POLL: What is your CURRENT Age, and how much did you have invested in 2007?

[redbird]

I'm 33. I owned a house during that time (not the one I own now). I sold the house in 2009, but didn't lose any money. I actually made a small amount from it. The house has lost value now though.

Excluding retirement accounts, I didn't have anything invested at the time. All of the investments happened after 2009. I just had a LOT of money sitting in low (but better than now!) earning savings/checking accounts.

The recession didn't impact me that much. My retirement accounts lost a lot of money, but they've earned that all back plus plenty more. I didn't lose my job. I wish I'd bought into the market sooner than I did so I could've taken more advantage of the big drop though.

[sparkytheop]

38 now.  TSP isn't working for me right now, but I think I had about $80k invested at the end of 2007.  I just checked...  December 31, 2007, I had $67k invested.  December 31, 2008 it was up to $87k. 

I had sold the house I bought in 1998 to buy current house in 2005.  Due to a local spike in housing, I did that transaction at (almost) the perfect time.  Made an offer on a house that had been reduced in price on Monday, put my house on the market by the weekend, at $20k more than I could have the week before (town got big news, so housing prices went crazy, people wanted to buy up houses to rent out).  The only way it could have gone better was if I could hold the old house longer (by months, not years, it later was on the market for another $30k above my sell price.  I bought it for about $70k).

I was also fortunate to be in a stable government job.  I watched a lot of people in my town struggle once the recession hit.  For some reason, mostly just because I didn't really understand my investment options at the time, and I wanted to just let it "rest" for a little while, so I could do research, I moved all my money into the G fund (for those not familiar with TSP, the G fund is a government securities investment fund.  It does not make great interest, sometimes not above inflation, even if that is the goal.  However, it doesn't lose money interest-wise.)  This prevented any loses when the big drop came.  I didn't really know what to do after that, but I figured I needed to put it back so I could "buy low", so I moved most my money back into the market for the upturn.  I would never try to time the market, it was just how things worked out.  As a result of the move though, I only had one quarter with a loss, and it was only for about $2k.

Guys I worked with at the time had been through the recession in the 80s.  One of them said we were very fortunate.  He got his job with the government during that time.  He said he drove onto the site, and looked in the parking lot at all the new cars, and thought "these people have no idea there is a recession right now".  I think, for the most part, he was right.

ETA: I got to check my numbers today.  That move to G fund seemed to have saved my money in 2008.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Great thread, but complicated poll!  I'm 43, but there's a lot more that goes in to what my circumstances were in 2007.  Let's see, our children were 4 and 2 years old, our friends were selling their starter homes and leveraging into the amazing homes that the easy loans made available...  oil had raced to $150/bbl and colleagues were jumping ship for instant double digit raises and/or cash bonuses.  I was interviewing fresh grads that didn't really care if they got the job, they already had several offers lined up.  The other new hires were partying hard and buying nicer cars than I'd ever owned.  Basically, I felt like a chump and had to reassure my wife that we had it good enough. 

I spotted an ad in the Houston Chronicle to join a company and live in Norway so I interviewed.  In March of 2007, all four of us were in business class on a KLM flight through Amsterdam.  We'd sold our home and our 2 cars and life was looking really good.  By 2008, I realized that we could save our way to that FI million, so I sold a bunch of international stock funds that had been soaring. 

But, as 2ndcor and BlueHouse pointed out, even though I dodged the worst of it, you never know if, just maybe, it was different this time.  I got back in too early and still lost about 250k (out of 750k) while listening to paranoia about AIG or some major international institution needing to declare bankruptcy or be 'unwound'.  Can you imagine the field day international lawyers, arbitrage investment groups, and a few institutional investors (the Big Shorter's) would have?  And there were several of these 'illiquid' institutions limping through the day, calling the Fed and Congress to bail them out.  Maybe they were solvent in the long run, but it was hard to know what was worse - suffering the imminent wave of collapse and rebuild, or prop up the system and see what happens.

Hopefully this is just a scary story that becomes slightly inconceivable to future generations, similar to things like WWII and the Holocaust.  Never to happen again because we learned valuable lessons, improved our systems, studied the history... 

[monstermonster]

Age: 29 (30 in 2 weeks)

In 2007, I was just starting my second term of Americorps, making $800 per month, and I was setting $50 aside per month into a Roth IRA. I believe my balance in my Roth IRA back then was ~$500.

