It is now five years since the Great Recession officially ended, but these CNNMoney readers still don't feel they've fully recovered from the downturn.
The economy in Arizona was horrible. It still is horrible.
I'm a single mom, having raised two sons. I had a good job at a law firm, saved my money, bought a house in 1991. I lived there 16 years and then I sold it to buy a second home, putting down $35,000. I was then working for an engineering firm for 10 years when, because of the economy, I was laid off in 2010. It took four months to find a job, making $20,000 less than I had made before.
I lost my home. Because the housing market tanked, and home prices were so low, my son got pre-approved for a home loan for me, and I took $20,000 out of my 401(k) to purchase a house. My $202,000 home sold for $74,000, so you get an idea of the market I was trying to buy in. But guess what? Investors flooded to Arizona and after trying for a year, I had to give up because I could not outbid them (most paid cash) and now my down payment money was almost gone. So now I am forced to rent in a home I'm paying three times what I would be paying had I been able to buy a home. My 401(k) is almost all gone.
I did everything right and I had no control over what happened. Ironic that the government bails out the people responsible for this crisis, yet I now owe them a fortune because I had to use my retirement money to live.
When you're 61 years old, you don't come back from this unless you win the lottery.
