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?

We're already down to 6th, maybe 7th, and only going one way.

I always imagine anyone boasting about our eternal economic might "we're the 5th largest..." to be typing from early June 2016, and having accidentally imposed some sort of publication delay

I agree there would be be short term problems if the UK were to leave with no deal. But as with Y2K and the volcanic ash cloud we would cope.

@ bowling The UK is still number 5 according to the most recent data (April 207) Exchange rate fluctuations could change this but nobody is arguing that the size of the economy is going to plummet over night. And France is not looking particularly dynamic at the moment. So I think the points about jobs stand.

fullfact.org/economy/uk-worlds-5th-or-9th-largest-economy/

@ Somerville: I agree that some financial services jobs will leave for Dublin or Frankfurt. But neither city has the infrastructure to support a mass exodus. Frankfurt has a housing crisis and few quality English language school places so is not attractive to City families. Nor does it appeal to the young as it is really boring. I think the most likely scenario is that City workers will weekend commute with a lot of their spending staying in London.

There might be a long slow decline post Brexit. But that presupposes an inability to trade with both the EU and the rest of the world which I think is unlikely. We do not seem to have any problem trading with the US etc at the moment.

Of course if the consequence of a poor/non existent Brexit deal is the election of an economically incompetent government that decline could be accelerated.

I really do not think the remain camp does itself any favours by exaggerating the immediate threats. And I honestly think it is impossible to project 20 or 30 years ahead. The world changes so quickly. Who in 1987 would have predicted the collapse of Communism?

I actually do not think it will happen - the parliamentary arithmetic does not add up. The majority of MPs across all parties know it is not in the national interest. There are enough Tory remainers, plus the Scottish Tories, who will oppose a bad deal/ no deal if it comes to it. And the Labour party - who are just as divided on this as the Tories- will mostly vote against. And as Lord Kerr has said, Article 50 is reversible. And he should know as he wrote it.

I think the most likely scenario is that City workers will weekend commute with a lot of their spending staying in London.

At the higher end of the pay/seniority/unreplaceabilty scale, yes. But lots of people who are lower down the scale will simply lose their jobs. And the loss of even 'just' the top slice of City workers means lower tax receipts for the UK. On a local level, loss of City jobs means all the other businesses that depend on City workers (cafes, sandwich shops, bars, dry-cleaners, newsagents...) will suffer.

I actually do not think it will happen - the parliamentary arithmetic does not add up. The majority of MPs across all parties know it is not in the national interest. There are enough Tory remainers, plus the Scottish Tories, who will oppose a bad deal/ no deal if it comes to it. And the Labour party - who are just as divided on this as the Tories- will mostly vote against
I really fucking hope you're right, but despite some bluster from Soubry, Corbyn, Starmer et al, neither Tory remainers nor the Labour party have exactly stood up for staying in the EU as yet.

I agree that we will be able to continue trading, but at what cost? If our aim is to become competitive by lowering taxes and regulations, that will fundamentally alter the economic and social structure of the UK, and not in a good way (unless you are one of the very wealthy at the top of the pyramid).

I'm not British, nor do I live in Britain.

18 months ago, I successfully bid on a property in England as a holiday home/investment. In light of Brexit, I withdrew. The property stayed on the market for another while but didn't sell.

It's now back up for 25% less than the initial asking price. I'm keeping an eye on it, hoping it'll drop further as the economy falters.

Will hold off to see what will happen in terms of being able to live/hold investments in the UK post Brexit.

So, in short, I plan to sit tight and see how I can profit from that the UK is doing to itself.

Argentina was the world's tenth largest economy in 1913. Today it isn't even in the top 20.

Just because a country is wealthy now there is no law that says it will be forever more.

Yes, we are actively planning. DH has got a better job and we will move to another area with lots of alternative employers should that go wrong. Unfortunately, this means renting but hoping to sell ours before a potential crash and re evaluate once terms of the deal are known. Then we will buy or look into emigration.

DH has got a better job and we will move to another area with lots of alternative employers should that go wrong. threat of Brexit not damaging your dh job prospects then!

I looked into an Irish passport but just miss out.
We were already planning to go to somewhere in the EU but won't risk it now.
Not sure what to do tbh!

I looked into an Irish passport but just miss out.
Me too!

DH has dig out his German birth certificate and naturalisation certificate and us researching whether we can all become German citizens ( not sure how I feel about that though)

Never gunna give EU up...never gunna let EU down...

