How many times have you been hit by great recession so far?

2008. We lost a very profitable speciality construction business, and then our house and land.

Still haven’t really “recovered”, that is, we’ve never come close to making as much money as we did in 2007, and frankly I’m pretty sure that failing a serious windfall – like a surprise long-lost rich aunt dying and leaving us everything in her will – I’ll probably never own another home.

2008, caused me to be briefly upside down on a starter home and delayed my wife and I moving to the part of town we wanted to be in for the better part of a decade. I pulled all of my money out of the stock market in 2008 before it went south which was good but I did not get back in until like 2014 so I missed out on a lot of gains. Wife lost her job in 2008 so our income was cut in half. She never really found gainful work in her field and basically gave up so we have been on my income alone since then. I consider myself lucky compared to others though.

2009. I had my house paid off, and took advantage of the downturn by buying a spec house for $100,000 less than they anticipated. Made the payments until my first house’s value recovered enough to sell it, pay off the new house, and retire.

I’ve managed to always stay employed, so it’s more like missed opportunities rather than getting hit.

I did take a hit from the decline in housing prices when I had to sell a house in 2010 to settle a divorce. That same house is selling for $750,000 more now.

I was jobless for at least two years. Was lucky to get an xmas temp job working for a beauty and health store in 09, although my contract could not be renewed. Then in 2010 I worked in food service for about 6 months in Dublin Airport (which was terrible). I reapplied for a position in the beauty and health store and have been working there ever since. I’m not a healthcare advisor.

Other than that I don’t think that a lot of companies and services in Ireland did a good enough job to adapt to the economy. Prices did not go down enough for my liking. And now we are in a situation with the pricing of rent and mortgage being way too high. I will likely have to live outside Dublin due to the unfair pricing structure of mortgage and rent rates.

My life is still shit, off and on. Finding & keeping a job has been SO difficult, and being a 1 parent, 1 income household means that we have moved over 25 times in the past 13 years because I can’t afford anything. Sometimes we dont eat on the day before pay day. Our country (US) is a mess.