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Stories from the Celtic Tiger Years *Mod Warning in OP PLEASE READ*

  • 17-06-2020 11:48am
    #1
    chops018
    Registered Users Posts: 2,458 ✭✭✭


    Does anyone have any good (or bad) stories from the Celtic Tiger years?

    You always hear phrases about how people partied etc., was there just a constant flow of credit available to people and people actually taking the money e.g. was there actually teachers on circa €30k a year buying a house and car and an apartment somewhere.

    I was in school and college during these years, graduated into the recession, so I didn't really see what was fully going on at the time bar the fact everyone was working and had money. My dad was working on the buildings on great money and my mam was working away also, we were never stuck really money-wise, also rent seemed to be a lot cheaper back then and fuel and also my college fees were only around €800 a year along with wages being fairly similar to what they are now (from what I can remember anyway, will stand corrected if I am wrong)


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Comments

  • #2
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    I was offered a 100% mortgage on a house in Kilbeggan when I was on 31k. Its affordability was based on assuming I'd rent rooms out to the rent-a-room max amount.

    My parents talked me out of it.


  • #3
    Sky King
    Registered Users Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭Sky King


    I did my leaving in early naughties - a load of my friends were working on the buildings from the late 90s all the way through the 'tiger'.

    My abiding memory is them earning huge money and spending thousands of euro a month on drinking and boy racer cars.

    Can I have 6 double vodka red bulls barman. Here's a hundred quid. Keep the change.


  • #4
    double jobbing
    Closed Accounts Posts: 322 ✭✭double jobbing


    If anything people seem to be more freely spending now than they were then. You didn't see 17 year olds going around in 2006 in 600 euro jackets like you do now with Canada Goose now (albeit plenty of these are knock offs). It was pretty unheard of for working class people to wear the likes of Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Hugo Boss etc on a night out like they do now (myself included).

    For all the free credit the vast majority of people didn't even have a credit card back then. The few people who did spent half their lives booking Ryanair flights for their friends who didn't have them.

    I'd say the biggest difference is people went out drinking more. Town on a Thursday or a Sunday night would be quite busy, it's dead these days.

    Old cars disappeared off the streets almost overnight when the scrappage bonus came around 2000. Up to 2009 you essentially never saw a car older than 2000 yet today half the cars on the road seem to be 15 years plus old.

    Aside from that I think pre Covid most people seem to have more disposable income than they did back in the mid 2000's. A pint in town has went up by what, 1.20, but the minimum wage must have climbed about 3 quid per hour in that time, so younger people are definitely better off.

    But looking back to my school days I can only recall one family that seemed to go from average to ridiculously well off over night (few holidays a year, new car every 18 months etc).

    Plenty of brickies made a fortune but sure plenty of them were too fond of the sniff and a gamble for it to matter.


  • #5
    antimatterx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,645 ✭✭✭antimatterx


    My family did well out of it in hindsight. My parents were able to build up a portfolio of about 5 properties on 1 normal income. They sold one just before the crash, and looking to sell another one at the moment, but my dad is smart and didn't over extend himself. Me and my brothers wanted for nothing.

    My uncle lost a couple of million attempting to become a big shot developer. He had 10 rental properties, and his house was worth 1m+. He put a couple of hundred thousand in Anglo thinking it was easy money. That wasn't enough for him and he lost nearly everything.


  • #6
    eviltwin
    Registered Users Posts: 17,495 ✭✭✭✭eviltwin


    I had a great time. I was working for a company that loved to spend money. Our Christmas parties were in Marbella and Dubai. We got paid a lot and I was at an age where I could enjoy it. Even after buying a house and the day to day expense we seemed to have lots of disposable income. It all seems a bit surreal now tbh.


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  • #7
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,356 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    Lots of stories of 'characters' becoming property developers, investing in property or starting recruitment companies.


  • #8
    Montage of Feck
    Registered Users Posts: 3,482 ✭✭✭Montage of Feck


    We've drank the "easy" credit Kool-Aid and there no going back now! We are just as worse now.

