State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

[sspt27]

ITS. A. NUMBERS. GAME.

Keep pushing every day. Rock Discipline. Get a discipline.[LIST=1]

Excellent suggestions, and extremely helpful!

I don't think I'd personally implement everything on your list: but the effort you've put in there, and the number of good ideas you list, means that surely anyone in this position can find something there that suits them (or inspires them to find their own variants).

The attitude you describe is - of course - what I (and probably most people) had and stuck to when I was first on the bench. But... after months... and months... and months... of this utter ColourfulDutchFlower, it's all too easy to fall off the self-directed, self-disciplining, self-organising, self-maintaining wagon.

Best points for me are:

a) 4. Don't watch the tulipy news! Or if you do, limit it to "have the aliens landed yet? No? Enough then".
b) Switch the F off. That's the hardest, but (if approached right) also quite easy. Because you haven't actually achieved anything all week, it's all too easy to never switch off - as if by some Jedi-power, exerted at 20:02 on Saturday evening, I could make an agent dream a little dream of me and then call me on Monday with a fat juicy contract. The "easy" way to avoid this is to actually do everything you can: to do that, you have to pull yourself out of the hole.

Just been for a long run, by a different, less "pleasant" route than my usual one. But it worked, because I'm bored tulipless of my usual, wooded running route. Then did some weights.

Another thing I found was a quote from an agent here: https://www.contractoruk.com/news/00..._may_2024.html - must be a better agent than any I've dealt with in the past year, given that he actually talks to candidates:

A technology recruitment agent who places BI, Data, Analytics and Azure contractors, Billy Hadfield, moved to reassure all types of techie:
“Couldn't tell you how many times I've been asked by candidates, ‘How's the market?’
“The one thing I am telling everyone [is] ‘IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT.’
“Of course, there's always more you can do -- re-write your CV; reach out to old managers, network with recruiters.”

Thank you for good suggestions.

[Fraidycat]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

You need to find some way to hang on for another six to twelve months.

Past slumps that were caused by rising interest rates (ie. early 90s and early 2000s) lasted approx 2.5 years, maybe 3 years tops.

And we are just 2 years into this one which started in the middle of 2022.

[GJABS]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

Are you claiming all benefits you may be entitled to?
If you are on benefits you might be able to claim mortgage interest payments:
https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortg...what-youll-get

[hobnob]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

I'm sorry to hear that. Here are a couple of links that might help:
How to deal with missed mortgage payments - Shelter England
Dealing with mortgage arrears - Citizens Advice

It might be worth looking at drastic options, e.g. putting a tent in your back garden while you rent the house out as an AirBnB.

[cojak]

rocktronAMP Oh I like it - I’m saving that link for when I see the next poster feel a bit low.

And thanks to you all for your suggestions and links to help and advice. They may help others more than you realise.

[Martin@AS Financial]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time.

If you haven't already, it is worth contacting your lender to ask for a payment holiday to give you a bit of breathing space. It may also be possible to switch to interest only for a bit or extend the mortgage term.

Fingers crossed things improve for you asap.

[dsc]

Missed the mortgage payment this month. Things are getting severe.

Sorry to hear that would you be able to make ends meet with a generic job, stacking shelves, amazon, deliveries etc? or are your outgoings way too high to make it work?

Personally I can't see things improving in the next 3-6months, so I'd say you need to find something else to get you going over the rest of the year and quite possibly into early 2025 :/

[Sub]

ITS. A. NUMBERS. GAME.
Keep pushing every day. Rock Discipline. Get a discipline.

Yes, that is great advice. Staying active and do not add health issues (physical or mental) to financial ones is critical. I also managed to make my peace with the idea that I'd never find a contract again, so put 100% efforts to my own thing. It is not ready to pay bills yet, but it greatly slowing down warchest depletion. Got a contract in the end, but just to buy more time to business growth.

All the signs at the moment are that contract market will shrink and will stay this way, so many of us will face a choice of make our own business work (and not just selling labor off-payroll) or get back to the employment hell.

[Fraidycat]

All the signs at the moment are that contract market will shrink and will stay this way,

No sure how you can say that, the IT Perm market is similarly slow as far as i can tell. Maybe it is the end of IT as we know it then for both Perm and Contract. But still too early to say.