Are you better off than 4 years ago

[Badger]

Myself personally much better off. My 401K is about double what it was 4 years ago (well 3 1/2 years ago anyway). My House may be worth less but in my rural area the housing bubble never rose as high so it did not have as far to come down. I was able to refinance at record low interest rates. Inflation is virtually non existent. We ended one war and are drawing down forces in another. I don't have to worry about not having access to health care insurance if I were to lose my job. Things for me are far from perfect but they are much better than they were 4 years ago.

Good summary for me too.

[Badger]

No - My family and I are barely hanging on by a thread economically.  My mom works in the mortgage business - she has ok months and terrible months.  She recently, along with her boyfriend, had to downsize from a house to a condo.  Her boyfriend develops homes.  There has been no pickup in his business and people are not building new homes.  My brother is working 6+ days a week.  I am living off of loans while working - there are months where there's a downturn in ones week to week finances and one of us has to sacrifice to support the other.  We've each had a turn at this.  My aunt is close to being homeless because of money spent to take care of my grandma before she passed.  Even minor events effect our financial situation and a major event could put us all out on the street.

I have hope though that the career path Ive chosen will lead to me being able to provide security and protection for my family and get us back on track.  It won't be because of the president though.  He...I have no words for how much pain he has deliberately caused along with Bush.  And that's that.

"Deliberately caused"?

[Badger]

No - My family and I are barely hanging on by a thread economically.  My mom works in the mortgage business - she has ok months and terrible months.  She recently, along with her boyfriend, had to downsize from a house to a condo.  Her boyfriend develops homes.  There has been no pickup in his business and people are not building new homes.  My brother is working 6+ days a week.  I am living off of loans while working - there are months where there's a downturn in ones week to week finances and one of us has to sacrifice to support the other.  We've each had a turn at this.  My aunt is close to being homeless because of money spent to take care of my grandma before she passed.  Even minor events effect our financial situation and a major event could put us all out on the street.

I have hope though that the career path Ive chosen will lead to me being able to provide security and protection for my family and get us back on track.  It won't be because of the president though.  He...I have no words for how much pain he has deliberately caused along with Bush.  And that's that.

"Deliberately caused"?

Not going there Badger...that leads to a board meltdown and then personal attacks on my intelligence, neither of which I am in the mood for tonight.

Well, you threw that grenade out there, but whatever. If you rally believe Obama--or Bush for that matter--"deliberately caused" the economic pain our country is slowly recovering from, well, yes, I can see why you might have concerns about others questioning your intelligence.

On the subject, looking at the question again, I have to say absolutely--and just within the last year. New dream job, new dream home, the wife passed the torch on the non-profit art center she founded and has her life back now. The improving economy is just the icing on the cake.