A refrain that is heard every single day, and uttered by more of the people I know more and more often.
"At least I still have a job."
Our story is not that unique and our struggles right now are far less severe than many, but they are struggles nonetheless and, I think, pretty illustrative of why so many people don’t believe any economic "recovery" is anywhere near on the horizon. For all the talk of the stock market and GDP and all that other complicated whiz-bang financial mumbo-jumbo, the view from the street is not that optimistic.
My husband and I moved to South Carolina eight and a half years ago from the Baltimore/Washington DC area. The rat race up that way was getting harder to take (hour long commutes one way, high cost of living, population explosion) and our parents are getting older and would need help soon (all of whom live in Georgia), so hubby looked for a job, found one relatively close to the families, and we moved. I was able to keep working for my company from home – a wonderful situation since our children were only 2 and 4 at the time. While my hours were cut to less than half, I kept my "big city" pay which was a king’s ransom down here; the daycare expenses were eating up half my paycheck anyway, so it was basically a wash financially. The true reward was being able to be with the children every day. I should mention here that daycare in Maryland was running us $325 per week for 2 children and we had to provide their food, beverages, diapers, etc......that is a car payment every single week, if you want a comparison. While there are things about this state that drive me batty, for the most part it’s not so bad.
Hubby is in the printing business, with some graphic arts work on the side.....has been since an apprenticeship in high school. It paid for college and has provided a decent living for us, combined with my job as an executive assistant. We’ve paid out of pocket for continuing education courses to keep up with the computer technology for the pre-press work he does....most of it is computerized now.
The job he found in SC was good - decent benefits, not too far from home, thriving business. Our life was pretty ideal for a year or so, until they hired a manager that was a friend of the owner and not that well-versed in all the new technology. Hubby tried very hard to hang in there and work around the guy, but he was miserable. The good old boy network we knew existed finally bit us in the ass. I was pregnant, so hubby kept on working, keeping his eyes and ears open for another job, but nothing materialized.
I went into labor with our 3rd child very prematurely.....I was only at 22 weeks gestation. There were no outward signs of problems, but I ended up in the emergency room at 5:00 a.m. on a Tuesday, leaking amniotic fluid. I was put on bedrest in the hospital for 4 weeks. Family members helped with the care of our 2 older children so hubby could go to work – to the job he hated that he had to keep, moreso now that his wife was in the hospital in premature labor. Despite the best efforts of the docs, our youngest child decided to come early.....really, really early, at just 26.5 weeks.
Changing jobs was not an option at this point. We HAD to have the insurance and the bills were going to come. Income was a must. I was able to actually bill some hours during all this, working from a laptop during my time in the hospital, popping my files onto a disk and having hubby email them from the home computer when he got home at 10 or 11 p.m.
The baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 4 months. Another 2 months followed after he aspirated when his reflux meds stopped working. Tracheotomy tubes, feeding tubes, stomach operations, broviac lines, xrays, test readings, MRI’s, medically-induced comas, heart and lung treatments...the list of "procedures" is seemingly endless. And the list of people who cared for, worked for, and brought our son through it all is longer. I am eternally grateful to all of them. For 6 months, I spent every waking moment in the NICU, bringing our 2 older children along and relying on the most wonderful receptionist to keep an eye on them while I stole 30 or 45 minutes with our tiny son, holding him amidst the tubes and wires and monitors. The older kids and I would take a walk around the hospital, grab a snack, then head back to the NICU. My husband would come straight from work, taking the few hours each night to hold our son and sing Beatles songs to him.
A year after the initial hospital stay, baby was doing much better.....we were in a routine and the oxygen machine in the house, the trach tube changings, and the portable suction machine and oxygen tanks were just "normal" for us. Hubby had been going to a job he really and truly hated in order to keep our insurance – that was the only reason he went every day. I love him even more for that sacrifice he made because I know it was a very real sacrifice.
A year after that, all the "accessories" were gone from the baby. His last operation to close the trach hole in his throat was a success and he seems to have suffered no residual effects from his premature birth. The list of things that could go wrong is staggering and we seem to have dodged every one of those bullets.
