How is the recession affecting you? (Discussion Topic)

I have Oprah on in the background and she has on Suze Orman and they have some viewers on live via Skype discussing materialism and the recession.

I work in Real Estate and the market is not as active as it was for the last 5 years. At this point, FI and I are not affected financially by the recession but we are trying to be cautious regarding future planning and finances as we don't expect the economy to begin to expand for at least another 24 months.

how about you?

I work in the non-profit business and basically get money from corporations. I really feel the hit this year, more than ever. Last year I got a $45K donation from a large company and this year it went down to $20K due to the "climate".

My goal reflects the climate change so I should still be able to make it, but it is challenging.

Honestly, it hasn't changed my day-to-day life at all, or my job, But the way it's affected me most is how it's affected my mom. She opened her business, a franchise, right about the time of our wedding, but it didn't survive. She's now trying to find a way to make money, and hopefully save her house.

The economic climate has made me very nervous about big decisions we've made in the last 6 months! Relocating to a new state & building a new home made excellent sense when we made the decisions 6+ months ago. Now at one week from closing, I am constantly reviewing our budget, forcasting our cash flow & some what second guessing our decisions.

It's just a bit scary seeing the cost of daily expenses like gas and food going thru the roof. I am consciously limiting my non-work driving and making different decisions about entertainment and food expenses.

I work in Real Estate. I'm a loan officer and it has definitely affected my life. Business is slow and the market is getting worse. Luckily we don't need my finances for the most important details like bills but we have to watch what we spend on leisure.

don't even get me started on Teaching jobs and Gas prices!

Honestly, if nobody told me we were in a recession, I would never know it. I work for a civil engineering company and for whatever reason we are still as busy as ever with new construction projects. I have as much overtime available as I want and my pay level is pretty good.

The housing market scares me a little seeing that Karen and I want to buy a home at some point. Hopefully we can do it when things are a little better.

I am really sick and tired of gas prices, food prices and everything else prices going through the roof. I was pumping my $3.50/gal gas the other day remembering how just a few years ago it was around $1.50/gal. Nobody's salary is increasing at that kind of pace. As prices go up our salaries are not catching up. We are effectively losing money because of rampant inflation right now.

I can't complain though. We are still on the 'at least two vacations a year' plan and life is good.

My mom was going to retire at the end of this school year, but now she is going to wait another year. She is worried about the cost of gas/ groceries getting too high for her fixed retirement income.

It really hasn't affected me at all. I've lost some in the stock market, but I am thinking long term so I'm not worried about it. I'm also a renter, so home values aren't really effecting me.

I work at a hospital, so honestly it is not affecting me, people are still sick and the hospital is overflowing daily!