[anonymouscow]

I bought a house in 2003, sold in 2010 for about 25% less than I bought it for. It was not an expensive place.

When the market crashed I can only remember wishing I had more money to invest. I pretty much put as much money as I could in and really didn't look at my accounts very often. I don't recall exactly but I know at one point the new money I invested at least doubled in value.

[sam]

Fantastic thread.

I was only 19/20 at the time and had no money so nothing invested.

Northern Rock was a popular high street bank which early on had to be bailed out by the government.

I remember looking out of my window to see people queuing to get their money out of Northern Rock and then joining another queue 10 meters up the road to open an account with Nationwide!

I remember watching a video of the bottom of the market being broadcast on CNBC it showed Pension companies, Hedgefunds and retail investors.

Pension funds were slightly selling, hedge funds were doing nothing and retail investors were having a huge sell off!

[slschierer]

I am 31, and I had just entered the workforce in 2007.  We purchased our first home in 2008, and we lost about $30,000 on it when we sold it in 2012 (ouch). 

I was investing 18% of my paycheck in my 401(k) and nervously watching the balance decline while trying to tell myself that "stocks were on sale."  The person sitting next to me, doing the same job as me, was let go.  Literally, thousands of people (and several friends) were let go from my company.  My job was awful:  I was in charge of Accounts Receivable, and I essentially made collections calls to big companies and Mom and Pop shops barely staying afloat.  I also sat in the Treasury department at my company, and I knew of the measures my company was taking or attempting to take in order to maintain our credit rating while our debt to cash ration ballooned. 

I would say that I was impacted.  Sure, I probably had less than $10k in investments at the end of 2007, but that didn't make the emotional impact less.  I am risk averse and a little bit too happy to keep big stashes of cash in the bank, and I know that it's due in a large part to the 2007 recession.

[omachi]

Age 33-39. Had more than $100K invested. Owned a home (and a mortgage), which I bought in 2006.

The house is just now worth more than we paid for it. Never really cared, we needed a place to live and that just brought property taxes down. It's a nice house, not too big or expensive, good bones, great location. Still not planning to move.

Most of my investments were in the 401k at the time. Watched it dive in the recession and just kept putting more in.

[little_brown_dog]

I’m 29 now and was 19-20 at the time of the great recession.  I had nothing invested and owned no property because I was still in college for my bachelor’s degree. I remember hearing a lot about the economic crisis at the time from news outlets and my parents, but because it didn’t really affect me at all, I didn’t pay much attention unfortunately. If I recall correctly, my dad said that he lost about 20-25% of his retirement account value.

The next recession that arrives will be our first as adults who are actually invested in what is going on. Intellectually I am prepared to see my investment values drop, and we are in a very good place financially to weather a recession thanks to the mustachian habits we developed over the last 5 years or so. I am concerned for my aging parents though -they are poised to retire in the next 5 years and they are relying heavily on selling their home at a high price. They still have a mortgage plus a large HELOC that they used for luxurious upgrades and silly spending decisions like vacations (yes, I know). They have decent retirement savings but really should have much more by this age. If the housing market tanks, they could lose out on >100k that they are really relying on to bolster their retirement funds. If their retirement portfolios also sustain a substantial hit, they won’t have really any time to make up for the loss due to their age (near 70). A double whammy like that will really put them at a much higher risk of running out of money sooner rather than later.

[2Birds1Stone]

Misread OP, can't correct poll choices.

[Lmoot]

33, graduated college in 2007, had about 3k in a ROTH started by my grandfather. Didn't buy my house until 2009. Despite making less than 50k most years since my first permanent full time job in 2009, I think I am doing ok currently. I am investing up to my company's match (and have been from the beginning), but am currently focusing on investing in income property.

I did prepay my mortgage in chunks (still have the same house since 2009, which is being rented out), but cut that out for now, so I only owe about 40k on it.

[JSMustachian]

Age: 32

I started investing after the 2008 crash. I had less than $3,000 invested in mutual funds at the time so I did not have much to lose. I enjoyed huge gains obviously as the market climbed back up because I started contributing more to my IRA.