The hospital bills began coming in in earnest now.....grand total for everything for premature baby was $1.2 million. Million, with an "M". Our share came out to $47,000. It was originally over $100K, but many arguments with our insurance company brought it down considerably.
Forty Seven Thousand Dollars.
A year’s salary. Half of a modest house. Three new cars.
We re-financed the house, taking a second mortgage to alleviate a chunk of the medical debt, and put some of it on credit cards. Do not ever do that. We got some bad advice during the ultra-stressful time at the hospital and didn’t find out until later that the hospital will work with you on very reasonable terms. The last big chunk of the debt is being paid directly to the hospital, but much of the damage has been done on the credit cards.
A few months later, Hubby is offered another job and jumps at the chance. It is closer to home, there is a pay increase, the people are easier to deal with, and insurance is part of the deal. Things are good for 4 years, even though his employer started to pass on more and more of the cost of the insurance....first ¼ of it to be paid by the employee, then 1/2. Every year the premium went up, but not by too much. We are making a small dent in the bills, keeping our children in food and books and clothing, but nothing extra. We were (and still are) keeping our 14 year old cars running due to hubby’s mechanical expertise. There are no dinners out, no movies (our children are 7, 9, and 11 and have not been to a movie theater), lots of trips to the state parks, practically living at the library, and any and every free event around, throwing every spare cent we had at that mountain of debt. Hubby’s company was doing well and had the opportunity to work overtime, sometimes doubling his weekly paycheck, on a pretty regular basis. We joked that we had gone from digging at that debt with a teaspoon to digging with a tablespoon. We kept our expenses low and just kept digging and digging at the debt. No extravagances outside of ordering in pizza once a month.
Then, last fall, hubby’s workload decreases a little. Nothing really terrible at first, but overtime is cut back. Then it is eliminated in November. No one is to work more than 40 hours, no matter what. We’re back to our teaspoon. Business falls off a little more. Management comes to all the employees in early February and asks them if they would rather go to 36-hour weeks, or lay off 8 people. The news of the economy is everywhere and all the employees decide to take a small pinch to save everyone’s job. So, 36-hour weeks are the norm. Business picks up a tad, and they are back to 40 hours for 3 weeks in April, then back to 36. At the end of May, 7 employees are laid off. Needless to say, most of the employees were shocked.
Fast forward to last week....management holds another vote. This time the decision to make is: everyone takes a 10% pay cut, or 5 people get the axe.
Hubby came home and explained what had happened and said this time around the comments were harsher. The thinking process was a little more cutthroat. There was a lot more suspicion about management’s intentions. He heard stories of the changes people had made to adjust to their new lower "salary"....no more dinners out (killing the restaurant businesses), fewer movies, no new cars, cancelling cable, cancelling landlines and going all cell phone, deferring trips to the beach (cutting into the tourism dollars that our state relies on heavily for its revenue), etc. At the same time, our utility company got the ok to raise their rates....just in time for the hot, hot summers in South Carolina. It’s been over 95 degrees for 2 weeks straight. Our thermostat is set at 84 because we can’t afford to even keep it at 80 anymore. The cost of food has risen, gas prices are going up again, electricity is up again....but pay is going down. I hear it from my neighbors.....UPS is struggling, cable companies are laying off workers, telephone companies are laying off workers, construction is dead in the water. We share tips on how to save a few pennies here and there and watch each other’s kids for free and share big neighborhood pot luck dinners so everyone has to cook (and pay for) only one dish. We live in a solidly middle-class area. And what once seemed so safe is shifting beneath everyone’s feet.
The vast majority of the employees at my husband’s company voted for the layoffs.
My husband was kind of surprised. He thought everyone had at least another 6 or so months of "good will" toward their co-workers.
Older workers can not take early retirement because their 401(k)’s have been decimated.
So, here we sit, with half of that $47,000 mountain of debt still there. With children who are older now and whose activities cost more, still driving our 14 year old cars, still clipping every coupon available, only shopping sales, not spending any money at all outside of utter necessities. And just getting by.
But, hey, at least we still have a job.