Is Anybody Making Personal Plans For Brexit?

[fakenamefornow]

Very worried about it.

I have some savings, not loads, just a few thousand. I'm thinking maybe I should convert it into foreign currency. What do others think? I have a holiday aboard planned next year, I've converted all the spending money we'll need already and plan to pay for meals etc while we're there in cash.

I've been saving as much money as I can, our mortgage still has another eight years to run. I really need a new car and we had planned to get a new kitchen as ours is falling apart but don't think I can risk spending money on stuff like that now. At the same time I want to take my children abroad as much as we can now as I don't think we'll be able to afford to post 2019.

I wish we could leave the country for the EU but it's just not easy for us, no access to foreign passports, children settled in really good schools, and not easily transferable jobs.

For context, I'll almost certainly be losing my job because of Brexit in 2019, not sure what will happen with my husbands job, don't think he'll lose it but it will be negatively affected.

Is anybody else making plans to try to mitigate Brexit? If so any more suggestions for us?

"Was it formed so that the UK didn't have to keep bankrupting itself from continuously defeating Germany in two world wars?"

Calm down, Basil!

It's true though that Europe had to contain Germany.

To a pp who asked about how bad things might be:
I don't think it will necessarily be as bad as the worst case scenario some are planning for - it certainly doesn't have to be, if it is handled sensibly.
But there is a risk that it might be and I am getting more worried, not less, by how the government and our negotiating team are behaving.

Thing is, you don't have to be 100% sure something bad will happen to plan for it. I have a fire extinguisher in my house, I know first aid, and I like to check where the emergency exits are when I board a plan.
Maybe this makes me "hysterical", but I don't think so.

Calm down, Basil!

Well calling people tosser I probabbly rude.
But so is implying that I can't possibly have experienced xenophobia because as a (white ?)British person you haven't TBH.
Or that anything that is more than 'well it might be quite hard and we might have some issues with a hard brexit' is hysteria.

The reality is that we are all living this situation in a different way. A white British person will not be as afraid and scared than an eu citizen who has no idea if they are going to losing everything they have build in the next 18 months or so. Or that they are going to lose their family (because the HO will have no issue separating families)?Saying that seeing the situation is XX way is hysteria is denying the feelings of that person about the situation.
I'm scared. Ive been scared shitless for the last 18 months. Telling me I need to calm down or that I'm just hysteric about things isn't helping TBH. Actually it makes me feel even more alienated from said British society. Which makes me even more scared. And certainly t in the mood the be polite and careful about not hurting feelings of Leavers

Just back from visiting my elderly parents, who I don’t want to abandon, talking to my dad who was evacuated with his sister in the 40’s and never saw his parents again, lived through the war and rationing and all the many bad times and recession in the 60’s,70,s,80’s,,90’s,00’s with high inflation, high interest rates, 3 day week, blackouts, house prices halving, etc,what can I tell them to expect ? Can the many experts out there please tell them and me the great unwashed and uneducated who voted remain, Definitely what will happen if as we both fully expect a no deal is reached, as we both want to know what to plan for.

Thing is, you don't have to be 100% sure something bad will happen to plan for it.

Here's my impression so far (happy to be corrected).

If somebody had started a thread in (say) Credit Crunch talking about how, in response to some non-Brexit-related uncertainty in life, they were being careful about spending, buying up long-life food on offer, paying down their debts, trying to save - I imagine they'd get supportive responses.

Furthermore, if somebody on this thread had said that Brexit will be a wondrous success but nevertheless they were going to be frugal, and make-do-and-mend, and dig for victory, because that shows the world what we doughty British folk are made of and after all it was our finest hour, they would probably have got fairly supportive responses.

However, if some Remainers say that they see stormy Brexity waters ahead and so they're going to minimise spending, pay down debt, look out for cheap non-perishable food, and build up their savings, THEY'RE HYSTERICAL OVERREACTING NINNIES.

user, I don't know for certain and how much you can prepare for it depends on your circumstances anyway. Many of us can't do much, but personally keeping a few extra tinned goods in the cupboard makes me feel (completely superficially) more in control of a situation I have absolutely no control over whatsoever. If some of the brexiteers on here think that is hilariously funny, so be it.

