How has the economy affected your racing? Options

[z28jeff]

My wife and I both have recession-proof jobs. I do HVAC maintenance at the Dept of Energy,(and you know energy research isn't going away anytime soon) and my wife is a teacher. This whole crashing economy thing has been weird for me. It's like I'm on the outside looking in. Actually, things have been better for me in the last few months. I just got a promotion and my wife is on the doorstep to being hired at a local school district that's tough to get into. (Been subbing for 5 years). You would think I would be dumping more money than ever into my car to make it an all out ESP car. But I just can't get motivated now. In fact, I'll probably do less events this year than I've done since I started 8 years ago. Or mabey quit alltogether for awhile. I don't know if the economy has me too scared to spend money, or if I'm just burned out of the autocross scene. I'm thinking it's the latter of the two.

[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.

[Alien]

Like Mitch, I'm planning on making all of this seasons scheduled races (6 weekends). Won't be doing any lapping days or test & tune days tho. I desperately need the seat time to catch up wik the rest of the pack, but it looks like I'll have to settle for just learning on the race weekends. This is parlty due to the unknown future, and partly because last year was a big spending year. Asides being my first season W2W, I bought a house in Feb, new (to me) tow vehicle in May, and my gf bought a new(ish) Sky Redline in Nov. Don't blame me for lack of trying to spur on the economy, it was a buyers market.

My girlfriend and I work at the same (big) engineering company. Just announced that the yearly performance raises have been postponed. I feel pretty comfortable that I'm good to stay, tho if she loses her job, I'll have to park the racecar until things pick back up.

[koserv]

Glad to hear most all are still working and planning on racing. I'm the poster boy for the "new" economy.... a small business owner who's gross sales went from around 35k/month to...wait for it....0. Well that's not entirely true. I did bill $287 for January. For me, that has translated into a complete rebuild of the race car this winter (my labor and lots of "paint it and it looks pretty" parts). I still plan on running all the NASA Midwest events, but making it to SLC in September will depend upon things turning around. I'm pretty well set for an extended "vacation", but I'll be bummed if racing needs to go back to Sunday morning F1 and the local roundy-round tracks. I waited 50 years to do this...I sure hope I can find something to do to keep the dream going....

KO

[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

[00 SS]

Sounds like you had a personal financial perfect storm to go along with the economy in general. It's actually pretty amazing that you're still afloat. Keep up the fight.

Personally, we've been pretty lucky so far. My job is pretty safe, my wife runs her own business that has been doing pretty well and health has been good. But we haven't escaped totally unscathed, the 401K is 60% of what it was 2 years ago and savings is now very thin. We adopted 2 kids a couple years ago and the extra expenses have been a bit of a strain on things but well worth it. Most of the extra expense has been day care. I can't wait for August. My son starts Kindergarten and the day care bill will drop over $500/month.

This post has been edited by 00 SS: Feb 20 2009, 12:39 AM

[rmackintosh]

I can't wait for August. My son starts Kindergarten and the day care bill will drop over $500/month.

Mine too......:woot:

Maybe a new C6 if my wife and I can keep our claws on our jobs for the next 6 months! KNOCKING LOUDLY ON WOOD!!

[sgarnett]

I can't wait for August. My son starts Kindergarten and the day care bill will drop over $500/month.

Mine too......:woot:

Mine too (daughter, that is) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[35th_Anniversary...]

I'm not exactly in the safest occupation anymore, at least oil creeped up closer to $40/barrel. At least I've got a couple of years in with the company and have a reputation for being a good performer. I don't think I need to be worried about losing my job, but even if I did I don't think it would be hard for me to get another job. The house is paid down to $18,308, so I don't have to worry about losing that. I did scale back a bit for this year.... I was going to go race at the local dirt circle track, but luckily there was a cooling off period before the car was bought and I decided that giving heroin to a pothead is probably not a good idea. (In other words I did not need to get addicted to a different / more expensive form of racing). If I keep behaving I should be 100% debt free by the end of March of next year (2010), or so I hope.

But hey if you need money, live with your mother who hasn't paid her mortgage in 10 months, get food stamps and disability for 3 of your kids just go to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and pop out 8 more parasites to suck up all the government cheese you can.

[gopanoz]

I work for Jared Jewelry. My income in 2008 was almost half of what it was in 2007. I am a good saver though so I am alright for quite a long time even with my house and all. No sales force layoffs so far. No whispers of it either.

