Are you better off now (in purely economic terms) than you were four years ago?

No. And no real chance to recover.

Only because my husband has a job that is back in his field that he built a career in. 4 years ago we were on a lark and bought a business unrelated to anything we had done before.

His new job makes more money than what we were doing 4 years ago, but his new job is forcing us to move to an extremely expensive part of the country and I personally would rather have lower pay and stay where I am.

We have some more money in retirement savings than 4 years ago, but I’m not heavily invested in the stock market so my money has not grown as much as some people I know.

My pocket does not matter as much as other societal problems we are having.

No.

But this time I’ve got lots of good reasons.

Yes. Things were so slow in 2016, business wise, that I had to consider a part time job. But in early 2017, things picked up. They’ve slacked off some since then but are not as bad as 2016. With any luck, I can maintain for 4 more years.

Absolutely not.

Yes.

Wishful thinking? And tell me you don’t seriously want the incumbant to return to power. THAT incumbant? This is a joke thread, right?

Yes, but not because of Trump. Only because my husband continues to be gainfully employed for over 40 years and we’ve paid off all our debts. The only thing left is the house to pay off in a few short years. As for the nation being better off. Absolutely not. Because what the stock market does, doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t go into a recession. Unemployment is rising and the nation is at war with itself. Also, we are overdue for another stock market crash. It’s coming. Everything is way overpriced. My home is twice the value of what it was and the last time that happened the market crashed. There are businesses and expensive homes being built all around me as businesses around us are closing.
That means people unemployed who can’t afford to move into these fancy new expensive homes.
And I don’t see how anyone can think that after a pandemic we are sitting pretty. If anything is was poorly managed and resulted in a lot of unnecessary deaths and unnecessary loss of jobs.

Yes. I work for the government and thanks to the union, I get a raise every year. I also got another position for the organization I work for which gave me a few extra thousand a year. That’s a temporary position, but it is what it is.

Also four years ago, I had a car payment, now the car is paid off, so it’s more $$ in my pocket every month.

Yes, very much so.

economically, no. Getting laid off and taking another job will sometimes do that. I wasn’t laid off because off because of any political reasons. It was due to gross mismanagement of the company…the same mismanagement I have seen several times before in other companies over the years. And in each of those cases, it ends up the same way…massive lay-offs. On the upside, I am making less money, but have a ton less stress in my life.

All, thanks for your honest answers. Here is mine.

My wife and I moved in 2016 to a more expensive home, even though I had recently retired. My wife retired when we moved.

Not only did we manage to sell the old home at a reasonable price, but also, our investments have done well enough that we are now considering moving again into an even more expensive home!

The primary reason for our investments doing so well has been Tesla. Wish I had bought more!

@crazyguy Tesla was good to me too but watch out, it’s overvalued. I plan to sell and run in the next couple of weeks after they are placed in the S&P. Once all the dust settles I’ll buy again.

No, not at all.

I don’t know a single person who’s better off now than when Trumplethinskin took office.

Other than billionaires.

Yes. I made changes this year for various reasons. More due to Covid than political.

Here are my (unofficial) stats.

Better off: 8
No better off: 8

About what I expected.

Nope. It’s considerably worse.

Really hoping you’re not trying to extrapolate data from 17 respondents.

@raum No, I am not. I think my question makes that clear.