How Would The End of The Recession Look Like For You?

[Apresto]

I hear everybody talking about how we're in a recession, all the problems that we have and that we are going to have. Recently read somewhere that we're under the shadow of a second recession and those are all just negative and unpleasant talks for everybody. Although we should be serious about it and all, how about we get somewhat frisky about it. As if we're in control of the whole thing and not the other way around.


Let's use our imaginations and describe what the recession end will look like if tomorrow would be the first day without it.

For me the day starts with a tasty, healthy breakfast - toasts with vegetables on it, fresh orange juice and probably a chocolate waflle to start a energetic day. Hey, guess what! The TV is on and CNN is on with a little smile() on it's logo, what's that for?! - the recession is over! "Uniquely handled by a group of financial specialists, we are happy to announce that the crisis is now over.", the newswoman says.

The unemployment status is just 2% and the reason is not that there aren't enough workplaces but that there's not enough people yet born on Earth to complete the workers' list of top rated companies that are on top of their possible development.

Absolutely everybody is preparing sums of money to go shop for what they always dreamed of - clothes, cars and places to live. And that is no problem because all of that is handled by their account in a bank who has 0% interest in loans.
I'm happy to see and chat with people I see on the street as they are so full of joy and inspired to do good by seeing themselves feel good.

This new way of living allows CEO's to afford a very flexible work time for their workers so they give a 60/40 rule being the proportion of playing/working. Having fun is the new currency as money is not a problem for no one anymore.

Whatever was bad about the world financial situation is now gone and won't be missed.

[SnerpGoodWord]

The recession was definitively over in the US by quarter 1 of 2010 at the latest. Every single quarter since then has seen positive inflation-adjusted growth.

What we're seeing now might more reasonably be described as structural unemployment and underemployment created by political policies (minimum wage, immigration, off-shoring of manufacturing, cost uncertainty around ObamaCare etc). This is not a recession - a recession would be much worse than this. This is the new normal.

From my perspective this looks fine - the last two years have been the most profitable of my life and it's not even close. Obviously that's not universally true though.

[Apresto]

You're quite right about the US, but not all countries have the same industry and economic system. Maybe adding an extra title of the topic would make it more concrete and clear for discussion: "Describing a world without financial problems"

[Mounds]

An easy way for an individual to live in a world without financial problems is to consume less. No one really needs...

... two brand-new cars
... a 2500 sq/ft house
... smart phones for the whole family
... fully-loaded cable TV, along with the latest 60" 3D plasma
... credit in general

A switch in thinking and you're off to the races.

-Tim

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Apresto

You're quite right about the US, but not all countries have the same industry and economic system. Maybe adding an extra title of the topic would make it more concrete and clear for discussion: "Describing a world without financial problems"

Thing is, getting out of the recession will be far from trouble-free. I can already see patterns developing in the heavy industry, where big orders are coming in again, and the subcontractors that had to lay off staff to survive the recession are overwhelmed. They can't hire and train new staff fast enough, and will likely end up with overworked and unhappy staff, late fees, kicked out for breach of contract... The recovery is going to be chaotic.

[Apresto]

aelle, that's downright pessimistic - if someone had the opportunity to learn what he had to do in order to keep out of debt, he would I'm sure. If you state that the trouble would be that there would not be enough qualified people to respond to the big orders coming, that's an easy solver in time.

Mounds' opinion is very interesting - it's like the people who think are in recession can escape it just by realizing what is "of too much". Although few would give up their 60" 3D plasma just like that

Also check out this image from a local newspaper illustrating a businessman that jumping over the recession :

[gene2009]

Sales are down this year. Most of my customers were from the USA, and i always got many sales during last Xmas seasons.

[Mounds]

What's interesting here is that we are in control of our financial destinies. However, it seems like people are leaving it up to the government, Wall Street, and society in general to deal with it (in other words, "them").

In order for things to operate smoothly, individuals have to change.

