Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
ChelseaNelson
member
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In your personal experiences do you feel the economy is getting better?
I am wondering how people perceive the economy right now - like how it is playing out in their own lives. Do you think things are generally economically better, worse of the same as the last couple years?
Re: In your personal experiences do you feel the economy is getting better?
For me it is a mix. The jobs my husband and I hold have been safe so far. I still spend a far bit and am able to spend it on fun stuff and not just the necessities. I am not adding to my debit to survive. Several of my friends and family members who have been looking for work have gotten jobs in their desired fields in the last few months.
On the flip side, many of the people I work with on a daily basis are scared for their jobs ? mostly the people in research positions funded by the government or grants. They are not let go outright but keep hearing that the economy is terrible and that we don't have the money to fund all our research projects anymore so once the budgets are done their positions will be gone. Some have been looking for new jobs but there are alot less privatly funded research positions.
I personally feel economically the same as I have over the last few years, but working so closely with people who are facing job elimination (more people than the private industries can absorb) makes me nervous that things are still the same and the ?hardest hit? sectors are just swirling around. On NPR they said unemployment increased to 9% even though all job areas except for government jobs added new positions. Maybe I am just too close to a hot area right now to see how everything else is getting better and is on the right track to maintain a steady economic upturn.
In our life, it hasn't gotten better or worse in the last couple of years. That's not to say it's great, because it is worse than it was 5 years ago. Fortunately DH is in a field and point in his career where he can find new jobs fairly easily and he doesn't worry all that much about losing his job.
My field of work is an entire different story. I'm an attorney and the job market is awful, at least in the Twin Cities. There are 4 law schools pumping out lawyers into a highly saturated market. I have my own practice and know that it is increasingly difficult for clients to hire an attorney when they struggle to put food on their table. The need for free legal services is at a record high according to people who have been around a lot longer than me.
With my student loans coming into repayment, we really have to watch non-essential things like home improvements and travel whereas we used to do those things without giving them a second thought.
We wanted to buy land and build a house by this point but we don't have enough equity in our house for a large enough down payment. We could rent our house out and tap into savings for a new place but that's scary because who knows how long the economy will stay like this or what will happen. It's also putting a halt to our adoption plans. It definitely feels like we're stalled and I question whether I should just settle and look for a job in my previous field so we have more room to move forward financially.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
If you'd asked this questions over a year ago I would have had a completely different response, because I had been unemployed for 14 months and things were tight. We spent a lot of time pairing down what we needed vs. wanted, and just learned to live well below our means.
Almost 14 months later I have a very successful real estate career (so successful that I am going full time at the end of the month), and a pretty flexible "day" job that lets me do my real estate on the side until I make the jump.
From the real estate side of things its really picking up. There's a lot of buyers out there which will help with the inventory levels, and there are a lot of people getting into investment properties now too because they're so inexpensive.
Do I think that we're near a full recovery, heck no, and I actually think we'll drop off a little more here especially with gas prices so high, but things are better than they were.
jennyk213 that is a bummer and it sounds like a local economy thing ? many qualified people coming into one market. It is a good think your husband can move around. On a completely unrelated note, yeah for adoption! I hope that does get back on track for you.
For the others ? those are the stories I like to hear and I hope that is how things are for the majority of people.
For us it is better than we were in January. DH has a job after 21 months unemployed and my job is stable. We are so far from where we were 2 years ago though I just don't know how to catch up and come out ahead. We had to spend our entire emergency fund and sold tons of our belongings on Craigslist just to get by. The future still seems so unstable and I have never been this worried in my life. I have DD to care for and our "little suprise" on the way. I hate uncertainty.
my read shelf:
To preface my answer, I will say that I spent 9 out of 12 months in 2010 unemployed.
Exactly 4 months ago I would have said no. Up until then the job listings that came up were few and far between. I only interviewed 4 times in those 9 months. My old employer went back to 80% time after being abck to 100% for a few months in January and that was disheartening. I know they are still at 80%. Some firms are doing better than others. Some went completely under and many, many people lost their jobs and are still out after years.
I got my current job in January and to say it has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I am working a lot longer hours and at a much faster pace. The work I do has a very busy outlook based on the client we work for. I would never be naive enough to say I feel safe, but I have been able to let my guard down a little.
As for H, his job is fairly secure. Again, I will never feel 100% safe in any situation when it comes to a job ever again. He is in a good place in his career though, which should keep him where he is at.
As for us money wise, I still feel blessed that we were able to pay all our bills and stay in our home during 2010. It took work and a lot of sacrifice. We are still very apprehensive when it comes to spending what I consider luxury money...i.e. lunches out, dinners out, new clothing, new shoes, expensive groceries, etc.
I think the thing that hurts the most is that we pretty much were set back for a year. Our plans for starting a family were put on hold as well as investing with projects in our home. Despite all that, I know things could be much worse, so I do consider myself fortunate to have survived it all. For now.
I wrote two blog posts about my unemployment experience if anyone is interested:
Part 1
Part 2
Boy/girl twins born at 37w1d and 37w2d
I would say for the most part that the economy is getting better. We were lucky enough that neither of us were affected by job loss. However, I am WAY underpaid in my current position. I did, however, decide to make a career change during the recession. I was really unhappy at my old job, so I took a big pay cut into my current job. My H has a fairly stable job, so we were able to make that transition without changing our lifestyle much. However, I still feel like I am years behind where I should be in my current field. I am hoping that after 1-2 yrs of experience here I can move on.
Our home is a completely different story. We bought it in 2008, just when the market started falling. We thought we got a great deal at the time, but now we are way underwater on our mortgage. We were hoping to only live there 4-5 years, but it's going to be a lot longer than that. We live in a TH and I really want a yard and more space, but we are ok where we are for now. I'm just worried that we will never get back what we owe on our home...and it really makes me worried that we will never come out ahead.
Not from a job point of view, but from a retail point of view......I have been to Rosedale twice in the past month and I have NEVER seen the parking lot so full. I had to drive around for 20 min looking for a spot (granted it was raining and I had my daughter with me so I wanted a spot closer to the door, but still!)
We're doing okay, I guess. Our COL is pretty low Up Here - our house payment is the same as the rent on my old Loring Park pad. It took D almost a year to find steady full time employment, so we incurred some debt last year...grrrrr.....and that needs to be paid off. But if they keep cutting education spending, I could be right on the chopping block. So, while we're both in a decent place, we're trying to make the most financial headway as possible.
As far as the economy in general....meh. It's going to be awhile before things really look up.