America: Better off and worse off

Scott Kobel

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I have been with my current employer, a technology company, for just under a decade. They have been having round after round of layoffs for years now and by the grace of God I have been spared. Just this week I was told by my manager that my job is being considered again to be transferred overseas to India. So I guess overall my job is very shaky and has been for awhile now!

I have held a steady job for the past decade as I stated above, yet raises have steadily dropped and this past year it was only 2% and health care continues to go up, which takes more money out of my paycheck. A few years back I even had to switch to a plan with less coverage because my normal plan got too expensive. I'm talking rates going up like 15-20%, that's insane!

I have owned my home for over 4 years now and it has made decent gains since we bought it, yet I also own a home in the same city that is currently being rented out that I have been unable to sell for over 5 years now.

I have under $1000 in savings, yet I am contributing the full 6% of my paycheck to my 401K which my employer matches dollar for dollar. The 100% match just started in 2008, yet when they went from 50 cents on the dollar to matching the entire dollar, they also discontinued the pension program.

God has blessed us greatly, and we work hard at staying out of debt. Besides our two homes and a HELOC, we have very little credit card debt, just over $2,000 in credit card debt and no other debt besides that. No car loans either.

My family and I are still able to do things around town. Yet the prospect for Christmas seems very gloomy and we have been unable to take a vacation this year due to no money and couldn't even drive to my parent's house which is around 12 hours away, due to high gas prices.

Overall, as a born-again Christian, I believe that I operate in God's economy, not the U.S. economy, which makes me feel very safe! Even with all that is going on with the economy I'm happy to say we still give over 10% of our gross income to God and we can only do that because He provides !

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