Have you been greatly affected by the recession?

Yellow121 · 13-12-2013 12:21PM #1

Be honest. Have you been greatly affected by it? What is different for you now compared to 2008? Do you still go abroad for a holiday every year? What kind of car do you own? How big is your house or where you live?
Are you homeless? Have you had to sell your car? Are you struggling to pay your bills?

jimgoose · 13-12-2013 12:23PM

It has had no effect on me whatsoever.

everdead.ie · 13-12-2013 12:25PM

I went from being a student to being employed so I'm better off now than I was.

Important to remember some of us were too young to do anything too daft at the time!

somuj · 13-12-2013 12:27PM

I'm better off. Drive and Audi and after treating myself to a three month holiday in OZ too.

Son0vagun · 13-12-2013 12:27PM

I was able to save and buy a house in recession times, so I'm much better off.

LeinsterDub · 13-12-2013 12:29PM

Yeah I've to constantly read threads about the recession, things we did in the Celtic tiger and Bankers.

The recession has killed originality.

muppetkiller · 13-12-2013 12:30PM

Everyone has been affected..if you say you haven't you're lying (Or Have no debts/don't budget anyway).

I've a good job and can afford to save a bit but the prices for everything have gone up, From Public Transport to ESB bills. Not to mention VAT increases on top of those.

I was looking at my payslips over the past few years and even though I've got an increase each year till last year my wages have stayed the same due to USC and other stealth taxes.

Time for a tax break for the working class is long over due.

Antar Bolaeisk · 13-12-2013 12:32PM

I was too young to be affected much by the recession, I came out of Uni at the tail end. I was given a pay rise during the Big R, left that job for a new job on a higher wage, bought an apartment for myself and six months ago was offered two new jobs for roughly the same money, one in Ireland and one abroad, I took the latter.

13-12-2013 12:32PM

I took an 8k paycut and I'm in negative equity. So yeh, I felt it.

However, I had made a fair wad of cash when I sold my first house and I don't ever plan on selling again so really it makes no odds that I'm in negative equity, at least not at the moment.

I'm very comfortable. I live in a nice house. I still have a decent job. I still have a nice car. I still get to go away a lot. I'm very aware of how lucky I am and I know it could all change in an instant if I was made redundant so I'm not sitting smug, but I appreciate the things I still can do. Overall it hasn't made too big a difference to my life.

Yellow121 · 13-12-2013 12:32PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

Everyone has been affected..if you say you haven't you're lying (Or Have no debts/don't budget anyway).

I've a good job and can afford to save a bit but the prices for everything have gone up, From Public Transport to ESB bills. Not to mention VAT increases on top of those.

I was looking at my payslips over the past few years and even though I've got an increase each year till last year my wages have stayed the same due to USC and other stealth taxes.

Time for a tax break for the working class is long over due.

I think that means you've neither gained nor lost. It's been a neutral recession for you so far.

Sleepy · 13-12-2013 12:36PM

My salary is a lot lower than it would have been if the recession hadn't hit (and I had a 3 month spell of unemployment back in 2009), my taxes are higher (and there's new ones).

My life changed at the same time though so since the start of the recession I've gone from a single guy of 27 who enjoyed a decent salary, drinking every weekend, going to lots of concerts/festivals etc. and taking 2 good holidays (skiing in winter and sun in September) and numerous weekend breaks a year to being a married man with two kids who earns just enough to be crucified by the tax system while scraping by, managing a night out maybe once every 6 weeks or so and a family holiday means a week camping in Wales.

muppetkiller · 13-12-2013 12:38PM

Yellow121 wrote: »

I think that means you've neither gained nor lost. It's been a neutral recession for you so far.

True but you lost either way as the Recession has increased the cost of living while providing less services for your buck.

jester77 · 13-12-2013 12:40PM

I had already left before the madness had even started. No recession here, people are a lot more cautious and credit averse, they don't spend what they don't have and save up for what they want. Totally different mindset. The downside to this is that the banks give rubbish savings rates.

omicron · 13-12-2013 12:40PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

Everyone has been affected..if you say you haven't you're lying (Or Have no debts/don't budget anyway).

I've a good job and can afford to save a bit but the prices for everything have gone up, From Public Transport to ESB bills. Not to mention VAT increases on top of those.

I was looking at my payslips over the past few years and even though I've got an increase each year till last year my wages have stayed the same due to USC and other stealth taxes.

Time for a tax break for the working class is long over due.

Inflation statistics since 2008 would show that most on average things are still cheaper than they were.

2009 -4.5%
2010 -1.0%
2011 +2.6%
2012 +1.7%

And 2013 is on track for very low inflation, 0.3% in the 12 months to November. (Most of which seems to have come from alcohol and tobacco prices (from the budget/s) and college fee increases).

Also this includes huge fuel price increases (even excluding tax) incl. petrol, diesel, home heating oil, gas and electricity since they reached a low point in late 2008.
Source: CSO

gavmcg92 · 13-12-2013 12:41PM

Was too young to really notice it. Only in 4th year of uni now so was never really in a position to be directly affected. Parents however, are on a reduced week, we no longer go on our 2 week holiday to Spain every second year and everything has just been squeezed in a little.

We're still in our home, there's still 2 cars and we're still living comfortably enough. Things could be a lot worse.

Yellow121 · 13-12-2013 12:43PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

True but you lost either way as the Recession has increased the cost of living while providing less services for your buck.

