I want to make the situation pretty clear here so there are no questions. In this post I'll give you a lowdown on my own situation, and then we'll get into the facts as they are for millions of Americans in at least a second post (if not more).
My Story
I went to school - college and graduate school - thinking that it didn't matter what I studied because I'd be able to find a job easily considering my skill set. I'm competent. Every job I've ever worked and put the slightest effort into, my bosses have loved me. They've always said I could move up (and several times I did just that).
In 2008 the economy crashed - horribly. Still, I was able to land a job after a couple of months because I happened to live in a city at the time that didn't have a lot of people like me in the labor force (Phoenix AZ). I supported my husband while he was in school, but we still couldn't pay for his schooling outright. We still needed loans to make things livable. Meanwhile, I was making payments to my own student loans.
During our time in Phoenix, it became progressively clearer that I couldn't continue to work for the company where I was employed because it was affecting my health. I was so stressed my body went haywire and I ended up being put on medication which actually made my situation even worse (turned out later the stuff wasn't fully vetted which meant people died and the company ended up being sued...but that's a different story). We ended up having huge medical costs despite my insurance coverage.
In an effort to cut our losses, when Christian graduated we rented our newly purchased home out and left the state. Christian got a job working for a shop at flat rate while I looked for something that would pay - anything. We didn't understand that flat rate meant we would NEED assistance in the winter and wouldn't be eligible. We thought I would be able to get a job quickly because of my skills and experience. It took me 6 months from 2010 to 2011 to get a part time job paying me a fraction of what I made in Phoenix per hour. Keep in mind, at this point Christian's loans came due. Our student loan payments doubled and we were living in a more expensive city.
With the help of Christian's family, we scraped by for months. They helped us financially in ways that are embarrassing, because it felt like we should have known better. I thought we should have figured out that flat rate wouldn't work long term. I felt like we should have known that working on motorcycles not only wouldn't be lucrative, but would render us downright poor. It was only when BMW invited him to the STEP program in New Jersey that we left the shop. I stayed with my parents for 2 months, while Christian was across the country. It was the only way we could afford him to go, and I knew the training would be good for him. I hoped our financial situation would be made better.
After he finished the program, he came back to California and he received several offers. We crunched numbers and determined the most cost effective location would be Bakersfield. While I didn't love the idea of living in Buck Owens' stomping ground, I liked the affordability. I didn't want to be in the same situation we had experienced in Hayward.
Bakersfield turned out to be much better than we expected. Even though it took some time for me to find a job (3 months), I found one that was fulfilling and exciting. There was room for growth. I looked forward to the idea of staying with the school and teaching more and more classes. I loved it. Christian's work on the other hand, made him want to shoot himself in the face every day. He became more and more sullen minute by minute. It was horrible to watch - painful.
Then of course, we had a disaster with our renters in Phoenix. We couldn't afford to fix what they ruined, and so they left. Suddenly we were stuck with rent payments and a house payment. We couldn't find renters for the price we needed. We had to cut our losses. We sold the house for more than we paid, but probably not more than we put into it. Considering the situation, it could have been worse. As it is, we're not eligible for an FHA loan until at least Fall 2014.
Christian's work got worse until he had the option of applying for a job with BMW San Francisco. We crunched numbers. They made an offer. It was enough for us to make ends meet, especially if I could find ANY kind of work (even a dinky after school job). I was horrified I would have to leave my good job in Bakersfield, but the benefits package and the idea of being in the Bay was enough for me to let go. We moved again.
BMW San Francisco was about as good of a position as you could possibly get in the motorcycle world. They paid hourly and when Christian took the job, they had an insurance program that didn't involve premiums. We could even make payments to our loans (which while being 30% of our income, we could just swing it). It was because of this we finally felt safe enough to think about a family. I planned to teach online classes or some other online thing.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any consistent online work. As my pregnancy progressed, it became clearer and clearer I didn't have the energy to devote to a job and often, even my writing (something which I never find rarely if ever draining). I figured I would try again a few months after the baby was born and hopefully there would be some options.
Then last week happened. I was at 31 weeks into my pregnancy and Christian lost his job. With it went our insurance, our modicum of security, and any semblance of normalcy in our lives. I looked into government assistance - WIC, food stamps, and MediCal. Christian applied for unemployment. Then he quickly found a job, rendering us ineligible for any benefits and making it more difficult to navigate insurance (We will have to figure out Cobra - which I have heard is incredibly expensive and we'll have to have. I don't like the idea of going into labor without coverage if something goes wrong.).
This is the sum total of our financial struggles during the first 5 years of our marriage. It has been a trying, stressful, and incredibly painful time for us. We were only eligible for some benefits some of the time. Our loans were never able to be placed on deferment, despite our dire straits, because of the strict rules of eligibility. We were never able to save any money. I had to struggle to find a job every time we moved (and several times the pressure was incredibly great because without 2 incomes, we would have been incapable of supporting ourselves).
I have been unemployed for a total of 19 months since being married in August 2008, through a combination of moving and poor labor markets. During that time, I've been eligible for government assistance a total of 2 months and wasn't able to claim anything. I've used 26 months of forbearance on one of my loans, and 12 on the other (Christian's were also on forbearance for 12 months each). At some points, our loan payments were more than our income yet we were still unable to take advantage of deferment options. Meanwhile interest continued to accrue.
Did I mention our retirement accounts? Those have been earning less than the rate of inflation. And at least one of them has a fee taken out for "maintenance" (a fancy way of the institution saying, "We like to shit all over poor people, so we're going to take out money to pay our 6 figure salaries while you wonder what you'll do come your 65th birthday."). I won't go into the changes in our credit scores that occurred or the bank fees we incurred because we couldn't pay our bills regularly...
But here's the funny thing. According to various sources, our estimated income is still around the median for California (even adjusted for cost of living per state). This is disturbing considering we were struggling even with the small security of hourly pay that Christian received while working at BMW San Francisco.
My story points to several serious social problems:
- Large student loan debts (with little practical relief)
- Oversupply of educated labor in the market
- Low real wages (even in skilled positions)
- The high costs of health care (with and without insurance)
- Structural problems with eligibility of government benefits (and the clear need for benefits with the above mentioned conditions)
If you have personal experiences like mine, please comment below! I know I'm not alone in this. There's power in numbers.
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