It's not looking good for 2009

[Cat]

I think that there is a major difference in appreciation of the problem between those who only holiday in France, and have a second home in the UK to fall back on should things go pear-shaped, and those who have only one home, here in France.

Many French people, who have always lived and worked in France are facing real hardship too, but they probably didn't do their sums right either.

[Scooby]

[quote user="Cat"]

I think that there is a major difference in appreciation of the problem between those who only holiday in France, and have a second home in the UK to fall back on should things go pear-shaped, and those who have only one home, here in France.

[/quote]

All the more reason to do your sums....

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Scooby"]No gloating, simply stating facts.  The exchange rate has only fallen drastically over the last few months, major spend can be deferred so the impact is on everyday expenditure.  If you have cut things so tight that you are already unable to cope then, sorry, you didn't do your sums well enough.

[/quote]

So, Oh Great Predictor, bless us mere mortals with your best 20/20 hindsight, and tell us where the exchange rate will be, say, at the end of this year and then we can all make our plans accordingly.

[Cat]

[quote user="Scooby"][quote user="Cat"]

I think that there is a major difference in appreciation of the problem between those who only holiday in France, and have a second home in the UK to fall back on should things go pear-shaped, and those who have only one home, here in France.

[/quote]

All the more reason to do your sums....
[/quote]

Nothing wrong with my sums, I am in the lucky position of having several strings to my bow.  That doesn't erase my ability to emphasise with people less fortunate than myself though. 

I shall now take a leaf from Sweet 16's book, and go and find something more rewarding to do.

EDIT, I do apologise Sweet, in my haste to post I seem to have deflated your value from 17 to 16 [:)]

[Scooby]

[quote user="Benjamin"][quote user="Scooby"]No gloating, simply stating facts.  The exchange rate has only fallen drastically over the last few months, major spend can be deferred so the impact is on everyday expenditure.  If you have cut things so tight that you are already unable to cope then, sorry, you didn't do your sums well enough.

[/quote]

So, Oh Great Predictor, bless us mere mortals with your best 20/20 hindsight, and tell us where the exchange rate will be, say, at the end of this year and then we can all make our plans accordingly.

[/quote]

Assume it will go as low as 85p to the Euro - and we (our bank) are working on a recovery in 2012...at the earliest

[mint]

It's OK, Cat, I'd like to be 16 rather than 17; it's a year younger, isn't it?

BTW, you mean "empathise", don't you?  But I understand; some people set your teeth on edge....................[:D]

[Scooby]

[:D]

[Jonzjob]

Now come on everyone. We must not 'get at' Scooby. He has enough problems keeping up his Mr Perfect without us feeling sorry for ourselves!

I used to know what it is like to be perfect and it is a very hard act to maintain! [;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Scooby"]I agree with JMB.  A lot of those who have got themselves into a mess are those who have not considered worst case scenarios, cutting themselves too tight a margin, borrowing to their limits, living off paper equity and cheap finance /  fixed rate deals etc.  Having experienced the 15% interest rates, plummeting pound and redundancy in the past we learned the hard way.  The good times and parties don't last.  Economies are cyclical. 

[/quote]

Wow, another one...................funny what it takes to bring the prats out of the woodwork, isn't it.

'Bankers'........................................................sorry about the spelling.

.

[Scooby]

Wouldn't have expected any other response Bugsy [;-)]....ps Scooby is a girl [;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Scooby"]Wouldn't have expected any other response Bugsy [;-)]....ps Scooby is a girl [;-)]

[/quote]

Scooby is definately a boy, as is Shaggy.

I'm struggling with how anyone as perfect as you wish to appear would get that wrong.

.

[JMB]

Ha ha bugsey wait until €1= 80 "great british" pence then who will look a bit shall we say poor. By the way I thought it was a bit on the naughty side to do personal attacks on here. 

[Scooby]

Trust me - I'm definitely a girl...I just checked to make sure [;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="JMB"]

Ha ha bugsey wait until €1= 80 "great british" pence then who will look a bit shall we say poor. 

[/quote]

That you could even contemplate writing that sentence JMB, says much more about you than me.

How sad........................................

[JMB]

 

Ok. What I wanted to say in my first post was that we should not be beaten down by the press. It's a difficult time for some people but for others there is a window of opportunity. Please try to be positive about the future look forward and try to see this as a challenge.  

[Scooby]

[quote user="JMB"]

By the way I thought it was a bit on the naughty side to do personal attacks on here. 

[/quote]

'Tis ok JMB - I have a thick skin.  Normally when people get personal it's because they haven't got a constructive comment to make [;-)]...seems to happen a lot on here!

I stand by everything I said - it's straightforward common sense.  Those I do feel sorry for is those having sudden serious illness or bereavement.  Those whose pain is self inflicted by stupid financial planning, trying to cash in on a bull market or just naive enough to believe that the markets don't change are their own worst enemies.

[5-element]

[quote user="Scooby"]
I stand by everything I said - it's straightforward common sense.  Those I do feel sorry for is those having sudden serious illness or bereavement.  Those whose pain is self inflicted by stupid financial planning, trying to cash in on a bull market or just naive enough to believe that the markets don't change are their own worst enemies.
[/quote]

How very interesting that you should have put those two eventualities one after the other.

It is easy for  financial planning to appear stupid, retrospectively.

