How's the economy affecting you? (1/12/09)

More than anything is is causing an air of panic and depression in most
people. Negative energy spreads just as infectiously as positive energy and
so I find myself isolating more rather than being around all the bad energy.

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I'm lucky to still have my job, so my day-to-day finances haven't been affected much. But I'm in my fifties, and my 401K has been hit hard (like everyone's), so I wonder if I'll be able to retire as early as I had once hoped.

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It is giving me the opportunity to trust my HP...

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My savings were cut by 65-70% of their original value.
way less taxis, eating out. let go for now the idea of moving from apt. to a house. cut netflix down to lowest subscription rate. let all magazine subscriptions lapse. this month will probably take toddler out of private pre-k and quit gym.

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Like anything that the media gets hold of, I tend to ignore most of it. They are too good at blowing things up into something we should be VERY AFRAID of, instead of just another of many problems that need solving. I pretty much just stay put and keep that melodramatic crap out of my aura.

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Minimally at the moment. Although, I am having to contribute more money for family support.

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FINANCIAL INSECURITY. I've been unable to find new work...either contracts for my consulting business or regular employment. My youngest son, who works in retail, has had his hours slashed and can't make his rent. My oldest son (married with 2 children) had to move out of his "country estate" in MariettaGA and relocated his family to a much more modest home in Connecticut. His business (brokering venture capital deals) has all but dried up. My husband's company has already had one round of layoffs and his major client just filed for bankruptcy (the world's 3rd largest chemical company). I know that "this too shall pass" but it's gonna pass like a kidney stone. I think we'll come out of this with our values more realistic and our egregious consumption habits curtailed. So, on one hand I feel like this may be good for us (like really bad tasting medicine), on the other I have moments of fear and trepidition and I worry for those less well off then we. I am making a conscious effort to share more and waste less.

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so far (fingers crossed) not too much has changed for me, but I feel the anxiety leaking through. I feel like I "should" be more spendthrift and make better financial choices "just in case"

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I am staying afloat, as a bar tender, I use to make about 80. per day shift. Not a bad deal, living off of 80. a day is doable, collecting an hourly check at the end of the month, rent and small bills paid, it's not much but it's enough. Now, I am making any where from 10. to 30. per day...and I am starting to feel the effect. No new clothes, no nice dinners, no big spending. I find that, one day at a time, I can still afford my yoga class, I can still find myself to work, I can still eat descent...rolling with the punches. The worse part about the economy is not being able to save money for liberating activities...such as enrolling in to a full semester, or traveling to India...

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I work in sales, and just finished my 1st year. It's already tough
enough without people having no money for extra stuff. I see stores
closing down overnight. But I am gonna survive, thanks to rent
control. I am also distracting myself with work and school.

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My 401K has plummetted, I don't even check it anymore. One of the places where I teach dance has had to limit the amount of days that they are open, so I couldn't accomodate them in my schedule. My boyfriends 401K which would have allowed us a better downpayment on a home has been reduced by almost half, so we have to save like maniacs. At least my job is pretty secure. As far as being a first time home buyer, I'm hoping the real estate market plummets further, good for me!

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Worry
Stress
Extra careful with spending
Have cut back drastically
Doing more myself which is OK to ne honest, just a bit tiring

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Not at all, in the ways that really matter. I'm grateful that my job is secure and that my pay is predictable. I'm well aware that I'm probably in the minority because quite a few around me are not so fortunate.

Some of the things that I do by choice, fundraising in particular, are affected by the economy but that seems like a luxury problem to me.

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Still poor.

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I have been reduced to 20 hours a week and my pay has been cut in 1/2 at my current job thank god they did not cut my medical benefits - due to my reduced income I need to move out of my apartment in san francisco sad sad and move in with my mom in Alameda. I suppose I can take this as an opportunity for growth.

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I am going into foreclosure, might not be able to finance the last 6 months of school, have to borrow money from people who don't have it.

Does that answer the question.......

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I haven't worked since the end of October. I'm going to school, so it's nice to just focus on that, but I could use the money...Also, I'm buying a LOT less "stuff."

