It definitely sounds like you put a lot of thought into this Craig - not suggesting otherwise mind you.
As for being Gen X, I'm sure many of us can recall watching our parents go through the 17% interest rates of the 80's and the early 90's recession - I think we're pretty well placed to learn from the past having experienced that however indirectly. Much like then, at a global scale I'd say we need this recession, but it's causing a lot of pain at the personal level and I'm sure it's going to take a while to recover from even when the "technical" recession ends. These days I'm worried about the next month or two, whereas before I used to worry about the next year. I'm optimistic though that this is probably a year to 18 months of pain that needs to be endured, rather than a 10 year depression that some are predicting. On the subject of fixed expenses, I had already gone through a round of belt tightening last year due to the upward moving interest rate, so I've learned just how much I need to bring in to keep the family expenses at bay. I've done a heap of little things like switching the household phone to VOIP, changing to a cheaper mobile plan and provider, which sacrifices coverage in areas I only go occasionally, resisting the temptation to increase my download cap with my ISP, etc. Saving almost $1k/month on mortgage repayments compared to the high point last year helps a lot too! Unfortunately, short of a flight to Thailand or somewhere else where you can live like a king on AU$20/day, (pretty unlikely option for me with a wife and 3 kids) there's only so much you can do to reduce those fixed expenditures. :( Maybe I'll have to start a veggie garden too... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