There's a store in my town that "leases" furniture and small electronics. The lease can last over years, at which point you own the product. I could walk in there right now, with no credit or job, and furnish my entire home. To me, that's a recipe for disaster. It's all fun and games until someone has to front the bill.

I'm quite familiar with the topic of credit, since I used to be pretty bad with my money. I've since paid off most of my debt (will be done early next year) and now, I refuse to buy anything I can't afford. Credit is not a necessity.

What aelle says might sound like a downer but it's very realistic. When people get laid off en mass, they don't just sit by the phone and wait for their old boss to call; they move on! To make matters worse, many of us grew up in a push-button society, where anything we want can be purchased. The end result is that many younger people don't have the skill set that the older generation has, especially in the labour force. Don't underestimate the magnitude of that problem.

-Tim

[Mounds]

By the way... we can still be optimistic about our futures. We can look at it as a massive opportunity to learn a new and exciting way of living.

We can have all of the following:

- 0% interest loans - use a credit card and pay it off monthly.
- part-time work - own less stuff. The less you have to pay for, the less you have to work.
- happiness is something we can have even when times get tough
- no more bad news - simple: stop reading and watching the news

What I'm getting at is that the stress ends the moment you want it to.

-Tim

[James81]

How would the end of this recession look to me?

Lower gas prices.

That about covers it. That's really the only part of the recession that I personally experienced. Trust me, it has been weird to hear people say that the economy is so bad when my own life hadn't changed that much.

I keep hearing how bad things are, but I hit rock bottom with my finances a year before the crash, so I was forced to cut out the frills then. Then when the recession hit, I noticed that it really wasn't effecting me.

It really reinforced the notion that my financial situation is my responsibility and is not tied to wall streets little fluctuations. I also have chosen professions, engineering and education, that are always needed despite what the economy does. That helps as well.

[Apresto]

Hadn't though about it that way, Mounds, thanks!

I remember when the recession was just starting to grow, a very interesting advert of autos appeared on the streets. It was Toyota's billboards saying: "Did you know that the hieroglyph for "crisis" and "opportunity" is one and the same in Japanese?"

[Spinoza]

Originally Posted by Mounds

By the way... we can still be optimistic about our futures. We can look at it as a massive opportunity to learn a new and exciting way of living.

We can have all of the following:

- 0% interest loans - use a credit card and pay it off monthly.
- part-time work - own less stuff. The less you have to pay for, the less you have to work.
- happiness is something we can have even when times get tough
- no more bad news - simple: stop reading and watching the news

What I'm getting at is that the stress ends the moment you want it to.

-Tim

I totally agree. Your kids can be happy with jobs at Walmart and bad teeth. Just stop caring about what the future will be for your kids and happiness can start for you today. It’s their life, you’re not responsible for it. We'll you did choose to bring them into the world but that's just splitting hairs. Teach them they're responsible for themselves and sit back and enjoy life.

[Aminka Ozmun]

Originally Posted by Apresto

Hadn't though about it that way, Mounds, thanks!

I remember when the recession was just starting to grow, a very interesting advert of autos appeared on the streets. It was Toyota's billboards saying: "Did you know that the hieroglyph for "crisis" and "opportunity" is one and the same in Japanese?"

I remember that meme! Though it's actually Chinese (well, the Japanese use kanji or Chinese characters extensively), and it's been explained as a mistranslation. According to Wikipedia, even JFK made reference to it!

Anyway, me, maybe it's 'cause I'm just a student but honestly it's like I'm sleeping through this recession. Thankfully, I just don't see it personally. In fact, things are better now than ever for me, though that's also much more likely due to me being so young and just starting out, getting out from under the thumb of my parents and all that!

[Apresto]

Aminka Ozmun, I felt the same way as you - "Hey, where's that recession thing you're all talking about?" But it really is about when you have a lot of benefits from life and then lose them is when you know it's a recession, in my opinion. And as students maybe we can't really have all that life can offer for us, and more to that we enjoy simple things more easily through the student years as we are "so young and green".

