Many of the reports on the news mention this being the worst unemployment since 1982, which coincidentally happens to be the year I was born. Obviously, this is the worst economic downturn that has happened in my lifetime. Up until recently, I thought I was not going to be affected by it.
That could still end up being true; but at the moment it is possible I might lose my job and that has got me thinking about a few things.
My House: It's very lucky that I even have it. I bought the house without putting any money down. A few months later this would become impossible. If I didn't get my house when I did then I would not be able to get a house for many years. I just don't have the money saved now and I have enough debt to pay off that I probably wouldn't for a few years. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have this house and I might not have a job. Well - if you don't pay your rent you get kicked out and while that is terrible... it does not negatively impact everything you plan on doing for the next 10 years. A foreclosure would. So this very wonderful thing becomes something else to worry about.
Credit card debt: I was and am in the process of completely eliminating all of my credit card debt. This is a noble goal and one that I can not wait to complete. I can only imagine the feeling of accomplishment when I put the last payment on my credit cards. Imagining it is something I need to stress at this point - because with the recession it's still a long way off. I am still not using the cards, that would be a very bad idea but I was planning on paying a large amount of the debt off this year with my income tax return. Instead - I will be saving that money in case I wind up unemployed. While this is the smartest course of action, it will directly cost me at least $750 in interest payment that I will have to pay that I would not have to pay if I were able to put down $6000 (or more) on my credit cards right now.
Dreams deferred: I have a decent job as a research scientist at a large Fortune 500 company. For a time - I thought this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The problem with having to decide what you'll do for the rest of your life when you're 18-20 is that you sometimes make a mistake. I make good money - so things could be worse. But this is NOT what I want to do for the rest of my life. Maybe it's actually because of the recession but I am very interested in finance and economics lately. I want to get an MBA. The problem; now is not exactly the most practical time for an MBA. Worse - I can not afford to go back to school full time (back to the albatross of the mortgage) so I need to go to night school.
For most people this wouldn't be a problem and this is the accepted way to go about things. One small hiccup - I'm a bit snobby about the school I will attend. I just simply can not plop down to the local community college or small school and get a degree. I'm not sure if it makes me a bad person or what - but I don't want to "tarnish" my resume (cringe-worthy word but I can't think of a better substitute). Personally, I'd look at that and say hmmm...Cornell, Cornell, (some random school)...what the hell happened? I would expect an employer to do the same.
One silver lining is that most top schools offer online MBA degrees that are 100% equal to the standard degree. For most of these programs, you need to be out of school for a period of time - 3 to 5 years in many cases. I haven't even been out of school a year, so this is something for the future.
So - the main key with this recession happens to be something that I am in short supply of; patience. I have never been patient. This has been both a positive and negative aspect of my life. Ever since I've been a teenager I have been able to make whatever I want happen whenever I want it to. This has obviously been beneficial but along the way I did not pick up the valuable attribute of patience.
Hopefully I can learn it now - because the only way to ride this out is to be patient. Sit on my money in case something terrible happens. Swallow higher interest payments confident in the thought that the credit cards will be paid off very shortly and certainly before I'm 30, and to hang tight making money doing something I don't love because I have the rest of my life to be professionally fulfilled.
Patience is a virtue. At least that's what they tell me.
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