Best and worst of the last recession

Princess Calla · 24-10-2019 01:52PM

Worst: Career stagnating and being told be thankful you have a job! I was thankful but also doing the work of two people on very little money.

Best: while I was saving during the boom and totally depressed that I could never buy. I had a deposit saved on a modest income for when the prices dropped. While I still couldn't afford close to home*,I still got a nice house in Dublin.

* turned out to be a blessing, huge pyrite issues came to light.

ToddyDoody · 24-10-2019 01:57PM

Best things;
the books I read, saving money from the dole for college, going back to college due to no job, bought property at reasonable price

Worst things;
straight from college onto dole, working for dole money, endless swathes of idle time, being fairly tight for money, poorer start to career than would otherwise have achieved, pressure to find a job when unemployed.

Feisar · 24-10-2019 02:48PM

Best; it brought house prices back to more realistic figures (for a while)

Worst; it didn't do my career any good but that's balanced out now. Best friend emigrated.

LirW · 24-10-2019 03:21PM

Best:
my country wasn't hit badly by the crash unless people invested in Swiss currency, they didn't do well at the time. Shortly before the creche my mother and stepdad bought a house on 2 self-employed salaries, and I'm talking 4 months before the States fell apart and the shockwaves hit Europe. Wouldn't have been possible otherwise. They were very very lucky and it was nice to experience the security of a safe home for the first time ever after renting sh*teholes since I was a kid.

Worst:
Jobs dried up all across the continent and there were a few meager years, when I was done with my school and training I couldn't find a job and unemployment was generally high. Welfare services were cut at the same time so there was a year where myself and my son really really struggled at an economic low point.

nannerby · 24-10-2019 03:27PM

Best..getting an extension done for 55k during the boom I was quoted 120k.

Worst..pay decrease of 17k.

nthclare · 24-10-2019 03:31PM

There's going to be a lot of 2019 car's on the road in 10 years time...

LirW · 24-10-2019 03:54PM

nthclare wrote: »

There's going to be a lot of 2019 car's on the road in 10 years time...

2017 struck me as a particularly strong year for all them PCP rides.
Alternatively you can always pick up on the these poxy 141 Opel insignia that seem to be littering country roads.

Cantona's Collars · 24-10-2019 03:59PM

Worst,my income halved literally overnight. I was lucky enough to be still able to afford to pay the mortgage etc.

Best,the boy racers tearing the tyres off their cars on every crossroads and racing every night stopped......the scrotes are back with a vengeance now.

Sleepy · 24-10-2019 04:10PM

Worst: Losing the job I'd had since leaving college, having to work in the UK Monday to Friday with a 1 year old at home who didn't understand where her Daddy was gone, finally finding a job back in Ireland but for lower money, lost a few friends to emigration

Best: We were able to afford rent on a 3 bed in a lovely part of Dublin (Clontarf), Hotels were bending over backwards for wedding bookings so got a great deal on it, finally made me behave somewhat responsibly with money, my daughter's reaction every Friday evening when I got home from London are still some of my happiest memories of her early years.

Airyfairy12 · 24-10-2019 04:25PM

The worst thing - no job, barely enough to eat, only had old ripped clothes to wear.
The best thing - Taught me the importance of saving money incase anything like that happens again.

vriesmays · 24-10-2019 04:56PM

Worst: Paycuts.

Best: Decent rock bands in the charts.

Leg End Reject · 24-10-2019 07:26PM

Worst: pay cuts, USC.

Best: lower imortgage nterest rates and lower retail prices.

It all more or less evened out for me.

buried · 24-10-2019 07:41PM

Worst : All the dingy, piss moss covered empty half finished housing estates in the countryside cordoned off with dingy piss moss covered plywood walls.

Best : Nice quiet pubs with nice quiet lock-ins after hours

gmisk · 24-10-2019 07:46PM

Worst: cuts in salary and USC coming in

Best: house prices going down, so managed to buy a place after looking for years.
Better value in restaurants.

amadangomor · 24-10-2019 07:51PM

Stevieluvsye wrote: »

I was fortunate. Pay rise YOY, plus increased bonus YOY. Wife's business grew YOY also. We actually managed to purchase a place abroad for a third of what it's worth today

But haters will always hate!

Nah. people don't hate you they just hate the repeated use of stupid acronyms like YOY :pac:

tonycascarino · 24-10-2019 07:59PM

mariaalice wrote: »

I genuinely think there is a different attitude to debt now except for mortgage debt, spending less has become fashionable.

No way. There are still an awful lot of eejits going into debt because they cannot give up the fake lifestyle they had during the Celtic Tiger years.

anewme · 24-10-2019 08:01PM

Best: Kept my job during the recession. Would think that anyone who kept their job during the recession is surely in a fairly good place financially now.

Worst: Friend was a tradesman. Kept doing the work, but just not getting paid. Took his own life age 36 as he could not face losing his home. That hit me hard.

pgj2015 · 24-10-2019 09:20PM

best - hotel prices in dublin nearly halved
a lot of scum bags left ireland for australia
hardy bucks came out
i was in college on btea so it was the perfect place to be

worst - petrol prices were up at 1.77 per litre

KWAG2019 · 24-10-2019 09:38PM

Worst: The overwork to keep a place afloat and the utter brass necked cynicism of politicians looking for more. Led to ill health.
Best: People woke up to the utter uselessness of politicians and "managers".

limnam · 24-10-2019 09:43PM

the beer revolu wrote: »

I'd say it's more of a case that people don't have access to much credit anymore.
As soon as lending is relaxed, we'll be off again having learned nothing.

