Has the Economy Hurt or Helped You?

(kenteck) · (kenteck) **Join Date: Jan 2005** 09-04-2009, 12:48 PM

keeping or losing the boat?

Due to the wife getting laid off last year, it’s time for the boat to go, bought it new with only a ½ hour on it in 2006, sucks, made it through this summer with it, but now it really has to go, hate to see it go…..
Is there anyone else in the same situation, due to loss of job?

(dirwoody) · (dirwoody) **Join Date: Apr 2003** 09-04-2009, 12:57 PM

Got lucky and picked one up from someone in a similar situation. Keeping my fingers crossed no one in my family faces the axe. Good luck Ken, it's a tough spot, I'm sure you'll get through it

(rodltg2) · (rodltg2) **Join Date: Oct 2005** 09-04-2009, 1:11 PM

i think the only ones its helping is :
Walmart
The Repo-Man
The Credit consolidation guy
Bankrupcy Lawyers

(Message edited by rodltg2 on September 04, 2009)

(kenteck) · (kenteck) **Join Date: Jan 2005** 09-04-2009, 1:18 PM

^^^^^^ so true. lol

(jeff_mn) · (jeff_mn) **Join Date: Jul 2009** 09-04-2009, 2:04 PM

Helped.

My wife is a hair stylist and her business has picked up dramatically. Women were going as a stress reliever.

My job was 100% stable. No changes.

We got a good deal on out Moomba too.

(megsswm) · (megsswm) **Join Date: Jul 2009** 09-04-2009, 2:05 PM

Has helped us ...we got a ridiculous deal on our boat.
Has hurt us....the value of our house has plunged...so much for moving.

(bruizza) · (bruizza) **Join Date: May 2009** 09-04-2009, 2:30 PM

It has helped me. Allowed me to buy a house for super cheap and then buy a truck for a smoking good deal.

(brett564) · (brett564) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 09-04-2009, 2:41 PM

Helped. I'm in a secure job, and I got my boat last year through an unreal deal. The year before that I got my truck for a great deal also.

Ya, my SoCal house's value is 2/3 of what it was, but we were planning on staying here for the long haul anyway. No need to sell until the kids are grown and gone.

(priszkid) · (priszkid) **Join Date: Aug 2007** 09-04-2009, 2:44 PM

no change. work has slowed down, but back to no overtime.
this means more time on the boat...never bad.

(hbguy) · (hbguy) **Join Date: Jun 2005** 09-04-2009, 3:00 PM

Hurt -- I made less last year than previous two years at my job. Also making way less renting out a vacation home.

If I was in the market for any big ticket items, I guess it could of helped, but I bought an expensive house in '04, an expensive car in '05 and an expensive boat in '07. I don't need anything else expensive even if it is on sale.

(bill_airjunky) · (bill_airjunky) **Join Date: Apr 2002** 09-04-2009, 3:19 PM

Other than our house value being in the tank, it hasn't really effected us much. We did get to refi at like 5% so that was good.

Anyone see 60 Minutes last week? The rich, white trash, SOBs that caused this mess with the Credit Default Swaps made a friggin killing. They should be jailed for it too.

(trevorg7) · (trevorg7) **Join Date: Mar 2008** 09-04-2009, 3:39 PM

Simply put, those with buying power had the ability to take advantage of some great deals.

T

(woreout) · (woreout) **Join Date: Aug 2006** 09-04-2009, 4:01 PM

HURT

(bill_airjunky) · (bill_airjunky) **Join Date: Apr 2002** 09-04-2009, 4:12 PM

Even worse, those with buying power had the option of using our money to gamble & make money for themselves. And when they all tried to collect at the same time, the market fell on it's ass.

(duffymahoney) · (duffymahoney) **Join Date: Sep 2008** 09-04-2009, 4:17 PM

I own a brewery and people are drinking more!

(trevorg7) · (trevorg7) **Join Date: Mar 2008** 09-04-2009, 5:28 PM

Bill K - good point. I was refering to individual buying power. In my case, I was able to take advantage of really low rates and GM Employee pricing to buy a new Suburban, refi the house and save $400 a month in case flow, and got a great deal on a new boat.

T

(newty) · (newty) **Join Date: May 2005** 09-04-2009, 7:38 PM

Ken I was wondering what happened when I saw your boat up for sale. Sorry to hear that. Good luck selling your boat.

(mobv) · (mobv) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 09-04-2009, 8:13 PM

Consulting income down 50% last quarter of 2008 and first half 2009. Picking up last half of this year.

(gunz) · (gunz) **Join Date: Sep 2001** 09-04-2009, 8:36 PM

Both kinda.
Wifes job went away middle of last year,ended up landing a much better job about 6 months ago.
My job was real busy,but has slowed big time,were doing workshare,and rotating who gets to stay home.

I bought a nice 03 Super Duty for about 8 grand less than it would have been,and picked up the 01 V210 a few k cheaper than when times were good.
I hope things get better,but fortunately,I'm in a good spot.

(antoddio) · (antoddio) **Join Date: Dec 2006** 09-04-2009, 9:06 PM

I never could have, or would have moreso, gotten such a nice brand new boat if I hadn't gotten a killer deal on a repo.

