Author Topic: Life after COVID-19  (Read 20158 times)

  • Offline neXus

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #30 on: May 18, 2020, 01:48:37 AM
Testing is key if you catch it early, track and monitor. We did none of those things. Everything else is political willy waving.

Also, we should have realised in January sh*t was going down, instead of blindly believing China as they quarantine the whole of Wuhan but say "hey guys, its all good, international travel is fine! No worries". The intelligence agencies knew, but no one was willing to take the necessary action.


Trump, as he always does... Changing tactics again because the "Testing is beautiful, best in world" was not working for him. Wants his mates getting their $$$ again so testing does not matter any more. Not important.

Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #31 on: May 18, 2020, 04:14:11 AM
Carrying any kind of debt into a recession is a bad idea. Not only is overpaying on a mortgage financially sound any time but it also means if you do encounter trouble down the road you have some flexibility in lowering those payments.

Anyone that doesn't understand shares and the market would especially be ill-advised to start investing now. Investing is what you do when you have spare capital or are willing to endure higher risk for the potential returns. I know the buzz now is everything has tanked, buy buy buy but the reality is not so straightforward.

If I was going to invest (which I'm not) I would only be looking at stable companies most likely to not be affected by the current climate or economic downturn with high dividend yields. I expect most people wouldn't know where to begin on that front. Happy to hear your thoughts on that though!

Someone also might want to consider pumping into a pension if they are earning over the high-rate tax band (i.e the people most likely to have spare capital).

If you really haven't got a clue about any of this stuff talk to an IFA and don't listen to clowns like me on the internet. :lol:

Fair, all makes sense. I guess it depends on how much risk you can take without putting yourself at risk.

Mortgage is a lot priority for me as I its cheap money and unlikely to go up anytime soon. Buying one of the major indexes is likely to give you far more than 1.5-2% mortgage is costing you over the medium term (but could cost you a lot if you need to pull it out to pay your mortgage).





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  • Offline Clock'd 0Ne

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #32 on: May 18, 2020, 07:23:38 AM
If you have just mortgaged/remortgaged at one of the stunning new low interest rates, then yes you could stand to earn more in the right savings or investments pool for sure. There's still a few places offering decent 5% regular savers, which you could pump money into instead of mortgage overpayment. I'm also factoring in that further down the line I will need/want to move up the ladder and get a bigger/better home, so overpaying makes most sense for me in this regardless of anything else.

If anything, a smart move is to try and do a bit of everything and diversify where your money is held to maximise your returns. I know that's typical for stocks but makes sense more broadly too. In my case, I have some going into my pension for retirement and to reduce my hit in the high rate tax band, some going into regular savings at high interest and obviously a fair wedge overpaying on the mortgage too.

Don't forget also that the power of compound interest becomes staggering over time. When I feel I have enough 'spare' I'll start looking at the stock market again.
Last Edit: May 18, 2020, 07:25:10 AM by Clock'd 0Ne #187;

  • Offline neXus

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #33 on: May 19, 2020, 01:39:02 AM
It is different for every country but we all know when things are back to normal at some point the governments want to get their money back in some way.


- Cashing in on loans from other countries will fall on deaf ears because they will not have the money either.
- Big companies and corporations will worm their way out of having to pay anything as they always do.


It will be us who they fall back on. You just finally got a job after loosing it over this crisis, you been doing well despite it... What ever position you are on there will be tax increases and other things at some point coming down the line. They may say they will not do it even.. But everyone has to know that WE will be the ones paying for these unprecedented times at some point.

  • Offline Serious

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #34 on: May 19, 2020, 03:23:21 AM
for those who are put out of work and have to claim benefits it is probably better to  pay off as much of your mortgage as you can if you have more than the maximum limit on savings. This is the reason I originally put in half the money with my brother and bought the house outright.

For others with a mortgage the very low interest rates means it might be worth just keeping going with payments, even on the lowest level.

Again consult an independent financial advisor as many people's situation is different.

Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #35 on: May 19, 2020, 09:05:29 AM
On the covid situation, Im watching from Singapore. UK has around 3000 new confirmed cases a day and deaths in the hundreds, and is not widespread testing so the real value will be well above this. There is no tracing going on. Hospital staff cant get tested (my mum and her colleagues are non frontline in a hospital and all had a suspected case, could not and still cannot get tested). Loosening restrictions now looks like an admission of defeat and leaving it to those who are at risk to isolate themselves to survive.

