Like a lot of people I’m seeing no actual evidence of a recession anywhere - I don’t know anyone who is suffering financially now. Saying that, I work in government which is pretty recession proof (we had our funding slashed and subsequent staff cuts four years ago so we sort of had our recession already). I have quite a bit of money saved but haven’t started investing yet so haven’t lost anything there, but I’m not sure what the long term effects of this will be on my retirement fun (civil service pensions are stock market linked so anything could happen).
No kidding. It’s like Krakatoa blowing its lid and the next day people on the other side of the planet are saying “look, clear sunny skies for me!”.
Sort of. More because I don’t have any money yet but that will shortly change. In 9 months when I finally start getting a paycheck I expect the markets will have dropped still further. So far as I can tell that makes it a great time to start building a portfolio. Buy low and sell high, right?
I’m hurting on paper. My 401(k) is down, and I made a fairly large (for me, anyway) purchase of an index fund about a month ago, which is down 30% since that date. In the long run, I’ll be fine. I’m still young and I have faith that things will bounce back.
In the short run, it hurts to realize that in less than one month I’ve lost money it took me 4 months to save, and to think that if I’d only averaged my way in I’d be that much richer (and would have bought closer to the bottom), but oh well.
My day-to-day life hasn’t changed, except for being aware of the general atmosphere of worry.
Same here as some other peeps have said. My retirement account has taken a hit, but I’m not going to retire for a few decades so I’m not worried. I’m also trying to take advantage of the current bargain prices, and I’m putting as much money as I can into stock mutual funds for a long term investment (not to be withdrawn for at least 15 years).
I’m not all that worried at this point. I’m working poor anyway and don’t have any major assets that I’m worried about losing (I rent my housing, I drive a $400 used car). My 401k is less than three years old and was valued at less than $500 last time I looked at a report, so I’m not in the position of “losing my retirement”. As the OP pointed out, my money can buy more stock right now, which will be better in the long-term (theoretically, anyway).
I do worry about my job a bit, since I work for a hotel. However, I work in the convention department and I’m the only person in the department who does my particular job (I’m the dishwasher, and unlike restaurant dishwashing, convention dishwashing isn’t something you can just throw some moron off the street into). I could technically be replaced by one of the dishwashers who works in the restaurant attached to the hotel, but we’re union and the only dishwasher with seniority on me is about to retire. Besides, I’ve got 2 Employee of the Month awards to my credit, compared to zero EotM awards for the rest of those guys as a group 
Also, as one of the cooks pointed out, our jobs can’t be outsourced to India.
Absolutely right. I started buying now. Mostly consumer goods companys like P&G and McDonalds. It’s not like people are going to stop buying toothpaste and Big Macs.
Feeling pretty good here. Young, my 401K is going down like everyone but (like everyone with perspective) I see it as a great time to buy for the next 30-40 years 'till I retire. I have a pretty decent job, and I can definitively say that (a) I am one of the two best people at my company at what I do, and (b) my boss, my boss’s boss, and my boss’s boss’s boss all know that. The company would have to be going under for them to fire me, and frankly I expect a pretty decent raise come the new year.
I guess you could say I’m affected in that I am thinking about deferring grad school for a year (I am applying now and the original plan was to enroll next fall, but there are some definite financial advantages to saving for another year). That’s about it, though.
My living costs have increased some, but I have one of the stablest jobs imaginable and my retirement is over three decades away. I’m not worried.