Are You Better Off Now than You were 4 Years Ago?

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Are You Better Off Now than You were 4 Years Ago?

  • Better off

  • Worse off

  • About the same


Results are only viewable after voting.

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
72,327
6,040
126
Left right, up down, better worse, good and evil, these are all words that describe opposites that depend on thought and time, a comparison, using language that does not exist, that are delusions.

The past and the future are dead. You will never live in either. For the conscious mind, the mind that is totally aware, there is only the now and the infinite joy of being.

If you are better or worse off it is because you're asleep. It is the ego that strives and the religious mind that is thankful, surrendered to the Will of God, content always with what is. There is the wave that is breaking and the wave that is broken to the thinking mind, but to the living mind there is only the wave that you ride.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
136
I'm personally better off, if not by a helluva lot. That's not really the issue, however.

What's happened to us is that we've achieved a very strong & inherently damaging high low split, with all too many people on the low end of it. That is the natural consequence of deregulated free market economic forces of internationalized banking & capitalism, and it'll only get worse w/o serious govt intervention.

Average Righties don't like that idea at all, somehow maintaining the illusion that they'll be rich themselves, someday, but only if we allow those who are already wealthy beyond imagination to become even more so. There's an inherent contradiction in that, but they're blind to it.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,816
83
91
for reasons that have nothing to do with politics or policies coming out of DC, I'm better off.
 

Jadow

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2003
5,962
2
0
4 years ago I was single.

Now I'm married, a kid on the way, and net worth has doubled.
 

feralkid

Lifer
Jan 28, 2002
16,396
4,453
136
Better off and improving every month. The collapse of the real estate market hurt my business greatly, and the stock market fiasco sure didn't help my net worth (to put it mildly) but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.



Same here.
 

cuafpr

Member
Nov 5, 2009
179
1
76
way worse... making at best 50% less than i was then, and networth worse than that....
 

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
I'm better off, but only because the company I work for went bankrupt and had to drastically cut their work force. As part of VC group, I was hired on to help turn things around. So basically, a bunch of people are without work because of the economy and I was able to profit with a better job.

At the same time, my fiance has seen her salary go down over the last four years as a teacher. That would have been a lot more devastating to her if she was still single.

Not sure if really is indicative of the rest of the country but our salaries show a gap growing bigger over the last four years.
 

Ryan

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
27,519
2
81
The poll speaks for itself - this is a failing tactic for Romney.
 

sperho

Member
Sep 7, 2012
80
0
66
Better off, but I do not believe that a politician of one brand or the other has the slightest to do with it.
 

amdhunter

Lifer
May 19, 2003
23,324
219
106
Worse by far. 4 years ago I had grand plans of buying my own place, a new car (in the 50k+ range) and just upping my standards.

Who knew 4 years ago, I'd see the last raise I'd ever have at work. Previously, I received 5 digit raises a year.

I blame that stupid fucking war that drove up fuel costs, and every single person involved from the Presidency to the murderers who are/were out there killing innocent people using God and Freedom as an excuse for their actions.
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
im better off b/c ive got four more years of income than i had fours years ago...duh.

actually i own a some condominiums and a house that are probably worth less than i thought they would be at this time but thats ok since rents are pretty high right now.
 

ericlp

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
6,133
219
106
Better... I live in hawaii, own my own home. Investments are paying off. Pretty nice not to have to go to work!

Tho, I might go back to school next semester. Found a new love and might have a kid... So... Who knows.

Worst part? No more David Letterman bush jokes. Funny and sad all at the same time.
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,894
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Worse by far. 4 years ago I had grand plans of buying my own place, a new car (in the 50k+ range) and just upping my standards.

Who knew 4 years ago, I'd see the last raise I'd ever have at work. Previously, I received 5 digit raises a year.

I blame that stupid fucking war that drove up fuel costs, and every single person involved from the Presidency to the murderers who are/were out there killing innocent people using God and Freedom as an excuse for their actions.

For me similar to this.

So do you blame Obama like everyone else?
 

amdhunter

Lifer
May 19, 2003
23,324
219
106
For me similar to this.

So do you blame Obama like everyone else?

I doubt Obama himself is directly responsible for the war. Instead, it's his entire cabinet and cronies that play on all sides of the political spectrum.

