The "Great" Recession

People always ask 'older' people "What was it like when..." questions.

I wonder if one day someone will ask me "What was it like during the 'Great' Recession?"

This is not meant to be a complaint post, but a reflection. My family has been effected, but we've been greatly blessed overall. 

Before I start: I've put the 'Great' in quotation marks, because I don't agree with comparing the "Greatness" of the global recession to the Great Depression. 

I am not trying to belittle the plight of people who were badly hit by the housing bubble collapse or who may still face unemployment and tough times. 

I am trying not to belittle the people who lived in Hoovervilles, fled the Dust Bowls, or struggled to make ends meet in the days before Social Security and many government services were available. It only took a World War and millions of deaths and injuries to pull the world out of that one.

Okay, that assuages the history nerd in me.

The recession ended in 2011 (which a poll said most Americans didn't realize or believe), but it still feels like it is ongoing for me.

When I began teaching, it was in the contract that teachers would get a yearly 'step' increase. It equated to about a 1% per year raise, and it topped out if you had 25 years of services in the county. The maximum entry step for veteran out-of-county teachers was 15 (after 15 years of experience). 

Teachers would never make huge money for their degrees, but it was nice to know if you hung in year after year you got a little something for it.

Because I started teaching before the recession, I got a raise or two before they disappeared. From 2007-2012 there was one true cost-of-living adjustment in 2012. It was considered necessary (and probably expedient because the surrounding counties had started to lure away experienced teachers). I went up a phantom step or two in those years, too. The county inserted new steps below me for new teachers to start at lower beginning pay than the scale previously allowed. A teacher's retirement is based off their highest three years of pay, so anyone who lost raises will feel it in the short run and down the road.

Then there were the 'faux' raises. One year, teachers received a 5% raise. We had to pay 5% of our new salary towards retirement, though.

The math: $100 * 5% = $5 raise.  $105 * 5% retirement = $5.25.    New net pay = $99.75

That raise was a 0.25% decrease in pay. The English teachers may have been happy, but the math teachers knew something was up!

The county was proud to announce a return to step returns this year, but it carried a cloaked dagger with it. Retirement contributions and health care costs were both up (again). My gross pay went up, but my net pay keeps creeping lower. I made $107 less a month when 2012 ticked into 2013, $32 less per month when the new school year started in September, and I was set to lose another $60 or so when the new health care costs become effective Jan. 1 2014. We 'downgraded' to a lesser plan that on paper looks like it will meet all of our needs to prevent any new losses to income.

Still, I kept a job throughout. Most people were in that boat, but there were less fortunates. Carrie got to experience the job market shift when she was forced to cut her hours at her old job and spend the next 5 months looking for a new one. My county never did mass lay-offs, but there were lots of de-staffs and jobs that disappeared when people left them. There were 10 Cat A special education teachers at my school when I started there. One went on maternity leave five years ago and we've had 9 ever since. We've lost elective teachers, part time teachers, and seen other teachers switch to part time each year.

I am/was at just the right level of experience: Not too new to be the bottom of the totem pole and not to veteran to be at the top of the pay scale or near retirement. I'm a rare male who's qualified in multiple high demand positions (Sped, math, and science!) and it makes me pretty secure. 

Little in life is 100% assured, though.

A few years ago I started having to sign an affidavit of some sort. It's to "verify" that my efforts are for special education, because my pay is from a federal grant to the county and not from the county. I still get paid, so I have no problem with it, but I guess it means in accounting land that if the politicians ever cut support funds my post would disappear.

There have been lots of other little bits here and there: once upon the time the county would help with tuition if teachers wanted to take one class a year, one year the county courses which help towards re-certification/raises were almost nonexistent, and there was all the constant media doom-and-gloom hype.

Minus the housing bubble pop. That wasn't hype in the least. 

It hurt a lot of people, but it was mostly good timing for Carrie and I. 

I had a considerable nest egg from working full time, saving a ton, and living with my parents rent free for a couple of years. Carrie owned a condo in Richmond her parents helped her with. The decrease in housing prices and interest rates turned the unreasonable real estate prices in this county drop to an attainable level for us. Carrie lost money when we sold her condo (we were lucky to sell it), but with our nets combined we were able to afford a house. We looked at a number of foreclosures, but ended up with a short sell (divorcing couple, super-extravagant tastes, a DUI crash lawsuit against the soon-to-be ex-wife, and maybe even something recession related).

When the economy started to pick up speed again, we were able to good a good deal on the townhouse which catapulted us into our current domicile.

And that's where we're at today. Items on the dollar menu are no longer only a dollar, movie tickets used to cost half what they go for now, and from what new I read I'm glad I don't live in Greece right now. However, I've kept a job, built a home and a family. I don't think those three are ever easy, but one day I can be an annoying old coot and say "You think this is tough?!"

I think everyone is always worried about something in the now and the history books are frequently what deem an age as 'prosperous' or not. The only way to see what happens next is to live it.