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Do you really care to walk around a planet? Seems ridiculous to judge a game based on something the developers never actually said. It has been confirmed that you can land anywhere with drop pins or something like that. I'm of opinion that you can't make someone happy no matter what if they get pissy about not spending years of real life walking around a planet in a video game. Those type of people just want to see the world burn.

In the group chat today @Macca89 and I were having a civilised discussion about money (unit @Greboth decide to intervene with a 'mum' joke...) and it reminded me about a post I wrote back in March 2020. I never posted it because after asking @GazzaGarratt to proof read it we both agreed that the timing was poor. Sadly, I think considering the economic climate right now, I should have posted it. However, I am posting it now and I hope it lands well and that it sparks some discussion? I'd love to do a full in-depth post about money and wealth etc but I'm also aware that this is a gaming forum! So...let me know? Enjoy! Covid-19 What can we learn? I’m currently sat in my garden smoking a beautiful Lancero cigar soaking up the sun and reflecting on something my sister said to me this morning. ‘We aren’t getting any wages until May’. With the current global pandemic there has been a real shift back to what I would consider ‘socialist ideals’. People clapping for the NHS and demanding they get more pay and resources, the government offering to cover 80% of wages etc and the outrage of the self employed not getting anything. My sister and brother in law fall into the third category, they are both self employed - a hairdresser and a stone mason. One of my reflections and the purpose of this article is to make people think about their financial security and position because unfortunately the government response hasn’t been what some people had hoped. Here is an unpopular opinion and I apologise if I offend anyone BUT it is not the governments job to pay for you in times of crisis. We live in one of the most prosperous economies in the world, if you aren’t prepared for tough times then you have been negligent. I’m known as the money guy, so i’m going to play that role today and offer some practical advice you can apply once the world is back to normal that will hopefully remedy the opinion I stated above. Firstly, lets start with some of the issues that people have been facing. A lot of people have been laid off as a result of this situation because they are non-essential, others have been home bound and unable to do their self employed job. This has put a serious financial strain on the whole world, people are hurting. Lets examine the reasons why. People are living pay cheque to pay cheque People don’t have any savings People are laden with debt and this is soaking up their financial resources My sister and brother in law both fit all three categories, I fall into the third as I have two mortgages and a car to pay for. The combination of these three issues have meant that even just staying at home for 3 weeks has become a very daunting task for significants amount of people. So what’s the remedy? Well, i’m going to give you some advice that you can begin to put in place after this is all over that will hopefully help you become more resilient to global downturns (I’m thinking about the next recession!). Have an emergency fund I’m sure you’ve all heard of this before but i’m going to spell it out here. You should have 8 to 12 weeks worth of living money saved up somewhere that you can fall back on should you find yourself out of work. This took me a long time to commit too as a younger man but now that I have it, I feel very safe. It’s stored in a cash isa that my wife and I have access to at any time but not with our current banking provider. We both bank with Santander, so it’s in Lloyds. The reason being is that when I log into my internet banking if I see a fair wedge of money just sitting there, i’m going to find a way to spend it. Try to build on this once we get back to something of a normal economy. Reduce your spending and/or save first Again, this one is a tough one because we all generally live to the means we have. When I first started teaching I was earning £800 a month and I spent it all! I’ve been teaching for 17 years and I earn 5 times that now, I could easily spend it all too. This was something I had to help my wife with when we decided to have children because she would get to the end of the month and have nothing left in her account, when we talked about having a baby I suggested that she could save almost £1000 a month (once I took a look at the maths) before the baby was due to make sure we were flush during maternity leave. She didn’t believe me but after a few conversations about making her see where she was wasting money she took my advice. On payday she took £600 (a compromise) straight out of her account and put it in a separate savings else where. Low and behold she managed to save £5000 before the baby was born. What was she missing out on? Takeaways, costa coffees, random trips to shops on the way too and from work. Everyone wastes money, even me - i’m sat here smoking a cigar! Making spending cuts doesn’t have to be drastic but a small change can add up to a big reward. Ice cream in the freezer….. My economics lecturer taught me this saying and it has some truth to it. If I had a tub of ben and jerry’s in the freezer - it wouldn’t stay there long. Like, a week at most? I would eat it, why? Because it makes me feel good! Money is the same, if you have money in your pocket, you will spend it. Companies have become surgical in their ability to separating you from your money. So if you have it to hand you will spend it. So my last suggestion is simple. Have many different accounts for different purposes and only carry the card that you have allowed for disposable income. Here is a list of my accounts for illustration: Barclays Wages - my wages go in here and this is where I pay for my phone, insurances, my car etc. I have set up standing orders on payday that separate my pay into various other accounts and my savings. I don’t carry the card for this account. Monzo - this is my disposable income, every month I transfer in £400, thats £100 a week. I use this account for my petrol and anything else I want. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Joint account - this is where the wife and I put money in together and its where our mortgage, council tax and utilities come out from. We don’t carry the cards for this account. Teacher discount card - this is a card we load up with £300 a month to go shopping with, we get 3% cash back from shopping at major supermarkets. This is the only card we will use for shopping etc, once it’s gone, it’s gone. This means that all of my savings are in place and I never overspend because I know EXACTLY how much disposable money I have - Monzo is a great bank for that as it’s all online and works well with apple pay etc, even gives you a little progress bar that tells you how much money you have left for a certain period of time and is colour coded. Hopefully this article has been useful and has given some of you some ideas that you could use to make yourself crisis/recession proof. Much love, Elliott

