Are there any of you (and I'm assuming a very small number of you are wealthy three figure types) who have gone unfazed or untouched (relatively) by the recession? Obviously I'm discounting things like higher prices in stores but I mean in a personal and individual way? Haven't really changed your ways?

(Keep in Chit Chat plz)

8/5/2010 9:41:03 PM

gettin real

8/5/2010 9:41:31 PM

I was relatively untouched


I mean, I got laid off... then got another job (same company) like 4 days later... then just transferred.

8/5/2010 9:42:31 PM

I make more than I did 2 years ago, and my expenses have barely increased.

I'm astraladvent and I approved this message.

8/5/2010 9:43:51 PM

Our business picked up and I've had 2 raises.

8/5/2010 9:43:53 PM

<--- untouched.

i was already a cheap bastard before the recession. Was fortunate to not be laid off. I took a pay cut this year, but that was because I switched jobs, and knew that it would be a pay cut, but at least i no longer work weekends.

8/5/2010 9:44:49 PM

<--- untouched.

I've increased my salary 29% this year without changing companies, jobs, or even desks. And because of retirements that happened at the end of the fiscal year, I have even more leverage now then I did before.

8/5/2010 9:47:31 PM

completely untouched...

i was broke as shit before the recession and i'm still broke as shit now

8/5/2010 9:49:23 PM

i probably don't count b/c i just graduated in may, but i haven't noticed anything different except a little more bitching and whining

i got a job and i've got more money than i've ever had

8/5/2010 9:51:25 PM

i got laid off, lost the new job before i even started it (hiring freeze) and came back to raleigh for grad school

8/5/2010 9:53:30 PM

Show me on the doll where the recession touched you.

8/5/2010 10:01:15 PM

house was appraised for a refi this spring above purchase price before the shit fell out

gotten a few raises

bills gone up, dont notice it

where i do notice it is in the 401k.

i'm lazy and just had shit going directly to a targeted fund, and am hovering abt 5k below cost for current value.

but as a % it's pretty acceptable.

granted, i guess this doesn't matter until i retire but w/e.

other investments however, whoo boy.

[Edited on August 5, 2010 at 10:07 PM. Reason : nm]

8/5/2010 10:01:53 PM

I couldn't find a job for five months in the early part of 2009, but then I found an OK job with the government. After that started to go sour, I searched around, got in touch with a recruiter who I had spoken with the year before, and now I've got what is more or less a dream job that is exactly in line with what I went to college for.

I haven't really been uber frugal with the recession. I know I have the security of returning to my job with the government within a time span of about six months if I were to get fired, but the company I'm with has hired and grown steadily throughout the recession. I'm extremely fortunate, and I've worked my ass off to get this job and to build up a crazy strong resume. I've only got the opportunity to return to my old job because I left on an excellent, positive note and left a fairly big impact with only a year of working there.

So yeah, relatively untouched by the recession, though I was in a rough financial situation (i.e. a dangerous one) just before I started my job with the government.

8/5/2010 10:05:52 PM

whew, i felt like i was the only asshole who goes around staying positive while everyone else complains

i have a coworker who is constantly acting like WHY WONT YOU JUST COMPLAIN WITH MEEEE, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE

8/5/2010 10:08:39 PM

Though when I got laid off, my secretary also lost her job. She hasn't been able to find another one yet... but I am working to help her out as well. I think I have a few positive leads for her...

8/5/2010 10:12:57 PM

So far I have been relatively untouched luckily.

I work for the same company making 20k more than I did when I started in 2007 (about 6 months before things really started going downhill overall). I have always been conservative with my spending and thus I haven't really made any adjustments as a result of the recession.

I will say my company as a whole though has seen a LOT less work and it has been a bit more of an environment where you are always hoping the project you are working on keeps going (engineering construction) than I would like. You're always kind of wondering if your project will shut down and there isn't a lot out there since other companies aren't spending as much as they are 3 years ago. However, so far I have kept working since I graduated and I hope this trend continues (my current project is prob de-staffing in 3 months and I hope there is a spot for me on another project).

The other area I can say I definitely noticed it affecting me was how long it took my wife to find a job. She was a valedictorian (4.0) with a double major and 3 different internships and it took her 9 months to get a job after she graduated. Obviously this was partly due to her being limited to looking where my job was but I was still surprised it took her so long.

8/5/2010 10:16:34 PM

^ what field is she in?

8/5/2010 10:19:39 PM

aside from getting upside down temporarily on my car as it became worth less than I paid for it when gas went to $4/gal I actually made a lot of money and got a lot of things cheaper during the recession. I came out ahead, though I can't say out, since it's still going.

8/5/2010 10:21:35 PM

^^ well, one of her majors (and she got licensed too) was education. In 2005 when she started college it seemed like a pretty solid 2nd degree to get in order to have another option. Fast forward to 2009-2010 and our county is in it's 3rd year in a row of cutting costs and laying teachers off :/

Her main degree is English, which obviously isn't always the easiest to get a job with either, but she had a public relations internship, a marketing internship, and an internship with a childrens' book publishing company as well as holding 2 steady writing/editing contract jobs for over 3 years in college. So, I felt like she had a solid stable of experience for a new graduate.

She had a couple leads early on for PR and Marketing related jobs. One had 400 people apply and she got down to the final 2 and they pulled the plug on the position. The other she actually landed and then they told her the position was cut. Then she went months without anything and is now working for the same company I do (completely different business line though) handling security clearances for people getting deployed to the middle east funnily enough, her attention to detail from being an English major and editor landed her the role.

