Big 5 coming to the rescue | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

ReX said
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/real-estate/frustrated-canadians-looking-for-mortgage-deferrals-from-big-banks-facing-delays-denials/ar-BB11sNr2?li=AAggFp5&ocid=mailsignout

Watch for same happening to those applying for emergency EI benefits.  

Same old story - people borrowing beyond their ability to pay(mortgage based on 2 incomes) - then cannot repay when one loses his/her income. Seen it all before and while I do feel sorry for these people, reality is they did not plan for a rainy day.

Vatox said

Yes, what ever happened to everyone having 6 months of reserve savings! My dad always told me to live on one income (the lowest one). Then there won’t be any problems. It also allows for huge amounts put away for retirement and simple living too. You get used to living lighter and can make a super easy change to retirement.  

That's ⬆ exactly how my wife & I got to where we are today ❗

Suggest that to a Millennial, and they'll spit in your face.

COVID-19 has killed relatively few people, only modestly more than standard influenza every year. My personal opinion is that this shutdown of the economy was unnecessary. Let it spread; let our white blood cells do their magic, and fight it off. Sure, we may have higher mortality rates in the elderly 70+ set, with their compromised immune systems, but ultimately, that's natural causes.

Doug....Let's revisit that comment in about 20 days ... take some time to educate yourself in the meantime.

I had Doug blocked long time ago. Many of you don't know him well but Block is an option here.

On the other note, I agree that I sometimes laugh from sadness at those people with 2 income who can't afford a living or mortgage on one income.

The health experts are advising governments that we need to flatten the curve so that we have overall a lower mortality rate & not too many workers are too sick to work at the same time, even though it extends the epidemic's duration. Plus we need to keep the grocery stores and pharmacies stocked or else a lot of people die quickly plus civil chaos ensues. Priorities like those underline & drive gov't response.

We have a health care system for the very purpose of thwarting "natural causes" as long as possible. As far as I know everybody goes to the doctor or hospital when we need to be fixed up, I'm sure even "natural causes" Doug has had occasion to get medicine, etc.

I think most (not all, obviously) folks understand that economics sometimes goes on the back burner for a bit and that right now is one of those rare times.

I would have preferred to see more proactive and aggressive quarantines of the few hundred thousand travelers coming into Canada the past 1.5 months instead of where we are now where we are all self-quarantining , schools , industry and government are shutdown, and people are hoarding toilet paper. Economy is just a word. But some people barely have the money to put food on the table and pay the rent now. And this shutdown could go on for 4-6 more weeks. I am not one to blame the people who can not pay their rent or buy food right now for not having a "6 month reserve" for a rainy day or month like right now. I am not saying I agree with it but the British Government looked at quarantining the most vulnerable as an alternative to shutting the whole economy down. It is a complex topic when civil liberties need to be suspended in part or all of a society for an extended period. I am not so sure that the experts making decisions for us are any smarter than any of us here ?

I said it, in some other thread.. somewhere, that fear was going to do far more damage than the actual virus. It’s fear of the health system being inundated by too many cases at the same time. This virus spreads faster than influenza and is highly contagious. This is why the decisions have been made to close businesses, cancel events and ban tourism. These things aren’t done during the regular flu season because our health system can manage it, despite more people dying from flu each year than this novel Coronavirus. The curve of impending cases needs to be flattened and spread over time to be managed. Our society doesn’t function on “survival of the fittest”. The governments just need to get money and support to those jobs and businesses that are lost because of this situation.

As soon as women get birth control & access to their own money via jobs/careers the birth rate plummets, e.g. see Europe, North America & Japan as examples. Apparently affluence trumps having a large family. So the solution for "overpopulation" is easy, i.e. free market economic prosperity. Now that may create other problems, but it does get rid of too many people, and way more pleasantly than via contagion.