Are we not already there?

The amount of new cars around the place is phenomenal

the beer revolu · 24-10-2019 09:48PM

limnam wrote: »

Are we not already there?

The amount of new cars around the place is phenomenal

And all the howling to relax the lending rules for mortgages so we can have another property bubble!

Jurgen Klopp · 24-10-2019 09:53PM

Unfortunately I can see the arrogance and keeping up with the Joneses creeping back last couple years.

I remember in my small country town whatever car makes were in the thing last recession being a gold mine for tow truck drivers repossessing the majority which were out on hire purchase.

People started buying small little second hands

Then with the last couple years people working jobs where they are hardly clearing 400 a week after tax are all driving new Audi's, BMWs and Mercs don't tell me they aren't paying at least 100 a week PCP

But for the mortgage rules I'm convinced theyd be rushing off for teh 100% loans that used by thrown out

No lessons learned.

AulWan · 24-10-2019 09:56PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Worst: Pay cut after pay cut, while listening to people telling me I was lucky to still have a job (the same people that had for years previously had been telling me to ditch the public sector job as the money was awful and they were creaming it in the private sector). What made it worse is they were saying it wasn't really a pay cut, yet hit the roof when the cuts were reinstated and all of a sudden it was now a pay-rise. Go figure.

Pay and conditons have still not been fully restored.

Its ironic now how many people iknow personally who pre-recession never had a good word to say about the public service, are the very ones lining up for any public jobs now advertised.

Jurgen Klopp · 24-10-2019 09:59PM

Oh forgot to add, the sheer ignorance, greed and piss taking from those few areas which were hiring during the recession

The amount of ****e pay, work safety violations and down right bullying as "if you don't like it there's plenty more to take your job"

I seen that in certain areas first hand. Delighted see the cnuts having breakdowns now due to stress from not being able to get or keep staff and even having to do the work themselves

theguzman · 24-10-2019 10:00PM

I was watching the news yesterday of the recent job losses and it is just the beginning of what is to come.

I was unaffected by the previous recession and actually recessions have always suited me.

Benefits for me: Prices went down, Cash sales were king, I bought my house as it was repossessed. I was able to take holidays for less money etc.

All I see nowadays is people living beyond their means, our taxes are way too high, we get nothing in return. The so called Welfare scrounger is coming out the very best and I don't blame him instead I envy them. The Govt has done nothing positive for Ireland, there has been no infrastructural investment where it was needed and Rural Ireland left to rot and die.

riclad · 24-10-2019 10:00PM

Best low rents, shops not too crowded, traffic is not so bad,
house prices lower .
Now , rock band ,s do not exist,
apart from old band,d from the 80,s doing tours.

Mulbert · 24-10-2019 10:14PM

Worst thing was listening to all the lads whinging about me and my state job etc, etc post bust.

Best was reminding them that they were laughing at me for taking it a few years before.

Severe dislike for bregrugery.

Muahahaha · 24-10-2019 10:36PM

the beer revolu wrote: »

The rise of Aldi and Lidl was a good thing, imo.

Definitely this, Aldi and Lidls prices helped a lot of struggling families to get through the recession. Things were bad but you could still have a lovely rib eye steak on special for €2, little things like that helped take the edge off the mass depression the country was in. Same with all the voucher sites, you could get a double room, dinner and breakfast in a hotel in Kilkenny for €65. Would be closer to €200 nowadays.

Jurgen Klopp wrote: »

Oh forgot to add, the sheer ignorance, greed and piss taking from those few areas which were hiring during the recession

Yeah I remember back then the RTE news would regularly have segments with some smarmy HR person on telling us how their company got 5,000 applications for 10 jobs.

Worst for me had to be the emigration and suicides. Lost two very good mates to Australia and they wont be back. Blokes just dont do the Skype thing very well so those friendships have turned into the odd text every six months which is sad. Didnt have anyone close to me commit suicide but was at two funerals, both men who left behind kids and were put under huge pressure by the banks. Suicide rates are still pretty high here, around 700 per year compared to around 160 per year killed on the roads. Yet road safety gets multiples of coverage in the media and suicide is still swept under the carpet.

Strumms · 24-10-2019 11:04PM

Worst was my job.. it WAS much quieter that when people left they weren’t replaced, those of us there in our department were given additional work to fill a small bit of downtime but it gradually meant we were swamped as the recession ended. The company had guaranteed when the quiet times were over they would rehire and redelegate work back to their original departments. The original departments kicked up and said they had been told that the work they lost was ours not theirs... our own manager didn’t have the backbone to stand up for us..we were swamped, people began making the odd mistake, getting sick, bringing more stress on those of us that remained... a nightmare, Union up.

godtabh · 24-10-2019 11:07PM

Worst: my dad dying of cancer but I had to work in Manchester or get let go. When he died I didn’t go back.

Best: met my wife the night I finished college exams in the now gone Howl at the Moon

Best and worst of the last recession

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