<p>littlegreenmom, this may be the new reality. Or the new reality for the short term anyway. At the other end of the spectrum, my son is in a school with a heavy intern/coop program. Lots of the kids are looking at taking classes and not electing to do a third coop due to a lack of good paying coops available.
I think the days of our fathers working in the same jobs for thirty years and retiring with pensions may be gone, at least for a lot of our current working population.</p>
<p>I hope that those with serious financial concerns will soon see improvements. For me the downturn in the economy has greatly changed how I look at work, money, and also retirement. We are just coming to the end of paying for a 5 year double degree program at an expensive private university. I expected to have to work a few more years to recover financially and I would be on target to retire at about age 66 or 68. The damage to my 401k, plus no pay increases and ongoing inflation has substantially changed my situation. After checking numerous financial calculators and an advisor, it seems that I would need to work until age 71-73 in order to meet my previous retirement goals. So after some considerable worry, my wife and I have decided the plans need to be changed. Instead of working for a longer period of time, I will retire earlier. The big change will be downsizing and moving to a less expensive area. Even in a less expensive area, we will need to scale down on expenses. That is easy for me. Shopping, clothing and adornments have never interested me. My wife is passing that stage also. We both have a lot of interests that are not very expensive. The biggest negative will be the trauma (and excitement) of moving and leaving behind the older daughter, her husband and the first grandkid. I am sure we, or at least my wife, will visit frequently. Now comes the excitement of planning a new life, picking a new area and a new lifestyle. I view the downturn in the economy as a big step forward in my life. Without the jolt, I would have kept going without the need to make any major changes.</p>
<p>edad, we have had some of the same conversation here regarding downsizing and the possiblity of moving to a less expensive area.</p>
<p>We tend to discuss economic stuff on the political board. There are a number of regular contributors to economic and financial topics over there. It’s just a convenient place because the number of topics generated is smaller than on the other two parent board.</p>
<p>BC, thanks for posting that. I had no idea. I stay away from the political board because I am not interested in the conservative vs. liberal arguing…I’ll check it out.</p>
<p>I will also look at that board. There are a lot of knowledgable people on CC and I am interested in what they have to say about when the economy will actually turn around.</p>
<p>Our CPA, a seasoned pro, says he has never seen anything remotely like this economic situation, with many small businesses ready to go under. He is having trouble getting paid by many clients.</p>
<p>We have been paying tuition for nearly 10 years and already made various downsizing types of cut backs, I don’t feel like there is a lot of room left other than either selling and having no mortgage (our mortgage have never been larger than it was in 1984, we keep bringing it down) or selling, buying way cheap and living off equity, but I don’t want to do that now, that needs to be for retirement.</p>
<p>Being self-employed is tough, we have found that not only is business down, advertising is up and the payments from the companies for which we do work has been restructured across the industry over the past 10 years, a little here and a little there, shrinking the net payments, but in small amounts. I feel like the frog in slowly boiling water.</p>
<p>The good news is we learned a lot in the 1990-1 downturn and have our life structured so our fixed costs are fairly low (other than taxes) and that we only have one kid left in undergrad. We had wanted to help with grad school, but will just have to see how that goes. Right now we still owe ourselves for last years tuition bills and need to get through DDs senior year.</p>
<p>What a great idea for a thread. It has been enlightening to hear the male perspective. </p>
<p>Sorry, not a guy, but a wife with a pertinent situation. My husband lost his job in June. After 20 years of being an at-home mom, I found a full-time job to provide a little income and benefits we needed, like health insurance. It has been a major adjustment for us all.</p>
<p>A few guys mentioned appreciating “nookie” or more frequent intimate encounters. While it was said in a humorous tone, I think there is something to that! The male ego definitely needs attention during this time, and there is no better way than letting a man know he is still very much a man 
Speaking for my husband, it adds a noticeable bounce to his step and boost to his confidence. This may sound sexist, but at this point, who cares! It is fun, has all sorts of benefits and is practically free, which is just about all we can afford to spend on fun these days. </p>
<p>If my husband wants to talk about his progress on the job search, I’ll listen. I try not to ask too often. I assume he is doing all he can. He loves and cares about our family every bit as much as I do. </p>
<p>Our children are very supportive and loving to their dear old dad. They know it’s hard for him and have learned not to ask for anything. It makes us very sad to be unable to give them much of anything but the bare essentials. It’s nice to see they have learned this is what families do. They pull together for each other. We’ve always been (and will always be) there for them. It appears they have internalized the lesson we hoped to teach.</p>
<p>An unexpected bonus of unemployment: He has become even more of a whirling dervish around the house! He has stained the entire exterior, painted the fence, resurfaced the driveway, power-washed and stained the deck, bought and hung new light fixtures, etc. Inside, he has finally gotten to all those little things that were easily put off. We’ve never eaten better either! He combs the internet for new recipes to try. I am greeted with a delicious meal every night after work. At the moment, he is affixing about a million little Cub Scout patches onto our son’s uniform. </p>
<p>Being supportive in the ways we each need seems to be helping us through this otherwise terribly stressful time. </p>
<p>If he doesn’t find a job within the next two months, we will have to try and sell our house and move in with my parents, in a far-away state. Our home is the only asset we have left to liquidate. It could get much worse before it gets better. </p>
<p>Please send up a little prayer for all of us with out-of-work breadwinners! I, too, am surprised there hasn’t been more on CC. It’s especially difficult to discuss IRL. It’s a relief to have a place to do so anonymously.</p>
<p>Thankfully I have only been fired once and been unemployeed twice. I have also come close a number of times but managed to find a job at the last minute. I know how stressful it is to be looking for work and worrying about money. I have been “conservative” for most of my life but I starting to believe there has got to be a better way. We seem to have the time, energy and money to control issues throughout the world and to provide assistance to other countries. Somehow we don’t seem to have the resources to provide a safety net for our citizens. In the meantime I can only hope that the economy will rapidly rebound and jobs will become available.</p>