[mitchntx]

Just curious how many have scaled back, scaled back considerably or outright had to park your car because of the economy?

And along with that, how many have done any of the above, not based on actual events, but fear of something happening that would make curtailing your "fix" inevitable?

For me, my regional race schedule hasn't changed, but the TnT days and out of region events have been scratched. And not because of being laid off or anything, just burying my coffee cans in the backyard in case I do.

If I didn't have a great group of sponsors and wasn't able to trade instructing for registration, then the story would probably be differnet.

[pknowles]

My racing season is being cut back because with the fall in prices, my wife and I can finally afford to buy a decent house. For the last 2 weeks I've been unemployed, but it was planned unemployment. I'm using the time off to finish my dissertation before I start my new job in March. Because I'm starting in March, I won't have any vacation time to go to a lot of the big events like Nationals this year. I can take a cutback in racing for all the great things that are happening. The new job is a dream job and our family income will double, so I'll be back in full force next year. The only real events I'm not going to go to are Nationals and a ProSolo or two. I'm running two local series, that will keep me busy racing.

I may be bias on the subject because Washington DC is very materialistic and right of entitlement kind of city, but the only people that are having trouble are the ones that bought the crazy big house and spent money like crazy. I feel that if you are a hard worker with a good skill set and didn't spend money to your wits end, you will be fine in this economy. Corporations will always need skilled workers\contractors that bring value to the company.

[sgarnett]

I may be bias on the subject because Washington DC is very materialistic and right of entitlement kind of city, but the only people that are having trouble are the ones that bought the crazy big house and spent money like crazy. I feel that if you are a hard worker with a good skill set and didn't spend money to your wits end, you will be fine in this economy. Corporations will always need skilled workers\contractors that bring value to the company.

You are biased on the subject. You're also in that "future's so bright, I gotta wear shades" phase (a song I keep thinking about in a dark ironic sort of way), and that's great.

When I was in my early teens, I was into radio controlled airplanes, and was the club's main instructor for a while. One nugget of instructional wisdom I picked up somewhere was to tell the students to always fly "nine dumb thumb high". In other words, allow room to recover from several mistakes and mishaps before running out of altitude.

When I bought my house, I waited until I had the mortgage covered multiple ways, so I wasn't depending on any one thing:
- company stock options that were about to vest (poof, shortly after buying the house)
- consulting income (poof, shortly after buying the house)
- wife's relatively stable teaching income (double poof, replaced by huge cancer expenses, right after finishing expensive Master's in school administation and right after daughter was born)
- hard worker with good skill set (but I live on the wrong continent, so looming poof)

More recently:
- refinanced to INCREASE mortgage payment somewhat (at lower interest rate, shorter term) in race to get it payed off ahead of outsourcing, hoping I still had a few years to do so
- sufficient 401K and other savings to pay off mortgage early if necessary (poof)

There's a steady stream from the new overseas facility rotating through to learn our jobs, and has been for several years. Many jobs were already gone, so I was already working toward being able to survive "non-voluntary early retirement" before I reach 50, but I'm not there yet. The current environment has already led to increased layoffs (the latest a few weeks ago), and there will be more. Those jobs will never come back (in North America) once they are gone.

I'm still solvent and in relatively good shape, but I'm running out of thumbs. As long as I keep my job, I'm fine. If I lose it, I'm not even free to relocate because I must live near family that can help when needed so I can work. I also must work for an employer with group health insurance coverage, because there is no way I'll ever be able to get private coverage. For now, I could still pay the mortgage if I wipe out my retirement savings. However, with a daughter to raise and a wife to keep alive (ever priced weekly chemotherapy for life, not to mention a bunch of surgery, even with health insurance?), I'm now wondering if it's even a good idea to try to keep the house.

I may be better off than many right now, but cancer [or a parent/spouse with Alzheimers's, or any of many other serious illnesses ...] can and will burn through that faster than you can imagine. In 2001, medical bills caused more than half of all personal bankruptcies. More than 3/4 of those were insured at the start of their illness. According to a recent ABC news report, "One in five people with cancer use up all or most of their savings, and those are people who have insurance."

Even if I don't lose my job, it's going to take years to recover.

I'll still be doing some local autocrosses this year to maintain my sanity as long as the paychecks keep rolling in. I probably won't be spending much time at the new road course that will open this year, only an hour or so from home. I certainly won't be doing much to the car, or buying fresh tires this year.

Reckless idiots got us into this mess, no doubt about it. However, the fallout will go way beyond the idiots (and already has). Those who were "swimming naked" (with apologies to Warren Buffet) have largely been washed away already. At the moment, I'm very worried about all the people who were only flying five dumb thumb high, believing they were being very conservative and responsible.

I'm biased too, of course. It just isn't the same bias. I am getting pretty tired of hearing that the only people in trouble are those who brought it on themselves. Some did. Many did not.

This post has been edited by sgarnett: Feb 19 2009, 05:06 PM