Are you better off now than you were in 2008?

And is the country better off?

In the fall of 2008 I remember grocery shopping in Athens, OH where I was going to college and getting texts and calls from friends and family about what was happening with the stock market. There was an immense feeling of despair...like "it" was finally happening.

The housing market was falling apart. Approximately 2.6 million jobs were lost money.cnn.com...

The two illegal and unwarranted invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had done nothing to help an already corrupt economic system. The economy, the country, and our jobs were a complete mess. We have been recovering since, and are now a far cry from the impending doom and economic black hole we had been left with.



My father always told me the most important thing to ask yourself when choosing a candidate is, "Are we better off now than we were four years ago?"

My friends and I have gotten jobs out of college. My family's jobs are safe, though the company my father works for was forced to undergo drastic restructuring and layoffs shortly after the crash.

Are we much better off than we were in 2008? Absolutely

We are much, much better off. Mainly because we left the USA.

No other country in the world provides such an opportunity for ANY person to rise from ANY situation and have the potential to be anything. I'm living proof of that, as is our president.

Sadly, financially we are far better off living abroad, and so we do that. Opportunity is shrinking in the USA, which I find to be very sad.

No. IMO we are not.

I know that my household is worse off than we were 4 years ago. My husband's job is highly dependent on the housing market and we have taken huge hits to our yearly income. Each year he has earned less than the last year for 3 years. We struggle to stay afloat and pick which bills can be paid and which bills can wait more often than not.

In my perception...the same holds true for the country. But we do all perceive things differently. I am sure someone who is having better luck with money right now, sees the country in a much better light than I do. Thus the reason why both parties get so many votes on any election year. If we all perceived things the same way, nobody would every cast a vote for one of the 2 candidates. One candidate would always get 100% of the vote.

I am not happy with either of the two candidates that have been "chosen" for us to choose from. The two party system has definitely left me with a bad taste in my mouth this year more than usual.

Personally, me and my wife are much better off.

Our cars are paid off

we just closed on a new home.

All our credit is paid off.

and we lost an income.

Heres the key, What we have now is a result of OUR dedication to a goal, despite the set backs.

We prioritized what mattered to us, NO POLITICIAN was the cause of us bettering our self. We simply learned to do with out which truly doesn't matter, we chose to live simpler with a reduced income and it worked for us.

It took a change of priority's and moving away from consumerism for my wife and I.

OTHERS all over are not so lucky, I have friends who are struggling daily simply to survive, its hard out there still.

My own father lost two homes and will most likely be moving in with my wife and I in our new home, I realize from the small subset of friends and family that we are the odd ones in this situation and have been exceptionally blessed.