[Chairman]

I'm 60+, looking at my Vanguard account, I had $379,281 on Jan 1, 2008.
On Feb 28, 2009, I had market losses of $208,940, My balance was $235,909,
because I coninued to put money in and dividends were paid.
 My 2007 home value peaked at $275,000, and in 2009 it had dropped to $140,000*.
So over all, I was down at least $345,000, maybe more but not worth the paper shuffling to find out..
 I stayed invested and continued investing, on 6-13-17 my Vanguard account hit 7 digits.
 "It's time in the market not timing the market" Unknown

 *today's value is $160,000 to $170,000.

Love this story. Good on you for staying the course.

[SnackDog]

We bought a house in the Bay Area in 2007. Market had dropped from peak in 2005 but dropped more after we bought. Company was offering huge purchase assistance programs which were the driver to buy at the time even though we didn't plan to stay long. Glad we have the house now and plan to live in it soon. Renters have paid mortgage and taxes last ten years.

Had plenty invested in 2007 and the portfolio flatlined as I poured money in just to maintain balance. Never really dipped so didn't scare me much. Was exciting reading the drama about the banks failing in the news.

The next drop will not be like the last so no advantage to those who are still fighting the last war. If our dear President starts a nuclear conflict in Korea/Japan/China that could roil markets in a new way, for example.

[EarthSurfer]

I wish I had caught this thread a few months ago. I have been keeping monthly assets summaries and balance sheets for over 20 years.  These days I only use the historical data for a chart of my net worth.

On July 31, 2007:
 $108,994.77  - Cash & Cash equivalents
 $243,645.90  - Taxable Investment - Typically 80% stock / 20% bond, 50/50 US/International
 $268,016.99  - Tax Advantaged Investment - 401K and IRAs
 $196,000.00  - Condo - paid off in Boulder, Colorado
---------------
 $816,657.66 - Est Total Net Worth

I was 43 yrs, 10 months of age, near the end of a 2 year break from working ("3rd retirement"), and was thruhiking the Continental Divide Trail.

Total Assets would peak on 11/2007 at  $840,219.06, bottom out on 3/2009 at  $659,033.25 (I bought a rental condo CHEAP!), and I recovered to my 11/2007 peak on 4/2010 or approximately  $848,883.48 .

On 9/2012, I passed $1,000,000, mostly due to the growth in real estate values. I had moved into the rental condo, and would sell after 2 yrs to minimize the tax on the sale.

Total assets on 8/2017 are approximately  $1,424,903.11. Since 8/1/2007, I have worked 54 months full time employment, and about 24 months at 50% time as a consultant / contractor.

[jlcnuke]

I sold the first house I owned in April of 2009. I imagine everyone here can recognize that was close to the worst possible time to sell, and I was not happy writing the check at closing to get out of that house...

[KarefulKactus15]

I didnt see the house option.  Is there a way to update my poll choice?  I only picked 2

[Whatsername]

I bought my first house in December 2008. I got the $7500 credit that I had to pay back while my buddy closed in January 2009 and got the $8000 credit he didn't have to pay back SMH. Sold that house when we moved in 2015 and bought a new one. Zero invested in 2007 but we've come a long ways since then and I hopefully will be FIRE in 10 years.

[Michael in ABQ]

32 now and I had a decent stock portfolio in 2007 of around $15k that I had built up using money saved from a deployment a couple of years earlier and investing some money from student loans. However, I graduated college in 2008, took a couple of months to land a job and was only making about $35k total household income with a wife and new baby to support. Living beyond our means that stock portfolio got sold off over the next year or two just to cover living expenses. Unfortunately it was all single stocks, mostly in financial stocks that were hit very hard in the recession. I think my total realized losses were around $8k and some of those companies still haven’t come close to recovering a decade later (those that didn’t get bought up). I also had $6,500 invested in two small businesses that I totally lost over the next few years. Still don’t own a home as we only recently finished paying off all our debts, including those 10-year old student loans.

I've since learned my lesson and just stick to index/mutual funds in my 401k and TSP. Those are up to about $50k now. It certainly helped starting my 401k in 2008 when the market was dropping like crazy. Of course saving 3-4% of my meager paycheck didn't add up to a whole lot. If I had bought some of my company's stock back then at around $3/share I would have done quite well as it's been in the $30s for the last couple of years. I have some in my 401k but dollar cost averaging over almost a decade has dropped my average returns quite a bit.

[Re3iRtH]

PLEASE READ:  You must choose 3 options, one from each sub-question for this poll to work well!  Input your CURRENT age.

