That elusive 'Feel Good' Factor .....
| Related: | Personal Finance•Debt & Financial Difficulty•Financial Difficulty |
I know we speak about this 'Feel Good' factor when it comes to deciding how we feel about the economy, our general day to day happiness with our lives and our willingness to spend money in any direction.
But I for one feel that the current complete lack of this feel good factor is one of the worst that I have ever experienced. We seem to have reached a situation where money has never been scarcer, consumer prices have never been higher and greed, both within the private and public sectors, have pushed most of us into despair.
Sure, there are people who will always be comfortable but I suggest that the majority are not. And this sense of unease seems to be increasing.
So how's your 'feel good' factor? Alive and kicking? Or distinctly dead or floundering? And if not, will we ever see it again in this country?
Responses (5)
Well Snoops, My feel good factor has long since gone the same way as yours. At the moment I don't see how this country can turn itself around or how things will start getting better ..... but I guess that's how it seemed in days gone by (the Great Depression, the Second World War etc) but somehow things did get better for a time. Perhaps they will now too, but I have to admit I can't envisage it happening. I'm afraid that I am of the 'get out as soon as possible' mindset, and we'll be leaving the uk permanently as soon as we possibly can. I feel optimistic about the future, but only because I won't be here in the UK.
I try to keep a feel good factor always!
I find life in this country however not so nice as it was when I wur a lad though and thats sad , so much so I want to leave for a place where people are nicer and the life is more sedate and the greed and rush for money that exists in hellholes like London is a far away land. For me my town has been ruined by the immigrants , its like poundshop and tacky newsagent wasteland where every one of them lies cheats and steals and turns once proud areas into slums and makes all around feel tawdry and cheap like Mumbai and Karachi etc
I know its their culture and their way but its just not British pardon for saying it and most shocking of all is whilst walking through this area today not a one spoke a word of English - It was truly like we have been ethnically cleansed. The immigrants seems to get all the benefits and we the citizens of the are left to hold the smelly brown end of the stick - Its just not on but no-one wants to listen or do anything about it!!!!!!
I may be poor but I shall be sipping home made iced lemonade in my lemon orchard in Slovakia whilst my chickens run riot in the farmyard rather than performing the same 9-5 headlong rush to be first on the subway and crammed into a train like a sardine and then reach the office to be pummeled by the daily grind!
Quality of life means more now and having lots of money with lots of stress and its associated evils aint for me no sireeee!
Isn't it sad to think you have to leave England to get a better life. It makes you wonder why our fathers and grandfathers went to war and came back scarred for life for us then not want to live here. What was it all about then that millions gave up their lives for us to have a better one.
I believe that the simple ways of life are being missed. I live in the Countryside and feel like a country pumpkin when I visit London. I must say it is so exciting to visit the theatres and have a weekend away with the "girls" with a lovely hotel and it does have a feel good factor but
when I return home I am very grateful I don't live there.
Just sat having my coffee in the conservatory and looking at all the beautiful birds in the garden. The Robin is busy feeding it's young the blackbirds are singing and the flowers glorious. The hanging baskets swaying in the breeze and the sun is shining. I can't help but think how lucky I am with a simple life. A walk in the Countryside seeing the horses and cows lazing in the soft dewy grass, the sound of the birds in the trees, the butterflies bobbing from flower to flower and the bees buzzing round and it is free to all. It is rare we have anything so beautiful that so many people could enjoy but don't. We often take a picnic or cook by the roadside. We are only 30 minutes away from the sea as well so it's lovely just to have a leisurely ride there and sit and watch the activity at sea. I like my luxuries at home but I don't yearn for the bright life and am very happy just going away in our caravan for some lovely peace and quiet with a glass of wine, a good book and some nice food.
Absolutely idyllic, Sabre!
We live in the countryside too and, like you I love just about everything about it - with the possible exception of getting snowed in during the last two winters!
When I lived in London I loved it, but that was in my 20's and 30's. Nowadays I go a couple of times a year and come home feeling ling a wrung-out dishcloth. But we have Milton Keynes nearby if we want, rarely, vibrant nightlife or, sometimes, the theatre. I do envy you being near the coast though - I loved it when we lived in Folkestone for a few years.
Having said all that, the population of the world (in round terms) is six billion so, with a population of 60 million, I still think we are the lucky 1%. We still have freedom of speech, gender and racial equality, democracy, and nobody acually starving even though poverty creeps nearer.
I am jealous!
No need to be jealous, Omen, you're one of the lucky 1%.
Glasgow might have its downside but it's a bloody sight better than just about anywhere in Africa or the Middle East!
Are you sure.
Did you see the news last night - young guy minding his own business stabbed to death in broad daylight in Glasgow by an outsider who made the excuse that he thought he was a zombie and had to be killed.
And for Glasgow violence is a daily occurence - night time in Glasgow is not a place you want to take your girlfriend.
Makes you think when you are walking down the street surrounded by people who come from lands where violence and crime is the norm and dont anybody tell me it doesnt make a difference because it does i saw it up close when I was in London working for the Met.
I'm behind the times, Omen. I have good memories of working in Glasgow in the 70's and early 80's, when I was happy to go to the pub on my own if no colleagues were up for it.