    🙈🙉🙊



  • #9
    antimatterx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,645 ✭✭✭antimatterx


    I hope I get to experience a boom (maybe post COVID?). I'm 24 now, so I was a kid during the tiger.


  • #10
    branie2
    Registered Users Posts: 10,288 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    We built our house extension during the period, in 1996


  • #11
    FixitFelix
    Registered Users Posts: 3,057 ✭✭✭FixitFelix


    Yep lived it up earning good money working construction sites, changed my car I think 6 times in 18 months for newer and shinier, work Xmas parties all paid for hotel room drink 4 course dinners, presents and taxi home next day. Plenty of foreign holidays through the year.
    Spent stupid money every week on drink and the rest but enjoyed it.
    Didn't get sucked into the 100% mortgage trap even though I was offered one.
    Seemed everyone no matter what job they were in had money to burn


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  • #12
    completedit
    Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    I literally did not see any of the boom. I live in a nice part of Dublin but it's like a safe middle class suburb, double glazed windows are all I remember from the boom. That's what the lads from the council houses used to slag us about. I didn't have them till 2006 and they were second hand.


  • #13
    Rodney Bathgate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,445 ✭✭✭Rodney Bathgate


    branie2 wrote: »
    We built our house extension during the period, in 1996

    Does it have a pool?


  • #14
    Better Than Christ
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,135 ✭✭✭Better Than Christ


    When we ran out of logs, we'd burn bundles of fifty euro notes instead. Seems wasteful now, but they were different times.


  • #15
    branie2
    Registered Users Posts: 10,288 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    Rodney Bathgate wrote: »
    Does it have a pool?

    Sorry, it doesn't


  • #16
    antimatterx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,645 ✭✭✭antimatterx


    Better Than Christ wrote: »
    When we ran out of logs, we'd burn bundles of fifty euro notes instead. Seems wasteful now, but they were different times.

    Can that still be used as legal tender? :D:pac:


  • #17
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,708 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Ghost estate stories?


  • #18
    double jobbing
    Closed Accounts Posts: 322 ✭✭double jobbing


    Montage of Feck wrote: »
    We've drank the "easy" credit Kool-Aid and there no going back now! We are just as worse now.

    Credit is doled out just as easily now for everything bar houses. I used the AIB app a while back just to see how much repayments would be if I were to add another grand to my loan, a day later they call me up saying they noticed I was looking for a loan top up on the app and were wondering if I was still interested in following through :rolleyes:


  • #19
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    double jobbing wrote: »
    Old cars disappeared off the streets almost overnight when the scrappage bonus came around 2000. Up to 2009 you essentially never saw a car older than 2000 yet today half the cars on the road seem to be 15 years plus old.

    Cars are so incredibly better built since the early 00s which is the main factor there.

    In 2000, a 1985 car would be rusting to bits and failing constantly and also have basically no features at all. Plenty of 2005 cars are still going strong now and still have a decent bit of modern comforts (aircon, power steering etc).


  • #20
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 32,925 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    The boom meant little to me, I had a property in Donegal and had considered upgrading, kinda glad I didn't.

    Didn't make or lose anything.


    Anyway, one thing I do remember from the time was being in Balbriggan around 06 or so in a Supervalu I think, and seeing a bottled water with a crystal or something round the neck of it for €50.


  • #21
    El_Duderino 09
    Registered Users Posts: 19,904 ✭✭✭✭El_Duderino 09


    There have been some great threads a out Celtic Tiger stories.

    Some real classics like a bloke going to cinema on his own buying 3 seats so he'd have free seats beside him.

    Or my favourite was a lass who said his uncle gave him €50 to mind her counsins while the uncle went to the toilet.

    Some people just don't know what to do with money except spend it right now.


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  • #22
    Sky King
    Registered Users Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭Sky King


    IM GOING TO BUY A HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT AND USE THE RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT THAT OUT AND USE THAT RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT


  • #23
    Capt. Autumn
    Registered Users Posts: 322 ✭✭Capt. Autumn


    The years from 2003-2007 were surreal.
    There seemed to be so much money sloshing about , huge money being made and not just by white collar workers.

