I lost my job basically. I worked at a bank office building they felt they needed to cut spending so they down sized ending my emploument.
100% of my salary come from grant money so I am untouchable for the next three years at least. Beyond that it might be a little harder to pursue my strategy of getting money added on top of the grant allotment. My wife works for an investment bank (one that takes care of their money and didn't make stupid decisions) and they have been told to expect about a 40% reduction in bonuses and no raise this year. Her bonuses are obscene, though, so 60% of that is still more than I make in a year. Her 401k and shares have been hit hard but that is fake money right now, anyway. We have not changed our lifestyle thus far. Of course, we were not living beyond our means before, anyway (we don't use credit). We can still generally buy whatever we want.
I haven't seen a difference yet. I work at an oil/gas company and my fiance does as well.I have seen emails from the corporate for us to be frugal with our supplies and etc. We are just trying to pay off our bills right now especially the new furniture. I pray I won't lose my job or I'm gonna be screwed. I have a personal loan, car loan and mortgage to pay.
No debt, emergency fund, working extra jobs, you sound like a Dave Ramsey listener. Good luck paying off your house. I'm sure you'll do it eventually as you seem pretty fired up about it. As soon as I sell my house, we're starting the debt snowball. We're going to get her CC's paid off and my car paid off, then and only then, start looking for a new house. Hopefully the equity in my house plus the equity in her house (the one we're living in now) will add up to a nice down payment and we can do the 15-year mortgage instead of the 30-year. Or maybe a 30-year but pay it as if it's a 15-year. My buddy did this 10 years ago (on a high school band director salary) and now owns 2 houses free and clear. He rents one and lives in the other. He bought their 3 cars with cash. He has no payments of any kind. Someday........
You should check out your area's rent to price ratio to see if it's more attractive to rent in the house you plan to sell. I'm sure there will be a lot of people looking to rent in this market condition. a potential problem is that there's extra work maintaining upkeep and relations with the renters.
Yeah, I've thought about it, but man...I've got enough going on in my life right now without being a landlord.
Got one job that pays well but about to jump into my own business full time now. Best time to have financial intelligence and share it with others. So business is doing quite well right now. As far as my retirement, I dont play in the market but I vehicles that will mirror the market and give me the same gains minus the risk. That "Rich Dad Poor Dad" was a catalysts.
I have the exact same problem of whether to rent while I take on a second mortgage. There is the option of using a management company to do the landlord duties, but then that messes up the cash flow situation. I've heard nightmares from people who were being landlords while waiting to sell a place.
well this sucks two of my closest friends at work got the axe today i am not in a good mood. i am still around but chances are i would be let go if things get even worse. i am glad i was clued last week so i could start looking for jobs already. hopefully i can snag one of the two jobs i interviewed/will interview for this week. otherwise i can at least ride this ship till it completely sinks the owners wants to keep open till tax season at the lowest cost possible to hopefully make the company more lucrative to sell. but i've already told my boss that if a certain employee makes it past the cuts that if i am lucky enough to move on from the company on my own terms (ie i got a new job) i am going to go tell the owner of the company and the other manager a piece of my mind why that person made it past the cuts
They just cut every ones salary at my company. With no bonuses and the lackluster performance of our stock, I am going to be making less next year than I did my first year at the job.
Yea me too. It has opened my mine a lot more. Really common sense things I didn't have any sense about.
I've been drinking more.. The economic meltdown hasn't affected me too badly other than my investments. I've been pretty busy the last few months as we have projects that were in the pipeline already. The only problem is that now that we are pretty much done with them is that there doesn't seem like a lot on the horizon. 2009 is going to be the real challenge and I will know a lot more about where I stand financially in the next few months. The architecture business though is pretty bad right now judging from some of my friends. I have a friend who is an associate at his firm but they have cut back his salaries and hours so now he is selling suits down at the Mall of America part time. Another friend who is a partner at his firm they are having such a hard time making collections and securing credit to make payroll that he is having to resort to borrowing money from his family. For my own company though we've kept our costs as low as possible and didn't grow even when we probably should have so we are doing relatively well. Of course if we can't get any new business in 2009 or our collections don't come in we will be in trouble too.
Boy do I wish my old Saturn that died on me three years ago could have lasted until now, I could have zero % financing and lower price for my car as well! Curse that Saturn again!
You know it! I came across him about six or seven years ago. I paid off $34,000 in debt in about 24 months. You can do it, just work the snowball and its nice to get the add-a-boys along the way when you check another debt off the list. Go for the 15 year or 10 if you can swing it. Its really not much more per month. Have a good Christmas...I am off to Vegas for the week!
I work for what was once a major IB....there are no IBs now. The era is over. I had the best trading year of my life this year, but since the whole market is effed I am expecting a crappy number when we get them at end of year. On the bright side, I am still employed and the firm I work for is filled with brilliant people and I believe we'll end up ok in the end. But I doubt my stock ever goes back to where my options are marked.
