Just wondering if anyone else in this cohort is considering returning to work given the current market downtrend.
Like you, I am a bit worried. In my country everything is getting very expensive, because of the following:
We now share an electricity cable with Europe and therefore our electricity prices have tripled or been x 5. we have a lit of reservoir lakes to produce electricity, but it hadn't rained in months. And there is little snow to melt. So very high electricity prices. Europe is influencing our prices. Their prices are high because they import gas from Russia, which is now complicated.
Our groceries are getting expensive. Farmers are having a very hard time. Diesel prices for the farmers have skyrocketed. Artificial furtilizer prices have skyrocketed. Are well as the beforementioned electricity prices, for farmers who grow food in greenhouses. Therefore our food will get expensive.
Ukrain used to be a big wheat exporter. We can only assume the Ukranian farmers won't be able to do their job. Therefore we will probably get wheat shortages.
Our fual prices have gone up with 40-60% last year. Driving is therefore costly. We own a hybrid car and drive short distances electric with the before mentioned high electricity prices. But driving long distance on petrol is expensive.
The national interest will go up, but that is only positive for me who has only cash instead of loans. The rest of the country will get higher interest on their mortgage.
Because of prcies going up, the salaries will go up. The first unions have negotioted a 3% raise. This means inflation is high. Our savings down grow at that pace.
Then comes the market. At the beginning of January 2022, I counted myself rich with my index funds. Since the war, my funds sunk with half a million Norwegian crowns, about 50K euro. That is more than 10% of my funds. I am getting slightly nervous. When we sold our house, we had a lot of cash. I have been investing quite a few bits of that into index funds and have only about 2 years of expenses in cash left. DH does his own financial stuff, so this is about my half. But I cannot live forever on my cash and I don't like to sell stock with loss. Of course, my stock are still 15% up in total, but I did loose my last cash investments.
I really don't want to go back to my previous job or something likewise. But I could consider some low stress parttime job. I am not not in the mental mood for working yet. DH always says that working a high paying job will make that you need to work fewer ours to earn the same. But for me, it requires a few too much concentration and will cause stress. I really like my life as a non-working person.
