorta wanted to hold off until we see property prices around us start going back up. if things got really, really bad and home prices really went in the tank it might be nice to have that cash around.

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Back in April, we sold the Ford F-150 and bought a Versa hatchback. We got in just under the wire on the whole thing......truck sold for more than we had left on it at the bank.....0% financing on the Versa and a terrific discount on the sticker. So it turned out our payments were the same, but we had a brand new versatile car that we love and get twice the gas mileage. The only downside is not being able to throw sheets of drywall and stuff in the back...LOL. But most of the heavy stuff for this house is here already.....so no biggie for now. :wacko:

 

My sisters and I have formed this sort of "call when you find a deal" club.....LOL. If one of us is out shopping......grocery mainly.....and find a can't miss deal.....we call each other. Lots of cooking at home going on here. I'm sure we are at a point where we could give the "Europe on $20 a day" people a run for their money. You know..."Feeding a family of 4 for $10 a day"......might sell like $2 hotcakes! :D

 

In reality.....you can find a ton of stuff that needs done at home when you've layed aside the possibility of "going out." And if you try a little.....you can make it sort of fun. We painted and recaulked the whole house this summer. Hung out during the windstorm blackout.....did frozen pizzas on the grill...logged more hours listening to talk radio than I can count. But doing it all....together...made it nice. (And productive!)

 

We also got a bit lucky 4 weeks ago. Stanley/MacTools layed off all it's parttime workforce......but......offered MrBunz a fulltime position. In the meantime.....I actually got a few jobs in this economy......go figure. So......while it IS bad out there, we've come through it so far. It helps that we've never been ones to live beyond our means. And we are handy enough not to have to hire anyone when something needs fixed. :D

 

It's bleak though.......and it'll get a whole lot worse before it gets better......count on it. And plan for it. :D

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Business is good, just bought a boat, getting ready for a 10 day vacation. Gotta do it all before n0bama puts me in a work camp.

 

 

Judging by companies reporting earnings you are in the minority.

 

If you want to flee the looming kommie nation the democratic nation of Iraq is North-east once you get to the gulf. :wacko:

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one comment on your post. the high end clients, were they really high end or spending the easy money? we dont realize how little people really have. its scary. friend of mine is a banker in the affluent northshore burbs. says that you would be shocked at how much debt many of these 'rich' people have.

 

they are really high end. we qualify people before signing them up, through public records and other means. many live in

multi million dollar homes with little or no mortgage, bought with cash.....but you are exactly right that many, many people

are bobbing in debt, barely keeping there head above water, even though they don't look like it from the outside. very unlike

many of our parents, who had one credit card for emergencies only.

 

 

well, gas prices are lower. shrug.gif

 

hasn't really impacted us yet. the one decision it's affected...we've got enough cash to do a major kitchen renovation we've been looking at for a while. I sorta wanted to hold off until we see property prices around us start going back up. if things got really, really bad and home prices really went in the tank it might be nice to have that cash around.

 

 

I find this to be the current situation for many people I know and many I work with/for. People seem to be concerned

about the what if 'things got really, really bad' scenario....standing pat, which is prudent and I can't blame them for.

I know a bit about economics and the current conditions, but I also wonder how much of what people are doing

or not doing is fueled by the media.

I know that media hype has nothing to do with turning your 401K into a 201K, that is reality for many.

 

Many people seem fearfull of what the future holds. Even tho things are not so bad now, it is effecting what they do today.

Kind of a viscious circle. There are a number of 2 ton weights out there hanging over our heads, and people are wondering

if and when somone or something is going to cut the rope.....

 

In our house, we don't make large purchases on a whim right now. Think about, and get a deal if we go ahead. That

is one beauty of the current state, there are many deals to be had in many areas of the economy.....

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I got laid off last Thurs the 28th. :wacko: Not a real big deal at this point in my life but big enough.

 

That must have been some bender you've been on ...

 

The last time we had a "Thursday the 28th" was back in August.

 

Regardless, welcome back to the land of the living :D and sorry to hear you lost your job. :D

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