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by Spinoza

I totally agree. Your kids can be happy with jobs at Walmart and bad teeth. Just stop caring about what the future will be for your kids and happiness can start for you today. It’s their life, you’re not responsible for it. We'll you did choose to bring them into the world but that's just splitting hairs. Teach them they're responsible for themselves and sit back and enjoy life.

I guess I missed the part where I said that I would let my kids raise themselves. I'm sure it's somewhere in my last post... hidden between those lines.

At any rate, here's an example: my wife has a full-time job so she can drive to work. Between annual depreciation, insurance, payments, gas, maintenance, and occasional repairs, 75% of her money is spent on that car. That is stupidity and the only reason we bought that car is because we thought it was normal. All the other young people were buying new-ish cars, so we did too. Two years later, we see the light.

Another great example is our previous phone contract. We paid $160 for a subsidized Blackberry, 36-month term. We opted out of the warranty (another $100) because warranties are usually BS.

Two things happened: the network shrank (carrier didn't want to take any responsibility, even though they told me that's what happened) and the phone broke in the 17th month. Haggled them down to a small buy-out, bought it out. From now on, it's used phones and pay-as-you-go.

Companies these days are selling freedom; the freedom to surf wherever you are, the freedom to go where you want, the freedom to see what you want to see, ect. However, what they're actually selling is slavery. They're making sure that you'll keep buying until the day you die. If that means you struggle to retire by 65, that's what it means.

We happen to have things that we like doing more than work. None of those things involve brand-new cars, smartphones, fully-loaded cable, designer clothes, or replacing our furniture every two years. Therefore, why in the hell would my wife and I work full-time for the best years our lives?

Oh... that's right. So our kids don't get deprived. I guess I'd better buy a bigger TV so that our kids don't miss their parents, while they work long hours to pay for freedumb (sp.?).

-Tim

[Cado]

Originally Posted by Spinoza

I totally agree. Your kids can be happy with jobs at Walmart and bad teeth. Just stop caring about what the future will be for your kids and happiness can start for you today. It’s their life, you’re not responsible for it. We'll you did choose to bring them into the world but that's just splitting hairs. Teach them they're responsible for themselves and sit back and enjoy life.

Working for money is stupid. Live under your means, save, put some aside for investing. Invest using a longterm strategy and build credit not so that you can get more fancy toys but so you can easily attain capital to accumulate assets/start businesses as you become more secure in your financial situation.

People who think that working until you're 65 or older is the way to go (rather, it's the only option) clearly don't understand all the avenues which are available to them. They're thinking small. Sure, it takes a lot of work to build a solid foundation but once you have that things get substantially easier. That's the message that gets lost in our consumerist culture.

The 1% (and Washington) have a lot to answer for but that doesn't mean there's nothing we can or should do for ourselves. In fact we can all play the same game they do, and the more people who take full advantage of the systems in place the harder it will be for any one entity to hoard wealth or dominate the political sphere.

The end of this economic climate is the end of many oppressive policies as well as the collective ignorance of what's going on in the world around us. No, I'm not expecting a mass awakening, but I suspect a significant portion of the population aren't going to slip back into apathy when this is over, and the status quo will never be what it was. For me the financial aspect of this isn't nearly as compelling as the sociological, philosophical, and political implications of everything that's happening.

[Frisky]

Here in Canada we never really felt the "great recession of 2008" so much.

It also helps that I try to live beneath my means, I save my money, invest wisely and I dont go out buying Porsches or BMW's

[Aminka Ozmun]

Originally Posted by Apresto

Aminka Ozmun, I felt the same way as you - "Hey, where's that recession thing you're all talking about?" But it really is about when you have a lot of benefits from life and then lose them is when you know it's a recession, in my opinion. And as students maybe we can't really have all that life can offer for us, and more to that we enjoy simple things more easily through the student years as we are "so young and green".

Yes, we young people don't think about such things too much -- and that's our virtue!

I'm graduating this year, though, so it's more on my mind. But being young, I still feel confident. Not that I think "it can't happen to me," but that "I can do without"...especially since I live a relatively simple life anyway!

