Your financial position

[shalab]

Let us start a poll to see how we are doing individually. While this is no proxy to the country as a whole but it should give a rough idea where things stand.

 

Personally, I and my family are significantly better off compared to where we were in December 2008. I would say the same about my friends - even the ones that lost their jobs are on their feet now. My debt level is less by about 20,000 dollars ( it would have happened anyway inspite of the financial crisis ). I plan to spend more in capex on my house and checking up my car so it can run for a while longer.

 

cheers!

shalab

 

[SmallCap]

I am in a significantly better position:

 

at the start of 2008 I had no debt

 

by the end of 2008 I had 90K of debt due to some very untimely expansion of my own company, a loan to another company that was squashed in the credit crisis and a bunch of medical expenses around the birth of my son.

 

2009 was the hardest environment I have been in with my business, couldn't get a new client in the first 6 months for any amount of work that I did (wow was that frustrating) but working like a dog for that year, cutting expenses and living on nothing allowed me to repay all my Debt by July of 2010.

 

As of now I again have no debt, my business is generating what it was before 2008 and my investment accounts are nearly double what they were at the end of 2008.

 

We have so much to be thankful for.

[watsa_is_a_randian_hero]

Id be interested to see this for average american

[oec2000]

Instead of this imprecise poll, maybe we could do a survey of our spending in 2010 vs 2009, 2008 and 2007? We can provide results in index form using 2007 expenses as 100. Apart from providing more precise and less subjective results, it should give us a better sense of what's happening to consumer expenditures. Might be useful to have separate polls for US and Canada too.

 

Will someone with better technological skills than me volunteer to do this?

 

I'll start with my numbers from 2007 through to 2010: 100, 100, 120, 130. Canada.

[vinod1]

Instead of this imprecise poll, maybe we could do a survey of our spending in 2010 vs 2009, 2008 and 2007? We can provide results in index form using 2007 expenses as 100. Apart from providing more precise and less subjective results, it should give us a better sense of what's happening to consumer expenditures. Might be useful to have separate polls for US and Canada too.

 

Will someone with better technological skills than me volunteer to do this?

 

I'll start with my numbers from 2007 through to 2010: 100, 100, 120, 130. Canada.

 

Good idea but I think it might not be all that informative if the poll is for our board members. Most board members would disproportionately be concentrated on the upper 1-10% of wealth and earning measures, so the economic situation would not have made much difference to spending. Another issue is if we had any changes in family situations like children the expenses would increase quite a bit which would make the data less useful.

 

Vinod

[oec2000]

Good idea but I think it might not be all that informative if the poll is for our board members. Most board members would disproportionately be concentrated on the upper 1-10% of wealth and earning measures, so the economic situation would not have made much difference to spending. Another issue is if we had any changes in family situations like children the expenses would increase quite a bit which would make the data less useful.

 

Vinod

 

From the thread on "Other interests" it seems that we do have quite a diverse group of members in terms of age, career and financial position. With a big enough and diverse sample, individual situations should not unduly skew the data imo. True, we may not be representative of the entire population but I think even the better off adjust their spending to changes in economic sentiment.

 

It is not the best or most scientific poll but it should provide more useful info than the original poll question the answer to which may depend on which day of the week you are asked the question.

[UhuruPeak]

Our income has increased a bit over the past 3 years, between promotions for me and more hours/higher pay for the significant other; expenses have increased significantly too however, to the point where net monthly savings have dropped; we have a good deal less debt however, and net worth has roughly doubled.

Do I feel better off? Nope, for two reasons: (1) expenses have gone up faster than revenue (even though it is largely self inflicted through paying for private school in particular), (2) portfolio has gone down a little from peak a few months ago, and (3) less happy at work. Does it make sense that I don't feel better off? probably not!  Descartes (French philosopher from the 17th century) was wrong, human beings aren't rational  ;D

[twacowfca]

Our income has increased a bit over the past 3 years, between promotions for me and more hours/higher pay for the significant other; expenses have increased significantly too however, to the point where net monthly savings have dropped; we have a good deal less debt however, and net worth has roughly doubled.

Do I feel better off? Nope, for two reasons: (1) expenses have gone up faster than revenue (even though it is largely self inflicted through paying for private school in particular), (2) portfolio has gone down a little from peak a few months ago, and (3) less happy at work. Does it make sense that I don't feel better off? probably not!  Descartes (French philosopher from the 17th century) was wrong, human beings aren't rational  ;D

 

 

Or rather we have access to a rational  operating program, but the default setting is "gut".  :)

[mpauls]

I am currently very poor relative to myself in 5, 10, and especially 20 years from now ;>

[twacowfca]

I am currently very poor relative to myself in 5, 10, and especially 20 years from now ;>

 

 

That's good!