Forum Topic

Savings Nosedive

Like a good little boy when times were good I saved my pennies for a rainy day.  A couple of days ago I got my annual ISA statement from Virgin Money and discovered that up to the first of February my savings with that company have decreased by 30% over 12 months and heaven alone knows what's happened to it over the last four weeks.  I'm dreading to think what my Prudential ISA statement will show when that arrives shortly.  My rainy day is imminent just as I've discovered my savings have been washed away.So stuff organic, stuff free range and stuff the Joneses, I'm buying cheap factory farmed food, going without a more  eco-friendly car and the TV and computer will only be replaced if they break down.  Time to batten down the hatches, there's worse to come.

Peter Wright ● 6420d8 Comments

Yes, it's rubbish, isn't it. All our pension schemes are worthless, endowment policies not worth the paper they're written on and we're on a fixed rate mortgage to boot. No pay rises, in fact pay cuts but at least we still have jobs.for now !  Houses are falling in value and we couldn't sell even if we wanted to. My daughter is a teacher in Ealing so I guess she's OK for the time being but we may be sponging off her soon. The only 'solution' to this is not to pour cash into banks only to see the execs helping themselves to even more but to guarantee jobs to people. We need all sorts of new stuff in the UK, roads, hospitals, schools etc as well as housing. Why can't we emply people ona  safe wage for say 10 years....that way people feel safe and they start spending money, buying property, saving. Everyone benefits.

Penny Crocker ● 6420d

Employment is not the solution to a monetary system backed by nothing except trust. To keep that billions are being spent by governments. Soon they will start printing money and inlation will result, devaluation by stealth. The only real solution is a return to the gold standard when the promise on the paper will be worth something.

Graham Weeks ● 6420d

Didn't that cause terrible problems back in the 20s though? I seem to recall my A level history teacher blaming the 2nd World War on that vey decision?

Penny Crocker ● 6420d

And , speaking for myself and my friends, fear of unemployment is stopping us spending anything.

Penny Crocker ● 6420d

The credit crunch is also having some positive effects. We are entertaining more at home (and more frugally)rather than in restaurants, and as a result, seeing more of family and friends. We help each other by bringing a dish, which takes some of the strain from the host and makes for evenings where the concentration is on the socialising rather than the gourmet efforts.

S. D. Brock ● 6420d

You're right. We will have to change our behaviour and think of different ways to amuse oursleves without spending a fortune. The problem is partly that we have no base behind our economy. It is almost all service based now with dwindling manufacturing etc. So we stop spending and everything falls apart.

Penny Crocker ● 6420d

Living fairly frugally already and with mortgage paid off it is not affecting us apart from the drop in income from savings. Positive effect will be a lower price for the house we want to help our eldest buy.

Graham Weeks ● 6420d

RFe  It is almost all service based now with dwindling manufacturing etc. So we stop spending and everything falls apart.           xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx        Not so. Countries with economies that still have a large manufacturing element are being hit far harder than we. Those countries rely a great deal on exporting their manufactured goods which no-one now wants  / can buy, certainly not in the same numbers as before. Thus Japan for example is suffereing badly, their exports down by 30 or more %. Germany likewise. I read today Brown has said let what's left of our manufacturing go to the wall, concentrate on the City of London and turn the rest of the country over to tourism !. How true this is, we don't know.

Tony Price ● 6416d