How has your personal financial situation changed since 1/1/2010?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Sour economic mood in living room and boardroom

Americans in both the living room and the boardroom are growing more fearful about the economy, creating a Catch-22 for the job market: Shoppers won't spend until they feel more secure, and business won't hire until people start spending.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/28/national/a122617D87.DTL#ixzz10sMxekWx

[doc03]

1. I'm doing OK, I retired so I don't make as much income as before

my IRA balance has improved very well since Obama took office. I was lucky though I was 61 years old when they shut my plant down in April 2009 and was fortunate to be able to retire this May. I feel sorry for my co-workers that are in their 50s, they are having a hard time.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. congrats. Glad you are doing well.

[peacebird]

2. I read last night that corporations are holding up to 2trillion out of the economy in attempt to get

favorable GOP types back in power....


http://www.topangamessenger.com/Articles.asp?SectionID=8
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/hoarding-hiring-corporations-stockpile-mountain-cash/story?id=10250559

I know our company has been turning DOWN contracts that offer less than guaranteed 13.5% profit margins...?!?
We are asked to work overtime to bring our CURRENT contracts to conclusion BEFORE the end of December, and the company is turning DOWN cost plus contracts with an 8% profit guarantee. They would rather get 13.5% with fewer people than 8% with more.

Clearly they "care" about their employees - :eyes:

forgot to mention - they don't have the work in January to keep most of us employed, so turning down multi-year contracts at 8% while having us clear out our current work load before xmas sounds like they are planning to suck the profit and shutter the plant - Happy Holidays! :sarcasm:

[RB TexLa]

6. You honestly think it is wise to take on new costs at this time? Or to spend more than is

absolutely necessary?
:crazy:

[peacebird]

8. what part of turning down cost-plus contracts because they only guarantee 8% profit did you miss?

they are turning down contracts that could keep people employed. When did a guarantee of 8% profit become too small to bother with? Just last spring. Prior to this year we always had a buffer of contracts with 5 - 8% profit, but new management this spring decided we would only accept contracts that guarantee 13.5% profit.

Surprisingly (:sarcasm: ) enough, we have not accepted a single contract since...

[FirstLight]

4. much worse...no end in sight

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9218548

we are on tanf and foodstamps and i'm out of work for years. i think i can officially say i have been in poverty all of my adult life, and i have been out of work more often than making a living wage...

when does it end...? when i make my OWN career choices?

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. I'm sorry to hear it. I hope some good financial breaks will come your way

[Mickeyc1004]

7. Got a job!

A really good one, so, my situation has gotten much better.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. yay!

:party:

[DailyGrind51]

9. Expenses have gone up, income has plateaued.

[ThomWV]

10. My retirement pay is stagnant, but my investments (stocks) are paying off nicely

I don't know if you all are paying any attention but if you have savings invested in the stock market things are not doing badly at all.

[uncommon]

11. My situation has improved drastically over the past year --

but it was largely (at the outset) due to luck - one of my friends snagged me a job at a law firm after I had been working temp jobs and retail for quite some time.

It was just an admin assistant job, but I did manage to impress them and leverage my way into a legal assistant position.

I make about 30% more than I did when I started in August of 2009.

[hobbit709]

12. Income down about 40%, have had to tap into savings.

Business is down even in the computer repair field compared to last year.

[seabeyond]

16. +1.

we have not had to tap into saving, but, we arent saving either, like past.

man... i dont want to go into saving. hubby in computer business, too.

[Broken_Hero]

13. It has stayed the same

for our household, but other households in our immediate family have suffered.

My wife's parents are both out of work, both are disabled, one is on SSDI, the other is still fighting to get on disability. We supplement their monthly income by at least 200$ a month.

My wife's brother is making 8$ an hour, with a family of 4, and his work schedule is up/down in terms of hours he is offered a week. We supplement their monthly income by 100$ a month.

My wife's cousin is on SSDI, and we supplement her income by 700$ a month.

My wife's other cousin just got laid off the other day, the mechanic shop he worked for(for 4yrs) went under this past Friday, and all ready we have supplemented their monthly income by 150$, and we plan on covering their home payment next month(400$) until he get's on unemployment.

I'm very grateful that we are in a position to help out family members, and that my wife is still employed and making good money, but in terms of our own personal finances, I'm almost always in a position of worry because their is so much $$ going out, that we can't save, but we are trying to keep so many other households afloat I wonder if/when the hammer will drop on us...so far, we have lucked out, and hopefully our good fortune will continue. I really don't personally see that our economy is doing any better, I see no job growth in our area, and by luck/my wife's smarts she has kept her job. At her place of employment, she has been through 5 job cuts this year, and we still got a few more months to go before the year is up...its been very tense.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. It's so great that you help so many members of your family.

[grace0418]

14. I've been extremely fortunate this year. I'm working waaaaay too much but making

more than I ever did working at a stupid office.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. Glad to hear a few positive stories

[grace0418]

23. Thanks! After many years of work hell, I'm glad to provide one of the positive stories.

I realize how fortunate I've been this past year, so I say yes to every single job thatcomes my way. I have to say I'm a little burnt out and exhausted, but I know there will be a time when the work isn't coming as fast and furious as it is right now so I'm trying to save as much as I can for the lean times. I know for a fact there will be at least a couple of months next summer that I can't work at all so I'm saving up for that as well. There are so many upsides to freelancing but one of the few downsides is that there's no such thing as vacation time, sick leave, maternity leave or unemployment. You have to learn to be a squirrel.

But man I do need a little bit of a break. I was at my desk working by 7 am and I'm still working now 14.5 hours later (just waiting for something to upload). But still, with so many people out of work I know I shouldn't be complaining about having too much. So I will stop whining. :)

[seabeyond]

15. 3/4 yrs ago we were effected by increase in costs. 2 yrs ago, income significantly reduced

plus the continual increase in cost.

no, it has not gotten any better.

[blondeatlast]

17. Mone's gotten considerably worse, but due to personal issues (divorce

and ex lives out tof the country).

[bobbolink]

20. I'm one of the lucky ones Obama has cut off disability.

Will the deaths of thousands being cut off matter to any of you?

[uppityperson]

21. If I said yes, you wouldn't hear me anyway

Since when I have said I care, you cut me off. Oh well.

[ecstatic]

25. link? nt

[bobbolink]

28. to what?

Are you also going to demand I send you my SS information? Online? Before you can show any compassion?

:grr:

[ecstatic]

24. My biggest problem right now

is my underwater mortgage. Everything else is fine. I can make the payments, but the house has lost a lot of value. Going to look into Obama's modification program.

[salin]

26. Frozen wages - increased work - and higher costs of living.

But am thankful that I work, and that I earn more than it costs to live.

[LostInAnomie]

27. Much better.

But, that doesn't take much since I had been furloughed for 11 months by 1/1/2010. I've never been so happy to be working.

[BamaGirl]

29. Better than can be expected actually

My husband has a gov job and his situation hasn't changed. I'm a romance writer and sadly, when the economy is bad, I sell more books. Well, that's sad and not. It sucks the economy is bad but it's also nice to know I can provide some escape, ya know? I'm paying stuff off as fast as I can because when the economy 'recovers' I expect my income to go down accordingly!