But my side job is pressure washing. The money I make from it is strictly for racing stuff i.e. z28 payments, z28 insurance, tires, entry fees, gas etc. made 6k in 07 and 1k in 08! Not one job since october. Only 2 calls in that time. So I am sacrifing some other things to make up a very tiny amount. So far I plan on houston tour and nationals.

But things could be much worse. For instance the The govt could borrow money from china and then use it for aahhh FTW!!!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/bigun2.gif) I wanna race! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/gr_driving3.gif)

[killer_bluebird]

Let me see, In 2007 seeing that things where not looking good for the future, my wife and I decided to start to tighten our budget. A college course that I was teaching and have been teaching for the last 12 years is canceled due to low enrollment. So our income was starting to shrink.We didn't have much debt other than medical bills due to my wife's ongoing medical condition. So after getting rid cable tv and any other luxuries, I decided to sell the CP firebird. In February it was sold and in March it was on it way to it new home in NY. We bough a used car cash, payed a few bills and bought a few parts to prepare my wife's stock Z28 to compete in ESP so I can keep my racing going on albeit in a very limited fashion. At this point Racing was limited to 1 Auto-X a month and no Track days for this year. My department at work goes through a re-organization and the new Boss kicked out 12 or so people after reassuring everyone that there would be no layoffs. So in May I was out of work. House goes on the Market for a Short Sale as we can no longer afford the payments since our priority had to be to keep our medical coverage to the tune of over $600 a month. Beat's paying for $6,000 treatments every 3 weeks out of pocket without it. Get a new part time teaching work at a different college teaching 2 classes and try to work as much freelance as I can get under the table. On January still no Job and now due to a screw up unemployment stops. February we move to my mother in law's house. Still the house sale is cough in Paper Limbo at the mortgage company in spite that we have a cash buyer ready but since we could no longer afford the utility bills on $100 a month we moved. Good new is that we got a grant that will pay for the medical insurance premium. Bad new is that we are still living on about $100 a week. Soon as much as I hate to do this Race Rims & Tires and anything that we can sell will be sold. With Luck will be able to keep the car but who knows.

I've been building my freelancing company during all this time but that is a slow process that with luck will start paying off soon. I've also been applying to jobs all over the place for full time positions, including out of state (Canada, New Zealand and Australia) to no avail. I may decide to go back to school and try to finish my degree but don't know for sure yet as this would help me if I want to continue in as an educator and not as a Graphic Designer /Animator/ Multimedia Specialist (portfolio rules over degree in those areas). So it looks like there will not ba any racing in my future for a couple years.

The funny thing is that I really don't know how we have managed the last few months apart from God's grace and provision. I mean every time we have been really up against the wall somehow we have gotten an unexpected freelance project or a gift from a friend. So I'm filled with Hope! not because of the president on the white house but because of he who presides over my life, Jesus.

This post has been edited by killer_bluebird: Feb 20 2009, 12:16 PM

[rmackintosh]

Let me see, In 2007 seeing that things where not looking good for the future, my wife and I decided to start to tighten our budget. A college course that I was teaching and have been teaching for the last 12 years is canceled due to low enrollment. So our income was starting to shrink.We didn't have much debt other than medical bills due to my wife's ongoing medical condition. So after getting rid cable tv and any other luxuries, I decided to sell the CP firebird. In February it was sold and in March it was on it way to it new home in NY. We bough a used car cash, payed a few bills and bought a few parts to prepare my wife's stock Z28 to compete in ESP so I can keep my racing going on albeit in a very limited fashion. At this point Racing was limited to 1 Auto-X a month and no Track days for this year. My department at work goes through a re-organization and the new Boss kicked out 12 or so people after reassuring everyone that there would be no layoffs. So in May I was out of work. House goes on the Market for a Short Sale as we can no longer afford the payments since our priority had to be to keep our medical coverage to the tune of over $600 a month. Beat's paying for $6,000 treatments every 3 weeks out of pocket without it. Get a new part time teaching work at a different college teaching 2 classes and try to work as much freelance as I can get under the table. On January still no Job and now due to a screw up unemployment stops. February we move to my mother in law's house. Still the house sale is cough in Paper Limbo at the mortgage company in spite that we have a cash buyer ready but since we could no longer afford the utility bills on $100 a month we moved. Good new is that we got a grant that will pay for the medical insurance premium. Bad new is that we are still living on about $100 a week. Soon as much as I hate to do this Race Rims & Tires and anything that we can sell will be sold. With Luck will be able to keep the car but who knows.

