economy/desperation

somemom
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:53:40 +0000

I remember the only time I’ve ever seen my Dad cry- he has weathered multiple cancer Dx, heart surgery, my Mom’s cancer & heart things, etc., but the only time i ever saw him cry was 1973 when the big SoCal aerospace layoffs hit him and he lost his job at the sweet little company to which he could ride his bike. He went back to the big mega-company and was back in that car pool to LA for the rest of his days, so he got back into things quickly, but he was still devastated it could happen and so sad to have to get back on the big company treadmill.

I also feel like I have seen plenty of good times & bad times- somehow I never seem to rake in the big bucks in the good times but I do feel the pain in the bad times but I learned many years ago to make our basic life really safe.

Think about the early 70s, the early 80s, the early 90s, so many down times for different reasons. We work with no guaranteed salary, so our mortgage now is lower than it was in 1984 and we are trying to pay it down and off! Cars are usually paid for in cash and our basic survival costs are kept low. We have been at risk before and lost badly on assuming things would always be good, so now we plan to survive the bad times and do not extend ourselves. I am sure we have missed out on some opportunities to make money, but we have also missed some great chances to lose money :D