Anyone else NOT been affected by the economy?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm trying to think of how it's hurt me but honestly I can't. I'm still making more money than I ever have.

[opebo]

Of course it hasn't effected me or anyone else who works for a government or quasi-governmental bureaucracy.

Probably the only benefit has been the gas price thing.  I put way less money into my car, and I find that I'm always overfilling the motorbike - here you give the station attendant your payment - usually around $1 to at most $2, but when I give him the $2 amount (70 baht), he can never get it all in the tank, and has to give me change.  So I'd say I spend about $5-6/month in the motorbike on gas, and maybe $35-40/month in the car.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

It won't effect you till you get laid off. It's effected me with my investmentts and the 4 houses my family owns because we have no capital gains and the dividends are getting cut on a lit of stocks. My father is an architect, so with the slowdown in construction, his business is very slow.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It won't effect you till you get laid off.

Unlikely. I just got promoted and we still have people in training.

[Хahar 🤔]

Not really affected in any meaningful way. Both my parents just got raises.

[??????????]

No, I'm making more money now then any time previously in my life. Plus all my money is tied up in money markets, and company stock not 401k.

[Jake]

I've lost several thousand in mutual funds. Then again, gas dropping two dollars in six months has saved me hundreds. And I'll surely get more financial aid next year with my father making less. It's been negative overall for my family because it's hit retirement accounts hard and the housing downturn means less demand for lumber and thus less of a bonus for my father. The market for marcellus shale dropping didn't help either.

Net negative overall.

Not being affected is not something to brag about, especially since you're not affected because you had made no effort to invest.

[jamestroll]

A recession is when your friend gets laid off.

A depression is when you get laid off...

[Eraserhead]

No, my family has been greatly impacted by this economy over the past seven years.

[Raoul]

Gas is low, college is cheap (for me at least) and my car's been paid off. I live off of tips anyway.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Only in that I desire to throw my radio out the window whenever I heard "OMG RECESSION OMG RECESSION OMG OMG OMG!!!!!1111". As if this really was the 1980s.

Media Discourse is so lame. I should become isolated from society and become a cheese farmer. I think I would care more about the world then.

[MK]

It sorta has.. good thing gas prices aren't 5$ a gallon.

For example I was on tract for the GA Highway patrol due to budget cuts that's pretty much on hold.

Its made me value my current job a little more... don't piss off the boss.

[opebo]

Only in that I desire to throw my radio out the window whenever I heard "OMG RECESSION OMG RECESSION OMG OMG OMG!!!!!1111". As if this really was the 1980s.

What?  The current situation is tremendously worse than the 1980s recessions.

Not being affected is not something to brag about, especially since you're not affected because you had made no effort to invest.

Hah, what does 'effort' have to do with 'invest'?  Let me assure you that most people do not invest because they have no money, not because of some fecklessness.

But since most people here are mentioning how it effects their family.. I'll just mention that while as a bureaucrat such things do not effect me, my businessman brother is in a very bad way, though not yet bankrupt.  Poor bastard has even considered taking a job - after reaching nearly 40 never having had one! 

And the decrepit parents are sitting pretty - with more and more people getting poorer, being a slumlord is just as good a business as ever.  Money's just rolling in.. literally - through a little slot in the door of the office.  You should see it.  We call it the 'Free Money Box'.

[MODU]

Other than the share values of my stocks and funds being cut in half and seeing the amount I can borrow be reduced by a few hundred thousand, there hasn't been any real impact on my end.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

My company just laid off a boatload of people today.  The entire company can now fit in a single conference room, which is kinda sad.

How this effects me:
(1) Takes a low level of morale and makes things even worse
(2) Requires me to take on even more work, meaning I'll soon have to do work for at least 3 hours of every day instead of just 2
(3) Forces me to dust off my resume and start looking again just in case
(4) Reduces the size, quality, and quantity of alcohol at our office holiday party
(5) May lead to the elimination of "bagel day," "pizza day," or—worst case scenario—both.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Oh yeah, and the value of my 401(k) has been slashed from $450 to nearly $300.  This means I will have to put off my retirement by approximately 18 hours.

[Dr. Cynic]

The only effect I've really had to deal with was inflation, because I have nothing invested... I did change banks from Natl. City to PNC.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The very noticeable dip in gas prices has been great. 

Either way, though, I have a sort of decent job and our sales are up a lot (apparently books are recession proof) and we sell pipes/cigars/pipe tobacco... which have been flying off the shelves... it's cheap entertainment.

My area is pretty recession proof, though, because we're already quite poor and our economy is diversified enough that we aren't subject to major swings in one direction or the other.

I was surprised though that our sales for Thanksgiving week were way way better than last year.

[Sam Spade]

NYC is getting bad now (actually it's been that way for a while), but I'm kind of recession-proof (heck, probably depression-proof) in the investments that I presently have.

[Keystone Phil]

I love when Naso told us that the economy was fine awhile back because he didn't physically see any factories closing in Ohio.

[Beet]

Well not that affected... "the economy" works in mysterious ways.

The moment that man discovered how to free himself from subsistence agriculture, he had nothing to do with himself. It was at that first moment of the realization of freedom, that moment of decision, rooted in his psychology, that the roots of civilization were born.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The portfolio I made in 2004 out of my summer work money began with $3500, rose to $5620 in mid 2007, and is now worth a whopping $2,016. My college fund is down $95,000. My grandfather's estate is down $950,000. Other than that, we haven't been affected at all!

[Sam Spade]

The portfolio I made in 2004 out of my summer work money began with $3500, rose to $5620 in mid 2007, and is now worth a whopping $2,016. My college fund is down $95,000. My grandfather's estate is down $950,000. Other than that, we haven't been affected at all!

You must come from a rich enough family to where none of this makes much difference.  However, you really need to do a better job investing.

[Хahar 🤔]

The portfolio I made in 2004 out of my summer work money began with $3500, rose to $5620 in mid 2007, and is now worth a whopping $2,016. My college fund is down $95,000. My grandfather's estate is down $950,000. Other than that, we haven't been affected at all!

You were able to lose that much money?

[??????????]

Thankfully my companies stock is nearly recession proof. When our stock price was most recently adjusted it had only gone down 1.80. That's the second lowest in the 55 year history of our stock. But overall, it's not bad as compared to the market. That's why I invest 70% of my 401k contributions to my company stock. When times were better it was 50%.