Has the economy effected you?

[Jacob Dryer]

I'm pretty sure it's accepted that we are in a recession. Has it effected you?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Personally, not too bad.



Yes, like most, I have taken a hit on my retirement investments, but I will be working for about 13 more years. I figure I will get the upswing motion by then.



I am a government employee and my wife is a full time accountant for a single location. Our paychecks have not changed and in fact we both will be getting raises.



So in our case, we are making at least as much as we were and are able to buy things more affordable for now.



So we as a family really have not suffered serious negative impact..



I know that cannot be said for many, but for us, were doing fine.

 

[John Z]

The question should be how has it not effected me..? I was basically living a whole different life a year ago economically wise...

 

[Mark Picarro]

No. Doing fine.

 

[Aaron Yarbough]

Other than my 401K and other retirement accounts taking a hit just like most everyone else is, my wife and I are doing fine. We're both 25 yrs from retirement so we're anticipating a full recovery with interest. On the positive side, we're in the process of refinancing our house and just locked in on a fixed rate mortgage at 4.375% so we're taking advantage of the market. In addition to that all 4 of our vehicles are paid for so we're on cruise control.

 

[Tom S]

Household income down 20% due to employer cutbacks. Still doing okay since I live rather frugal, however the new garage probably won't be built in the spring as was planned.



TJ

 

[robert broere]

401k got smacked around a little.but so far everything else seems o k.knock on wood

 

[scott degroot]

Somehow my wife seems to have made what i lost this year so our income was basically unchanged from this year compared to last year but it sure seems as if we have less money though, probbaly due to skyrocketing fuel costs adn the other things tha follow along with it. We also took a HUGE loss on our 401 and some of our other investments. On the brighter side, for me anyways, with people not buying new cars they seem to be putting a few more $$$ into getting the ones that they have repaired. This is usually a slow time of year for me but for the last month and a half it has been busier than it has been in years(for this time of the year)

 

[Mark Stadnicki]

Not effecting me, life has actually been getting MUCH better than the good life I already had.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Unaffected and in some ways better than before.

 

[Michael Cacioppo]

Yup....retired.

 

[Todd Z]

I am still standing after the Mike Tyson punch In the First round.....



As long as I have a job I will be on thin ice, but should not fall through.....



My company is already having meetings and looking at ways to cut back with out layoffs or firing..



Todd Z

 

[Bill Barber]

Med buis is in the tank, with the layoffs in my area people have no health ins.

If it wasen't for the fact that I get 100 bux a day to be on call.

Would be in deep chit.

 

[gary s]

just my 401k



but trying to cutback where possible as you never know what the future will bring :unsure:

 

[Alan Peters]

Just retired funds was hit. Other than that, things are the same as 4 years ago. Just no bonus's!

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Yes.



Our household income has been down 25% the past two years running.



Credit card finance rates are being raised on cards we have, though we have very little balance and pay off most of the time each month.



Credit is harder to find. Used to be able to get 12 months, or 24 month no interest financing on just about any household items (some of which we could use and would like to pay for over 12 or 24 months).



My primary, full-time job just froze salaries between Nov of last year to "at least" July of this year. I was due a merit increase this month.



Our oldest will be going to college in two years, and his college savings is down 20% from last year.



So, yeah, it is affecting us.



TJR

 

[Bill Barber]

Even if your household income is not effected, everyone is effected and will be for a number of years, sadly

 

[Martin]

Of course, all my 401K's and IRA's have taken a pretty good hit. Being out of a job for two months and trying to live on unemployment checks doesn't cut it. One credit card balance higher than I'd like.......



But, the good news is I start my new job on Monday. :banana:

 

[user 62851]

My job isn't being affected other than our contracted COLA (cost of living) raise, which they say we will have to forfeit this coming July. A deal was made for the last 2 years and this year. And the way it looks will we end up losing the battle on the raise of 4.5%. Hopefully our union can pull past it again this year and get it to work out. I don't know why they would have a problem with making it go through, when you have a company that pulls in more than $1 Billion in revenue per year. I work for the County Government which still controls all the sales on liquor, wine, beer and kegs. I'm not a sale's rep, but I am part of the delivery personnel. Other than my pay raise I had hoped for, my 401k is being affected, but I have another 25years of service to put in to fix that.



New quote of the day... "People don't have money to pay their mortgage, but sure do to buy liquor."



(Our sales have increased due to this recession period of time)

 

[Joe Turner]

Yes it has. I work at a Ford dealer as a technician. Service dept is not that slow, but sales is, and they are taking it out on us. No more overtime, lost employer match with 401K, no Christmas bonus, pay cuts and layoffs. No sign of improvements either.