Four Years ago life was on track. I finally finished my Gonzaga Masters degree in Organizational Leadership (what a GREAT program). I quit my job, which I loved, but the management had policies and objectives that didn't align with mine... it was time to do what I wanted to do. I had aspirations of working with Corporations that were trying to instigate change; finding a company that needed someone to help the people make that conversion- I have been successful in the past with start up companies/departments to get coworkers involved with the change, rather then leaving them adrift to be buffeted by changes they didn't understand and had no part of. So many companies don't take advantage of all the years of experience accumulated by staff - there are so many good ideas that management can make policies, procedures, and organizational restructures so much better with their input and cooperation. But, as always, I digress... it won't be the last time... Ohhhhh, Shiny.
I quit my nice cushy job and took a couple of months off to go fishin', an irony that will become apparent as the blog unfolds. When I rewrote my resume and started to submit it, I realized I was at the beginning of the recession that hit a lot of us. There were no jobs - or, at least, no one was hiring a woman who had just turned 48. Thankfully, I had money in the bank, and a small 401K, so I was pretty confident I could ride it out for a couple more months until things stabilized. I was able to make my mortgage payments and luckily, I had just restructured my mortgage loan to get out of the ARM loan I had taken out (What a ripoff that is). I'm sure I'm not the only one that was mislead - who knew that at the end of the 3 years I would get 1.5 percent increases every few months (it was every three or every six, I don't remember anymore), and after awhile I was paying over 11 percent interest. House payments rose from $850 (including taxes and insurance) to over $1100 per month. Ooops, Shiny. See, I knew I would get off track again.
After six months, I was on unemployment. So much for that nice, new Masters degree. Did I mention the student loans? Sigh. Thank goodness for loan deferment. But really! Who thought that things would get this bad? Most average Americans probably didn't have any better an understanding than I did of the whole ARM loan debacle (or as I fondly call it, extortion), let alone had much awareness of what was being done by bankers and Wallstreet with the funds we had put aside for our retirement.I sure felt the impact. I watched my modest 401K dwindle as my unemployment benefits expired. So, you guessed it, I tapped the 401K to continue on with the mortgage and other living expenses. I was living with my Sweetie of 12+ years (at that time) and he made a great salary at his job, but our agreement was: The house was my responsibility (and in my name) and he would take care of the other bills. He was married, but had separated from his wife back in 1997 and we started living together at the time. He's a wonderful guy. I had never been happier. In the summer of 2009, things began to change-- or, more accurately, life changed.
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