<p>I am usually a pretty serene person. But lately…the stock market is falling like a knife, Son’s grades are doing the same, clients are calling me for advice when they can’t meet their obligations, friends are being laid off after 20 years with their companies, etc. etc. I do count my blessings, but at the end of every day I want to pull the covers over my head and wait until about 2013.</p>
<p>How are y’all dealing with the stress of the current economic conditions - coupled with the college selection process? </p>
<p>I’m finding that lots of folks are not handling it well…lots of ugliness out in the business community that I’ve never seen before.</p>
<p>Applied for financial aid at D’s schools for the first time this week. Just trying to keep up my connections in the business community in case I end up out of a job.</p>
<p>Our work environment (at a major electronics retailer that is laying off…) got more difficult this week, one of our managers has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. I guess that is making me count my blessings, even being wiped out financially would be better than that.</p>
<p>Yep, I’ve been through the wringer. Last May, large law firm I worked for “restructured” in anticipation of work slowdown- I was restructured out of a job, with severance. New job found me in November, ended abruptly last Tuesday. Couldn’t meet payroll. Needed to reevaluate needs of firm. DS home for break, blew out a tire on car, guess what! Bent axle. At collision shop. I don’t even want to know what he was doing. </p>
<p>DD waiting to hear from schools- financial aid has been completed, praying for a money tree to bloom in the backyard- instead we get almost a foot of snow! </p>
<p>I’m glad you started this thread. I am feeling extremely stressed. I am grateful for my job, but with friends going down right and left, I am always nervous. I truly don’t think I would be able to get another job at this point. I think it will be OK, but it’s just tough right now. It’s hard to know what to do- do I totally shut down spending or do I live sort of normally since I DO have a job and don’t want to contribute to the demise of local businesses? I run, enjoy my pets and family and watch my TV shows and read. I just feel vaguely depressed all the time these days…</p>
<p>I’m not doing so well with stress at all. Feel free to ignore this whining rant. I am truly at the end of my rope. Mother was diagnosed with cancer about 6 weeks ago, then the same weekend she developed pneumonia which escalated to congestive heart failure. She almost died, but is now recovering slowly and getting ready to begin cancer treatment. All of her care has fallen onto me and the one brother who she lives with. Sister, who lives half an hour away and has no kids and no job and whose husband works at the facility where mother is treated, won’t lift a finger. I’ve used most of my sick days for the year dealing with mom. Then hubby and son had bronchitis that cost son a week of school and hubby is still sick a month later. Then they got sick again. I had food poisoning that wiped me out, followed by an infection in my mouth that got me prescribed antibiotics that made me even sicker. Finally have an appointment with oral surgeon tomorrow, but I’m going to lose the tooth and possibly another one. Terrible pain. Then we had a power surge or something in our hundred year old house that wiped out all of our four-year old appliances which had to be replaced. I work in Biglaw where everyone is in terror for their jobs. This year totally, totally sucks. I’m hopeful that spring will bring better fortune.</p>
<p>A related question: How much of your economic worries are you sharing with your kids? D 16 is well aware that she hasn’t gotten a car yet because we didn’t make budget at work for 2008. I certainly don’t feel bad in sharing that stark reality with her - she may think “everyone” gets a car when they turn 16 but I know better. She’s also the big shopper in the family…it will soon be time for spring clothes and I know she hasn’t really outgrown last year’s clothes…But yet, I don’t want to add financial stress to the lives of kids who have enough going on already in the stress department.</p>
<p>Hugs. You definitely need to join me in pulling the covers over your head until 2013.</p>
<p>I was just talking to a co-worker about the good old days when you had a combination stove/oven that you plugged into the wall that was never affected by power surges.</p>
<p>We have lived so poorly for so many years, that this economic downturn isn’t affecting us in big ways. Dh is a teacher, so his job is secure even if it never was/will be lucrative. I stopped looking at my 401K many months ago. It’s not like I’m going to sell low so I’m ignoring it for now.</p>
<p>I have started making the kids pick up more of their own expenses. Ds2 wants to go to a state convention for school, and I told him he had to pay half. For the first time ever, I am skipping ds1’s baseball game tonight because it’s about 90 minutes away, and I don’t want to spend the gas to go up there and back.</p>
<p>I need to start exercising. I feel nervous for others. Lots of layoffs around here lately, and I’m afraid to call friends and see whether they are affected.</p>
<p>hey I have a solution but you may not want to try it at home.
