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This falls a little outside the purely spiritual, but money stress affects our lives and our relationships. Sometimes it is good to talk about it. I’ve been through a couple minor ups and downs in the economy now. My company is tightening. We’ve really been feeling the squeeze lately. Gas going down has been a big help. I have a feeling that the traditional election gas price dip will be over soon and might start going back up again this summer.
My position is pretty secure, but I am out looking anyway (to see what is out there and be prepared). I have a big family with children, and we can’t handle large risks at this point in our life. We just don’t have a lot of resources, so I have to worry about that and consider options. I jumped ship during the dot com burst. I also got laid off when the 9/11 effects finally hit the company I was working for at that time (several years ago).
It is very stressful these days.
Everybody else ok?
Financially, things are quite stressful for my DH and I right now. We are buried in a mountain of debt and are trying to avoid having to file for bankruptcy. We incurred the debt when we had the cushion of equity in our home, but since the value of our home has plummeted, well … we’re sitting on a concrete bench. This coming Friday, we will be having a “State of the Firm” presentation. I’m hoping some of my fears will be calmed.
My wife and I worked hard to get out of debt. But still we owe on our house. And in civil engineering things can be particularly cyclical. I am thankful to have a steady job. I am also thankful to be “otherwise” out of debt. I feel humble, timid, and pensive as I consider the possibilities for 2009 and some of my best friends who are out of work. Tom
I’m at a civil engineering firm too. Times are rough in the biz right now. My wife and I backed out of a lot of normal things in the economy several years ago in the post 9/11 slump. We’ve been renting the house we live in for the past 4 years, so real estate value changes didn’t hit us. I have siblings and friends that are getting killed by that though
Jobs and pay are going down while prices were going up. No escaping that for us.
Valoel wrote:We’ve been renting the house we live in for the past 4 years, so real estate value changes didn’t hit us.
I admire that. Lately I feel ownership is way overrated.
I live in Australia, and thus we usually follow the US trends re the global economic situation. So yes many here are really struggling now that home values have dived etc, unemployment is now just starting to hit etc. Personally my dh and I fine as besides our mortgage we have no consumer debt at all. The key for all countries will be holding onto ones job for the next 2 years so as to ride out the storm.
I am a financiall counsellor by profession (and also ex fin planner so know ionvestments pretty well) so if any of you would like me to be an ear to listen to I am more then happy to but I am not sure if this board has a message facility..if not I can set up a generic one. I will refrain from telling anyone what to do but I can maybe communicate what the general options would be moving forward.
In general I will say the following to all:
* hold onto your job and if you feel it is on shaky ground then start doing some under the radar job seeking
* Avoid any career switch right now
* If you are in a negative equity position with your house consider your options VERY carefully, dont hold onto it out of pride thinking things will get better as they will but not in the short term, and recovery perhaps will take much longer then we all expect it to, the earlier post of getting out of owning property early is a great example of using your head over your heart
* If you have shares and dont need to sell, then dont, the losses so far are just on paper, they are real if you SELL in this current market.
* Start being real, and living within your means…cut up the cards if they are too much temptation, or freeze them, as they will take 2 days to thaw and be of any use thus giving you time to think before you buy.
Basically we all need to realise that money just gives us stuff, not a life. If we are living beyond our means we are not being genuine, honest people that so many on this board aspire to be in a spiritual sense.
Prayers to you all. Stay positive but act smart.
Cheers,
I lost my job about two weeks ago – for totally stupid and illogical reasons that don’t need to be mentioned here. I have a couple of pretty good possibilities lined up, but my wife is stressed out at the moment. I am at peace, due largely to a neat prayer experience – but I have no idea how long I will be out of work.
Anyone have connections in Wyoming? One of the opportunities would require we relocate.
We are OK at the moment. Own one rental outright, our home is mortgaged pretty high. No consumer debt. Lots of Medical bills, never had so much in over 26 years. I may need to work. I havent worked full time for 10 years. I attempted to get a job today. No luck. I will keep searching. I will perhaps do a specific search among construciton companies as most of my experience is in job costing, payroll, and accounts payable in Construction. Not sure how construction companies are doing in my area. I would prefer to find a full time temporary position so I can pay off the medical debts in 4 to 6 months, then not work again. lots of kids still home and home educating still. A bit of a challenge AND I have done it before in bad times. Not too discouraged or worried or depressed. I figure if all goes badly we may lose this house and we can move into our rental. Not the end of the world. Lots of food in the house and know what to do with it. Lots of able bodied children to make do with what we have. I have had full faith and confidence in a major economic downfall for over 20 years and have never seen in reality what my mind has seen. So, I really am just plain ready anyday any time. I came to work one Monday in December with a feeling of complete and awful dread. Nothing happened. The following day, we had an impromptu meeting for our department and were told that 6 people had been let go (out of about 80). I was told that my job was relatively safe (although I think there is no such thing) because of the new product contract we just signed. The week after we came back from vacation, they announced that our product is on permanent hold and will likely be canceled by our customer. So, it is hard not to have an awful dread again.
I’ve felt for a while that I need to change careers (not just jobs), but this just seems like a terrible time to switch, especially since any switch would dramatically lower my total income. With two kids in college and one about to graduate from high school, I would hate to make that kind of change, but I can feel the life being sucked out of me.
We are on the downhill with our mortgage. We’ve been in this house for 13 years and we’ve looked at moving several times, but it just never made sense. So, we have 6 years left on our mortgage, which is now under $100,000 which seemed like a magic number for us. The first statement we got that was under $100,000 my wife turned to me and said, “How much life insurance do you have? I think if you died I could pay this off.” So, I’m officially worth more dead than alive now.
😮
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