I've been building my freelancing company during all this time but that is a slow process that with luck will start paying off soon. I've also been applying to jobs all over the place for full time positions, including out of state (Canada, New Zealand and Australia) to no avail. I may decide to go back to school and try to finish my degree but don't know for sure yet as this would help me if I want to continue in as an educator and not as a Graphic Designer /Animator/ Multimedia Specialist (portfolio rules over degree in those areas). So it looks like there will not ba any racing in my future for a couple years.

The funny thing is that I really don't know how we have managed the last few months apart from God's grace and provision. I mean every time we have been really up against the wall somehow we have gotten an unexpected freelance project or a gift from a friend. So I'm filled with Hope! not because of the president on the white house but because of he who presides over my life, Jesus.

Here's wishing you and your family ALL THE BEST in the future! I was out of work for 5+ months last year so I know the pain/stress of it, but NOWHERE near your level.

GOOD LUCK!

[2manyfbods]

well guys, wish me luck. The third round of lay offs will happen tomorrow. Even my somewhat specialized job as a Metrologist is in jeopardy due to outside sources biding on the lab work. If it does happen, I'll be one of the *lucky* ones and get 16 weeks of severance.

Selling Tacos and Margaritas on the beach of Cabo San Lucas sounds like a viable alternative to Corporate America ;-)

This post has been edited by 2manyfbods: May 5 2009, 03:38 AM

[nape]

Good luck. May the axe let you pass unscathed.

I took a lay off on Friday since the contractor I worked for hasn't had work in 6 weeks. I'm insanely glad I didn't take everyone's great advice to buy a house last year. I was putting a big chunk of my check into savings every week and unemployment is about what I was seeing as take home on my check.

Racing on unemployment here I come! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[2manyfbods]

I made it through another day but, they still havent done the lay off. No one is sure when it will happen now.

[Rob Hood]

We've gone through several rounds of layoffs at my place of employment as well, and my wife was let go from her job at a local church this past week (their tithing went down 30%, she was the last one hired...) So while I haven't been on track in who knows when, I too have been participating in the Second Amendment stimulus package. Way too much crazy border-related stuff going on.

[Beach Cruiser]

Well Corporate cutbacks hit my family too. I thought we were pretty secure, I'm an engineer for GE in the energy sector, and my wife was an attorney in a large global firm. In April they cut her practice group accross the board and she was let go. (6 figure income is difficult to lose) In the end, we hope it will be better, she has started her own firm and has high hopes most of her existing clients will come with her. But the next few months are going to be a real wake up call for us. I'm only doing the Auto-X's I signed up for with my club dues and no track days this year.

[sgarnett]

Larry, I'm in the same boat - more layoffs announced, but I don't know when I'll know. My area is definitely in the crosshairs. Having a blade hanging over my head for months at a time is getting really old.

I recommend Pepcid AC and beer, not necessarily at the same time or in any specific order. Also, just as with my wife's illness, I find it difficult to think about anything but driving for the duration of an autocross run - while I can still afford it, anyway.

[00 SS]

The company I work for had it's first round of layoffs since 2000 last week. We lost almost 10% of the company. I was spared this time. They say no more layoffs are planned, but neither was this one. If business gets bad enough, my position could find it's way onto the chopping block as well.

We haven't been spending on much of anything lately, but I have also been contributing to the second amendment stimulus package. I never thought I would spend several time the price of a pistol on ammo for it in the first few months of ownership. It feels like buying a car and then stocking up several years worth of fuel for it all at once.

[cccbock]

The company I work for had it's first round of layoffs since 2000 last week. We lost almost 10% of the company. I was spared this time. They say no more layoffs are planned, but neither was this one. If business gets bad enough, my position could find it's way onto the chopping block as well.

We haven't been spending on much of anything lately, but I have also been contributing to the second amendment stimulus package. I never thought I would spend several time the price of a pistol on ammo for it in the first few months of ownership. It feels like buying a car and then stocking up several years worth of fuel for it all at once.

All this news makes me grateful. But.

I own my own company, but we are paid on commission (real estate appraisal). My income from this source is one-third what it was in 2006 and going down. I may have to lay myself off.

I now work part time for a friend (in a lab) in addition to the hit and miss appraisals. Altogether, my income will be half this year what it was.....

Keep the faith.

bock