I have to admit I do live in a beautiful place, I love my house and the location is fantastic. Unfortunately though the state of the country (economy-wise) has much the same effect here as it does anywhere else, more so in some ways, like fuel prices which are outrageous and amenities which are very lacking and what there is is overpriced - I guess it's swings and roundabouts as they say. If I was going to stay in the UK I am already in the perfect place, but I feel it's the UK itself that isn't the place to live anymore.
I miss being a child!
Well I am still but you know what I mean.
Innocence is bliss!!!
Hi Omen. Why are you jealous? You too can come and live in the Countryside and live a very slow pace of life but would it suit you some people get bored and like the high life.
What's this about your lemon orchard?
Once i get the money together and the guts to leave I am off to Slovakia to buy a small Lemon farm with some chickens and agrarian crops and live the rural life Sabre.
Lovely people , lovely cities , peaceful , very little trouble , intelligent folks who havent embraced reality tv, the celebrity culture, binge drinking etc etc etc
You get the drift - UK and Europe is in retro-grade evolution.
Some people may say Eastern Europe are behind the times , old fashioned etc but I prefer that to the selfish modernity culture we have today.
I am off to my little Cottage in Slovakia next Thursday for two weeks I cant wait I can almost taste the Saris Tmave dark beer already - sweet as nectar and the pizzas at La Cucaracha in Presov the best pizzas in the world and all for less than a fiver!
And the best of all the Tatra mountains at Strebske Pleso the Hotel Toliar - the Vitalny Svet has to be experienced I could spend all day in it - amazing isnt the word.
You paint a wonderful picture Sabre, quite lovely.
Well I don't feel bad Snoopy just annoyed at the way things are with the government and country in general.
But my glass is always half full, ever the optimist that things will eventually get better.
It's pretty dead.
I have several friends and colleagues who were made redundant 18 months ago and have been unable to find any employment, while everyone I know who still has a job has had 3 or more years of zero or well below inflation pay increases while food prices are rising almost weekly and fuel hikes are in the pipeline.
In town a shop closes every few days and those still open alternate between sales to pull people in followed by price hikes to keep up with rising wholesale prices and shop rents.
Everywhere around there's no job security, dwindling disposable income and unstable prices. Things in the UK are not going well, at least not in the North!
And the South is not far behind, I suggest. I can visibly see the rot happening week by week and the number of traders, big and small, that fade away, many overnight. And it has led to a number of traders 'playing the system' to a massive degree ... setting up 'disposable' limited companies, giving false information to landlords and local authorities and remaining untraceable with the only identification being a trading name above a door. And it's bound to get worse as people take more and more chances outside what we regard as 'correctness'. Recessive times mean that recessive habits breed. There is nothing more demoralising than a high street littered with empty shops, decaying shop fronts, shops 'in possession' and plastered with seven day notices and notices of seizure. Local authorities are desperate to fill their empty shop properties and tend to hand out 'change of use' on a whim .... hence the proliferation of quick food shops and takeaways. And I suggest that none of this will ever change until 'balancing of values' and realism in rentals, business rates and wholesale prices comes into play. Well, we can wsih, can't we?
Very concise and well put there Snoopy.
Yes I see it every day the To Let boards adorn nearly every street in Glasgow.
If Landlords were a bit more realistic they might have a better chance of rening I mean some of these places have lain empty for years - isnt it better to get a few quid rather than nothing?
I dont really understand it myself - our local post office closed down and the place has been TO LET for over 10 years and its in the main shopping precinct of my suburb.
Could this be where David Cameron's 'Big Society' could kick in? - she said, hiding behind the sofa!
I've heard about local co-operatives buying up pubs to preserve them for the community, so how about community shops? If the local authorities had their heads screwed on they could waive the business rates for such enterprises, in the interest of regenerating local communities.
They're making no revenue from empty shops, and the premises are just being left to rot, when they could be maintained.
I suspect the reason why shops stay empty for so long is simply landlord greed and the simple need not to give an inch on rental negotiation. It's a perceived right of property owners to demand high rents based on the fact they feel that they are 'worth it' rather than what is actually attainable in the market place. I live in a market town where Tescos landed some three years ago and built four shops to the side of their building to let. Guess, what, to date none have been let due, I have no doubt, due to unattainable rents for the area. Something just have to give here otherwise empty commercial properties will be the norm with everyone shopping from home. Although that may well be the only way in the future!
I predict it will be for 100% certainty.
Internet shopping is the way to go - In the future people will rarely leave their houses as predicted inthe magazine 200ad way back in 1980.
The only shops that will survive will be the ones people need to touch the goods - ie Clothes and shoes.
Yeah, I can see a time where there are maybe a dozen companies deploying huge supermarkets selling everything, and no small stores left other than a few 'aspirational' niche stores in which the rich can spend their extra cash, but other than that the high street will be a very bland and boring place and will look identical from city to city.
Of course, with so few stores paying commercial rates to the councils, the residential council tax will sky rocket so we'll be paying through the nose just have a letterbox for our internet bought purchases to be delivered to!
Posts within the money.co.uk community represent the views, experiences and opinions of members only. They should not be taken as financial advice and should not be followed without further research.
More Discussions for Financial Difficulty
Get fast answers to your money questions, Expert insight, top tips & much more...
