Newark cuts salaries, bennies

there were a lot of whiz kids there at one point.

 

Ouch. What really sucks is that people live by the means they can afford. When it's suddenly cut by that much, what the hell do you do? It's not like your lenders can give you a pass.

 

precisely. there was no way to prep for this rainy day. it's gonna cost me close to 20k when all is said and done. when you are already getting by paycheck to paycheck, it's impossible to figure out how we can survive -- meaning: stay in our house, which isn't worth as much as when we bought it four years ago; stay in the town we have come to love, which we and our three boys have been rooted in for 20 years, or how i can try to make up some of the lost income through the more-competitive-than-ever freelance route.

no answers. no smilies. just many tears and a sense of failure in what until recently has been a fantastic ride.

 

Well, honestly, the really financially sound people I know only live on about half of their income. It's called "living below your means," and it's a wonderful way to live. It can be done on a lot less than people think, too.

But that said, I only learned that lesson through years of messing up my finances more than most, and with the abysmal state of financial education in our school system, I have nothing but sympathy for people who are caught in situations like this.

 

i am certainly guilty of being a financially-challenged moron. don't want to lash out and blame anyone but myself for being in this position, but in fairness to myself, who knew? even the the biggest naysayers didn't see this coming so quickly.

the more pressing question with hindsight doing none of us any good: is the any way out for a 52-year-old male with three teenaged children and a working wife when he's never held a "real job" in his life?

sorry, friends. guess i'm experiencing a dose of sunday night blues.

 

Totally understand. All you can do, right now, is look for ways to cut costs. Find some good personal finance books in the library and go to town.

 

Here are some bright sides:
-- Your wife is working;
-- Teenaged kids have a way of bucking up when they know the family is challenged but sticking together;
-- There really are benefits, in the tax code anyway, to making less money;
-- We all joke about the "not ever working a real job" stuff, but the fact is, we have lots of transferable skills. Plus, we have worked at identifiable, "brand name" companies and any journalist out in the job market has a damn good, understandable-even-by-laymen reason for being there.

Hang in there, get DVDs from the local library instead of hitting the multiplex and focus on the important things in life, many of which don't cost a ton.

 

In some locales, and I would presume the Jersey NYC suburbs to be among them, there are such high fixed costs to a non-fearing-for-your-life existence that simply cutting your landline won't make much difference. I feel for those trying to maintain a mid-level family life while the profession that has enabled people to do so is becoming increasingly less than mid-level.

 

For those interested, we took the medical benefits hit today in Harrisburg. No salary cuts, though.

 

so sorry to hear that.

at least they haven't hit you're salary, too -- yet. i'm still coming to grips with the salary/furlough/bennies hit costing me 19k this year. the bright side is if they don't hit us with the furloughs again in 2010, it's "only" a 16k hit next year. : : :

oy.

 

We're quite fortunate compared to many others in the biz. I have no complaints.

 

That is basically the problem with industry. They don't want to pay the bennies. Sorry to hear about your problem shot but you are right, you are fortunate.