Are You Better Off Now Than You Were 4 Years Ago?

[stegosaurus]

Financially? Not particularly.

For most of 2008, I worked odd jobs and crashed around; typical 20-something artist routine. This period, even though I made relatively little money, was comfortable. In 2008, ~$450.00 every two weeks went a lot further.

In 2009, I was hired as a temp for a financial services firm (dealing with mortgages specifically) processing the Obama administration's mortgage modification program. This 7-8 months was the peak of my income, $14.50 an hour (roughly $500.00 a week) and all the over time I could stomach. As an added bonus, it took them 4 full months to realize that the program was going nowhere - so I was paid ~$500.00 a week to literally do nothing. Surf the internet, etc. Unfortunately, they eventually came to grips with what the program demanded and I became expendable labor.

2010-2011 were bad years...very bad years. Moved in with my parents, then with my girlfriends parents, then in with a friend, and then in with yet another girlfriend. In this time, I was able to find one job: $10.00 an hour at a market research company in the mall ("Would you like to take a survey!?"). I was eventually laid off from this job when they closed the office.

In January 2012, I moved back in with my parents for the second time. I was very discouraged at that point, but thanks to a little determination and a lot of luck, I landed a very secure job in worker's comp, for $25,000 a year. It's not much, but it's better than most of the people my age in my end of town are doing.

Long story short: The last four years have mostly sucked for me financially and only now am I getting it together. However, that had little to do with the President directly and more to do with the exploding cost of everyday goods and a sluggish economy that wasn't creating any jobs that I was qualified for.