Post here if you're not really affected by the current economic downturn...

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
are we actually in a recession?

That's simply a debate of nothing but semantics.

One can always argue the technical "2 quarters of negative growth" answer, but there's no question about it that we'll probably experience negative GDP growth for Q1.

By common sense we're in a recession.

 

[ViperVin2]

Not really affected here. Just got my raise yesterday. The only thing I can think of is my 401k is -10%

 

[clamum]

I don't notice anything different. I have no stocks are anything though. But I am going to invest in my company's 401(k) plan soon (if I get off my lazy fucking ass and fill out the application).

 

[Finalnight]

I am only affected by the inflation.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

retirement accounts have gone down, no worries they will be up before i retire
house value has gone down. lower property taxes is nice. would have been nicer to buy it at a lower price, but we bought when we wanted to and its been worth it. it will go back up before we sell, so again no immediate problems. nice stable well-paying job. no debt other than a manageable house payment, life is good.

 

[evident]

my mom got sick a few weeks ago and took off for illness for a week, and then she got laid off she was a top performer too so yeah my family's been affected

 

[SirStev0]

I have fallen into the unemployed and no longer looking. So... yeah.

 

[cyclistca]

The only effect that it's had is on the value of my RRSP. I'm not to worried as I'm invested for the long term. The firm I work for is doing great and we have plenty of cash so no worries there. I ride to work 2-3 time a week so the cost of gas is no biggy. The big bonus is I have to renew my mortgage this year so I love the falling interest rates.

 

[Nemesis 1]

This housing bubble burst has affectedus all. Some more than others .The banks will recover their loses threw governmeny bllout and munipulation of stock prices.

We Lost $35'000 last Qt in 401K account (wifes) . Ya this affects everyone bigtime the falling dollar helps with exports but hurts middle america.

 

[jaybert]

if anything, for the better. i work for a large hedge fund, and the recent downturn has messed w/ a bunch of our competitors. Like they say..its easy to make money when the market is good. I'm still young (24), so dont have much in my 401k/roth ira yet, so no big deal. dont own a house yet, but hopefully soon so I'm rooting for housing prices to drop some more.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

nope, not affected by the supposed "downturn" at all. Gas and inflation- sure but most everyone is affected by those - "downturn" or not.

My job field is pretty recession proof though as companies automate when the economy sucks and they automate when the economy is red hot. However, we've doubled the size of our office the past 2 years and we still are way too busy.

 

[CptCrunch]

just got a raise, then a promotion + raise 2 weeks ago. No affected by the downturn, can afford all of my bills and such

 

[Deeko]

I just got roughly a 60% raise. I'm not overly concerned.

 

[NinjaGnome]

nope not really affected here, Plane tickets for me and my wife back home are 200 dollars more than last time and gas prices are high but nothing serious.

 

[Cobalt]

My family lost our house to foreclosure last month. We just moved into the new house we are now renting 2 weeks ago. Definitely feeling it here, and at work too. I'm a sales rep for AT&T and business has been getting slower and slower, not nearly as good as last year.

 

[Kaieye]

The Housing bubble did not affect the city and county of San Francisco. It has been the opposite and the home prices are approaching record high. Our family has not been affected that much except for the price of transportation and food.

But I feel sorry for the folks living in the central valley where they have it pretty tough...

 

[miketheidiot]

got a job for the summer, states has a massive surplus atm so tax and tuitition aren't going up... good time indeed.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: E equals MC2
I must admit I'm not really affected by it. My salary remains fixed (just got a small raise actually)... the only time I bitch a little is that I pay $3-4 extra when I fill up my tank.

My company stock has been going down a little and now it's almost back up to what it used to be in back last november.

I try to conserve by not going out as much, but I think it's more psychological since all consumers are psychologically affected by it.

I guess it helps that I'm only 26 without family to support.

are we actually in a recession?

Does it even matter what we decide to call it? It is a time of financial hardship across the country compared to normal no matter how you slice it.

I would take out "across the country."

There are several states and regions that are booming right now. Avg'ed out US the US as a whole is in a recession, or will be offically at the end or Q2, but it isnt nation wide.

 

[natto fire]

I live on an organic farm. Rent free and free internet, free food from the freezers from last years harvest and I work a mere 3 miles from home for a pueblo (which is essentially a sovereign nation.) So yeah the rest of this shithole country's problems mean jack to me. And yeah we have solar power and a backup for that if the grid totally fails. I am pretty much ready for SHTF except we are only armed with .22's and I don't know if that is enough firepower. I am working on that, but as it stands the slumping economy only means I can buy cheap cars and fix them up to resell at high markup. When this fails I still won't care as my essentials are really covered. We have two wells for water and the solar drives the pumps not to mention we are working on a backup for that to charge the batteries off of exercise bikes. So unless the hydrologic cycle has some major hiccups I am set. I just might have to give up some luxuries which I am fully prepared to do.

 

[nageov3t]

not really, at least not yet.

I rent my apartment, my car is paid off, I have no major debts (about 750 left to pay on my cc before it's clean), and I live close enough to work that gas prices haven't had a direct impact on me... I work for a multinational web hosting provider, and a significant number of our clients are overseas. the weakened dollar actually makes us a more attractive option for them.

my 401K took a bit of a dip, but I'm 30-40 years away from thinking about retirement anyways. also sitting on a nice chunk of stock options if we ever go public.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Dairy has gone up a bit... string cheese had been $5 per package, then suddenly it went up to nearly $6.50, milk went up... sucks when your kids go through a few gallons per week.

time to start having them eat pancakes in the morning.

That or write, call, and generally harass your congressman and senator demanding an end to the ethanol mandate.

Good luck with that.

They represent the Corporations and the farmers that work fro them such as ADM.

The government does not represent the people.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: moshquerade
are we actually in a recession?

Does it even matter what we decide to call it? It is a time of financial hardship across the country compared to normal no matter how you slice it.

I would take out "across the country."

There are several states and regions that are booming right now. Avg'ed out US the US as a whole is in a recession, or will be offically at the end or Q2, but it isnt nation wide.

I won't argue that some states are doing much better than others. However, I believe I read a few days ago on MSNBC that there was something like 80,000 people laid off over a very short period of time recently. There are a lot of issues like that one which effect our country on the federal level which in turn effects all states. A large number of problems that we are experiencing right now are difficult to recognize over a short period of time on an individual basis, but they are happening. While not entirely at the federal level, a good example would be all of the cuts in funding to education and police which is occurring in many states. Such things have long term effects which can extend beyond the state where the cuts are occurring.