[Edited on August 5, 2010 at 10:31 PM. Reason : ]

8/5/2010 10:31:05 PM

I've gotten some substantial raises and gotten busier during this recession, but the economy definitely kept us from expanding as fast as we should have been able to. Instead of being allowed to hire new people to keep up with the work, I've been asked to make the underachievers from other departments busy.

8/5/2010 11:03:23 PM

8/5/2010 11:26:57 PM

I already make so little that they couldn't pay me much less and still expect me to eat

so, (raises hand)

8/5/2010 11:40:26 PM

Quote :

"Show me on the doll where the recession touched you."

[Edited on August 6, 2010 at 12:41 AM. Reason : recession rape]

8/6/2010 12:40:31 AM

lol i might have to steal that line

8/6/2010 1:01:07 AM

by "three figure" I think the OP meant "six figure"

8/6/2010 1:05:53 AM

yeah def.

I think it's funny that most of the people that are "untouched" by the economy are engineering majors.

humanities/social sciences kids are fucked

8/6/2010 1:07:31 AM

<--Stagnant. I could claim untouched because I still have my job and still make the same amount of money, but I think I could reasonably expect to be making more money and been less stressed if the economy were better. In a good economy we hired people. I have had to watch people I hired get laid off and the majority of their work was pushed onto me. Not really complaining so much as being aware of the situation.

8/6/2010 1:08:48 AM

Quote :

"by "three figure" I think the OP meant "six figure""

and you'd be correct...if i were talking about dollars and not K's. you know what happens when you assume...

8/6/2010 1:21:11 AM

never heard anyone refer to a $xxx,xxx income as "three figure"

i ain't sayin i'm just sayin

8/6/2010 1:22:55 AM

Yo dawg I made like eight dollars last year.!

8/6/2010 1:29:28 AM

pretty much untouched, nice to work for the feds.....I did feel yalls pain though.....

8/6/2010 1:30:46 AM

Untouched - but I've only been working for 3 months. Although, I didn't have any trouble getting a job, went to two interviews for similar positions with different companies, got an offer two months before I graduated from the second company. I guess it helps to be in an industry that is pretty recession proof (we just reinvested about 3.5 million in our facilities).

8/6/2010 6:25:07 AM

Untouched by the recession.

Completely F'd by other circumstances, however.

8/6/2010 6:36:10 AM

I got fucking screwed five ways to Sunday, but am still getting through and much wiser now.

8/6/2010 6:53:16 AM

^^which brewery/distillery?

8/6/2010 6:56:29 AM

Untouched but I still altered my spending habits in preparations for things to get rough. Now that the economy is on the rebound I've felt better about spending on things like my new Vibrim FiveFinger KSO Trek running shoes that will arrive today.

I did notice a huge hit to computer manufacturers when I went to build my new system and found little in the way of diverse options like I had when I built one in 2008.

8/6/2010 7:02:23 AM

i haven't gotten a raise in quite a while

8/6/2010 8:34:34 AM

Since the recession started, I've gotten a better job (33% pay increase) and my wife & I have bought a house. State employee pay freezes and furloughs have sucked for my wife, but it honestly hasn't changed much about our standard of living.

8/6/2010 8:39:30 AM

other than i save a little more than i used to, no i havent really been affected the last few years. i did get laid off but it wasnt recession based but rather the result of a new senior VP coming on board and cleaning house of the entire dept. then i got a new job a week later.

8/6/2010 8:40:24 AM

I'm in the military

8/6/2010 8:50:46 AM

the longer the recession is just more reason to be looking into becoming a mortician - cause there work picks up during the recession

8/6/2010 8:51:59 AM

recession, what recession, I live in Fayetteville and we still have tons of dumb GI's with too much money

8/6/2010 9:09:11 AM

I have had more success during this recession than most people I know. Very grateful.

8/6/2010 9:19:07 AM

my business is better the worse things get.

and they are getting worse...

8/6/2010 9:38:11 AM

My company has tightened it's belt a little and has a payroll freeze so no raises and I've worked there two years. This is in contrast to my last company, where I increased my pay $15k over 2 years. So I blame the recession for my stagnant pay.

My 401(k)s and mutual fund have lost a LOT of their value.

As a precaution during this recession I've focused more on paying off my debt and have been going out less (restaurants/bars) and have cut out 1-2 trips a year to places like NYC. I hate to do it but I want more financial security so it's necessary in my eyes.

The recession has had a bit of a delayed impact in my industry due to the Fed gov't throwing out a lot of money in the last year and a half. But now that the money is gone things are looking pretty slow for the next year in my field. That worries me.

8/6/2010 9:41:07 AM

Personally, little if any

But most of my friends here are in banking either with BOA or WF, and now they bitch a lot more, so its effected me vicariously

[Edited on August 6, 2010 at 9:43 AM. Reason : x]

8/6/2010 9:42:55 AM

Other than unrealized loss on my 401k (I significantly increased my contribution post big dip) I haven't noticed any difference personally.

8/6/2010 9:50:07 AM

quit living complicated lives. just work your day, come home, get drunk, party hard, and repeat

8/6/2010 9:55:10 AM

401K? Oh yeah, that's the thing where if I pay in $100 each week the company will match and pay in $50, then it loses $350 in overall value.

8/6/2010 9:58:28 AM