Without giving too much information, how are you doing financially?

[ColbertWatcher]

[OakCliffDem]

1. I've got a job, and my boss seems good at finding us work, but ...

I have no reserves. If things go the wrong way, I could be in a world of hurt.

[Delphinus]

2. I'm, frankly,

slip-sliding away. I simply cannot afford to have health insurance - I am so far in debt because of doing this, so I'm dropping it and will work to pull myself out.

[OakCliffDem]

4. I wish you hadn't brought that up

My boss is talking about cutting costs, and our health insurance is on his list.

[samplegirl]

3. Terrible

but under the Clinton years I actually was living middle class.
I bought a new car...I had money in my wallet to just joy shop for things I or my home needed. I bought just about anything we wanted to eat from the grocery store. Going out is a thing of the past and going out to eat is out of the question. I don't have more bills..........just less money to keep up with it all.
Now it gets scarier each week. I just buy the necessaries. I feel blessed when I can get a tube of lipstick!!!

[obamaistheanswer2008]

5. Not bad...

About 12% up from last year...

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Lucky you! Hope it continues for you! Oh, and welcome to DU! n/t

[Turbineguy]

7. My sig line

pretty well sums me up.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Let me guess: McDonad's and Wal-Mart? n/t

[trof]

9. I'm an 'Other'...retired.

My wife and I get S/S and a small monthly pension.
My IRA investment 'income' makes up the difference in what we need to get by.
I own no common stocks, just preferreds which pay quarterly or monthly interest.
They're all down, but not as drastically as the rest of the market.
And so far they still make their interest payments.
My net worth is down about $40,000 so far this year.
Prior to this year I was holding my own, maintaining a consistent level of capital and living off of income generated.
Now, I'm worried we'll outlive our savings.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

10. Living simply

In order to reduce my debt, I've been living in forced austerity for a couple years now. In a way, that has made it easier for me to keep all the balls in the air now that things are really starting to collapse.

I can pay my mortgage, and have money for food, but I'll be damned if I know where money for heating oil is going to come from. Personally, I think that the election is going to come down to whether people are starting to get really cold come November.

[stlsaxman]

11. tucked between "paycheck to paycheck" and "some savings"

just landed a good job in April and am now able to meet the mortgage. good benefits. no credit card debt. the "some savings" comes in to play if you count equity in my house.

now if only the economy can hold up it's end to get us through this i might stand a chance.

OBAMA/BIDEN NOW MORE THAN EVER!

[Hope And Change]

12. K & R!

[radfringe]

13. paycheck to paycheck and nervous

what little I had in a 401k last year, I took out to stretch my unemployment. I was laid off at the end of march, found another job a few weeks later, and laid off from new job in september. my partner was also laid off in september when the law firm closed

I found a new job, 45miles away, about a month later. my partner was able to find a temp job, for way less pay, in April of this year, originally this temp job would have ended next month, they have extended her contract until mid-december

company I work for, is large international, our division is doing ok, sales are up, but they did lay off 20 people this past summer and are being pressured to cut expenses - makes me nervous

[Blue Meany]

14. I've been trying to prepare our family for a depression

for the last 4-5 years. We've paid off our house, starting heating with wood (we live in New England. Foodwise, we have put in a large garden; built a root cellar for storage of Fall crops; and have started canning, freezing and drying food. We belong to a food co-op, from which we buy bulk staples, such as rice, that we can't grow or buy from local farms. We've all got bicycles that we use for transportation as much as possible (I either bike or walk to work).

We have some savings but could not live off them for very long. Our plan is that if things were to get really bad, we would rent out rooms in our 7-bedroom house as a source of income.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Kick. n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

16. My husband is retired

and has a guaranteed pension which is saving us. Also I bought my duplex back in 1990 when we had a real estate crash here, so my mortgage is low and my renter pays most of it.

[Jamastiene]

17. Less than $1300 a month.

I live in a rural area which is cheaper, but the gas and food prices alone have eaten my savings. We are now officially struggling and hanging on by a hair. In a rural area, you have no choice but to drive. So, the gas prices are really cutting into the grocery budget. Mass transit is out of the question, because there is none.

Food has gone up in price far too much, imho. Ovaltine shouldn't have gone from $3.99 to $4.99 in one week's time, then stayed there. When you see stuff like that happening to something that is a cheap vitamin source for poor people living on a horrible pasta and whatever else cheap you can afford diet, you know the economy is in deep shit.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

18. Other: surviving below poverty and still relevant.

Of course, relevancy is difficult in a country infatuated with wealth and status and "stuff". But, basic human needs still require basic human strengths, like compassion and understanding and hands-ON action.

[greendog]

19. No debt - small savings (two or three months worth)

[dansolo]

20. I will be much better off after my closing

I moved for a new job, and I had to sell my townhouse. I have been having to pay a double mortgage, and I finally got an offer recently. I am supposed to close in October, but I am so afraid that somehow the bad economy may somehow cause it to fall through. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there won't be any problems.

[hfojvt]

21. I probably should say other

I work part-time and make about $12,000 a year (after paying for health insurance tax free). My $35,000 house is paid for and I own two Trek bicycles (no car). I have a few thousand in the bank, and a few more thousand in my IRA (also in banks) and 500 shares of Freddie Mac stock that I paid about $850 for (and is now worth about $150).

I probably would say comfortable, but I don't know how comfortable most people would be in my shoes.

[Captiosus]

22. Paycheck to Paycheck sums up our family.

We had a savings cushion, but that evaporated after I got laid off and during Feb. through April of this year when I was dealing with my MRSA cellulitis infection. Medications for that were routinely costing 40-120 dollars, especially the critical aftercare prescriptions.

So we're living in the black, but just barely, but I've had to do some serious cost cutting and comparison shopping to find how to best stretch our thin dollars. My stepson laments the fact that we often shop for clothes at thrift stores, but, as I told him, it's only a problem in his mind. As far as I know, none of his peers have even asked where he got his clothes, and I'm willing to bet a lot of them also have thrift store threads.

But if anything major were to break (eg. major appliance), we'd be ill prepared, financially, to handle it.