Are you hurting?

S

SST55

Guest
Just wondering how all the gloom and doom in the news, stock market down, bailouts, retail sales down, layoff after layoff and growing unemployment etc has affected you?

Four close friends have shut the doors to their businesses in the past year, a body shop, small machine shop and 2 repair shops. A former co-worker has his house in foreclosure due to him being laid off.

I see alot of empty store fronts around here. My son works in a national sporting goods chain, business is dismal. People are buying socks instead of high end stuff like excerise equipment. He fears after the first of the year the store will close. My daughter is a EMT, no shortage of work. Both kids are attending college and the costs are going up faster than you can imagine.

I guess I, we, are lucky. I get SS and a pension plus a small anuity, my wife recently retired, her retirement almost equals her former pay checks and she's found a nice little job which pays great that she absolutely loves and it's 3 miles from our house. Our income has gone up a good amount but the rising cost of college,food,utilities and local taxes are killing me.

Sorry for the rant, just got a bill for tutition and another for a property tax increase. :mad:
 
No problem about the rant. It's good to vent a little sometimes.

I can't say my financial situation is really related to the economy as much as it is to my health situation. I've been out of work for over a year now due mostly to my back. I have a lot of back problems as well as a few other health issues that keep me from working. I am waiting for a verdict from Social Security on the claim I filed for disability a while back. My wife works now, but she makes about half of what I made when I was working.

Obviously the price increase in gas, food, and utilities doesn't make things any easier. But, if I was still able to work it would be a lot easier to take.
 
We're doing OK, also. I get a fair retirement, my hubby gets a small pension + SS, so we're making it.

Our house and property is free and clear, so the only big expense are the property taxes.
 
It's starting to hurt here in Waldork.

Uno's closed last week. It was the only place in Southern Maryland where college students 18-21 could go to catch live entertainment. Their appetizers were $2. They were the only affordable place to eat. Their closure put a knife in the coffin for this area.

Yes, there's the racetracks and the ballpark. All in all, they're only open 6 months a year. All the local bands are having to perform in Baltimore nightclubs.

Every week, another long time local business falls victims to 'The Great Recession of 2008' and more jobs are lost. College kids can't get jobs. Grants and loans have become sparse due to a frozen credit market.

I've talked to a lot of cops in town and they're telling me the economy has caused a huge surge in crime.

The local mall is packed, but nobody's buying things.

I almost get tempted to throw the D-word around. Not because of the economy, but because of the effects of the economy.

People around here are genuinely unhappy, bored, depressed.

A year ago, economists said this area was almost immune from a recession. At a meeting, the County budget officers told us it would take a long, deep and painful recession to have an impact on this region.



Enter that long, deep, painful recession and it is here where you will find a once thriving town falling apart.

The only silver lining in the coming months is The 56th Inauguration, when the first African-American will be sworn in to this nation's highest office. Tourists are expected to spend and spend, causing a turn-around. The problem is most businesses aren't 100% to survive long enough to see The Inauguration of Barack Obama.

The other problems include an increase in drug use and alcohol abuse. People are looking for ways to emotionally survive this recession.

Folks, 6 weeks ago, I would've said we're doing alright. But the first wave has hit and nobody can see what's on the horizon.
 
now that gas prices have fallen ( i drive 100 miles daily to work and home) things are better

my bank account don't look as good as it did this time last year but we are OK

as for the job market, things are NOT good, my county has a 9.8% unemployment rate the surrounding counties are not far behind. Sad to say but my company has taken a hit and we have had to let some folks go. our business is off about 12% year over year. I am in the trucking business so that should tell you something about the state of the economy
 
I, personally, am not hurting financially.

I am hurting emotionally. I like to do things. I like to get out and go places. I like to go see local bands play. I like to meet new people in the area. But, the mass-closures of places that harbored the college-demographics has made that damn near impossible.

Once jobs start being created again and we make it out of this recession, I'm moving out of here. :mad:
 
BREAKING NEWS:

Just talked to the owner of the two 15-18 aimed demographic hangout spots - they're BOTH done!



This is what I've been afraid of for months. Now, it's official - there's nothing for ANYONE under 21 to do.

