[quote=deadzone]Not sure how you define “Thriving”. Of course there are alot of people who are well off and always will be.
But seriously, unless you are a bank executive, the majority of people are making less real income today than they were say 2-3 years ago.[/quote]
There are some folks doing alright in this economy who have just a simple w-2 salaried employee, it’s not necessarily ceos or execs. It’s happening (selectively, and yes a lot of this depends on luck). A lot of this is tied to the well stock market is doing, for companies that have paid out comps in equity, which was flat until more recently this year.
My ex-buddies at Intuit, Qcom, Broadcom, are doing quite well these days. 2-3 years ago, their was a fear of downsizing/cost cutting and the common stock was in the toilets: $28ish , $38ish, $20ish respectively…Fast forward to current day (even before qe2), all are at high points $49, $49, and $41ish. Considering a good portion in comps at these companies are heavily tied to equity, it will be a big difference this year for folks versus last assuming last until the end of the year. Also one side effect of this wild ride was folks that participated in an ESPP sharing arrangement managed to lock in an 15-20% discounted price of the shares on the lower price and will see 40%+ gains if they are smart to realize it and cash out.
This is an stark contrast to folks employed in the defense businesses, who are seeing offices close and consolidated into VA/Maryland/DC area, or Biotechs that are shuttingdown(Biogen Idec). Biotech companies were never stable to begin with, unless it’s the bigger ones like Pfizer…I agree it’s not a majority, but it’s not all doom and gloom out there.
In my own situation, I’m in a better position than I was say in 2004-2009, income aside, which has gone up, I do have a much lower monthly payment (though I also ended up paying down some of my loan balance as well). In 2004-9, I was generally concerned about our dependence on a dual income to support a huge mortgage+propertytax+child care expenses,etc….
This year is the first year I feel comfortable that the home/propertytax/childcare expenses can be supported by one W-2 income, though it would be a tight squeeze. And if things work out for me, my current in progress refi #2 will hopefully save me additional $150/month. Had I refied back into a 30year, my monthly would have been a joke for a SFH…$2k…
