"The Great Recession " Topic

So have you personally recovered? How does your gaming budget compare to what it was before?

No. It's gotten worse for me and mine. What was once a full time job is now a part time job.

I wasn't aware the Great Recession had ended yet. Someone is benefitting from the 'fastest growing economy in western Europe', but it isn't very apparent around here.

We're all in it together you know.

You'll get dawghoused for politics, if you're not careful, Martin…

Nope, worse than ever.

You're asking about personal status. What kind of job do I have? Am I staying married or divorcing? Do my kids need student loans? Urrgh. You have to take an average of a lot of peoples' personal status to get a meaningful reading. Probably not happening on this thread.

I've been financially all right through the current mess. I'm more married than ever to that job that eats up my whole life.

$50 USD/barrel oil, $2.00 USD/gallon gasoline should juice the economy up in the near to mid term. It's hurting the US stock market, which has been riding high on the shale-oil boom. Shale oil costs $70 USD/barrel to produce. Cheap oil will put money back in the pockets of the 85% of the population who don't participate in the stock market. That should mean more jobs, mostly in the consumer/service sector. Walmart and McDonald's should be good investments in 2015.

I have recovered and my discretional income is actually increasing slightly, to the point where I've actually started a new period.

Didn't lose my job though others nearby did. My gaming budget had no pressure aside from just the zeitgeist.

Still haven't found steady work yet. My gaming budget is reliant on my sporadic income.

Nope. Going to school to switch careers. My gaming budget is whatever I can get from selling old gaming stuff I'll never use again.

Worse and worse.

"Personally recovered" – if you mean the tens of
thousands lost from the 401K/IRA – NO.

My wife lost her job for 6 months and got another one at 60% of the previous salary. I got promoted which sorta made up the difference – add in inflation and we are a little worse off. All in all we did well considering.

No.

I'm still earning less than my last job that was cut due to the Recession. It's creeping up, but still a few $K short of what I was earning before. To compound things, the wife is not earning nearly as much (in fact, still unemployed at this time), so as a household earning much less. To put things in perspective, I used to have a $100 USD/mo hobby budget. Now I count myself lucky if I can buy a few packs of 15mm, or a GW plastic figure box a month or two.

Damon.

Worse and worse here too. I am retired on a fixed income. My annuities took a c. 30% hit all at once in 2008. Then you have to subtract the continuing leaking away of dollar value as prices for everything continue to rise. I wasn't making that much to begin with before the "schlump" hit. If it weren't for reserves, being used up probably faster than time remaining, I/we would be in a real fix. I try to not think about the future. Meanwhile, my hobby spending is threatened with very real curtailment. Probably in the not so distant future….

"You'll get dawghoused for politics, if you're not careful, Martin…"

I don't mind getting dawghoused for something that matters. I worry more about getting my kids through University than spending a few quid on toy soldiers.

The thread has sort of invited the direction it is going really hasn't it?

My situation is considerably better than it was before the recession started. During the years 2009-2012 I was making more money than I have ever made or am making now. That enabled me to build up some significant savings and pay off all of my outstanding regular debt and pay off vehicles.

Mines about the same.However I am able to feed ,clothe and house my family,so I feel fortunate.

Depends on how you look at it….

In a way I would say "yes"…

I say this because:

A: I'm married to my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!)….
B: I'm a home owner….
C: I graduated college two years ago….
D: I see the light at the end of the tunnel on paying off "The Black Hole"….
E: I'm in a good job, (not as high paying as the one I lost to the "Dude!" company about four years ago, but still close to it…

The downside to this is:

A: I work more than I ever have…
B: My wife's job is stressing her out more and more.
C: We've practically quit our hobby of reenacting due to time constraints, and other issues…
D: My gaming is severely limited…that time factor again, plus if you read the problems I had getting a group of people together for one night of a CoC game…
E: I'm now saddled with student loans as a result of "getting that college degree"….

My money for gaming stuff has been about the same. I've just cut down on the amount of purchases….

I am blessed….however I also know that I am one of the rare ones…there's lots of people, (and many of them are friends of mine), who are still doing worse off….

And anything else I say to this is for The Fez…

I am actually better off – I have a kind of recession-proof job and my very wise financial advisor has managed to recover the losses on my retirement fund RRSP

No kids in college anymore, both of them married to people who have jobs. I am better off than I have been in years.

But that had nothing to do with the recovery. My wife & I both remained employed through the whole thing (though raises were not necessarily an option).

Gaming budget has dropped to about 1/3 of what it had been but less work gave me more time to paint. I cleared the lead pile and didn't die. Work things are looking rather better now and I've a plastic pile to work through.

I used to have my figures painted. Can't afford it now. Now I paint them all myself. However, I had forgotten how much fun it was to paint them, so I am enjoying it again. I'm not to shabby a painter either.