I definitely agree with you that we have the power to invent ourselves and create our own happiness in the world.

[Apresto]

Pretty happy I can hear a lot of positive opinions so far, we really don't need so much stuff we think we want... The more we get - the more dependent we become, it's so bad sometimes.

As in the song "Like a Hobo" one of the line says "The Less I Have The More I'm A Happy Man"

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cado

Working for money is stupid. Live under your means, save, put some aside for investing.

If you do no work for money, how will you have any "means", how will you save, and where do you get "some" for investing.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Cado

Invest using a longterm strategy

That was advice for the old days. Those financial textbooks are being rewritten now.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Mounds

At any rate, here's an example: my wife has a full-time job so she can drive to work. Between annual depreciation, insurance, payments, gas, maintenance, and occasional repairs, 75% of her money is spent on that car. That is stupidity and the only reason we bought that car is because we thought it was normal. All the other young people were buying new-ish cars, so we did too. Two years later, we see the light.

I am a millionaire who takes the public train to work everyday.

Another great example is our previous phone contract. We paid $160 for a subsidized Blackberry, 36-month term. We opted out of the warranty (another $100) because warranties are usually BS.

Two things happened: the network shrank (carrier didn't want to take any responsibility, even though they told me that's what happened) and the phone broke in the 17th month. Haggled them down to a small buy-out, bought it out. From now on, it's used phones and pay-as-you-go.

My bank pays for both my iPhone and my Blackberry.

We happen to have things that we like doing more than work. None of those things involve brand-new cars, smartphones, fully-loaded cable, designer clothes, or replacing our furniture every two years.

I do not subscribe to cable TV.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Mounds

- 0% interest loans - use a credit card and pay it off monthly.

But of course.

I carry about seven credit cards in my wallet (as I can use them to get discounts at different shops, restaurants etc).

I have never paid interest in any of them. I pay all my credit cards in full, by Giro, every month.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by James81

How would the end of this recession look to me?

Lower gas prices.

Actually, a recession generally means lower gas prices, and a booming economy generally means higher gas prices.

It's supply and demand. When the economy is doing well, more people have jobs, more people travel to work, more goods need to be transported, more people go traveling on holiday - this means greater demand for gas --> higher prices.

[Lioness]

This financial advice is all well and good if you are able to earn a living wage.

Unemployment/underemployment is a huge problem in the US. There is a new phenomenon of middle-agers being laid-off, downsized and eliminated from their jobs. And a lot of younger people, even with college degrees can't find work so they have to move back in with parents, sometimes with kids of their own.

With stores going out of business, construction and other industries struggling or folding, there just aren't enough jobs to go around.

As far as credit cards, I had a household emergency that put me back in debt. I had an emergency fund, but it wasn't enough.

I was thankful the credit was available. Even after cutting expenses to the bone, some folks are one paycheck away from disaster.

[Apresto]

One of the things about money I've learned is that their value can change depending on the place you are at the moment. If you receive 10 dollars per hour at your current work, at other countries someone may receive 10 dollars per day for doing the same job. But after getting that money you have to spend them somewhere, so there comes the problem - if you're surrounded by expensive and very needed or wanted things, at the end of the day you may be just as poor as a third world country dog. What about the case where you don't have anything to spend your money on - you're rich eventually but have no place to go shopping.
So the moral of the story is - find the real value of money and of what you're buying so you can be both financially and physically satisfied(you also get the pleasure of using your brain and becoming more effective than always). No buy buy of things you're not going to have for more than 1 year(except for food and drinks and other everyday needy stuff). And being careful with your needs is very important - if you don't need it you don't want it and don't spend on it. Wanting valuable stuff is spending you money in the long run rather than emptying your pocket.

[Spinoza]

Originally Posted by Mounds

I guess I missed the part where I said that I would let my kids raise themselves. I'm sure it's somewhere in my last post... hidden between those lines.

