How has economic downturn affected you personally

[rocks 494]

my partners retirement fund is hurting but i'm sure that will recover in time. my house back home is becoming less and less valuable sale wise but more valuable for renting. i think we will be fine if we ride it out but definitely no hdtv for us for a while

[Heracles 417]

The country is definitely in a recession. Most people will not feel the affect for a while.

[GiGii 4]

Well this economic downturn has affected people, or at least scared them into not buying as much... my ebay store has been struggling, sharp decline within the last month.

My 401k took a beating, who cares, i knew eventually would. Like Suze Orman said "this country is built on lies & deceit" so I dont invest in its stock market much

It would be nice if they did some more stimulus checks, i could use a check for about $750/per household member... Christmas season is around the door.

[NickD 202]

I took all my money out of the bank and buried it in a pickle jar.

Seriously: The biggest effect is in how I am thinking about investments and property. I can no longer think in terms of being confident about the stability of the dollar of the viability of property investments.

Fortunately, my job is very likely secure. But, will the salary I'm being paid be worth enough to keep our heads above water in the future? I don't know...

We are also in the situation of being debt free with a couple of bucks in the bank and wondering what to do with it. A crime when the inflation rate is greater than the interest you earn, and you have to pay taxes on the interest to boot. Property is out of the question for investment terms, the property taxes will kill you. Least around here, maybe should be looking elsewhere. The declining housing market in our area, and just a few small spots has only declined by 5% is the worse areas, rest is stable, but still way over priced.

Maybe gold would be a good investment, but never know about that either.

Ha, a lot are talking about electronic #######, depreciates about 95% the instant you leave the store, sure wouldn't invest in a new vehicle, would be more fun to burn my cash and get some heat value out of it. Some of our foreign investments are going down the tubes, not very bad as of yet. What a guy really needs is a crystal ball, I do have one, but it has a crack in it.

One thought is building a house, just jobbing down the real heavy stuff and doing the lighter stuff myself the way the labor cost have skyrocketed, did this a couple of times when was younger even while working full time, had the place paid off in two years. Ha, people told me was crazy as interest was tax deductible, just said I would rather give 30% of my wages to the government than a 100% of it to some bank. A dollar saved is a dollar earned, and you do not pay taxes on a dollar saved.

We would be in very good shape if we did have a depression, especially if you can buy stuff 5-10 cents on the dollar. But you sure don't want to be in debt, can lose everything. And bankruptcy does not exclude you from any taxes due, they killed that loophole.

[BermyCat 1]

We're eating a little bit less. Driving a whole lot less- even though gas is now gonna get cheaper due to less demand. Ironic.

I wouldn't count on gas staying cheaper. I've got a sneaking suspicion that OPEC will cut production to drive prices back up again.

*sigh*

~ Catherine

[Peikko 1,575]

Not had any effect...yet!

[AlHayatZween 2]

i'm mostly affected by the anxiety of it all.

i hate my job right now, but i can't quit because we need the $$, stability, and insurance. i'm worried about my husband's job. i'm worried about how much worse things will get. worried if i made the right decision in asking him to come here.

i was hoping we could go on vacation, and i was planning on re-applying to finish my grad degree in another state just to get out of the northeast and live somewhere else for a while... but now i don't know... the thought of starting all over, finding new jobs... pretty dark tunnel.

[NickD 202]

We're eating a little bit less. Driving a whole lot less- even though gas is now gonna get cheaper due to less demand. Ironic.

I wouldn't count on gas staying cheaper. I've got a sneaking suspicion that OPEC will cut production to drive prices back up again.

*sigh*

~ Catherine

Price of gas always goes down before an election, good time to store up if you can, but wait until after the election, we are suppose to have very short memories.

Better question to ask, who really does control OPEC? Hint, those that benefit the most from it. Now who can that be?

[anya-D 8]

It doesnt effect me since my job is quite secure in this non-porfit org. But it's reallly really bad for my husband as real estate investor - now he has many houses on the market that cant sell.

So he's off to work in other state right now and dont know when he'll be back

Our house is fine - we have tenents to help us pay for our mortgage but my retirement funds are in dump right now but I dont really care coz we are not even close to retire.

Overall the only bad thing is that hubby's not here so I'm sleeping with my dog on the bed with me

[GiGii 4]

So he's off to work in other state right now and dont know when he'll be back

Now that is a tough one.

[IAMX 3,055]

Hasn't affected me at all. The more unemployed there are, the more time people have to play games, the more the company I work for profits. Pluses all around.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Aside from 401k relatively unaffected....I moved my money out of shares some time ago. Glad I'm not retiring any time soon.