I got a concussion Saturday and the doctor prescribed not only nuclear strenght motrin, but vicodin and robaxin.</p>
<p>I didn’t think I would need them- but boy is it starting to hurt.</p>
<p>( I was so out of it- that even though I religiously watch * House* I had to ask the Dr. what vicodin was )</p>
<p>That’s a good question Missy. We’ve been pretty open with the girls about our circumstances which, frankly, aren’t that dire in the financial sense because my husband’s job isn’t going anywhere. But D1 stayed home at the local CUNY after her illness and had considered going back to her private school. She decided, on her own, that in this economy it didn’t make sense for her to take on debt and be unable to student teach in the geographic location where she planned to make her career. She makes very, very good money at both of her jobs and we were concerned about her spending so took her bank card an dput her on a tight budget. With D2, we’ve told her straight out that money will be the deciding factor in her college choice. She’s ok with that because she’s not the type to fall in love with anything. She fell into a very high-paying internship and to be honest, we look the other way with her spending. She tends to be cheap, but we let her use her earnings as her recreational money. I have splurged in one regard, though. The Precious King (age 10) was offered a spot with a well-regarded piano teacher and I jumped on it. Peanut butter sandwiches for Mommy, but I couldn’t pass this up. Both girls know that I am very afraid for my job and know what my “Plan B” is. D1 has said that she knows she can cover the family mortgage with her earnings and would do it “in a heartbeat” if we needed her to.</p>
Oh no! I hope you feel better. Be careful, ok?</p>
<p>Veryhappy, if you have an Ipod, the best thing you can do for your sanity is plug it in and walk or run all by yourself. It’s the most liberating thing. I’ve come to believe that my body is the only thing I can mostly control and have gone back to serious weight lifting. It gives me great peace.</p>
<p>I’m also curious how much people are sharing with their kids. The reason I’m making ds2 pay for half of the convention is because he has been a total slacker with this club at school all year and so all of a sudden his desire to go to this convention merits some skin on his part. But also, we’re not rolling in dough!</p>
<p>The drill team competition season will be over at the end of March. At the competition last Saturday, a group of moms were saying how they are going to make their daughters get jobs as soon as the season is over…great idea in theory and it will certainly give them a head start for the summer if they do get jobs, but I fear that the retail jobs of these girls’ dreams aren’t out there.</p>
<p>*
I didn’t think I would need them- but boy is it starting to hurt.
Oh no! I hope you feel better. Be careful, ok?*</p>
<p>Some of you may already have bifocals- I just got my first pair and the dr warned me about not looking out of the sides of my glasses, but moving my head instead.</p>
<p>I feel like Stuart Smalley, I may not be able to be a good example, but I can be a dire warning. :o</p>
<p>Missypie, sometimes the positive aspects of anti-anxiety medication far outweigh the drawbacks (like addiction). Talk to your doctor. </p>
<p>Kids are well aware of the financial situation. After my first layoff, not much changed due to severance. This time it will be different. We were really leaning toward UMich for D (OOS for us) but thankfully D is being realistic for us. </p>
<p>zoosermom, I am sorry about your mother. My dad passed away two years ago - Mom is right around the corner from us - my sister is miles away and can only travel when she wants to do something fun. Helping Mom through anxious financial times doesn’t seem to cut it. Girls weekend that her MIL is paying for? She’s there. You’re in a tough boat and I’m not a hugger so positive thoughts your way. </p>
<p>Didn’t law used to be a secure profession? </p>
<p>Hiding under the covers sounds real good about now.</p>
<p>Some areas of law are up (e.g. bankruptcy; shareholder’s suits against the big banks); other areas are down (e.g. commercial real estate) and others practically don’t exist in the current economy. If you had hired 20 associates a few years back to handle all the loan securitizations you were doing, how many of them would you need now? And if they go, you need fewer support staff.</p>
<p>Lots of the largest law firms have had well publicized lay offs. Others are quietly cutting off the weakest links.</p>
<p>In good news, my parents (who have never had much money and now live off a state pension) saved their money and bought a Wii! It makes me happy to think of my parents inside on a cold day playing Wii!</p>
<p>It’s pretty scary. I have several friends affected by layoffs and I don’t consider our income safe at all. DH and I are debating whether to “hunker down” and cut spending drastically now or keep up our already frugal spending while we have an income in order to help the economy. When things happen that surprise even the pessimistic economists (e.g. the DOW dropping below 7000) my anxiety goes into overdrive.</p>
<p>Both DS’s are ignoring it all and continuing to blow all of their money on eating out and movies. I’ve always been very frugal and wonder if they were switched with someone else’s kids in the hospital. Youngest DS is waiting for RD results from his college apps and I’ve already told him that I will not pay $50k/year when he already has good EA options that are $20k. Last year I would have weighed the pros and cons and may have gone with the more-expensive choices.</p>
<p>ETA: One of the state legislators on the radio yesterday said that this wasn’t just a question of going to the DMV to renew your license and finding it closed because of cutbacks in hours, but of stepping over homeless people to get to the DMV because of cutbacks in social programs. Yikes.</p>
Just trying to keep up my connections in the business community in case I end up out of a job.</p>
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