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Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad...it has decimated my 401k.....i'm hemorrhaging cash, with a sib who is unemployed and in need, and a loved one who also finds herself unemployed just when she needs it most (within sight of the finish of her phd.).....an outrage and an at times uncontrollable anger at the mythic levels of the lies and theft of America by the Oligarchy (when account is finally taken, how much, how many hundreds of billions do you think they'll find Dubya and Cheney and their posse took with them?)....despair

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It should be... but I'm still spending like there's no tomorrow. Maybe there won't be?

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it's forcing me to think of alternatives to prepare myeelf for the worse

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I so resonated when I heard someone say his 401K had become a 201K. However, I don't have to start dipping into mine just yet. I'm still employed and the prognosis is good as far as I can tell. I'm out of credit card debt (which is a very good thing). As long as I keep both my feet and my head in today, I'm OK.

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Not at all thankfully still in tact with both jobs keeping fingers crossed

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Are you kiding me!? Meds, bills, or food on the table. That, is the question!

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more than ever I'm grateful to have a job -- even though it's corporate!

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Not sure, but I just got back from a three week tour of Brazil and the dollar is better down there. I have work for about 5 weeks, and then I don't know!!

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It hasn't quite hit us personally yet. My husband is a biology professor and in times of financial stress, many people go back to school to learn new skills....so enrollment is up and his job seems to be ok. I'm an artist and things are as precarious as ever, so I haven't noticed a change. It's always a struggle for us creative types...We have always lived very close to the bone so honestly nothing has really changed.

One thing I have noticed is that the number of animals dumped at our local shelter is way up. In times of financial stress, many people decide they can no longer afford the family pet. It's very sad.

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To steal a line ... "where my money at?" Or rather... I need to get a job.

But there's a lot of emptiness as well - empty storefronts, empty wallets, dreams ... money only goes so far. It is necessary though, a necessity that too many people do not have.

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I work freelance at the same type of work for 16 years now. I've always made 15 - 20% of my annual income in December. This December my work was down about 60%. I have been concerned.

On the other hand I wasn't burned or stressed out, messed or F'd up, bitter or hateful from overworking. A little fearful, yes, but so far I'm okay.

I think God as We Misunderstand Her is doing for us what we can't do for ourselves and tearing down the whole decrepit structure. I don't claim to know reasons or solutions and I comprehend people suffer. But something has to give.

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well, so far not that badly. The most noticible difference is that I do ad sales for a non-profit film festival and I'm at about half of what I sold by this time last year and I think I will probably do a lot of barter.
I live in a small community so while my financial status is for the moment ok, I notice and am affected by other peoples economic misfortune much more than when I lived in a city. If a store closes it leaves and a hole and a need that is not filled. If someone who provided a service for the community has to leave for financial reasons that service goes undone.

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Although I can pretty much deal with most of the rising prices and my job is pretty secure (I'm not big enough to save anybody money by firing me yet my job is still important), it affects me on a basic emotional level to see so much financial destruction going on to my friends and others who have been hit really hard. It is particularly distressing to witness the unrepentant greed which drives those who already have a great deal of money as they take for themselves, rip off their friends, damage their local communities and literally take bread out of the mouths of those who are at the mercy of society with no sense of remorse or conscience at all. A recent poll indicated that those on hard times are much more likely to reach out to the poor and struggling than those who have everything they need. I guess you have to have a heart to feel it in others.

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And mine...

I've applied for a city job and it looks like I'll get it, after months of test taking and hoop jumping. It was supposed to start in February. Now, I'm told, it likely won't start till June. Every time I hear on the radio about the California budget deadlock, I get really pissed off. I don't know that it's directly affecting my position, but it's having an effect.

In the mean time, i am working for a non-profit, and that's fine. But I really need to get work that is going to pay my basic expenses, which this job does not. They are trying to cut corners everywhere they can, and so will not hire me on a permanent basis at a wage I can live on.

I've been sick for the last 4 days. Luckily, this has fallen on a long weekend. The idea that I'll have to miss any work tomorrow (which I'm sure I will) is stressful. And stress makes it harder to heal. and healing is what I need to do so I can go back to earning money.

Urgh.