Tyler Durden

It's meant to have hit us all in different ways, but how has it effected you personally?

Is your job still secure?
Have your rent or mortgage increased many fold?
Have your bills gone through the roof?

And when answering, spare a thought for those of us typing this from a cardboard box

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PeaceSells

Well, as a student whose parents are still pretty much paying my way through life, it hasn't affected me much at all.

They were against me having a student loan as my sister never had so are paying the bills for my Uni all themselves. They don't mention it much but it's pretty obvious that the fact my sister is doing a masters in Law and that I'm at Uni and they are taking no financial help for either of us is putting some financial strain on them.

I appreciate it greatly.

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Jayman

Honestly, I've been pretty lucky that it hasn't effected me like it has my friends (yet?). The biggest effect the economy has had in my area of the world is people getting laid off. Most people around Detroit are either directly or indirectly tied to the automotive industry, which is suffering greatly at the moment. Thus, demand has gone down and the need for the amount of employees they currently have is shrinking.

I've had three of my friends get laid off in the past 3 months, but I don't see that happening with me, short of the entire company folding under. I'm lucky in that I switched divisions to be in a place that is required for the success of the company, so I should be good for a while.

Other than that, my bills are still managable. I'm currently looking to refinance to save myself some money on the ol' home mortgage. Fun stuff like that. A group of us are flying out to Las Vegas next month too, so by no means are we watching any penny, but just being cautious.

Slim

Luckily me and my gf both still have our jobs. So we are able to pay pur bills and all of that. The hauling king business however we have pretty much put on a hold for now which sucks, but hey what can you do. Other then that we use to go to the movies just about every single weekend. And that has cut down a lot! Sucks, there are a lot of movies out I want to see.

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Gigglypuff

Ive had 5 friends made redundant in the last month, its shocking. Luckily, my job is pretty secure and now theyve all come crawling to me, after belittling me - asking me to hire them. I feel for them, I really do but I cant.

The only way Ive really felt a difference is the price of our weekly shop. Weve gone from spending £70 a fortnight to almost £100 a fortnight. Me and my flatmate opened a joint account and pay in money for our bills monthly. We used to have a lot saved up in it for emergencies but that has all pretty much gone now. It sucks. How bad do things have to get before it gets better?

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Inogenius

I haven't had much of a difference until this month when the company I work for eliminated our bonus program and put a salary freeze into effect. The salary freeze wasn't a huge deal as that was only about a 8% increase in pay each year, but the bonus program was anywhere from 10%-30% of some peoples gross pay.

On the bright side, I still have a job. Considering the debt collection industry has been hit real hard, and the Cleveland area doesn't really have a whole lot of job openings, I'm not really going to complain.

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Felix

I've probably already mentioned this elsewhere but let's see. I lost my job due to the housing market crumbling in Dec 07. My company closed because there simply wasn't enough housing sales with all the foreclosures that had occurred by then. It took me 6 months til I got another job, still in the housing industry. The job lasted4 months until they came to me and wanted me to work on 100% commission with no benefits, so I was better off to collect unemployment. So now I'm a stay home dad, which is great because I have a 18 month old, and I've got to spend alot of time with him during my unemployment. Of course, I have pretty much lost everything I've worked for. I've lost my home, have a 90 % chance I'm going to lose my car, and irregardless of how many jobs I apply for no one seems to be hiring.

I've have never been without a job since I was 13 and I've always held high positions within the companies I work for, so this has been quite depressing tbo. I can get a low paying job, but with child care expenses close to 20K a year, a low paying job just isn't worth it. So for the time being, I freelance on the internet doing forum work, websites and coding.

I see it only getting worse before it gets better. I thought my job(s) were secure as I had a long tenure with the company I work for, but it just goes to show you never know. Even working directly for the president of the compnay, although I got a little notice of his intentions, it wasn't enough for me to prepare for this.


I guess the lesson is, just because you have a secure job now means nothing today. You should be putting as much money aside as possible (like my parents always said) for a rainy day because the rain is here, and unfortunately, I lived life for today and didn't plan for the future...

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Tyler Durden

At the moment. It's not effecting me.

I'm pretty well budgeted and don't go that far above my means. Some did though.

The job thing....well I "could" lose it. Anyone could. Last time I was in somewhere very quick after so we'd see.

Bills have gone up, mortgage is fixed though.

Could do with bonus at the end of this month though!!

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A throne is just a bench wrapped in velvet

The Phantom

I’ve been fortunate enough for it not to have effected me too much.

There’s a project I manage that’s been hit with a downturn in work (tele-medical insurance work), so I’ve had to cut down on some staff on certain days. However part of this is also due to the time of year, and historically the type of work I’m involved with takes a dip in December & January, so hopefully it’ll pick up in the next few weeks. I don’t like telling people that I don’t need them to work.

Inogenius

The one thing that I actually put into place from the Dave Ramsey class I took was the idea that everyone should have at least 6 months worth of savings. This way, if something unfortunate does come up, you're not rushing to find another job. You can take your time, and find the job that you really like all while the bills are still getting paid.

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