Four years ago, I was working a low-stress, well-paid job. I didn’t love it, and it certainly wasn’t making the world a better place, but it was something I wouldn’t have minded doing for the rest of my life. I left that job because we had to move for Mr. Neville’s career, so there’s nobody I can blame for that.
Now, I can’t wait till my contract at my current job is up. The stress and the commute are killing me. My last job before this was truly awful, and I’m still traumatized by it. I learned there that I can’t do any technical job I want if I put my mind to it, and that learning the technical stuff isn’t always enough to do well at a job.
I realized that I did better at being in school than I am doing at working in the real world. I feel like my career is going nowhere. At the same time, Mr. Neville’s career is going very well, and he’s smarter than me, and I’m just competitive enough that those things kind of irk me. I realized that being unemployed for longish stretches of time isn’t just something that happens to other people. I realized that I wouldn’t be any better as a housekeeper even if I weren’t working all the time- the house was still a mess when I was unemployed, I just have no aptitude for housekeeping.
We own our house now, have more house than we did four years ago, and our mortgage payment now is lower than our rent was then. Mr. Neville’s in a tenure-track job and is looking likely to get tenure. We have more savings now. We had no debt four years ago; now, we have no debt except our mortgage. I learned while I was unemployed that we can live reasonably well on just Mr. Neville’s income. I’ve just realized some things about myself that I don’t particularly like, and wish I hadn’t.
November 2009 to February 2011 was a low period in my life, and I was happier before it than after. Until November 2013 comes, it’s likely that I will always be worse off now than I was four years ago. I really doubt that there’s anything any politician could do to change that.
My gross income has dropped 40%. Plus I now have no benefits at all. I’m living with my brother. Things are not good. But they may change very shortly. Fingers crossed!
Yes, but I’ve been better off every four years my whole life. Except for the getting older part. So in that regard I’ve been getting steadily worse off every four years since my mid 20s.
Apples and oranges. Four years ago my soon-to-be wife and I were both working and pulling in almost $100k total between us. We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment and had zero credit card debt.
Today she’s a stay-at-home mom, we have two kids under the age of 3, and own a house, which we purchased last year. I’m making about 10% more than I did four years ago, but obviously our income is much lower because she quit her job. Fortunately, we still have zero credit card debt.
I’m much, much better off than I was 4 years ago. I make 25K more than I used to, am considered an expert in my field, we’re able to fund our kids’ college accounts, my husband owns his own company and we’re able to invest toward retirement. And, things are getting better at home. About a year and a half ago, my husband and son began to grow apart after my daughter was born. My son was fearful of his father (my husband wasn’t abusive, but can be really intimidating when he loses patience, which he did frequently), clung to me after the birth of his sister and was terrified I would disappear one day. The whole situation put a lot of stress on all of us.
But, my husband has been working really, really hard to restore our son’s trust in him and has gone a long way toward rebuilding their relationship, which makes our home life much more peaceful. I used to dread going home. The only bright spot was the baby - when not focused on her, I felt like I was constantly refereeing between my son and husband. Now I don’t have to do that.
So, yes, things are better for me - financially, professionally and emotionally.
Similar story here - started a family in the last four years so everything has changed. Wife is being a full time mum but not through choice, made redundant in a site closure earlier this year. Things going fine with my work, just got offered a chair in fact, but my wife’s industry has been hammered - she may be looking at a career change which is pretty sobering.
Biggest change is going from no kids and basically not giving a fuck about money, to having to think carefully about financing a family. By not caring about money I don’t mean we were spending it like water - the opposite in fact as we’ve always lived quite modestly, we were just not engaged in financial thinking beyond a few basic commitments. With 2 kids it’s a completely different story and that’s been a shock to the system - it changes your personality.
I make about four grand more than I did then, and I’m a year of the way through law school. Also, married (yay!). On the other hand, my wife and I are stuck in a house that’s worth 2/3 of what we paid for it.
None of this has much to do with Obama, of course, but my student loans are a lot less complicated than they would have been back then.
There’s the dichotomy as I see it. It seems to me, every election cycle we’re inundated with ads that say, 'we must fix our country … our country is headed in the wrong path … Washington is broken," etc. I mean, Christ, our country, apparently, has been irreparably fucked up for as long as I can remember.
And yet, I’ve pretty much done better and better for myself - for the most part - every year I’ve been alive.
Where did I go wrong?
Better off. I’m making a bit more money, my wife is making a bunch more money, and has had a bunch of books published. But the real winner is that the last kid is out of college, all college loans for her are paid off, and we did our long delayed house renovation with no debt. Plus, older kid is now married and having a great time in grad school, and younger kid is having a great time in Germany, and getting a Masters for almost nothing. Plus, we weathered the crash with no ill effects.
4 years ago:
Worked full-time in retail making just over 20k (low stress, shitty pay)
Some college credit
No debt
No girlfriend
Lots of parties, lots of new friends
Now:
31k/year job with benefits (medium stress, any pay in this economy is good)
College degree
Student loans
Girlfriend of 2+ years
Few parties, know mostly the same people
Better off I guess, but I would have made some different decisions if I had it to do over again.
I started the job I am in now in 2007. It has been a really good four years. I have had my son (now three) and professionally I am making more and achieving more than I really ever thought I would.
The stress is way higher, but honestly I look at the time when I had no stress at work and I spent my entire day playing Spades on Pogo, posting here and playing online poker. So it isn’t like I was learning Vietnamese or anything. It was a bad path to be on, so I am incomparably better off now than four years ago.
Four years ago I broke my foot, lost my job, and moved back in with my mom. Now, I just started a so-so job with benefits, with a career in the trades if I want it. I should be getting my own place shortly.
I am Canadian, but I like the question so I’ll just blithely soldier on:
Yes! I stopped trying to scrape by with freelancing, bit the bullet, and took the dullest job in the dullest industry I could find. That was four-and-a-half years ago, and since then my salary has been increased $19,000 over my starting salary - more to the point I enjoy being considered a “key asset,” and really enjoy coming to work here.
Also, I married my girlfriend, have a beautiful two-year-old daughter, and am expecting a son in a few months.
Come to think of it, four years ago I had crippling testicular pain which was finally remedied through the miracle of vascular surgery in August 2007. Better all 'round, really.
And Canadian or not, I feel much more at ease in the world after the end of the Bush administration. Try not to elect anyone else with a personal interest in immanentizing the eschaton, eh? That shit makes the rest of us antsy.
From a financial and health standpoint, pretty much a wash. My income has increased slightly in dollar terms but certainly not in buying power. I was carrying some credit card debt then, and carry about the same amount now. I seem to have a few more friends than I did then.
The real change seems to have been job-related. I have roughly the same position and responsibilities that I did four years ago, but I’m working maybe 20-30% more hours, none of which is compensated above base salary, and haven’t had a full day off in months. I’m falling so absurdly far behind everywhere that going to work increasingly seems an exercise in guessing who I’m going to piss off today, and we’re at serious risk of losing a major client in next couple of months, due in part to the lack of resources at my disposal.
So, net loss I’d say, although certainly far less of an issue than if I had to go through any of the income or health disasters some of the other posters have mentioned.