Some great advice etc throughout this thread. I hold my hands up to spending years just wasting money and to a point the wife and I still do, Starbucks and takeaway food at breakfast time and my growing alcohol consumption which I blame squarely on COVID probably the worst. What turned it around for me is when work dropped off I realised if it happened long term I'd be screwed so I sorted it, that took a year but really helped. COVID then came along and I was fortunate to work through it and with not being able to do the things I enjoyed my bank balance grew and I now like Elliot suggested have a few months savings in hand. Now we did get credit for house improvements because of wife's disability and my car but I'm buying a new motorbike and instead of getting more credit I've ordered it for next year so I have chance to hopefully save enough to buy it and still have my buffer. I struggled when I was younger financially but got through it, 37 years and most on nights at the same company helped but it means that now I'm "ok" I don't mind a few wasteful decisions but I am forward planning more especially with the mortgage as paying that off would help me to retire early. Sorry it's so long 🤦

So @Lurchzy and I jumped on the wow hardcore band wagon and really didn't enjoy it lol! However, I took the opportunity to go back to Wrath of the lich king classic and play my death knight again, loved it! Saw my paladin was level 64/80 and decided...I'm gonna get that fucker to 80 so I can have some choice in cataclysm! A week later and he's level 70 and i'm officially grinding it out in Northrend. It's funny how sometimes all you need is a little break from a game to enjoy it again!

I definitely agree - I'd also much prefer to walk around a crafted planet with purpose than some barren wasteland generated by algorithms like in No Mans Sky. I think a lot of people who have genuine concerns are just a bit worried that the game isn't going to be as open or seamless as originally promoted especially with Todd Howard and Bethesda's track record.

I think my favourite bosses may be a little different, growing up with a lot of my games I rarely got to final bosses, whether it was a shorter attention span or not being good enough I don't know, however I did get to a few bosses when it came to JRPG's. I think the first one I always think of is a boss that I don't think you ever got to beat from memory - I thought her character was fantastic throughout, I know not a main feature but her loyalty to the crown, her strength, she came to her senses midway through the game, I don't think they realised at the time but if they had fleshed her story out a little more it would have paid off.

The pandemic was a once in a generation situation which brought on many exceptional circumstances and the treasury was ultimately called upon to ensure the continuation of the economy and for the sake of the public. Welfare makes up a huge portion of taxpayer funding and this is something people and businesses relied on, en masse during this time. The entire economy would've hit a brick wall and people would've been burning through any and every penny they had to their name irrespective of savings and future earnings.

I'm mostly avoiding Starfield news now, as I don't want spoilers, but we all love that juicy word 'controversy' 😅