I sure hope the County's ready for a sharp increase in crime.
 
We're doing ok here. Not great but ok. We would be doing a lot better if our previous house would sell and we could stop paying 2 mortgages. One is on an empty house with 100K equity into it (7 months on the market). I'll be taking a big beating on it when/if it sells. :( No where near foreclosure status though. One way or another we will ride it out.

Anyone wanting a great house in Springfield, Ma I'll sell this one for 150K (no dickering). All new appliances and many upgrades. House is in great shape and you can move in tommorrow. <g> Our kids are doing regular checkups on it to keep it in shape.
 
We're doing OK. We paid off the first mortgage on the house back in May and have a smaller payment on our Home Equity Loan. The worst part is we have 2 adult kids living with us, 21 and 27. They put in applications and hear nothing or actually get an interview or 2 and then hear nothing. They both have college loans. The oldest has a 4-yr-degree in biology, but none of the jobs she's had since graduation required it. Sad. She's been sick the past year and just got approved for SS disabililty starting next mo., so that will help.

It's going to get a lot worse around here if GM goes down since there's a lot of workers who make some of the smaller parts and those positions have been reduced drastically in the last 20 yrs. Kodak is a shell of itself. Nothing like it was when I worked there. Used to be if you got a job there, you were set for life. Now, you're set from day to day. Xerox isn't doing so great either. The biggest employer here now is the University of Rochester. Seems like nurses are the only ones in demand these days.

There's been no rush to take care of my parents' house so we're still heating it, etc. Hopefully, things will be better in the Spring.
 
On last nights news a company that make metal cases, like a computer case for example, for electrical and medical stuff advertised on a small,local newspaper. 65 jobs, over 700 showed up. They stood outside in 30' weather during snow/sleet and rain squalls for up to 5 hours.
These are production line jobs starting at 10 bucks an hour, they interviewed a guy around 40 years old who claimed to have several degrees in business mangement but can't find work in his field.

Ladies and gents whoever said the economy is strong lied thru their teeth.

Regarding nursing, my daughters been a EMT for 6 years plus worked in the ER and the OR as a tech. She wanted to go into nursing, 3 year minimum at this time to get into a nursing program. Staff are returning to work rather than teach due to the huge pay incentives offered.
She's now in school to become a Vet, the patients don't complain.
 
SST55 said:
She's now in school to become a Vet, the patients don't complain.
Click to expand...

Well, they sort of do. LOL They have to beware of bites and scratches and some of those animals get pretty ornery! Both of my kids living home worked for our vet and they wrangled their share of animals. Actually, if she had any openings, my daughter would love to work there again.

My best wishes to your daughter. I always wanted to be a vet when I was a kid. For some reason, I switched to humans when I grew up. ;)

Also, this past Fall there was an ad for a cashier and stocking groceries at our local bare-bones grocery. I was in there for about a half-hour and there had to be 40 people waiting for an interview and sitting all over filling out applications. I can only imagine how many others showed up since it wasn't the first day of the ad and I was only there for a short time.
 
Times are tough for sure, but we've been through this before and we'll survive. Back in the early 80's, I was still working on an assembly line but began to look elsewhere because I could see the writing on the wall. When I found an ad about applications being taken for work at the Post Office, I decided to give it a shot. I found out that in Davenport, Iowa alone, 4,000 people applied for the work. A few months later when tests were given, of those 4,000, only about 2,500 showed up to take the test. Of those 2,500, only five job openings were available and for each opening, they called three people to interview. Of the 15 people who were called for interview, only four showed up, showing that if you showed up for the interview, you would get the job. I did and of course, I got the job.

Today, the wife and I are doing fine. My job is pretty safe and the wife is a nurse with lots of experience. She's a manager in the home health business but if something happened to that job, she could hire on elsewhere within days...and probably get more money. The children are doing fine as well. The son is traveling all over the US installing GPS units on buses for schools etc. His wife works for a Vet, even though she has a degree in history from UNC CH. The daughter works for Time Warner Cable and is trying to get on with Greensboro's 911 group. Being bi-lingual helps and she's been through much of the introduction for that job...in the final stages.
 
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