    This was reflected in many of the uber-swish establishments that were opening all over town. HQ on Abbey Street was table service only when it opened, seemed to make sense at the time. It was soon more of a sawdust on the floor type of venue until post the bust, it was no more.

    It seemed all the ballsy guys were buying and flipping property, further inflating the bubble, but nobody cared once they had their snouts in the trough and were making easy money. Suddenly buying property off the plan in places like Poland and Bulgaria was all the go. Nobody, it seemed, stopped to ask themselves what the average wage was in these places, rather using our own vastly inflated house prices as a yardstick as to what was good value.

    The day the penny really dropped for me was when my wife took a call from her bank manager when we were doing our weekly supermarket shop. 'What was it she wanted?' the moneyman intoned, 'A new car, house extension or a holiday...' He had reviewed her bank accounts and arrived at the conclusion that she was under-borrowed. I wasn't aware that such a term existed. Things were obviously barmy.

    You know the last thing an engine does before it explodes? It overheats.


  • #24
    antimatterx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,645 ✭✭✭antimatterx


    Sky King wrote: »
    IM GOING TO BUY A HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT AND USE THE RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT THAT OUT AND USE THAT RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT

    That worked for my dad, although it ****ed my uncle.


  • #25
    Trigger Happy
    Registered Users Posts: 6,062 ✭✭✭Trigger Happy


    I had a decent job with a decent salary during those years. Sold and apartment before the crash too which set me up for buying a house post boom.
    But dont remember going particularly mad apart from a first class trip to Fiji via london, Los Angeles and Auckland.


  • #26
    Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
    Registered Users Posts: 3,236 ✭✭✭Dr. Kenneth Noisewater


    Did the LC in 2003, did a couple of years in college, then worked in Centra for 2006 and so was on just over minimum wage for a year when most of my friends were coining it on building sites. Like a few previous posters, for those lads it was all weekends away, nice cars, out for pints and falling out of nightclubs 4 nights a week. I got a job in the Civil Service at the start of '07 and while it was a bit of a pay rise which I was delighted with (we're talking maybe 40 euro a week here), most of them would have laughed at what I was earning. It was literally a fraction.

    2 or 3 years later and they're all saying what a lucky so and so I am in my big, permanent job.


  • #27
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,381 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    I think there was a lot of "there must be something wrong with you" if you're not taking home 2 grand a week...
    For the majority of us not in construction or conspicious type spending that's how it was/is.
    If you're lucky enough to earn a decent salary now you're rode senseless with taxes anyway :(


  • #28
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    I used to pay for chicken fillet rolls with fresh 50s and throw the change in the bin on the way out the door.


  • #29
    davo2001
    Registered Users Posts: 3,317 ✭✭✭davo2001


    First day of college in 2002/2003, rep from AIB walks up to me on campus and says I can get a loan of €10,000 if i want. Said i'd no saving and didn't have a job to pay it back.

    "no problem she says"

    Thank Christ i didn't take it, although i was very tempted.

    Madness altogether!


  • #30
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 32,925 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Sky King wrote: »
    IM GOING TO BUY A HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT AND USE THE RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT THAT OUT AND USE THAT RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT

    Are you a taxi driver?

    Think I heard a taxi driver on liveline many moons back who was a million in debt cos he did something like that before the crash.

    Also remember a prime time or similar show on rte during the financial crisis when a single woman in the audience said she bought a property on her own and got a mortgage 13x her salary.


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  • #31
    road_high
    Registered Users Posts: 19,381 ✭✭✭✭road_high


    davo2001 wrote: »
    First day of college in 2002/2003, rep from AIB walks up to me on campus and says I can get a loan of €10,000 if i want. Said i'd no saving and didn't have a job to pay it back.

    "no problem she says"

    Thank Christ i didn't take it, although i was very tempted.

    Madness altogether!

    I graduated end 2006 so tbh i kind of missed out on the whole thing work wise- the economy was on the verge of collapsing then so never saw a big benefit from the Celtic Tiger (the opposite in fact as I lost my PS FT contract in the coming years of reccession).


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