Has anyone started feeling, first-hand, any hardships or been affected by the economic slowdown?


I can't say that I have, yet.

see "Dow below 10,000" thread

My BIL got his "layoff" papers last week.

But mine was first!

i just meant....yeah...we're feelin' it!

oh!

I meant any more immediate effects. Sure, 401(k)s are tanking, but that's not causing any individual immediate hardships right now (unless you're ready to retire ) - down the road is another story.

I am a RE investor, and I have felt the effects of the housing bubble some time ago. Where I live, most of the business is RE and tourism related, and we've been hit HARD in the RE sector, and definitely some in tourism.

Not I, yet.

I was fortunate enough to move most of my holding to cash a few months back when things started to look shakey, and have recently begun to move a portion of those funds back into the market in the last two weeks.

Lots of real estate projects being delayed in our area though, severla homes for sale and sitting as well.

I noticed the same thing in my area, MB... lots of units have been up for sale, overpriced. We bought an investment condo 3 yrs ago, I think we are OK.

They just stopped the works on a 400 unit construction project in the town next to us...

Not sure if this is more related to the general downturn or more directly to the oil fiasco, but I have been hit with multiple fuel surcharges on my coops.

Since July, 4 members of my extended family (3 cousins and an uncle) have been laid off, 2 immediate family members (one in real estate and one in construction) have had very little work and hence very little income, 2 close friends have been laid off, and 1 friend was bumped from full time employment to part time employment at a reduced wage. I also have 2 friends in high tech industries who have been searching for equivalent employment for over 6 months now since being laid off early in the year, while working part time in retail to make ends meet. My brother, an architect, has recently had 2 very large projects canceled/suspended because the parties can't secure the financing. So I'd have to say yes, my family is feeling it, and it's terribly frightening for a lot of real people out there.

My husband lost his job about 10 days ago.

I saw gas for $2.85 over the weekend.

I paid over 30.00 at KFC on Saturday.

$2.85!!??? Where????!!!!! I saw $3.68 over the weekend and just about had an accident pulling over to turn into that gas station before realizing I had to buy the $6.00 car wash to get that price (and I did get the carwash to get that low low price!). I'm in the Chicago metro area.

I paid over $100 for three bags of groceries yesterday, and it was all basic stuff (milk, bread, cereal, etc).

Gas here has been $3.16-3.44 for over a week

<------ jealous of SpeK's gas prices

$2.89 for regular at some stations here

Paid $3.39 in MA yesterday

I filled up yesterday and it was $3.50 The cheapest I have seen in the Mobile/Pensacola area is $3.46

Southwest Missouri.

first-hand feeling...

$3.17-$3.25 in Ohio

::gets boating stuff ready to take a trip across the lake for gas::