I'll start:
I am 41, female, I have a PhD in Biochemistry. unmarried, no kids
I own a home which is valued near the mortgage value, but I consider it underwater because of upgrades. I rent it out and I cannot afford to live there just yet. I refinanced it 2 years ago while I was working to a cushy 4.5%
My first layoff happened in 2009, and I've been through three. Twice I was long term unemployed for 8 months each. In my very last month of unemployement, I lost my long term umeployment insurance because the government did not want to continue fudning it.
I just spent 7 months working in a call center as a customer service associate for a retirement accounts services company. I quit last week to start a new job, back at the lab :)
I am living with very low rent in an attached apartment to my mom's house.
I have been living on 24-30K per year for the last 2 years. Prior to that I was making close to 60K per year
I have 29K of credit card debt. (It used to be 45K+)
I have no student loans
My car is a 99 honda civic, paid off 133K miles and I plan to put in about 1K of repairs into it over the next year.
I'm on a VERY tight budget. In the past it used to be, well if it's under $50 I don't track it. Today, I track every dollar. I look for ways to save $10 here and there, and I never did that before.
I'm really happy to have learned my lessons but this road never ends! Looking forward to learning more.