How Has The Recession Affected Your Life? (unemployed, degree, employers)

[Hemlock140]

The recession started for me in 2005, and ended in 2010. Where you are and your circumstances really makes a big difference. There has not been any recession in our area since about 2012, with lots of hiring in good paying jobs, homes and cars selling like hotcakes. Since 2012 we have managed several good vacations, including Maui, replaced every appliance in the house, bought a new car, and remodeled a bathroom. All of that is due to our much improved financial situation and was required by the deferred spending while we had minimum income until my new job starting in 2009. Home prices are above what they were at the pre-recession peak, and selling for over asking within a few days.

I am aware, however, that for some people and in some parts of the country
things have not improved.

In my case, our marriage remained strong throughout. Neither of us tarted drinking more, or smoking pot, both of which would have taken food off of the table. Being self-employed at the time, I had no pension but will now have one with the new job. The home mortgage modification that we managed to get is fixed at a lower rate than we were paying before. In all, we are far better off than before the recession, as are most people that we know.

[ABQ2015]

I lost about $200k in my 401k which I never recovered because I got out of the market. Yes, I knew it would probably be a mistake but what to do when you are depressed and it impacts your sleep? Then my employer went 3 years with no COLA and 1% COLA for the next 3 years. So my pension has suffered and I'm working an extra 2 years until I retire to make up the difference and because I fear another recession is coming. Now I loathe the stock market and keep a conservative allocation but the low interest rates make it difficult and penalize those close to or in retirement who do not want to take too much risk. The housing bubble did not impact me because I bought in the mid 1990s and did not use my home equity as a cash cow. But the home prices and rents where I want to retire are now in another bubble while the home prices in my area are stagnant.

But overall I'm in good shape for retirement due to a good job and lots of saving. On the Retirement subforum, there are many stories of people losing their jobs in their 50's who were never able to find a similar position and depleted their retirement savings and/or lost their home. Some were forced to take social security too early or developed health problems and are on SSDI or trying to get on SSDI and living on very tight budgets. Most seem to be single or divorced women who were not high wage earners to begin with and did not have college educations or had liberal arts type degrees.

[Serious Conversation]

I'm doing fine now, but it took me four years to get my first professional job after college. I'm five years or so behind in life compared to many peers my age.

[WizardOfRadical]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I'm doing fine now, but it took me four years to get my first professional job after college. I'm five years or so behind in life compared to many peers my age.

This is the general consensus for anyone born between 1983-1988. The great recession pretty much stunted our careers and now we are playing catch up. Spent many years unemployed/underemployed and am now playing catch up.

It's super disconcerting seeing kids fresh out of college getting good jobs, when just 6 years ago people with decades experience were getting laid off from these same jobs.

Bernie Sanders been had my vote.

[JTE1969]

The Recession has been terrible for me, and I think it's still going on... 2 weeks age I was visiting Scottrade in Chicago and there was a Parade Protest that was never in the news... People were clamoring about no cuts for benefits, education, etc and to stop feeding off of the middle class and poor and to get on the rich people too...

[MLSFan]

It's super disconcerting seeing kids fresh out of college getting good jobs, when just 6 years ago people with decades experience were getting laid off from these same jobs.

you mean jealous?

I don't think it will be that much of a change for the US

5-6 years isn't that much, and the people graduating college today will have a larger gap to fill so they will have better opportunities too

[pvande55]

Had to endure over two years of unemployment but have had a 3-year vacation from that. Funny how you consider work a vacation. Several of my peers have decided to call it a career. Especially if they had reached the magic age of 62, a few had enough financial resources to last until that time, a few got disability. One is still working but got out of Engineering.

[mo8414]

the recession allowed for me to get my associates on the states dime. I took my 99 weeks of unemployment in which half the time I was in school full time. a few years ago the auto industry started picking back up and I never got to use my degree in social work as working in a shop paid more.

The recession eliminated alot of skilled automotive workers. they either retired, moved to another state or simply retrained for another career like I did. Because of this I have not seen a week working less than 60 hrs in the last few years. Now it is hard for shops to find skilled people and my wage has slightly increased. I see my wage going up much more in the next 10 years as 90% of skilled guys in shops are 55+ and they arent really doing much in terms of apprenticeships to train younger workers nor do the kids these days wanna spin handles all day long.

I have noticed a big upswing in companies hiring direct. when the recession hit almost every job was through a temp agency because they literally had hundreds of job applicants that would work for wages far below par. These days I am getting calls from temp agencies that I haven't had contact with in 5 years. The temp agencies are paying pretty good these days because they are desperate for skilled workers, as most good workers are hired direct now.

Getting a job these days is pretty easy. So I suppose the recession has worked out good for any shop that made it because they are all loaded up with work now because their are less shops to spread the work out to. There are less skilled workers and tons more work making it easy to get a job in the metro detroit area. unskilled workers are still kind of having a problem getting a job but its still alot better than it has been.

[Tigeru]

A year and a half of combined unemployment, 6 months on the current skid. I can complain.

[ihpsdm]

Originally Posted by LoriNJ

- Savings have taken a big hit. Just as one example, ING was paying 5% interest in 2007. Now the same account (owned by Capital One) is paying 0.75%. My local bank pays 0.25%. It has been like this for going on 8 years now. That is money that will never be recovered.

- Our house value has not recovered to where it was in 2007. Right now, that's not a problem, as we have lived here for many years and don't plan to move soon. But when we do move, it will mean less money received for selling the house, unless there is another crazy housing bubble. Mortgage is paid-off, TG, so we are not "under water".

This is the way the recession has affected my life.

Not only was ING paying 5% interest, I could add another account somewhere else (i.e. Metlife), as they were offering bonuses for putting in a minimum amount of money and leaving it there for three months.

Now the best rate you are going to find is 1.10%, according to bankrate.com. I closed out my Capital One account last year and moved all of my savings to GE Capital. I'm still patiently waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates. Even though I have over 6 figures saved up, I'm only getting $1,000 a year in interest

This is why people are putting their money in the stock market. It will be interesting to see what happens there if the Fed does raise rates.

I also bought a home in February of 2007. I have only lived in it for 3 of the past 9 years since I had to move in the Summer of 2009 for job related reasons. Obviously I couldn't sell it then, so I rented it out for about 6 years and have just now moved back in.

On the flip side, I have been able to refinance the house twice. My original mortgage rate was 6.25% (30 Years) and I just refinanced it at 2.875% (15 Years). During the refinancing process, the appraiser valued my home at $500 less than what I purchased it for in 2007 I'm fortunate to have bought it in a relatively recession proof area.

I don't have a 401(k) since I have a government job that has a defined benefit plan. I have however participated in a deferred compensation 457 plan. When the markets collapsed, I increased the amount of money I was putting in to the plan, since this was money I was not planning on touching for 30+ years. I have seen significant gains there.

These are just minor headaches compared to the nightmares that others have experienced as a result of the Great Recession. It really makes me thankful to have had a steady job for the past ten years. However, after seeing what happened to others, I am also VERY frugal with my money, to the point that my expenses are nearly the same as they were 10 years ago.