Change Equals Opportunity - Part 2
I got a letter from my gas/electricity company yesterday… to paraphrase it… “we’re going to increase the amount you pay each month by 22%. As we take this money directly from your back account each month, you don’t have to do anything.”
Nice way to start the day, eh? 
Let’s look at the big picture… oil’s gone through the roof, so petrol and diesel are up. The price of raw materials arriving at factories is up, as is the price of goods leaving the factories, which means manufactured goods will increase in price very soon if they haven’t already. Food prices are up, sometimes by huge amounts.
The pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates is enormous… the money markets have priced in three 0.25% increases by the end of this year… but…
The housing market has ground to a halt. The number of properties sold by the average estate agent in the UK is at the lowest level ever recorded (RICS survey). Increasing interest rates will send the housing marketing into a tailspin and put more homeowners, who are already struggling with higher bills, into negative equity.
So, the Bank of England can’t raise rates, but can’t cut them either.
It’s a situation similar to the USA, which appears to be further in the mire than Britain. We haven’t seen the jump in unemployment, but it’s probably only a matter of time.
So what can be done?
Every change brings opportunities… so what are the opportunities being created by these global financial storms?
In my opinion, the best strategy is to either start your own online business, or grow an existing one. The extra income could very well be the difference between sailing through these hard times with the “hatches battoned down”, or sinking in the storm. After the storms pass, you could have a healthy second income to spend as you wish.