We'll never know the real reasons to keep fighting in that area of the world, but I'll think everyone will agree that if the fighting doesn't stop, nothing is going to get better.

I don't think Romney or Obama will stop the fighting completely.
 

Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
Four years ago, I was about 75% completed with my MIS undergraduate degree, and just started dating an amazing girl. Worked an IT internship with UPRR.

Today, I have finished my undergraduate degree, obtained a full-time job in IT (different company) and still dating my amazing girlfriend.

Financially, I am really about the same, but saving a lot more money. My costs haven't changed over the past four years. My rent and utility payments went down, but my parents signed a car over to me, which includes paying for all of those associated costs. And, of course, my parents aren't subsidizing my rent anymore :)

I don't attribute any of this success to the government. I earned what little I have, and had lots of help from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!).
 
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kalrith

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2005
6,630
7
81
Absolutely! I got a job 2 years ago as a programmer at a large company in town. The job is much better in pay and much more enjoyable than my previous job. I got a promotion earlier this year. I just bought a house 2 weeks ago. I'm just waiting for something really bad to happen :\

Edit: And none of my good fortune came as a result of the government.
 
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Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
173
106
Worse.

I own a private business, a small tax/accounting firm. As the poor economy has dragged on more-and-more businesses are going bankrupt. They have all tried to hold on as long as possible hoping for a 'usual' recovery period of 18-24 months.

As they go out of business my business has fewer and fewer customers. Since there is little-to-no recovery there are no new businesses to take their place.

To make maters worse there are now a lot more CPAs who have moved here and opened their own small firms, presumably because they lost their previous jobs at large firms/corporations and couldn't find another. Increased competition dilutes an already shrinking pool of potential customers.

My assets, or investments, are in R/E (a home and a commercial building) so obviously I'm worse off now than then. But that's a balance sheet issue and not a cash-flow problem like the acct business.

Fern
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
136
Worse.

I own a private business, a small tax/accounting firm. As the poor economy has dragged on more-and-more businesses are going bankrupt. They have all tried to hold on as long as possible hoping for a 'usual' recovery period of 18-24 months.

As they go out of business my business has fewer and fewer customers. Since there is little-to-no recovery there are no new businesses to take their place.

To make maters worse there are now a lot more CPAs who have moved here and opened their own small firms, presumably because they lost their previous jobs at large firms/corporations and couldn't find another. Increased competition dilutes an already shrinking pool of potential customers.

My assets, or investments, are in R/E (a home and a commercial building) so obviously I'm worse off now than then. But that's a balance sheet issue and not a cash-flow problem like the acct business.

Fern

I suspect that the reason your customers are going under is... poor sales, lack of demand, something that exists across a broad swath of the economy. It's a liquidity trap, a function of deleveraging by everybody & their dog, deleveraging from the unsustainable debt peak of the Ownership Society. Liquidity preference rules the financial markets entirely. That won't go away any time RSN, and cutting govt spending will only exacerbate the situation.

What was faux prosperity based on unsustainable tax cuts, cashing in equity & credit fueled speculation in housing is now a debt trap.

So row, you debt-slave suckas! Row! Mitt needs another tax cut, and the only way he'll get it is if you all work harder, for less!
 

nanette1985

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2005
4,209
2
0
I've had some serious health problems, so in that respect - I'm worse off.

OTOH, My youngest grandchild is 2 yrs old so I;m better off.
 

DAGTA

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,175
1
0
Anandtech forum members are not a representative sample of the US population. Many of the people here have degrees / experience in engineering, computer science, MIS or some other well paid field. Most people in those fields are better off now than four years ago (financially) because they have four more years of experience on their resumes.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
136
Anandtech forum members are not a representative sample of the US population. Many of the people here have degrees / experience in engineering, computer science, MIS or some other well paid field. Most people in those fields are better off now than four years ago (financially) because they have four more years of experience on their resumes.

True, which only strengthens the point I made earlier about the growing & damaging high-low split.

If working people with desirable skills & steady employment are better off, then the investor class is obviously much, much better off. While we're scrapping for a few thousand a year of more income, they're reaching financial escape velocity.

Your money will double every 10 years at 7% return. Savvy market insiders, enormously wealthy hedge fund & PE managers, earn many times that. Their wealth is growing explosively, and every dollar they get is one you'll never get.