I wanted to create a poll as a spin-off of the most recent MMM blog regarding the coming of the next recession.  I am curious to know how many of us really experienced the great recession in 2008 from a financial perspective.  So to help determine this, I would like to know:

1.  How old are you now?
2.  How much did you have invested in the stock market in 2007 (obviously, this will be approximate for most of us, so take your best guess)
3.  Did you own a home in  2007?

What do you think it took for someone to really "experience" the great recession?  I personally think it's only for people over about 35 with over $100K invested, or $50K invested and a newly purchased home.

Do you think you financially experienced the great recession?  Me personally, I am 32, started working right in 2007.  I had maaaaybe $10K invested at the time.  I did buy a rental duplex in 2007 to live & rent and it lost some value over the next years.  But all-in-all I did not experience the great recession financially.

Because this poll doesn't tabulate well, I will update the percentages for each sub-question periodically:

18U: 2%
19-25: 7%
26-32: 29%
33-39: 29%
40-49: 22%
50-59: 10%
60+: 2%

Less than 50K invested: 65%
50K-100K invested: 9%
$100K+ invested: 27%

Owned home: 45%
Did not own home: 55%

I was in a very similar financial situation as you. I was 22, just started medical school, earning a modest $50-55K/yr., and had the equivalent of probably $10K in IRAs (if that). Since then, I have generated a 7-figure real estate portfolio that produces monthly income. And like the last reply said, I learned my lesson early and have always stayed out of the stock market for the most part.

[lexde]

I'm 27. Had about $16K invested, was 17 so no home. I live with my SO now who owns his home. So I definitely did not experience the recession.


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[Unique User]

I'm 47 and don't remember what we had invested in 2007, but it was around $500k.  It dropped  a lot, I didn't look at statements until the end of 2009 when I decided to take stock of where we stood.  We also bought a house and a rental house in 2007, both have just recently recovered their values and are worth about what we paid for it.  Luckily when we had to move, we were able to rent it out our house for more than expenses and the rental house has been rented almost continuously since 2007.  Everything has more than recovered and more since we both got jobs in 2009 and starting funneling cash into our accounts.  We're on track to FI in 2021. 

[Abe Froman]

Currently 42.
Back in 2007 I was 32 , subtraction with 10s are a little easier for me.

In Jan of 2007 I had $125K.
In Dec of 2007 I ended up with $220K.

Story was .... prior to 2007 - (2002-ish) I was lucky with selling a domain name and after buying a used sailboat, and a new car, I didn't know what to do with the extra cash - so I just dumped it into a Fidelity Fund and forgot about it.

[DirtDiva]

Currently 52

On 12/25/2007:  We owned $226,000 in investments
On 12/26/2008:  We owned $164,000 in investments, despite saving $36,000 into our 401k's and $6,000 into our HSA.
By 12/18/2010:   We were back to $316,000 

Our house lost 30k in value, but we were able to refinance to 15 years at 2.75% interest, so there was that.

My spouse's business suffered greatly and his income fell by 50%.

Our strong points were my job (medical field, about as safe as it gets) and fixed expenses that were way below our income.   We never considered selling stocks- we were 42 years old, with no plans to retire for many years. 

I think it helps to not pay too much attention to the daily financial news.   Diversify, dollar cost average, stay the course...all that Boglehead stuff.

[clarkfan1979]

I experienced many positives from the great recession.

I sold about 30K worth of stock in March 2007 to purchase a home in May 2007 while in grad school. I got 3 roommates to pay the mortgage and I lived for free. Even though May 2007 wasn't a good time to buy a house nationally, it was a great time to buy a house locally in Fort Collins, CO. I purchased the home for 182K and it's currently worth about double at 365K.

I didn't see the stock market crash coming. I just thought buying a house and renting out the rooms while in grad school for 4-5 years would be a better move than sitting on 30K in the stock market. I still remember the phone call with my stock broker. He kept on telling me that I was making a huge mistake. I think I did ok.

After grad school, I kept the house as a rental. It currently rents for $2200/month and the mortgage is $985. We moved to Florida and bought a primary house for 95K in 2012. It was the very end of the housing recession in Florida. It's currently worth about 235K. We moved to Hawaii two years ago and decided to also rent out the Florida house instead of selling it. The rent is $1700/month and the mortgage is $625/month.

I teach college and my job is unaffected by recessions. I can't wait for the next one!