I don't begrudge others for moving out of the country for better opportunities if they are worried about their jobs and their children's futures. I bet your elderly parents know people who have left the UK for similar reasons during those crisies you mentioned above. Some will have come back, some will have stayed abroad. My grandfather emigrated as a child with his father during the 1930s and never saw most of his family again either. If he had stayed, he wouldn't have been able to help any of his family anyway but chances are he would be dead too. Is that cowardly or selfish?
Are pensioners who retire to Spain "selfish" for abandoning their country too?

When someone can't gt a job in their home town, are they not advised by some to "get on their bike" and go look for work? Is that selfish? Because in my mind emigrating for economic reasons is just an extension of that.

That looks like a pretty accurate summary to me "TheElementsSong*

I completely agree with your 19:52 post squishy.

Well, I for one "got on my bike" and took advantage of FOM years ago. I am an economic migrant I suppose. I do have familial links with my country of residence, so I'm not entirely an outsider. I did have plans to relocate back to the UK at some point, for career progression, or even to retire at some stage, but those plans have been indefinitely shelved. My DC has an EU passport and has the pick of 27 countries for (cheaper) university and career options, why should I move her to an inward looking island? I would be doing her a disservice on the short term.

Squishy a very good post, I don’t begrudge anyone moving, but there seems to be a lot of smug (or seem smug ) people who take great delight telling you how if times get bad they can just move on,
Melissa, why are we a inward looking island, globalisation has not been good for everyone, (it has for you) I meet many very nice people who have never left these shores, you might think that’s sad, but they are very happy with their lot

I think it's unfair to call Britain an inward looking island. This country is a hell of a lot more than that Melassa.

M4Dad I live in a very white, very leave-voting town with very, very few foreigners. The day after the referendum, my DDs both got told to 'fuck off back where they came from'. To which DD2 said 'What, Cambridge?' (where she was born). There have been resurgences of this ever since. My DDs are Dutch/US citizens. They sound absolutely 100% English, as do I - if you met me, you would not know I wasn't British. Nevertheless the xenophobia hurts and is very real.

I voted remain, can't see hard brexit working out very well, but this thread is the first time I've seen talk of stockpiling food!

I can't be bothered to go through the expense and hassle of getting my Irish passport. I'm entitled to one now, but I'll still be able to get it in a few years time, as will my children, should we feel differently.

I have just spent all my savings and taken on more mortgage debt.

Remember the petrol crisis when the supermarkets ran out of bread and milk? There was no sudden shortage of supplies, only gaps caused by people panic buying. Staying calm and carrying on as normal is almost certainly going to be the best way to deal with the negative effects of brexit.

From what I've read, user, No Deal means:

• disruptions to all supply chains leading to shortages of food, fuel, medicine, power etc. Possibility of rioting?
• major problems with flights
• loss of JIT manufacturing
• huge job losses
• financial services hit with the loss of passporting
• massive problems with N. Ireland.
• rights of EU citizens and expats not agreed. Tourists stranded abroad?

Etc.

People buying up masses of tinned food, do you think the UK will plummet to worse-than 3rd world conditions, and there will be actual hunger? Starvation?

there seems to be a lot of smug (or seem smug ) people who take great delight telling you how if times get bad they can just move on,

Smug, really? It now sounds like your objection is in the tone with which people discuss their plans, for emigration rather than the fact of them going?

Do people realise Aldi exists in countries outside of the EU?

I'm not buying up food and stockpiling at the moment, but I think I would be tempted to if No Deal was likely, if only to avoid baying mobs at the supermarket. I doubt I could buy enough to last us for a decent period.

It doesn't take long for society to break down. Was it Jay Rayner who reckoned 3 days without food in the shops would lead to societal breakdown?

Not sure people would starve, but there would be mass shortages if supply chains are cut. Food will be more expensive, definitely. Prices are already rising.

Look at the petrol shortage crisis above. That was all caused by mass panic and people behaving in a different way to normal. Shops would be stripped bare. You only have to look at how people panic over Christmas when the shops are closed.

"I agree Imminent, it's very suspicious that the govt is so keen to keep these buried. Reminds me a bit of tobacco companies burying the cancer link for all those years, while extolling the glamour and the virtues of a good fag."

Good analogy.

I think there's a petition demanding that the government release the Brexit impact studies.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200634

stopbrexitmisconduct.org.uk

Also, can your finances withstand the hit of Hard Brexit and 30yrs of economic downturn?