Survival UK Forums

Listening to the radio yesterday ....and by all accounts people here in the UK have had enough of the high cost of owning/renting a home coupled with high utility bills ...." I am fed up of having no disposable income, all my wages Go on the mortgage ,food,insurances,utility bills ...there is nothing left to enjoy my life" .....that's why we are going to buy a van ...do it up and live a better life ...and have money to enjoy life rather than be a slave to life ...as we are at the moment.

I see a lot on TV about this very thing and even more on the web normally in the USA.
I expect members there could throw light on this New Wave ....if any .....there again the USA is a big place and lots of room.

The big mistake people make (everywhere) is when prices rise they make a comment like ....tin of peas have gone up 3 p ....they never do a comparison in percentage terms.....try it next time you shop and notice a increase in what you buy on a regular basis.......then apply that percentage to a increase in your wages....just for fun pick on the lowest percentage increase you can find and apply the same math .

The next obvious step is one of frequency for this math we will use 12 months....then we need to apply the first set of the maths .....if just to realise how static your wages are .....and how inflation is a stealth tax that holds us all down .....just wait for hyperinflation......start looking for your van .....Now would be good ...beat the rush.

Priorities mate.

Different people have different lists of priorities.

Some lists will fit in a van. Other lists will not.

The complaints I see above are due to the choices the people made. They bought a house that was more than they could afford at a tax rate they could not afford ad then they expect to have money left over for holidays, hobbies and entertainment.

I have a friend that feels I am a loafer for retiring at the standard age and not working until they put me in the ground. His complaints are mostly jealousy due to him refinancing his mortgage on a $500k home at age 60 on a 20 year payment plan. He pays more for his house than I live on as total expense!

It is not a problem with society or the economy old boy, it is a matter of personal choices and what people think they "deserve out of life".

Most of the world works from childhood until the day they die for nothing but a leaky roof over their heads and a few bites of food daily. Somehow the western societies feel they "deserve more out of life" just because they were born where they are and the choices they make along the way should be repaired automatically by some government agency.

I know you are a believer in large scale SHTF. Just think about it. If those folks can not make wise life choices now what will their choices be then?

MB is spot-on as usual. My goal as I approached retirement was to leave the workforce debt free. No mortgage, both vehicles paid off, no credit card debt. Keep cash on hand for a month's expenses always and enough in the retirement account to preserve the principal and live modestly off the income, to supplement the modest pension of a mid-level government retiree and Social Security.

I manage nicely, but live frugally. I am much better off than my peers who bought houses too large, married "high maintenance" women and nickled and dimed themselves back into debt paying over $100/month for smart phone data plan, another $100 for cable TV, another $500 a month on new car payments and $5000 a year on family travel and vacations...

Great article in Forbes on the status of debt in the average American family. I am glad to have been raised by Depression Kids who lived through WW2 and taught me to save and live modestly, while adequately.

http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/3-reasons-...an-greece/

Whatever happens, the average American may be worse off than Greece:...

Americans actually have more debt relative to income earned

Between its government and its banks, Greece owes 323 billion euros to creditors and its debt-to-income (GDP) ratio is 177%, according to Trading Economics. In other words, Greece owes 1.77 euros for every euro it earns. The average U.S. household, by comparison, owed $204,992 in mortgages, credit cards, and student loans in mid-2015 on a median household income of $55,192, according to data compiled by Sentier Research. This translates to a debt-to-income ratio of 370%, which is much worse than Greece!

Indebted U.S. households carry an average credit card balance of $15,706, according to NerdWallet. Now consider that on average Greece pays only 2.6% of GDP in interest on its debt, according to estimates by think-tank Bruegel cited by The Telegraph. By contrast, the national average interest rate on a U.S. credit card is 15%, according to a report by CreditCards.com, which means $2,355 of annual interest on a balance of $15,706 and 4.2% of median income. This spikes even more sharply on higher interest credit cards, or in the case of a missed payment, which can lead to nearly 30% in interest and therefore 8.5% of median income.

Combine this with stagnant wages for most Americans and the point is that while Greece may have a serious problem, average Americans are living pretty close to the edge themselves, and in the event of a crisis, may face an even more painful reckoning...

Many other forms of debt like credit cards or tax bills are also usually not subject to default, or at least the vagaries of a bankruptcy court judge, and can result in freezing of assets and wage garnishing. All that puts Americans, especially those in the lower-income bracket, in a virtual debt prison compared to the leeway available to a nation like Greece (albeit, not without pain)...

In times of crisis, banks need money to be propped up; without outside aid, they can collapse. Greece can’t print euros, since it’s a joint currency controlled by the eurozone, so if it can’t reach a deal with lenders, it would have to adopt a new currency – the drachma. With its own currency, it can print money, which then enables it to sustain its banking system.

Not a great solution since printing money can encourage inflation, but the flip side is it can avert an immediate crisis and allow the nation to survive.

Unfortunately, that luxury is not available to you and I. So any debt we take on will have to be repaid with our hard-earned earnings at some point, and that’s an important reminder to all of us to be prudent in how we conduct our lives. America’s debt-fueled consumer lifestyle may be attractive and heady, but it can lead to terrible consequences if it continues unchecked.

These materialistic days people have high expectations of what they think they deserve and "need"! We have mortgage, no credit card debts and everything we own is debt-free. The thought of going into old age still paying a mortgage - as many folks do here in the UK - scares the crap out of me.

Actually, that should read that we do not have a mortgage! Phew!

I've been debt free for 13 years now. Pay off the credit card every month, take a cruise and a road trip every year, and bank my wife's entire retirement income. I don't buy anything that I can't write a check for. But for many years we lived well below our incomes, smaller house, older cars, limited vacations. It's tough to be poor when you're young, but hell to be poor when you're old!

As you are aware we scaled down to a small bungalow within our original grounds...(we had no debts even before the move ...zero ) we will live a reasonable life off our pensions (if they last) there is a big black hole and getting bigger...some suggest right now 3 trillion .....that is the equivalent of the total GDP of the UK per year ....the shortfall will have to be picked up from other funding (so where is that ?) nobody seems to know....so if these numbers are correct right now ....it stands things will get much much worse....even a low interest rate from a central bank will have to be paid for ....and that will fall on our shoulders ...working or not.

I agree with MB regarding people making bad choices ...and expecting to be baled out when things go TU .....thing is Your self inflicted problem is ....your self inflicted problem created by You ....you will not enjoy the gift of free money and baled out like the banks got back in 2008/9 via the central bank ....the trouble with any fiat based system is debt must rise..... eventually .....they collapse and always have and always will ....you can say or do what you like but it will fall on normal everyday people to stump up and suffer BY DESIGN...so everything i do by "Design" is to create a safety net where ever i can to minimise the coming effects as far as i can see ...just my view ...anything going on around here ....inside or outside.....is carried out to this end.

As MB eluded to what of the sheeple when tshtf with no help from any quarter least of all tptb ....now that scares the shit out of me ....i have some plans ....but not many answers.

"Most of the world works from childhood until the day they die for nothing but a leaky roof over their heads and a few bites of food daily. Somehow the western societies feel they "deserve more out of life" just because they were born where they are and the choices they make along the way should be repaired automatically by some government agency."

This is the sad reality that we live in now. Sad, but true.