I guess it depends how far you go in factoring in  "serious illness and bereavement",  sudden job loss or loss of ability to work, disablement, or a number of catastrophes which by definition, are unpredictable.

May your life go exactly according to plan...

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="JMB"]

Ha ha bugsey wait until €1= 80 "great british" pence then who will look a bit shall we say poor. By the way I thought it was a bit on the naughty side to do personal attacks on here. 

[/quote]

I think that we, the ones who live here in France full time and who don't have a 'bolt hole' house in the U.K., would LOVE to see the € at 80 great British (British has a capital B me thinks) pence, but would not like to see the great British £ at 80 centimes!

Am I correct at thinking the collective name for those in the banking trade is a 'Wunch' Buggsy?

5E, you should know that a forward view of hindsight is a treasure to have?

[Scooby]

[quote user="5-element"]

How very interesting that you should have put those two eventualities one after the other.

It is easy for  financial planning to appear stupid, retrospectively.

I guess it depends how far you go in factoring in  "serious illness and bereavement",  sudden job loss or loss of ability to work, disablement, or a number of catastrophes which by definition, are unpredictable.

[/quote]

My comments regarding serious illness and bereavement were not because of any financial consequences but because health and family are more important than money and so the effects of either of the above are far more devastating. 

When we decided to buy we factored in a significant movement in either / both interest rates / exchange rates  - to the point of doing flexed ten year forecasts.   If we still couldn't have managed the purchase with only one salary we wouldn't have bought.   This is always how we have planned and thought this was basic common sense.

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Scooby"]

Those whose pain is self inflicted by stupid financial planning, trying to cash in on a bull market or just naive enough to believe that the markets don't change are their own worst enemies.

[/quote]

So that would include all the Main UK Banks, Building Societies, Financial Institutions, Money Markets and Labour Government.

but not you, of course, Scoobess.......................[:)]

[quote user="5-element"]

[quote user="Scooby"]

I stand by everything I said - it's straightforward common sense.  Those

I do feel sorry for is those having sudden serious illness or

bereavement.  Those whose pain is self inflicted by stupid financial

planning, trying to cash in on a bull market or just naive enough to believe that the markets don't change are their own worst enemies.

[/quote]

How very interesting that you should have put those two eventualities one after the other.

It is easy for  financial planning to appear stupid, retrospectively.

I guess it depends how far you go in factoring in  "serious

illness and bereavement",  sudden job loss or loss of ability to work,

disablement, or a number of catastrophes which by definition, are

unpredictable.

May your life go exactly according to plan...

[/quote]

You forgot divorce 5-E.....................................who plans for that....[;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]

Am I correct at thinking the collective name for those in the banking trade is a 'Wunch' Buggsy?

[/quote]

As in a Wunch of Bankers..............................................................spot on John.[:D]

[JMB]

[quote user="Jonzjob"][quote user="JMB"]

Ha ha bugsey wait until €1= 80 "great british" pence then who will look a bit shall we say poor. By the way I thought it was a bit on the naughty side to do personal attacks on here. 

[/quote]

I think that we, the ones who live here in France full time and who don't have a 'bolt hole' house in the U.K., would LOVE to see the € at 80 great British (British has a capital B me thinks) pence, but would not like to see the great British £ at 80 centimes!

Am I correct at thinking the collective name for those in the banking trade is a 'Wunch' Buggsy?

5E, you should know that a forward view of hindsight is a treasure to have?

[/quote]

Eeh ba gum jonz a slip of the keybord.

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="Bugsy"][quote user="Jonzjob"]

Am I correct at thinking the collective name for those in the banking trade is a 'Wunch' Buggsy?

[/quote]

As in a Wunch of Bankers..............................................................spot on John.[:D]
[/quote]

[:D][;-)][:D][;-)][:D][;-)][6]

[chessfou]

Oh dear,I know that "on ne devrait pas les nourrir" but ...

[quote]A lot of those who have got themselves into a mess are those who have not considered worst case scenarios*[/quote]

So what is the worst case? 50%+ inflation (p.a.) as we have effectively experienced here in France over the past 14 months or so (from 1.50 to 1.03 exchange rate plus a bit of "normal" inflation) or 3.25x10⁶ %/month of the Weimar Republic in 1923? Then again, since that has happened (and not far from here, either in space or time) the "worst" case must be worse than that ... and you've allowed for the worst case ...

[quote]we (our bank) are working on a recovery[/quote]

More Scooby-Doh than Scooby-Doo but what would you expect from an American pooch, aside from the obvious dejections?

*PS don't forget to factor in an influenza pandemic and a major asteroid strike, both of which are inevitable (10,000 years? tomorrow? next year? 100 years? next week? next month? 1000 years?).

[Scooby]

[quote user="chessfou"]Oh dear,I know that "on ne devrait pas les nourrir" but ...

[quote]A lot of those who have got themselves into a mess are those who have not considered worst case scenarios*[/quote]

So what is the worst case? 50%+ inflation (p.a.) as we have effectively experienced here in France over the past 14 months or so (from 1.50 to 1.03 exchange rate...

[/quote]

1.5 was never a sustainable exchange rate - 1.3 was far more realistic long term rate which means that the fall is actually 20%....  Anyone budgeting on the lofty highs of 1.5 to 1.6 needed their head testing!

Nice to see Bugsy and et al have resorted to playground name calling....[:)]