| Author | Message | ||
     Preybird1 |
I am doing better this year. Making lots more money and business is so busy we don't even take lunch or breaks!! It's straight 11 hours 5 days a week. We are up 8% during the worst part of the recession. I Bought a new truck on credit which was a bad idea now it's costing me almost $600.00 a month in just loan payments and insurance not including gas. I think im going to sell it. I haven't bought anything on on credit for 12 years until i bought the truck. Bought a new bike in cash $5500.00. We are trying for a 2 million dollar year this year, Last year we were at 1.78 million. business is almost paid for also only a couple years left on the loan. I have no health insurance or a house. I only have a crummy cheap apartment that cost me $250.00 a month once i split the rent with my girlfriend. My girlfriend has been out of work for 10 months and just went back to work today now that her job has a new location constructed. Best thing i got going now is i own all my motorcycles and toys. And i get to ride everyday and ride different bikes. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
than one year ago? yes better. 2yrs ago horridly worse. can't survive on what's made vs court mandates and actually trying to exist | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
I thought nothing could be worse than last year. But so far this year is making last year seam great. I am roughly making 30% of what I did in 2007. I am existing nothing more. I lay flooring and I sub from 5 different store and haven't seen a full week of work in months. I am lucky to get 2 or 3 day's of work a week. some weeks nothing. If the economy is picking up I sure don't see it. | ||
| Drkside79 |
Yes and No. I am worse off now than I was a year ago. However it is because my finances have been bleeding for a few years. The bleeding has slowed but as it hasn't stopped I'm worse off. | ||
| Etennuly |
Hey Mark, did your company hire back the guys they let go last year? Perhaps you are slammed because you are doing the work of three? I know several companies I deal with locally who claim they are uber busy, but not busy enough to hire back to employee levels of two years ago. | ||
| Whistler |
Interesting and open answers from folks of many different situations, ages, and locations. Thank you all. One additional question please, what are the financial opportunities for young men and women today and in say the next 5 to 10 years? I realize the question is vague but I want to give you the latitude to speak your mind about the present conditions and times ahead. Thanks again. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
whistler, i am 30 and my personal outlook is bleak. i have no faith or hope in corporations at all nor do i have any in the gment. my own biz is looking better everyday just need to nail down one thing that i want to do so i can focus sharply enough on it. where i live the unemployment is still higher than national average and not looking for any real improvement anytime soon. i think more than anything else we the people are so disgusted and afraid it's paralyzing to many people. so many people want to move forward but are afraid to that nothing is getting done. | ||
| Sifo |
If I were younger looking at my options, I would look at service industries that are difficult to send over seas. Among the tops would either be law or medicine IMO. Medicine is up in the air right now until the new changes in health care shake out. I think the entire thing will get struck down as unconstitutional, which put's us right back where we were. If you are so inclined, starting your own business can be a great way to go. For some reason you will be demonized for providing employment opportunities for others though. There is opportunity in real estate coming too. Contractors, real estate agents, mortgage industry, etc. Those who have positioned themselves to act will be able to do very well. | ||
| Honolulu_blue_esq |
Whistler: Great follow-up question in my opinion, and thanks for starting the thread. The response is fascinating. I can only give an educated answer to your follow-up with respect to my industry. I'm a young lawyer. Raised and educated in the midwest, finished law school in 2008, moved South to find work and did so. If you asked me today if the same opportunity would be there for someone five years behind me, I'd say no. The number of new lawyers being churned out by sub-par schools is outpacing the number of new legal jobs. The fix, in my opinion, is to force the American Bar Association to do the job it has been neglecting for decades. It needs to set up real requirements for law schools and then pulling accredidations for those that can't hack it. This would reduce the number of available law schools and ultimately the number of new lawyers entering the work force. And this is tremendously important. Law school isn't cheap. Folks are graduating with well over 100k in student loans with no way to pay them back because the old high paying jobs are far and few between. And the kicker? Student Loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, so they would have been better off spending the last three years racking up credit card bills and buying Erik Buell Racing 1190RS scooters! | ||
| Arcticktm |
My family is a bit better off. 10% pay cut for our entire company in 2009 was restored, with some very modest pay increases that basically kept pace with inflation last year. I did a bit better with some creative negotiating. Plus, my wife got a part time job to give us a boost. We also cut expenses during the pay cut, and have kept many of those cuts in place even when the pay was restored. We have been hiring like crazy this year, and I have 3 open positions in my department in Asheville, NC. The only catch is that these are all engineering positions, so they are not jobs for just anyone off the street. We have a very hard time finding folks for these jobs, even looking in Michigan. Engineering is still a very strong field, from my inside view. I am getting calls from recruiters at least every other week all looking for experienced engineers. Things have picked up a LOT in that area since 2009, and starting pay for engineering college grads has risen so fast that some of them are passing folks that have been working for 5 years due to small or no corporate pay raises recently. A strong field, but there seem to be few Americans willing to invest the effort to get the education. I see mostly resumes from overseas folks with H1 Visas, even though I really want to hire someone who is a citizen. I have resisted so far, but it is getting tougher. | ||
| Strokizator |
I suggest new entries into the employment scene to try to land a job as a prison guard in California ($92k a year and up to $170k with OT) or go back to school and become a psychiatrist for the prison industry ($770,000 to one guy last year). | ||
| Phelan |
I'm doing better than I was 2 yrs ago, but not better than last year. Mostly just a few bad decisions that cost me $2-3K, which is hard to make up working in a restaurant. But I'm happier and more motivated than ever, and trying to stay diligent as around this time next year I'll be married and presumably a different career, assuming the school gets back with soon about starting classes. | ||
