Money woes.

As you already heard in the news, there's a little bit of an Italian debt crisis goin' on. Now, I'm in no way an economist or a financial analyst, however, I know that the word debt + crisis ain't a good thing. I had a bit of a freak-out when this was blasted all over the news recently, obviously because I'm moving to Italy. I was immediately taken back to the crash of the US market in 2008-2009 and how it impacted us Canadians. Maybe this is due to my lack of knowledge in this area, but some of the questions rapidly running through my mind were "What if I can't afford to live there? What if I can't find a job? What if we want to buy a home? Will the cost of borrowing be way too high? What if...what if...what if...".

The interesting thing was when I asked my boyfriend his thoughts, he was super relaxed and nonchalant about the whole thing. He said "It's ok, we'll be fine. Not to worry, we are not as bad as Greece". Um, I'm not sure if it's a good sign when you are comparing the current state of your country's economy to the worst in Europe.

How appropriate? PIIGS

So I'd like to ask my fellow expats in Italia to comment on this situation if you could. Are any of you feeling the impact of the current economic state of Italy? How are the attitudes of native Italians around you? Do you feel protected being non-Italian citizens? Maybe this all depends on your current lifestyle and financial situation, but I still like to hear opinions and stories of others. I think it'll help me decide if my freak-out is too premature, or if I should anticipate the worst.

An interesting article I found on the BBC News website: Italian debt crisis: Your stories

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