Sign into an existing account

I was shitfaced and making more money than I have ever since. The good news is I'm still shitfaced.

It was great for me, not so much for others. My job basically shut down and I was out of work.....which was fine because I had spent years preparing for just such a thing. I enjoyed myself, a lot. At least 5 different....we'll call them "vacations" but what they really were was just an elaborate bum lifestyle.

From golfing excursions across the country to fishing charters for a week on end to actually camping without having to think about coming back. Two weeks of bucket baths, eating fish out of tin foil and not shaving takes a toll on the best of us. God it was great! I had time to cook and become an even better cook. ALL my projects got done and there was a shitload.

The downside was having listen others who had been living paycheck to paycheck spending waaaaaaay waaaaay beyond their means. Every month, some new vacation or new car or bigger home.

Then it hit. Friends and family were all of a sudden moving......they just needed a new house, they were tired of 'that' one. But the paper in the window said otherwise.

One particular set of friends, and they were really bad about spending beyond their means......were talking $500,000 home in an average $200,000 home area...custom built 2 years prior but not good enough so it needed a remodel......I could go on, I won't.

I'm pretty close with them, were talking decades, family function type of thing so one day I asked, "what happened?" as I'm helping them move EVERYTHING.

Swear to God, these were the words- "it's the banks fault! they should have known we couldn't afford this."

That's right, these people, like many many others, just kept taking money that the banks offered them. They read you the terms when you go to sign the refi but it was the banks fault. And so a couple of paychecks short here and there and all of a sudden they're losing it all.

I can think of four close friends and family members that "lost" their homes just that year.

I remember seeing white notices in the windows of homes every week. One I saw twice where someone had bought it out of foreclosure and 8 months(?) later it was foreclosed on again.

I watched a "kid" just starting out in life....20-22 buy a little $80,000 bungalow for $12,000. I could look it up right now and I guarantee it's probably $90k if not more.

I know a guy who bought 5 homes over a 3 year period, he still owns/rents them. He risked buying one, used that equity to buy another and so and so on.

The internet was full of muh eebil bankers stole muh howse! when the fact is that people didn't make their mortgage payment. Sure there were some mistakes and a few evil deeds but everyone latched onto those and made them their own when in fact.........THEY JUST DEFAULTED by not paying their mortgage payments.

During The Great Recession I lost every bit of empathy for people that I had. It was just too much.

I don't remember much

I drank alot and worked

Maybe that's for the best

I was unemployed for a lot of that. Didn't have money for booze but I would drink whatever I could get, when I could get anything. Prices on everything were incredibly expensive. Rent was my entire money supply and I racked up some credit card debt trying to stay alive. Oh, and I was 6ft and 145 pounds because I couldn't afford food to eat. I had a bmi of 19 at the time - severely underweight. ...and boomers wonder why I have a chip on my shoulder.