I was without a job for over three years, and at first only worked a few hours a week, am still part-time but going to school... things seem more precarious economically here in the US than ever before... it looked like it was going to improve for awhile there but now I'm not so sure...
It took me over 18 months to get my credit cards paid off, and I'm managing to stay out of debt. It was really bad there for a while, and quite discouraging.
In 1981, I had to live in my car (an El Camino, which is like the studio apartment version of living in one's car...), in the winter, in Columbus, Ohio, for almost 2 weeks. That was really bad, but I at least had a car for shelter. I was making minimum wage, and, every night, when everybody else went home, I could only walk out to the parking lot and get into my car for the night. I slept in the building sometimes, and washed up in the night and morning. At least I had a job, sort of.
In the winter of 1989, I moved my mobile home (Never, Never buy one of those), from Chapel Hill to Raleigh, NC, and had to wait 6 weeks for power to get hooked up, because I couldn't afford it. That was bad, but, again, I had shelter, unlike some of those poor souls who literally live on the streets. It makes you look at life differently, that's for sure.
I wrote an article on getting out of debt and staying out. When the local paper publishes it, I'll include a link in the shameless self-promotion area.
I don't care how much they try to say things are improving, they are full of Beautiful Sunshine, and most people realize it.
Not trying to cast a cloud of gloom over Christmas, just cautioning everybody to be careful about debt and buying things you can live without for a while.
I still think this is the best place in the world to live, even with the problems we are experiencing, and I would hope that everybody else can say that about their own situation.
Once again, Merry Christmas, or, as I saw on a hallmark card: Happy Birthday, to one of your boys who made it big.