Yes I understand that but overall the recession hasn't hurt most people that much. You never hear people say that but I always find it mad when I'm driving on the motorway. It's all big cars driving by me, lots of 131's and 132's as well.
Sometimes I'm in Dublin passing by a fancy restaurant or something and it's packed. When people take out their phones it's usually a fancy iphone or whatever. I think a lot of people have got away very lightly from it all, you wont hear it but they have.

jimgoose · 13-12-2013 12:44PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

Everyone has been affected..if you say you haven't you're lying (Or Have no debts/don't budget anyway).

I've a good job and can afford to save a bit but the prices for everything have gone up, From Public Transport to ESB bills. Not to mention VAT increases on top of those.

I was looking at my payslips over the past few years and even though I've got an increase each year till last year my wages have stayed the same due to USC and other stealth taxes.

Time for a tax break for the working class is long over due.

It is true that anything the State has an oar in has been getting steadily more expensive, but thankfully I have very little truck with such things. Most consumer/consumable goods seem lot cheaper to me than a few years ago. Aside from a mortgage, I don't owe anyone a red ha'penny and never did.

everdead.ie · 13-12-2013 12:46PM

Yellow121 wrote: »

Yes I understand that but overall the recession hasn't hurt most people that much. You never hear people say that but I always find it mad when I'm driving on the motorway. It's all big cars driving by me, lots of 131's and 132's as well.
Sometimes I'm in Dublin passing by a fancy restaurant or something and it's packed. When people take out their phones it's usually a fancy iphone or whatever. I think a lot of people have got away very lightly from it all, you wont hear it but they have.

Thats because if anyone says they are doing well sure they'd get hammered for it.

Mynewstoday · 13-12-2013 12:47PM

It affected me badly at the time. I lost my job and spent a year out of work, waiting for my girlfriend to move abroad. Eventually, after I had had enough of doing nothing, I left my girlfriend and moved abroad. Now, 3 years later, Im still abroad, but I'm in full time employemnt, earning twice what I was when working in Ireland.

It put me in an awkard place with a very difficult decision to make, but now, three years later, I know I made the right choice.

killanena · 13-12-2013 12:48PM

<---- Can't go to college my dad is "Self Employed" (He might get 1 job a month if that) and because of that I can't apply for a grant and my mam lost her job. Can't find work because there is none in the west. Can't move because I can't save enough to move. At this stage im just used to it because I was only a kid during the celtic tiger.

Yellow121 · 13-12-2013 12:49PM

Mynewstoday wrote: »

It affected me badly at the time. I lost my job and spent a year out of work, waiting for my girlfriend to move abroad. Eventually, after I had had enough of doing nothing, I left my girlfriend and moved abroad. Now, 3 years later, Im still abroad, but I'm in full time employemnt, earning twice what I was when working in Ireland.

It put me in an awkard place with a very difficult decision to make, but now, three years later, I know I made the right choice.

So it affected you greatly but in a positive way in the end even though it was very negative at the start.
Sorry, there's no option you can pick in the poll.

Lollipops23 · 13-12-2013 12:49PM

The economy collapsed in my 1st week of final year, so I've never known any different tbh.

I'm very lucky that I'm in a decent job, after a few years of not so decent jobs.

Planning on going away next yr, but that's out of wanderlust rather than necessity.

AgileMyth · 13-12-2013 12:50PM

I'm going on a 6 month holiday next year. I don't believe in recessions.

NakedMonkey · 13-12-2013 12:51PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

Time for a tax break for the working class is long over due.

This is what has Ireland where it is. If we start cutting tax we'll be back in the same boat.

If Fianna Fail offered to cut your tax you'd more than likely vote them back in and then moan when we crash again!

danniemcq · 13-12-2013 12:51PM

Donegal here, we never really seen the boom but we sure as hell felt the bust.

I'm one of the lucky ones though I got a decent job during the recession!

but i have no savings, no car, renting house but I still class myself as lucky as i know there are lots of people in much worse situations.

AgileMyth · 13-12-2013 12:52PM

killanena wrote: »

<---- Can't go to college my dad is "Self Employed" (He might get 1 job a month if that) and because of that I can't apply for a grant and my mam lost her job. Can't find work because there is none in the west. Can't move because I can't save enough to move. At this stage im just used to it because I was only a kid during the celtic tiger.

Leave the section about your dad blank on the form. If they question it just say you haven't seen him in years. They won't ask any more.

Been there

OldNotWIse · 13-12-2013 12:53PM

Pretty much the same. Pay increases have been absorbed by increased tax, USC etc. Less disposable income now is largely self inflicted - parents mortgage, college fees etc. Happy to have the money to do it though.

I miss the seemingly never-ending line of credit though :mad::pac:

Red Nissan · 13-12-2013 12:53PM

I lost 30 years of building a business, I face the future depending on the state.

sadie06 · 13-12-2013 12:53PM

killanena wrote: »

<---- Can't go to college my dad is "Self Employed" (He might get 1 job a month if that) and because of that I can't apply for a grant and my mam lost her job. Can't find work because there is none in the west. Can't move because I can't save enough to move. At this stage im just used to it because I was only a kid during the celtic tiger.

This post made me sad. You need to seek free advice about what your options are. There has to be a way to move forward.

o1s1n · 13-12-2013 12:54PM

Son0vagun wrote: »

I was able to save and buy a house in recession times, so I'm much better off.

Same here.

I watched house prices rise to obscene amounts all the way through secondary school and college. Was convinced I'd never afford one and would be renting for life.

Aiming to move into my new home next month

killanena · 13-12-2013 12:55PM

AgileMyth wrote: »

Leave the section about your dad blank on the form. If they question it just say you haven't seen him in years. They won't ask any more.

Been there

When I first applied I stated that my dad is unemployed because he does collect job seekers for the days he doesn't work but they weren't very happy about that.

Have you been greatly affected by the recession?

Have you been greatly affected by this recession? 98 votes

Comments