| Honolulu_blue_esq |
Serves me right for posting good things about my situation. Dog got sick last night and had to take him to an emergency vet. He just got out of surgery. They had to remove a bunch of intestine. The bill? $1,600  Young people should go into veterinary medicine. | ||
| Sifo |
It's easier to go into "normal" medicine. You only have to understand one animal. Hope your pup is feeling better! (Message edited by SIFO on July 14, 2011) | ||
| Mtjm2 |
Sorry SIFO , that would be 2 . Male and Female  | ||
| Sifo |
Sorry Mtjm2, that would be one animal and one supernatural evil being. Not sure which is which.  | ||
| Zane |
I’m worse off than I was this time last year. In Sept 2010 my job went to India without me. I normally work as a programmer/analyst but my expertise is with a niche database. Jobs in my specialty are few and far between. A new permanent job will almost certainly require re-location. At 56 it’s hard to make a major career change. Since being laid off, I’ve only been able to find contract programming jobs. I’m on track to make almost half of what I made last year. Child support and alimony have not gone down with my income. It’s very much feels like I’m an indentured servant right now. My temp job ends at the end of July and I don’t have anything new lined up yet. I still have debt from the marriage and divorce from 2 years ago but at least I’m making progress in that area. I still can’t see daylight but now at least I hear rumors it exists. To address your question about opportunities for young people, I’d have to say it depends on the young person. Without going to college or trade school, I’d say young people are in for a rough time. With some sellable skill they should be ok. My 20 year old didn’t want college, worked manual labor for a couple of years and is now talking about going to local a votec school to learn welding. If that goes well, he may go to dive school and become a commercial diver. For him, and his personality, that’s a much be solution that going to college. At $25,000 - $30,000 for the program it’s a bargain compared to a mid-level college. Without some kind of skill, plan on spending your life on the bottom rung of society. | ||
| Blake |
From a financial viewpoint are the people closest to you, your friends, family, and/or co-wokers better off today than a year ago? No. Do you think they will be better off a year from now? I have no idea. Probably not. Maybe in three or four years if we can get the tax and spend morons out of congress and the White House. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
I must be stupid.... or slow... but I just can't understand what is so hard to grasp... you take in X amount in taxes.... that's all you get to spend. either cut spending or raise taxes or do a little of both... | ||
| Sifo |
I must be stupid.... or slow... but I just can't understand what is so hard to grasp... you take in X amount in taxes.... that's all you get to spend. either cut spending or raise taxes or do a little of both... It gets a little more complicated when you have a third option of printing money. Most of us don't think that way because we don't get to do that. | ||
| Swampy |
I am hooking the Little Kid and his buddy up with a handful of chainsaws, climbing ropes and a pickup truck, they are going it alone. | ||
| Etennuly |
It gets a little more complicated when you have a third option of printing money. Most of us don't think that way because we don't get to do that. Sure we do.....or did! It was called free reign credit cards. Free credit for everybody, no credit checks, no interest deals, no limits, free stuff for using your card.....free- free- free! Same shit different day! Did these idiots not see what initially put us(the American public) in this mess. They are signing up to set the gb'ment on the same trail that nearly killed off the entire banking industry and buried millions of folks in debt for life. Who will bail out this train wreck? There is no Big Daddy left to run to. At some point being responsible is going to become important. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Outsourced jobs.... get a language, and get out. If they continue to want to move jobs overseas - eventually the talent will move with it. I KNOW I am more in demand more than domestically. Currently under negotiations for a nice relocation and a dissolution of all things Domestic. I will be back when it is fixed... it doesn't look promising for the return trip at all. here i cant get past the Taleo-X widget of resume submittal hell and black hole of HR. There, I send a bottle via courier of our finest Ozark Lightning - and badda bing - hello interview, hello call backs, hello offer. Opportunity is where you find it - mine is apparently overseas more often than not. | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>Outsourced jobs.... get a language, and get out. << Change the record slick - it's all good for you, you are a single loose unit. Not so easy for a family man. | ||
| Brumbear |
There is some truth to career chances opening up oversees and that is what it is. I being in my own business and service orientated have found this.For just me: My health ins up from around $600 to $1000 per month Fuel costs up from around $700 per month to $1100 A small credit line debt incurred from the loss of the last 2 years costing about $300 a month my rates have stayed the same from 2007 and I have roughly a $1000 a month more to pay for and still 30% of business is gone. The potential is getting better but for right now most companies are just trying to maintain and not loose it. N.J. has a lot of opportunities but it is very very expensive to live. So with my property taxes highest in the nation and about to get higher my ins ratable highest in the nation and about to get higher,the cost of food up at least 20% overall, utilities up 10% I'd say my 10 year plan is HIT THE LOTTERY or find a cheaper place to live and sell everything and get there. Except in NJ there are like 3 foreclosures on every block so selling something probably aint gonna happen. | ||
| Cowboy |
Shut down labor unions and goverment red tape( taxes) and jobs will return home | ||
| Brumbear |
there is truth to that!!! We have had 2 businesses in town ready to open for months the local gov, is dicking them around | ||
| Blake |
Let's be more like California! | ||
| Blake |
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| Blake |
If we total all gov't employees and recipients of social security, welfare, medicaid, free housing subsidies, how many American households would be dependent on gov't? I'm not including unemployment, just those who are directly employed by government, or receive checks or housing aid from government. This includes ALL gov't employees (federal, state, county, and city; all public school teachers, administrators, and support staff; all USPS workers; all those receiving checks from "Social Security", medicaid; all those who live in gov't subsidized housing; the list goes on. I think the number will be indicative of why our nation has succumbed to the insidious effects of relentless gov't largess that our nation;s founders so vehemently abhorred. |
