How are you handling the recession/depression?

I work in the law department of an insurance company and most of you know what Tangster does for work. We don't struggle to pay our bills but we don't spend our money willy nilly either. Now, if I lose my job (which is definitely a possibility), we're going to be pretty screwed until I can find a new one.

 

I am self employed and like most who own their own business have felt the recession hard. I lost 60% of my income this past year. I have cut back on spending a bit but I still primarily live the same life...Minus any extravagant vacations and such for right now. I still go eat lunch everyday at little local owned businesses to at least try and keep them going..It is funny. We get into this situation and stop spending and say no new car, no vacation, no this no that. But that is what has kept our economy going all along. Our crazy over consumption. My girlfriend spent $700 on dinner for 2 the other night for my birthday. Man, talk about feeling guilty. Scarey time we are in..BTW for our new president..easy solution...CUT OUR TAXES!!!! stop taking 40% of my money and I will spend more

 

I am thankful that I chose in my adult life (the last 10 years) to not bury myself in credit card debt, and to only pay cash for my cars. My only debt is my mortgage and it is a modest house, one which is what we need and can afford, not something unnecessary. Last year when the housing market started going to hell I bought two rental properties. I bought one with money from selling a car and the other with a re-finance. I now have $20,000 total, after repairs, into two houses. I rent each for $650/month.

I am thankful that I didn't make all these crazy credit decisions like so many around me did. I am proud to say we are doing fine, unlike the rest of my state, Indiana, which has the highest unemployment rate in the country and one of the highest foreclosure rates. I'm going to wait it out and continue to take advantage of the pathetic stock prices which will one day enhance my portfolio.

...my 2 cents on that.

 

Lets all be careful about not breaking the "No Politics" clause of the User Agreement.

Things have been rough on me. Two of my largest clients declared bankruptcy owing me a lot of money. 3 years from now, I might collect 20 bucks from the bankruptcy court. Another client laid off every single one of his employees and if he gets offered a flooring job, he'll do it all by himself. However, he hasn't had a single job in either new construction or existing homes for the past 3 months. He hasn't declared bankruptcy yet but he can't pay what he owes me so same difference.

Things are a mess here. Wachovia bought out AG Edwards about 9 months ago and laid off a whole bunch of AG Edwards Employees. Then about 6 months ago, they declared bankruptcy. Wells Fargo eventually bought Wachovia and then laid off a bunch of the Wachovia employees. Now, Wells Fargo is in negotiations with Swiss Bank UBS so I'm expecting somw Wells Fargo people to lose their jobs.

Citigroup has a major headquarters here. They are laying off people right and left from just about every department.

Anhueser Busch was acquired by a foreign company called InBev and they laid off a lot of the office staff and moved a lot of the other office staff to New York. Both of our Ford plants are closed. One of the Chrysler plants is closed along with all of the smaller companies that used to support those plants.

It's scary, all sorts of people I haven't talked with in years are getting ahold of me trying to network. I have to tell them, "Hey buddy, I'm looking too. My company is belly up".

 

So are you out of business now?? Sorry to hear things aren't going well...

 

I'm not out of business but I don't have enough business to live off anymore. When you own your own company, there's no such thing as unemployment. Even ignoring my expertise in the Finance/Accounting/Banking arena's, you can't even get a job at McDonalds here.

 

I work in the IT field and was employed with a home builder, got laid off before Christmas and have been looking ever since but noone is really hiring in this area for my type of work, been doing work on my own just trying to stir up enough business with small companies to keep myself busy and money coming in the door. If I can get everything straightened out as far as a steady income then I'll be buying a boat soon since as it was said earlier, it's definitely a buyer's market

 

We're looking to take advantage of the housing market. Buy bigger house, lease out old one. When housing market gets better, sell the old one. Use money to pay off new one. That's my plan anyway. We'll see what happens.

 

Yea but you would make a heck of a marine store owner/operator....

 

Now is the time to use your GI bills if you have them. My husband is using his and it has helped us a lot. He works full time for the company I worked at the last 4 years and goes to school full time. When he is finished our company will put him in another position making more money..

*hint wanting to change fields of work? Learn to be a forklift mechanic... We can't find any that are willing to work!!!! They make good money and are in high demand.