I think the recession is well and truly over and I am better off than I have ever been. I am busier than I have been for ten years doing my caricatures at parties and my freelance art is going great guns as well. Since having a guy drawing at your company or personal party is a definite luxury that one would not have if things were tight at all I have to extrapolate that most folks' budgets (around here, at least) are back to normal.

On top of that our house is paid off, our cars are paid off, our two rental properties are paid off as of last week, and we have absolutely no credit card debt. We are living the dream!

Worse off for now. But I haven't had a raise in 5 years… But I'm getting one in January. The wife is getting her masters next year and that'll kill off a major bill, so will getting the little DOM out of daycare.

However these gas prices are a huge help!

Worse off. Making less now than I did 10 years ago. I did get a raise for the first time in 7 years and it was almost enough to cover the property tax hike.

This week I started a new job after 6 years of being out of full-time employment. I am making 10 grand less than the job I lost 6 years ago, which means I'm really almost 20 grad in the hole from 6 years ago (based on standard 3% annual increases). I have more than I had last year, but not as much as I would have had had some brainless whiz kid not decided that "we don't need you to over see that job, anyone can do the job", for which he had three people doing it 6 months after letting me go.

Had a great job in 2009, when that disappeared the best job I could find was delivering pizza making 30% of old income. Three months ago I finally got another office job working 50-60 hours a week making 60% of old income.
So things are looking better, but still a LONG LONG LONG way to go.

Laid off five times in the last 7 years, last two times they laid off 1,000+ people and closed the plant. Was off work for two years. This year I have worked part time with an income less than a third of what it was when I worked before. The wife has not gotten a raise in three years and only works 18 hours a week. More often then not I have to pay the daughters student loan payments, often with money I have to borrow. She is a nun and that does not pay much.

MRS Bunkermeister and I are happier than we have ever been in our lives. Still, we are pretty broke, don't know if we can even keep the house.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

B, cki g the trend here folks. Yes, for me its over and doing very well thank you. Took early retirement after 30 years with NPS. Small pension. Not gong to sit around all day so. Took a job totally different from anything I have ever done and worked ramp for a new (at that time) start up airline jetblue. Been there 9 years and fell in love with the work and people. Do not make as much as I once did but health benefits of hard work and wicked great travel benifits make up for it. Wife at same for nearly 30years making more then me. We bought a new house. One kid in grad school so she on her own and son started state school and were are spliting cost. Reasonable. Gas is cheep so my compute is better.

Had a fair bit of tension back in 2009, but was quickly resolved. Other than being careful and putting our daughter thru college without any loans, then really no impact. Then again Houston/Oil Industry didn't suffer much from the 'great recession'. Current dip in oil price won't effect us much either.

Doing even better now. Spending has been steady throughout. Relationship as solid as ever, etc. I am sorry I didn't take advantage of real estate prices but then again all the spare money went to my daughter's tuition. So better investment in the long run as she's out with a great job.

What gaming budget?

Doug MSC your work was never shabby, I still have the 25mm Frontier Pathans you painted for me in 1988!! Good Job, Sir!

Well for me being in construction I am still behind about 20% in salary, from where I was before it started. I was fortunate that when I was laid off from the residential finish carpentry company, a commercial GC took me on even though I had no experience. It has been good for both of us. Our salon that we opened right before the worst stuff happened has struggled and never really gotten a good foothold. My wife works long hours to make sure we can pay those bills and make some money. We were able to keep our house, and things while tough have not been horrible. The gaming budget has been stable, I try not to buy too much. My time for gaming has diminished dramatically though.

I have fortunately been gainfully employed for the past ten years straight, so while not the best paying job, I've not had to go through periods of unemployment like I did in my 20's and early 30's. Just bought a house, so we're doing well. Haven't done any painting in the last three months or so, mostly for lack of time or motivation.

The biggest limitation on my hobby spending is household expenses. I hope to spend some cash in the new year on 25mm FIW figs

Status quo; no change in the last five years. Neither good nor bad.

It's been up and down. Like Stosstruppen I'm in construction and wages are down 20/25%.

Bank took the house last October and I struggled for a few months then took another job still 20% down on wages but averaged 80 hours per week.That contract ended start of the month so I'm back house building for 20% less and the hours have halved.

Don't fancy taking the renewal on the 80+hrs contract in the New Year,could handle it when I was younger but not so much now.

Getting back on track though paying a price health-wise.

Discretionary income is down, other than that, everything has been stable for me.

For my Mom it is a completely different issue; still jobless with no one hiring for more than Unemployment Insurance would offer, unemployment then ran out, she had to take in a roommate and has been running into other house/appliance maintenance issues – I am helping.