I'm very concerned about Brexit, in particular the aftermath of a no-deal Brexit which, sadly, is looking increasingly likely. DP and I have no prospect of obtaining Irish/EU citizenship etc. (frustratingly we're both as English as they come!) but we're making what contingency plans we can - saving as much as possible, not making extravagant purchases and we've also recently taken on an allotment so we can try to mitigate expected rising food prices as much as possible.

We're also planning on remaining a one-child family partly because of Brexit - we want to ensure we'll have enough financial resources to provide DD with all the skills and opportunities she's likely to need in a challenging economic climate. I have a languages degree, and will be promoting language-learning for DD as much as possible - agree that languages have never been so important in terms of future prospects.

Oh, and my brother lives in Canada, which is looking an increasingly attractive prospect!

I think we do need to reassess our finances before the worst hits. Our fixed rate mortgage won’t come to an end for about a year sadly, I think we will try and pay off as much as possible before remortgaging.

We’ve run down the amount we hold in cash and upped stocks. Risky but cash is only going one way.

We should have sold our BTL and moved house but prices in London have dropped. I’m putting off the decision while we have such nice tenants.

I’m not stockpiling food (any more than normal) think we will be flooded with cheap and nasty exports once we leave and food prices will drop for a time. Until UK farming collapses and foreign markets start exploiting us that is.

Scabbersley, yes the threat of Brexit was damaging his prospects as the company he works for stands to be decimated by it. He cannot see how it won't. He has got a job with a company that has less Brexit risk (hopefully!) while he still can. Better to go before you're pushed and all that. He has a niche job / in demand skill and in all likelihood could work all over the world, which I realise puts us in a privileged position.

Not much we can do in our family - don't want to emigrate for various reasons one of which is I am the only one of my leave voting mum's 3 daughters who still lives in the UK and she would be devastated if I moved away with her grandchild.

I am trying to find a new job (my industry has slumped for non-Brexit reasons, but Brexit wont help) and in the meantime we are trying to be frugal with our spending to boost our savings and dh is looking for a better paid job. Fixed our mortgage for 2 years, but wishing I had fixed for 5 now!
I am stocking up on food (but only stuff we would use anyway, and only things with a v. long sell by date). It might help if there are short term shortages, and will temporarily cushion us against price rises but it wont last very long.

I am thinking about helping dd (pre-schooler) to learn another language, but that is for very long term reasons. Maybe it will help her, maybe not.

I wonder what age range of people are commenting on this post, There have been many bad times in the uk before I can remember, the recession of the 70’s and the 3 day week and power cuts
Recession of the 80’s & 90’s with high inflation and 15% interest rates and more recently 08/09 and a very slow growth decade after, only help by very low interest rates. We are due another recession with or without Brexit.
I can’t believe how you all want to run away, start stockpiling food etc, How would you all cope in all real crisis, hurricanes, flood, earthquakes, war etc, Good job you aren’t living in Syria or somewhere equivalent. How bad do you think it will get ?

What, precisely, has given you the impression it definitely won't be worse than all of those events you mention during the disastrous process so far? I make no apology for planning for my children's future. Most estimates suggest it will be 3 decades before the economy recovers after Hard Brexit. No Deal Brexit has catastrophic consequences. I have literally no faith in the current government. Why do you?

I've lived through a few recessions (different countries) and Brexit imo won't compare.

"How would you all cope in all real crisis, hurricanes, flood, earthquakes, war etc, "

I don't know, but probably better than those who think contingency planning is stupid.

The previous economic difficulties were not self-inflicted by the "will" of the British people. It is impossible for me to comprehend why anyone would have deliberately chosen to inflict serious economic pain on the country.

I can’t believe how you all want to run away, start stockpiling food etc, How would you all cope in all real crisis

Interesting take on the race to the bottom argument. As long as things aren’t as terrible as they theoretically ever could be, there’s some kind of moral superiority in deliberately taking no action to ameliorate circumstances?

I'm trying to get citizenship of the country where I live but waiting times are currently 18+ months. I'm horrified that Britain appears to think no deal is even an option. Casting over a million British citizens like me into legal limbo is abhorrent. But it appears my country is quite happy to sacrifice us on the Brexit altar.

I think if you've lived through the 70s and the recession, Brexit holds no real fear. Yes things will be tough, but running away seems an overreaction, particularly as I can think of a single country which doesn't have its own problems.