Financial impact of Coronavirus. Anyone else?

[NormHonal]

Just want a place to have a little moan. I know that health is more important, we have a roof over our heads, etc etc. We don’t actually have the virus and all on that front is well.

But. This whole thing has hit us in another way we didn’t expect. We’ve not had much cash to splash In recent years since doing up our house. No nice holidays, no new bikes for the kids, etc.

An investment was due to mature soon and so we’ve been busy planning it all. Ok so it was linked to the stock market, blah blah, but a really stable long-term investment, which should have been fine. And we were going to pay some things off and have a bit of fun.

And now with corona the stock markets have dropped all of a sudden and the value has pretty much been wiped out. We’ve waited so long for this and we worked so hard for that money. I feel so sad. I’m not quite sure how to tell the kids that the bikes and holiday won’t be happening after all. Not yet.

I suppose the silver lining is that no one wants to fly anywhere at the moment anyway.

Is anyone else feeling the financial impact who can relate to this?

As I said at the start, I know we’re lucky and that health is more important, but this isn’t something I can moan about to anyone IRL so please be kind in your comments, no “diamond shoes” etc. And yes I know we can get secondhand bikes, but for once the kids wanted new ones, not hand-me-downs.

I do sympathise, that is bad luck with the investment maturity. Do you have the option to roll it forward for another period of time (12m?) to allow for things to recover?

Slightly different but another financial concern, I'm on a supply contract so if my school has to close or if I have to self isolate I will not earn anything. My DH can and will support me but it's made me think about other supply teachers and people on zero hours contracts. It must be a terrible worry.

Thank you @Youngatheart00 yes I think we can roll it forward.

I’m just fed up and also mindful of life being short as a friend of mine died suddenly (I’ve had counselling) but it’s left me with a sense of urgency! I’ll just have to try to be patient.

@Iusedtobeapartygirl oh no! Yeah of course. I used to be on zero hours so totally get it. Fingers crossed for you.

I’ve seen a lot of stuff on social media about zero sick pay in America not helping this situation because infected people will keep going to work.

I need to check my current contract to see what it says.

Absolutely, people will try to drag themselves into work if it's a choice between that and not paying rent/mortgage, etc.
I'm lucky that I'm not in a precarious financial position but I still don't relish losing pay.

It wiped quite a bit off my shares and flights seem to have gone up
But these are really first world problems I know

Not really the same but we were buying a caravan, which was a real treat and the one we want rarely comes up.

The seller has just pulled out as they have decided they want to keep it after all to holiday in the UK because of corona...

I feel sorry for people retiring and turning pension pots into annuities in the coming months. The value could be well down in what might otherwise have been expected, and that's going to hit their income for the whole of the rest of their lives

@fartyface that’s rubbish. So sorry.

@VikingVolva oh gosh yes pensions!

I can relate as I was about to cash in some shares. Was a bit shocked to see how much had been wiped off tgem. Will have to wait now for them to recover. I sympathise.

I am SO worried about the financial impact. I keep worrying about worst case scenario. Which would be being unable to pay the mortgage and having the house repossessed.

We should be ok financially I think.

But I worry about business and how they’ll cope if people just start staying at home out of fear,- pubs, restaurants, shops etc.

I can also relate we have a few investments and they have been absolutely slammed we are looking to take some growth out to cover a trip that we’ve committed to for DS1 to do with his hobby that we don’t feel we can back out of but that money is basically gone.

I know it’s a long-term game and it will improve but it is really disappointing

So many hospitality businesses operate on a knife-edge anyway. Not what they need!

Yes, I scared that it will take too long to recover and our pension savings will be badly affected but I think there are lots of people facing the prospect of self isolation, or having to take time off because schools are closed without pay, so I think bikes and holidays have to be out in context.

If this is widespread and prolonged, many many people are going to take a major financial hit.

I’m supposed to be starting work this week or the next but the company have had several projects postponed or cancelled due to the reduction in energy consumption. They’ve given notices to loads of contractors today. My DH works for the company too. We’d be absolutely stuffed if he lost his job. If i don’t start, well we’ll manage, but will have to quickly give notice on childcare as we can’t pay that without my wage. Life will continue as before, no holidays, no emergency funds, all activities cut, and hoping for no health disasters we’d have to pay for.

We have lost about 3 grand off investments so far, they are dropping daily.
Dh is going to leave them be in the hope they come back up eventually but its pretty rubbish.
Luckily we hav taken money out that we 'made' but still loosing what we put in at this point.

Both DH and I work for an events company. Likely to both be out of work within the next three months due to work being cancelled already. Disastrous for us. Can't pay mortgage or anything else with us both out of work.

I'm holding out hope that, like flu, things will calm down mid April onwards and will recover. I wonder if more companies will start to be more progressive in enabling staff flexible working and the ability to work from home (for jobs that can be done at home). It may be a turning point with some positives coming out of it... ever the optimist!

m0therofdragons, I agree home working temporarily while this crisis passes will be good (I think it's already been recommened) and its helpful if businesses can be flexible and offer it from time to time but as a long term working pattern it's been tried and failed.

I worked for a major bank in the early 2000s. As the technology became available they saw an opportunity to save costs on expensive city office space and had large numbers of staff working from home. The impact on mental health was appalling and they had to unravel that within a few years.

@baldisbeautiful oh bollocks. Don’t know what to say other than that. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

I live in Dubai and they’ve closed all nurseries for a fortnight, with schools expected to follow suit unless something drastically changes. Not only am I ‘losing’ two weeks’ worth of nursery fees, I’m also having to pay for additional temporary childcare. Bloody pain in the arse.

Sorry to hear that.

We are likely to be hit on our summer holiday and DDs school trip which will probably both need to be cancelled and will probably lose all non-refundable so about £3.5k. DD also put her birthday and Christmas money towards that and didn't have presents. Her friend, his family have struggled to raise the money for Italy trip and would have been first time he had been abroad. Then there's any impact of self-isolation. Never known anything like it. Not sure how some families will cope around here, some already miss meals as no money, just hope someone has thought of that. Not looked at pension though that's a while yet. Cat will be happy though as we won't get to go away this year. About to sell house and just hoping that doesn't get impacted as well.

School trips! Easter’s coming up so I suppose a lot of those could be cancelled. Oh how thoroughly depressing.