I got laid off a month ago and I’m having trouble finding a new job that isn’t a crappy retail work.
It sucks.
Also, our mortgage company canceled our home equity line of credit, we’ve lost all of our equity in the house, too, so it’s a good thing we didn’t use because we’d be upside down now.
My wife has lost significant portions of her stock holdings and 401(k).
wife laid off this month, I’m gone next month.
401k down 200K
sucks
I lost a lot of money in my 401K.
My 1 person consulting business had a good year and I just got a good bonus. I am confident that I will get enough work to get by in the next few years – this is not a casual estimation but the conclusion of some careful analysis.
If I am wrong I have enough savings to tide me over for a year or so at least.
But I am angry and feel betrayed. I don’t have an viable outlet for this anger so it has occasionally started to leak out around the edges of my normally easygoing personality and I don’t like this one bit.
For a while I was actually doing some serious spending, partly because I want to go into hard times with new stuff and partly because I see so many businesses hungry and suffering and I want to help. I want the place I’ve bought my computers from to stay in business, I want the great little cafe that just opened around the corner to be successful, I want my friends and neighbors to be employed. I think I may try to keep spending and set aside a largish Christmas budget because I know a lot of people that could use a good Christmas and I will give me an excuse to give some of the people in my life stuff they really need.
But, come January, I will need to start cutting back too.
I am thinkng that the reductions in my Mom’s investments will reduce her income and I will probably end up making up the difference and I see other friends that will need ( and probably get) my help in the near future.
My world has changed and I am still trying to establish the “new normal” without knowing what will really continue to happen. it’s scary.