re: #209 A Mom Anon

Yep. I’m 54, my husband is 47. We have about 2K in a 401K. The first one lost 65K in the crash, and then when he lost his job we had to cash out the rest of it so we wouldn’t lose everything. We have some equity in our home, but we had to refinance a couple of times (and we didn’t use our house as an ATM, we have a non variable rate mortgage ) and so that effects things.

We don’t live like kings at all. The only actual splurge thing we have is a Harley but I can’t get my husband to even think of selling it (which would get us almost out of all our debt besides the house, but that’s a whole other issue, GRRRRR). We don’t spend money, mostly because we don’t have it. I drive a compact car, my husband has a work truck. We can’t even afford to insure our kid so he can drive. It wasn’t always like this, my husband was a middle management guy, making 6 figures. Until 2008 when after 15 yrs the company let him go without so much as a warning it was coming. In fact, they led him to believe he was next in line for a VP job with them. Since then, he’s been making less than half of that, he had to go back to being a blue collar worker, the kind of work he used to be the boss of.

I suspect we’re not alone at all in that. But I wake up sometimes scared shitless that we’re going to end up homeless and our son will have no one to help him if something happens to us. (he has Asperger’s Syndrome) It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. We did all the things you’re “supposed” to do and it got us nowhere.

You are not alone. There are many going through tough times. There are many sleepless nights in America. I sure as hell wished the Republicans and others realized how some people really see things.