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Are you better off than 5 years ago?

leftyjace

leftyjace

Well-Known Member
This is not meant to be a political thread, and I'm not trying to instigate a debate. It's a serious question. I'm interested in people's individual stories. Compared to 2007 (pre Great Recession), would you say you are better off, the same. Or worse off?
 
I feel like I'm better off, although my situation is different enough to make it a difficult comparison. I got married in January 2007 and I was still in school and my wife worked full time. Now we have 2 kids with one on the way. I finished school and work full time. My wife works part time. She is doing a masters program. We pay more attention to our finances now, but that's more related to our family size than the economy.
 
Hmmm...
5 years ago I was living in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I was single, I had 4 Russian, 2 Kazakh, 1 Korean regular fbuddies. At work I was earning twice the money I am making now, I had private driver, 2 secretaries.
Now I live in Turkey. I'm married. Earn much less... But I'm more happy. Long story short; no I'm not better off.
 
I'm better off - more money, bigger house, better cable TV.

I owe it all to Obamacare.

But seriously, I concede luck has a little to do with it. In 2008 before the crash the CEO of my company bought a controlling interest in our firm. If that did not happen there is a good chance my company would have been sold to one of the big boys in the industry (finance). Afterwhich my fate would have most definitely been up in the air.
 
I make a lot less money, but have better benefits and more job stability.

Of course, there isn't any lack of demand for people with IT skills.
 
One Brow said:
I make a lot less money, but have better benefits and more job stability.

Of course, there isn't any lack of demand for people with IT skills.
Click to expand...

I'm also in IT, make more money (mostly due to career development and climbing some ladders), worse benefits (same company as 2007), and very stable but no more so than in 2007.

I find it difficult to swallow that people who are significantly better or worse off over a 4 year period can accurately attribute the swing to government policies. Four years is a mere few degrees in the boiling of the national frog.
 
bordelais7 said:
I'm also in IT, make more money (mostly due to career development and climbing some ladders), worse benefits (same company as 2007), and very stable but no more so than in 2007.

I find it difficult to swallow that people who are significantly better or worse off over a 4 year period can accurately attribute the swing to government policies. Four years is a mere few degrees in the boiling of the national frog.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm worse off and it is directly tied to governmental policies.

That's all I'll say about it, but I have no hard feelings one way or the other, sometimes that's just how things go.
A few degrees will directly affect some people, even if most of the people don't feel it yet.
 
Same hourly wage as six years ago, but less take home pay and benefits, while everything seems to cost more.
 
5 years ago, I was working long, hard hours, had money in the bank, no debt, and a sheet metal apprenticeship staring me in the face.

I work a hell of a lot less now, am broke as ****, loaded with debt, but prefer my path.

I'd say I'm better off.
 
I know that I'm not.

As a civil service employee, I've gone through 2 straight years of cost of living raises being suspended to help pay down the deficit. Congress is now pushing to extend the freeze to 5 years. Talking with a union rep the other day and he showed me the figures. The 2 year pay freeze has paid the government over $60 billion. Personally, I'm glad to help the government get headed back in the right direction, but sadly it doesn't seem like that $60 billion is being put to good use. The push for a 5 year pay freeze will probably get passed. Meanwhile, inflation and cost of living will continue to go up.
 
I'm definitely not.

Pre-2008 crash, I had an extremely profitable ebay business making upwards of 5000 a month.
Then the crash happened, and I've been working for the 'man' ever since.
I'm broke as hell, have insurmountable debt, horrible credit, and two kids now as well.
Not to mention prices continue to increase on everything from food and gas, to cell phone services and internet.
 
Beer prices are up 20%. I work for the man & we've had a 1% pay raise in 5 years while private sector has gone up 12% on average. Our benefits have been cut significantly. The total cost of insurance has gone down so it's not a case of having to pay for premium increases. New hires have a significant cut in pension benefits. I'd say anywhere from a 18-25% real pay cut depending on hire status. On the other side, lower mortgage rates & payroll tax cuts have offset a portion. My wife works for a great company & has benefited from good raises & bonus enhancements. Probably a wash financially.

Outside that, I really like the roads Obama stimulus money built us.
 
TheSilencer1313 said:
It's not beer prices that are up, it's the dollar that buys less and less of it as the Fed continues to contribute to it's devaluation.
Click to expand...

Not exactly.

Using CPI, it's safe to estimate that there has been approximately 10% inflation since 2007. And as you know, inflation is the market mechanism where we'd be able to gauge the devaluation of the dollar.

The other 10% comes from increased customer demand - in other words, franklin drinks a helluva lot more now than he did 5 years ago.
 
It hasn't affected me at all. I think in Utah we have a quite stable economy, because we aren't overly reliant on failing industries like finance and domestic cars.

So, I am better off than where I was 5 years ago, but I'm only 27. Didn't lose anything to the recession. All of my debt is by my choice, such as student loans, cars, credit cards.. stuff like that, and we are actually getting on top of it now.
 
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