I also bought a 2 family home right before the housing market crashed. Isn't as cool as having a condo or a single family, but it didn't have big price run-ups that they did, so it's holding it's value pretty well now.

With gas prices and the price of everything down... I've had the greatest summer in my life. I was almost hoping to get laid off right before the summer so I could have more time with the boat and house projects, but didn't happen. 80 hours in about 3 months, life is good now, and I'm very thankful, it was kind of crappy for a number of years.

Things in the economy will turn around soon, it's inevitable.

(kenteck) · (kenteck) **Join Date: Jan 2005** 09-05-2009, 9:32 AM

newty...
wife lost her job last year, just been scraping by with the boat payment since then, still no job and now it just has to go.

(pavement_rider)

I go to work everyday yet make about only 1/3 of what I used to. My wife teachs and has lots of years so her job is solid but a 5% cut in pay and reduced benefit participation has put another hurt on us. We are not losing the boat EVER, but usage has been way cut back to keep the kids in their favorite sport which is hockey not watersports. So I guess thats a hurting for me. There are however some great deals on boats out there, hence the big cut in pay

(carter13) · (carter13) **Join Date: Feb 2009** 09-05-2009, 9:59 AM

Wife is a teacher in WA and no problem there.
I work for a municipality in WA and no COLA for two years but I have one more pay raise of $180 per month starting in October so it's all good.
Our repoed 05 Avy we picked up in Feb of this year is going to be with us for a long time.

(justsan) · (justsan) **Join Date: May 2009** 09-05-2009, 10:02 AM

Hurt would be an understatment...making a 4th of what was made in the past 3 years -thankfully I was decent at saving, and was able to score an amazing deal on a boat...boat has more equity than my house! Ha!

(brett564) · (brett564) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 09-05-2009, 3:22 PM

This is interesting. It seems like the majority of answers so far is the economy has helped, or at least hasn't really hurt us.

I feel bad for those it has hurt, but is it possible we are closer to the upper class a-holes than we want to admit?

(auto) · (auto) **Join Date: Aug 2002** 09-07-2009, 1:31 PM

Record year for me.

(meathead65) · (meathead65) **Join Date: Sep 2006** 09-07-2009, 5:47 PM

Hurt: Wife and I both lost our jobs on the same day when the boat manufacturer we ran a store for got seized by the bank and the owner was indicted for multiple fraud charges.

Helped: Bought a 08 F250 for a screamin' price.
Helped: Job loss caused us to open our own small service and rigging business for our existing fishing boat customer base, and that business is doing OK.

Hurt: New business still isn't generating enough to replace all the lost income, so I had to take a position in the industry that I'm not super thrilled with. However, it is with a huge, stable company with killer benefits and percs.

Mixed results for me, but I see better times coming soon for the industry in general.

(2006maliblue) · (2006maliblue) **Join Date: Mar 2009** 09-07-2009, 6:00 PM

Hurt: At my garage door company I had to lay 4 people off, my business is down so much it doesn't even cover its expenses. So thats a huge struggle.

Hurt: My mortgage company closed its doors last October, became to hard to get customers qualified.

Hurt: Lost my house, had to "Short Sell" it after it plummetted in value along with my income.

The good? My boats paid off and I've been able to go out to the lake more often. Plus Mom's home cooking is great, I forgot how much I missed that! lol

(hunterw) · (hunterw) **Join Date: Mar 2008** 09-07-2009, 8:15 PM

No change! When the family business is the funeral business its impossible to escape my line of work.

(duramat) · (duramat) **Join Date: Feb 2008** 09-07-2009, 9:41 PM

Hurt.

Just took a pay cut gracias to the low cost of oil. That means my airfare just hurts more. Possible layoffs coming soon. 600 by the end of Oct across the oil field (North Slope)

(jpuckett) · (jpuckett) **Join Date: Apr 2005** 09-08-2009, 8:00 AM

Hurt but thankful!

I work for a GM Dealership. Not a salesman but a computer person. Loss of company car. Cut in pay of $5K. Loss of benifits and holidays. But still thankfull I have a job!

(jason_b) · (jason_b) **Join Date: Feb 2008** 09-08-2009, 10:36 AM

Helped.
More people out of work means more time to go to the Dr office and get those things checked out that weren't important enough to miss work for. That and fast food, beer, and low quality food items are going like hot cakes right now...I'm in cardiology so those people eating that crap now are securing my future prospects!! Now we just have to keep Obamunism from ruining our health care system.

(chad52) · (chad52) **Join Date: Apr 2002** 09-09-2009, 12:36 PM

I hurt me indirectly.

I'm stable, but a lot of my crew are in situations where they either don't have money to pitch in, or they work longer hours and can't go. I've had more problems finding people to go this year than I can remember in past years...

(tuneman) · (tuneman) **Join Date: Mar 2002** 09-09-2009, 2:03 PM

Hurt.

Picked up an '09 Epic in the hopes to sell it for a profit toward the end of the season. No such luck. Got it down to $47K and lots of calls but no takers. The boat listed at $73K! Taking a loss on that but otherwise hanging in there.

(nautiquesonly) · (nautiquesonly) **Join Date: Sep 2007** 09-09-2009, 5:57 PM

I lost my job in Jan. Furloughed airline pilot. Still have the boat but she needs to go 07 236 about to go on ebay. Gonna lose my a$$