At any rate, here's an example: my wife has a full-time job so she can drive to work. Between annual depreciation, insurance, payments, gas, maintenance, and occasional repairs, 75% of her money is spent on that car. That is stupidity and the only reason we bought that car is because we thought it was normal. All the other young people were buying new-ish cars, so we did too. Two years later, we see the light.

Another great example is our previous phone contract. We paid $160 for a subsidized Blackberry, 36-month term. We opted out of the warranty (another $100) because warranties are usually BS.

Two things happened: the network shrank (carrier didn't want to take any responsibility, even though they told me that's what happened) and the phone broke in the 17th month. Haggled them down to a small buy-out, bought it out. From now on, it's used phones and pay-as-you-go.

Companies these days are selling freedom; the freedom to surf wherever you are, the freedom to go where you want, the freedom to see what you want to see, ect. However, what they're actually selling is slavery. They're making sure that you'll keep buying until the day you die. If that means you struggle to retire by 65, that's what it means.

We happen to have things that we like doing more than work. None of those things involve brand-new cars, smartphones, fully-loaded cable, designer clothes, or replacing our furniture every two years. Therefore, why in the hell would my wife and I work full-time for the best years our lives?

Oh... that's right. So our kids don't get deprived. I guess I'd better buy a bigger TV so that our kids don't miss their parents, while they work long hours to pay for freedumb (sp.?).

-Tim

I suppose I was a little hard on you in the in my last post. It’s just that the suggestion that stress ends when you want it too rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed a little like sticking your head in the sand because really we're just worrying about the little things like cell phones and cable TV. To me its seems like parents are worried about big things like not being able to provide a college education for their kids or not being able to provide health care, those aren't little things.

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by Spinoza

I suppose I was a little hard on you in the in my last post. It’s just that the suggestion that stress ends when you want it too rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed a little like sticking your head in the sand because really we're just worrying about the little things like cell phones and cable TV. To me its seems like parents are worried about big things like not being able to provide a college education for their kids or not being able to provide health care, those aren't little things.

I agree, those aren't little things. I fully intend on putting all of my kids through college.

With that said, it's not really a necessity either. I believe it was russianrocket who mentioned that his brothers both went through university, working full-time, and graduated with no student loans. A can-do attitude is a powerful thing.

Another thing that even I forget on occasion is that small expenses creep. Let's say your expensive cell and fully-loaded cable are weighing in at $150 monthly. No big deal, right?

After 18 years, that's $32,000 after-tax dollars spent on... well... nothing. I'm salaried at $50k, taking home about (surprise!) $32,000 a year! An entire years pay spent on channels that never get watched and the privilege of having a smartphone*.

Now let's say that the day my child is born, I cancel both my cable and my expensive phone, opting for a cheap pay-as-you-go. Suddenly, my child has a college fund. On top of that, they won't be exposed to nearly as much advertising, they'll develop real skills (have you ever met someone who grew up without TV? Incredible!), and we'll spend much more time together as a family.

-Tim

* - The expensive part of a smartphone is the plan. With all the Wi-Fi spots these days, you don't need data. Also, pretty much any phone can be made pay-as-you-go. There is much money to be saved.

[Apresto]

Most of the people think that when they cut their costs it will make them have more money and consequently richer. But at the end of it all money are about spending it on good things and living is about getting pleasure and being satisfied. These are the major things our lives gives and wants.

There is a saying - "saving is the mother of misery". Take it how you want it but if you get used to saving money, that's what you'll do. If you get used to making more and having more, that's how it will be for you.

Cutting expenses is good but let it be reasonable, i.e. not cuttng what's good for your organism - you don't have to stop eating and going to cinemas so that you become rich and have more money(which you will eventually spend on the same things)

[Aminka Ozmun]

Originally Posted by Apresto

As in the song "Like a Hobo" one of the line says "The Less I Have The More I'm A Happy Man"

I love the song "Through Heaven's Eyes" from "Prince of Egypt" with the lines about sharing: "when all you've got is nothing/there's a lot to go around!"