From $100,000 a year to unemployed

[Liberal_in_LA]

From $100,000 a year to unemployed

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/02/03/unemployment.hope/index.html

CNN) -- Eric Bell worked his way into middle management during his nearly 10-year career at eFunds, a financial services company in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. He made about $100,000 a year, and his career was on the up. Times were good.

But it came to a crashing halt in May when his job was slashed after another company acquired eFunds. No big deal, he thought, a guy like me with an MBA can get a new job quickly.

Seven months later, the 41-year-old father of a 5-year-old boy has yet to find a full-time job. He now files for unemployment benefits every week online -- a check totaling $216.

"I never envisioned that my job search would take so long, and it's still ongoing," the Arizonan wrote to CNN's user-generated site, iReport.com. "The fall was very frustrating as companies put everything on hold with the economy falling apart."

He added, "You hear horror stories of 300-plus resumes being submitted for the most basic job -- very challenging prospect to get your resume read. The key activity to obtain quality interviews is networking. Unfortunately, it is a slow process."

But Bell was fortunate. He received a three-month severance package when he was pink-slipped, and he and his wife over the years did what financial experts say everyone should do: Live within your means, keep your mortgage low, pay off your cars and build up an emergency six-month cash fund for when hard times

---------

Last week, he began working a contracting job for a multimedia company. It's not his ideal job, but it's better than nothing, he said.

[Idealism]

1. I feel no remorse for this man for one reason

"But it came to a crashing halt in May when his job was slashed after another company acquired eFunds. No big deal, he thought, a guy like me with an MBA can get a new job quickly."


He worked in finance yet was too stupid to see this bubble happening- even in MAY of 2008, a year after sub-primes started to melt?!?

Another instance of a Degree-in-hand simpleton

[GoesTo11]

2. Sorry for this guy, but we don't need so many financial services professionals

Maybe he can retool as a high school math teacher, given his communication skills (marketing) and his quantitative skills (finance MBA)

[tridim]

3. "Contracting job for a multimedia company".. AKA, get treated like shit

at severly reduced pay with no benefits.

[marketcrazy1]

5. ""It's not his ideal job, but it's better than nothing, he said.""

his new employers must be thrilled with his attitude!!

[azmouse]

7. I don't see his attitude about his job being any different than most people's.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Who the hell has 6 months of salary just sitting in the bank for an emergency?

Jesus, whoever dispenses this sort of advice must live in a world of nothing but marshmallows and sunshine.

[azmouse]

6. My husband and I have way more than that.

And we should. He's made good money over the last few years and we lived within our means and saved, saved, saved.
Now we too are facing the possibility that he may lose his job. We prepared. Isn't that what we are supposed to do?

[TwilightGardener]

11. Um, OK--glad you have it. Some people are always more fortunate

or more frugal than others--nothing wrong with that. Just saying that it might be a little unrealistic for many people. The "experts" used to say 3 months emergency cash--that's a little more realistic.

[roguevalley]

14. bravo, azmouse. I hope it doesn't come true but you are prepared.

[Nay]

18. We have way more than that stashed, too. I drive a 15-yr-old car --

it's a Lexus, granted, but we bought it used and it's still going strong. We NEVER went into debt for anything except a house. If we couldn't afford it, we didn't buy it. We also saved, saved, saved, and left the expensive clothes, toys, and junk on the store shelves.

We could go 2 years without jobs.

[marketcrazy1]

9. you would be surprised TwilightGardener........

I know lots of people who began saving and prepping in late 07 for what is happening now.

[kestrel91316]

12. Ahem. Might I direct your attention to:

http://www.daveramsey.com/

Start by reading his book Total Money Makeover (ignore the tithing and religious stuff if that's not your bag - it's not mine). Listen to his radio program for a cuple of weeks. Check out the forums on the site, and check out this one, too:http://www.livinglikenooneelse.com/forum/index.php

I wish I'd known about him 15 years ago.

[salin]

19. er.... that was common advice when I entered the workforce in the 80s

and I have always saved and lived by it. Also remember the "housing (rent or mortgage) should not be more than 30% of one's income. Have tried to live by that but for five + years in grad school in the Bay Area that couldn't be done (unless I counted the scholarship money as income). That was a key to my leaving the Bay Area (that I loved living in - but couldn't afford) and moving back to the midwest.

I don't life in the land of marshmellows and sunshine, am just the youngest kid of a depression era economist who drilled such lessons into my head from a very early age. I have spent at least a decade of my professional life earning at (or just under or above) the poverty line. Yet in that time I grew my "cushion" in my checking/savings acount from barely over $100 to several thousand over a couple of years. Because I had learned to live as cheaply as possible, I was able to keep saving at that rate even when my income rose a bit above that level.

While I don't judge others who did not have the same life lessons or take the same thing away from those lessons - I do not accept that it to live in such a way is living "in a world of nothing but marshmallows (sp) and sunshine."

[TwilightGardener]

21. Er...I always remember hearing two or three months' salary. The conventional

wisdom has "upped" it. Next year it'll be, "WHAAT?? You didn't save a YEAR'S worth of salary? Shame on you, you irresponsible SOB!" It's like with retirement funds--every year the "standard" of what you're supposed to be socking away goes up, and it's meaningless anyway--more money saved is always better than less money saved, everyone knows that.

[Missy Vixen]

8. Woo-hooo!

That selfish bastard dared to make a good living for himself and his family? What's more, they had sufficient savings in the bank and didn't live above their means? Does ANYONE deserve to make $100,000 per year?

:sarcasm:

It would be funny to read the inevitable flames and snottiness here, if it weren't so sad.

[SoCalNative]

10. $216 a week ?

on unemployment? That's insane. I think it's time for Arizona to move into the 21st century.

[azmouse]

13. It won't happen with a Senator from the Dark Ages.

When we can get rid of him the state will be better off.

AZ is bankrupt. I guess this guy should be glad he got anything at all.

[anonymous171]

15. lol MBA. nt

[taught_me_patience]

16. Why do you laugh?

He probably spent 80k and 2 years of his life to be more productive in the workplace? Shouldn't that be commended?

[Missy Vixen]

17. It would be anywhere else but here

After all, the guy should have consulted some of the brain trust before getting that MBA, huh? :mad:

[burythehatchet]

20. Difficult times bring out the true nature of people. Some of the comments here

are as absurd as the Republican war on science.