The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I have one friend who had to give up her home after being unable to sell it.
My place of employment has laid off seven people, almost half the support staff.

My wife's office is closing down next month.  Half her friends are working for half of what they used to make and the other half have been looking for jobs for months.

We lost 20% of the work force in my division and look to lose more soon. 

I have a very limited amount of disposable income and that usually comes from money needed to go elsewhere. 

Bottom line ... we are hurting in the CF house!!!!   :-[

Fortunately I have alot of Job security in my business...........but I'm really worried about my future and retirement savings.

I've had to cut back on the number of diamond studded canes I'm buying.

Seriously, I'm getting ready to sell my house, and I'm worried about the housing market.  Austin is in better shape than most, with the number 2 housing market in the US.  But there are so many houses on the market here, and every day I see another "for sales" sign going up in my neighborhood. 

I'm selling my house because it's too big now that the kids are gone.  I just can't justify the property taxes and utilities.  I have 2 kids in college and need the money to pay for that.

I'm sorry to hear that the CF house is feeling the pinch.  I'm afraid things are going to get worse before they get better.  I hope they don't get too much worse.

I'm still ballin suckas!!

Ms Tommy has had to lay off over 200 people at her job (she's an HR Generalist for a timeshare company).  And they're planning to lay off more. 
My new job is growing because I'm now working in pharmeceuticals, and people will always need medicine. 

As for us personally, we're ready to weather the storm should this economy go into another 1930's era depression.  My 401k is diversified, so it won't be completely depleted.  Ms Tommy and I own our condo and it's just us.  We have some equity in the condo, but not as much as we once did.  We own both our cars outright.  We shop carefully at the supermarket, pack leftovers in tupperware for lunch at work and keep the unnecessary driving and eating out to a minimum.   
 

I'm buying a condo. First time in years I can afford anything around here.

I didn't over-buy, I am still in decent shape, but 400+ people got laid off from my job, and 100+ more left on their own as a result.  Other than that, my retirement investments have lost a ton of money, over $55k YTD, and I don't know how I'm gonna get that back.

for me, it's been highly noticeable. I work for a mom and pop. no raises or cost of living increases and what little wiggle room I had is gone with higher food, electric and gas prices. And to make things worse, here come the holidays and my huge rash of birthday time.

^ We are all going to have to cut back on holiday gifts, I would think.

I'm lucky in that I'm very crafty, so homemade stuff is on my agenda this year.

It's odd..my job is 50/50 the next 6 months. We have plenty of Clients,but less and less of them are paying.Gas today is less than $3 a gallon...So I've gotten a little relief recently...

My utility bill is gonna be a nightmare this year,(I'm praying for a mild winter) They lowered our electric rate,and Natural gas rate (which they've been over charging us for....) just so they can raise it back up...next month...

I've had a hell of a time finding a second job,to pay off my Mom's medical bills.....

I have lost a ton of money in my 401K. We were looking to buy another house but as it stands now we will probably not be able to sell ours so we are just going to wait it out. Outside of that we are managing ok.

Shit - where is this under $3 Gas station?

It's 2.94 a gallon here...in alot of stations...
http://www.missourigasprices.com/index.aspx?s=Y&fuel=A&area=Springfield&tme_limit=24 (http://www.missourigasprices.com/index.aspx?s=Y&fuel=A&area=Springfield&tme_limit=24)

The gas station by my house was that way when I went to work....

It's hanging right around $3.50 here.

I think my family is okay.  Like me, my wife is an MSRN.  She works in a clinical setting and those generally weather most economic storms quite well.  Hospitals will certainly go into hiring freeze situations but those hiring freezes generally have loop holes in hiring nurses and / or medical providers.

The company I work for is 110 years old and uses very sound business practices.  They thrived in the great depression and has never had waves of layoffs due to economy driven reasons.  That doesn't make me feel any more secure because - as we all know - there is a first time for everything.

My wife and I talked about this before - if anything happened and one of us lost our job (which would be me before her), she would carry the load of working.  In times like these, if worst case senario came down, the three most important bills in our world are the mortgage, food and heating oil.  We could make those bills easily on one salary.

That doesn't mean I am not flipping the freaking hell out by the economy, because I am.

Funny.  We were playing this game too.  The first thing I would do is change my home phone number and prioritize my bills. I don't need to hear from creditors if I don't have too!   Replace power with heating oil and you and I are in sinc.   

Not affecting me at all. Everything is honky doory. :)

I'm getting concerned about my job.  I made a post about how business had picked up for me a little while back.  It has since gone the other way.  People are afraid to spend money, which doesn't hurt me, but my clients are suffering across the board.  We're seeing conversion rates on websites go down for everyone.

Some clients see this as a need to continue marketing, others see it as a reason to stop spending themselves.

I'm hanging in there, and am okay for now, but pretty concerned that if this downslide continues, things will get bad for me really fast.

Dave, I hope that you pull through this economic storm.

I think that what's wrong with American business is being reflected in the financial crisis. Most businesses are not committed to excellence and customer service but want the big bucks. Corporations are not investing in communities like they use to and want to use cheap labor somewhere else and not pay an American worker what they are worth. That also affects the economy.

We have a workforce that is clearly not educated in common sense decisions and that's a product of of eroding educational system which really started showing in school curriculums some 30 years ago. That's another issue because the government and corporations don't want "bright" people unless they can recruit then and use their brains for something that would hurt rather than assist others.

So people have become "devalued" but most of it is their fault. Excess and greed have taken their toll.

Even though I am into communications, my clients are overseas. I stopped dealing with American based clients last year because most of them didn't have any ethics or some sense of morality and it was hurting my business. You bust your a** providing a quality product and get hassles. I have had more success with clients from other countries than I have my own fellow Americans. I had reputable companies trying to "skip" out on paying invoices when they had the money in hand to pay the bill.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we no longer can only conduct business within the 50 states that we live in. If you're a business owner that is small, you have to think global expansion just to make a living.

Hang in there, bub.  If something were to happen you are so talented it's not even funny, another company would scoop you up in a heart beat.  Something a self employed person doesn't want to hear, I know, but your talents would be well appreciated (and compensated) if you had to go "back out there."

Could part of the problem be that we have the 2nd highest tax on business in the world?  Could corporations afford to pay more if those taxes were reduced ... or would that just cause more "tax cuts for the rich" rhetoric. 

Hey, you're treading awfully close to my "trademarked" conspiracy theory that schools have a direct financial interest in NOT educating us. 

That sucks.

I'll start another thread because I don't want to hijack this one.

I appreciate everyone's kind words.  I don't want to paint the picture that I'm about to lose my job -- I'm not.

I just meant to say that in my line of work, self-employment, that there is no line of defense when things go sour other than me, and it can happen really fast.  Also, one good thing about my job is that we have money owed to us at all times, since part of bills are paid upon completion.  So, even if I closed the doors on my business, I'd still have some sort of salary for a few months, to get settled in a new job.

Thankfully, job security isn't a problem for us. We're pretty insulated from economic down turns. On the negative side of things, my retirement account lost about 17% of its value this year. I'd like to refinance my condo, but the down turn in the housing market has made that impossible. I'm not upside down on the mortgage (thank God!), but my equity has dipped below 20%. I'll need to come up with about $20k if I want to refinance. With the new baby on the way, cutting back on expenses will be difficult.

I'm going to play the Lotto and hope for the best.