The UK media rehotoric has been way more positive about the uk situation than any of the global media, and the UK is happily pointing fingers are others poor management whilst not accepting how awful 35,000 deaths is.

In Singapore we currently have <5 'community' (meaning cases from people not already quarantined) per day an no deaths but will be maintaining a similar lockdown to the UK one for longer.
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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #36 on: May 19, 2020, 09:17:55 AM
There was a brief window where it looked like they were going to do a good job after implementing the lockdown. I think they've now realised that they can't afford to carry on the way the economy is and want people back to work, despite the fact that nothing has really changed. Of course, if they had locked down sooner and harder, we wouldn't even have had the large initial number of cases here in the first place.

  • Offline matt5cott

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #37 on: May 19, 2020, 13:55:27 PM
I find myself agreeing with that PJW bloke. :tinhat:


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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #38 on: May 19, 2020, 15:52:53 PM
Seems the Tory government is trying to hide it's failures and incompetence by lying everywhere, including on twitter. Surprisingly even against papers that normally support the Conservative party.

Looks like Cummings is trying a huge disinformation project and it's not entirely successful.

  • Offline neXus

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #39 on: May 20, 2020, 04:57:04 AM
Few things...


1. No one is really covering New York any more and it is hard to find out if things are worse, the same or better. It almost seems like the US Government are trying to stem this.


2. Australia is under stage 1 of opening lockdown which involves up to 10 people in groups outside and in restaurants. When on the park it has been nice to see families with kids with their grandparents walking around. Grandparents seem very happy after not seeing grand kids for some time. Been nice to see this sort of thing.


3. My wife got re-employed and been very busy working from home for her company again. Because of the government funding provided to a company for wages being a fixed value for all she actually is earning more than before.


4. Day care's dropped to under half of the kids so the AU gov set in place to pay half the cost of a child for the day care but they had to offer the parents it as free. This is to get them to get some money back through increasing numbers and to encourage parents to bring them back. Not only do we have our eldest kid back in but he is going an extra day as well every week for free.


We have more income together and we are not having to pay for child care at the moment so while some people have lost jobs etc we are in that bracket that people will hate us for where we are better off. I do not feel good about it and its just that knock on effect of things being handed out being fixed based and not mean tested in any way (which would be impossible).

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #40 on: May 20, 2020, 07:56:32 AM
Enjoy it while it lasts I say!

  • Offline neXus

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #41 on: May 21, 2020, 03:07:02 AM
Enjoy it while it lasts I say!
For sure.
We are lucky and I am in an indispensable role and actually been busier at work.
Very humbled by that luck when others are struggling.

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #42 on: May 21, 2020, 10:05:22 AM
How do you hide over 10,000 covid-19 deaths? You change the law.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/the-great-covid-cover-up-how-the-johnson-administration-made-it-easier-to-hide-coronavirus-deaths/21/05/

In other news the EU told the UK negotiators Brexit means Brexit. Seems they had no idea that if the UK left with no deal the EU can legally screw us into the floor.

Worse Trump is trying to break the WTO, meaning there would be no WTO rules exit, we would simply drop out with no protection at all.

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #43 on: June 04, 2020, 14:50:02 PM
Seems that the UK government is having more blunders than the press can report. That includes Britain reporting more covid-19 deaths than the entire EU on a single day.

Two of the government SAGE scientists walked out rather than appear on a press conference where they could not openly answer any question from the press. Then a lot of SAGE decisions seem to be from Cummings and his plants when the committee should be entirely medical.

The new legal rules from government are also strange, seems that if you live separately from your partner you cannot legally meet for sex, but you can hire a prostitute as she would be "working". You could also have an orgy in your garden, providing other rules do not apply. Then you cannot take your family for a holiday in the Lake District, but a Spanish person legally can. This is bonkers, and all down to government incompetence.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-uk-reported-more-covid-19-deaths-yesterday-than-the-whole-of-the-eu-combined/ar-BB1515fm

  • Offline neXus

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Re: Life after COVID-19
Reply #44 on: June 05, 2020, 02:33:33 AM
Simply bad organisation from the top and more often than not lack of decisions being made.
That is one of the MANY reasons why Trump is sooo bad. He does not actually care about anything other than his continued..


- His public image (or what he thinks he sees of himself)
- Numbers he thinks are important in tables and graphs (simplified) he receives
- "Law and order" in the controlled manner he has
- How much money he and his mates are making
- Anything dark he has done stays hidden


Pretty much has run his whole term like this and hell with anything else.

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