"I Never Thought I Would Be In This Spot At This Age": Emails From The Unemployed

Unemployed people send me emails every day.

They write in response to the series of articles I've been writing about other unemployed people, folks like James O'Connell, who plugs along with never-ending debt and no job.

Last week, two readers in California emailed me with their stories. Magdalena Munro of Burbank wrote that despite ten years of recruiting experience, including career counseling, resume-writing workshops, and in-house corporate recruiting for Fortune 500 organizations, she can't find a new job after a contract ended in November. She was pregnant when she ran out of work.

I was four months pregnant and worried sick about being unemployed and pregnant. I networked like crazy to no avail. I found nothing. My baby was breech, which meant I needed a c-section, which was going to cost thousands of dollars (my insurance is mediocre and covered about 60%...yet the bill was $33,000).

Fast forward to April 15th....I was running out of money and had to rely on my husband to pay all of the bills. My savings was depleted. I then received a call from my accountant and he informed me I owed the IRS $9,000 due to a billing error on my end from the previous January.

I had a newborn and was all of a sudden $15,000 in debt.....and I was the one with a credit score over 800 and zero debt. I was miserable about not being able to find work and still am to this day. Fortunately, I have been a saver all my life and decided to sell most of my mutual funds to pay off my debt. At least that albatross (the IRS) has been punted out of my corner.

That's my story. At least my son is healthy and beautiful and I get to spend all of my time with him. That, at least, is a silver lining in this tale.

From Sacramento, Donna Whitaker, 63, wrote that she's been unemployed since 2007. The company she had worked for since 1996 laid her off in 2006, when it downsized, but then hired her back on a freelance basis. That ended in April 2007. And then in May, her son killed himself.

On May 2nd Michael locked himself in his truck and shot himself in front of his brother. It took our family and myself in particular a year to even cope with life. Just to get out of bed was almost impossible.

By the time I was able to begin to look for work there were no jobs for people my age, as well as many other Americans. I do collect Social Security and am in the process of trying to save my home through the new government programs. I have just made my last house payment in June.

I lost 52% of my 401K Savings within the last year. I had saved and saved for my retirement, but did not to plan to retire quite this early. I have lived in my home for 17 years and have no bills other than my home. Thanks goodness. I want to keep my home and pray this bailout can help me lower my house payments before all of my retirement funds are gone.

This is my story, just one of millions I'm sure. I never thought I would be in this spot at this age. I had always planned so carefully for my retirement and lived within my means. I drive an 8-year-old car and live very frugally.

Click here for more stories about people dealing with unemployment.

Huffpost readers: Got a story to share? Share it! Email arthur@[e-mail]. Please include your name, location, and phone number. We won't publish any details without permission.

Comments

[sonofsamphm1c]

It is a very sad situation. There is only one way out. End the market panic, establish market stability, stimulate the economy, and tough it out until businesses begin making profits and expanding payrolls.

Obama - Geithner - Bernanke have ended the market panic, they have established market stability, their stimulus is have greater effect by the day, and businesses - to the chagrin of the HuffPo staff - are beginning to surprise with profits.

They have been doing all the right things and those things have been working.

There was no magic pill that would fix unemployment in California, where the economy had become red hot because of gigantic amounts of subprime and 2nd-mortgage lending. Californians are going to have to figure out how to build a more sustainable economy. Their real estate madness is not sustainable.

Timothy Geithner still has his ugly blue bathroom. On the HuffPo that is what is important. That passes for substance.

[bosha]

Just wondering why everyone for this article is white? Surely, there must be African-Americans, Asians, Latinos who are suffering just as bad in this economy?

[StephenJK]

OBVIOUSLY THE ANSWER IS YES? I have a question for you. Why on Earth do you have to turn this into a racialists argument?? Who gives a care what color their skin is.

[jojony]

Because they are black and that what they do.

[PoliticalRockChick]

Maybe the reason there aren't any AA, Asian, Latino stories is because they don't want to air out their dirty laundry. Maybe they feel they might be judged or stereotyped because of their skin color. This is coming from a Black woman.

[TakeSake]

Your health care depends on the type of job you have, the kind of family you have, and your health history. Your health care is at the mercy of your life situation. Lose your job, you may lose your health. And your home. Who knows what else.

Your retirement depends on the type of job you had and the investments you made. If those investments were in stocks and 401(k)'s and mutual funds then your plans may not quite work out. For 20, 30, 40 years you put money away, into AAA this and **** that, and then it collapses for everyone - except the bankers and the execs who get the bailout, funded by you, your kids, and your grandkids.

The health care / insurance / mortgage / retirement industry is a set of front companies for the same backroom entities. It's like shopping at Disneyland - it all goes back to the same place. Shopping around is meaningless because all the "products" are fixed.

Each of those industries stands like 500 pound dominoes, and you're at the end of the line. Once they start tipping...

[macohmz]

The game of "left vs. right" doesn't matter if there's nothing to eat. I've lived through other depressions (they're all 'depressions', not recessions) and this one is more unsettling than the others. This one is worse because there's no jobs here than can recover. Most have them have been sent to slave-labor wage nations.
What's the worse-case scenario for all this unemployment? What happens if it doesn't stop? That's what is bearing down on my mind. No point looking to either party for solutions to problems they created.

[orion52]

What a rediculous statement. Right V.S. Left, you REALLY thing that small?
The fight is THE HAVES V.S. THE HAVE NOTS!!!!!

[Andman0121]

the man said that IT DIDNT MATTER about right vs. left.

[pterack5]

maybe we could hire some foreigners to protest for us. . .

[zukervati]

LoL - so true! When the going was good, no one gave two $hits about the H1-B or the $1 bigmac, hey the labor was cheap and we were all on cloud nine - spending our a$$es off as if there was no tomorrow. Now, having waged two simultaneous unnecessary wars that are funded with IOUs to China/Mexico/India and Japan, with no penalty to the common citizen (no hike in taxes) we stand at the edge of the abyss. You're right, foreigners would proly do a better job of mourning our mourning at half the cost!

[schatsie]

Maybe we can hire some foreigners and FIRE THE CEOs....

[texasrodeoqueen]

Look at the A holes blaming Obama when Bush and McCain were telling us everything was hunky dory with the economy in Sept 08! They would have just kept BSing us and called us whiners.
It ain't gonna work Greed Over People trolls

[BradSmith]

I was blaming Bush and now I'm blaming Obama. They seem to have about the same idea of how to run the economy. Spend Spend Spend, Debt equals profit after all.

[oldngrumpy]

The government should be the spender of last choice in tough times to capitalize the economy. It should collect tax and pay down debt when times are good. This allows the government to act as the ballast that keeps our economic ship upright. Since Ray Gun we have been doing it backwards and now Obama has no room to move in interest rates and a massive debt with no capital in the economy. It would seem to me that the only thing keeping us out of complete collapse is the prospect of government money finding it's way into the economy. Obama was hardly given time to take a breath, much less re-invent the wheel of our economy.

[crazyv]

exactly!!

Obama had a moment when he could have leveled with the American people and they would have listened. He could have told them that when the brightest engineers go to work on Wall Street doing financial engineering rather than real engineering something is wrong. When we have a zero savings rate and depend on appreciating homes to fund retirement something is wrong. When we borrow to spend something is wrong. As a nation we had a party for 10 plus years and now the time has come to suffer the hangover and pay the bill. He did none of those things- in fact quite the opposite.

Every policy so far he has put forward seeks to transfer the pain into the future. Borrow and spend by consumer is replaced by borrower and spend by the government. Obama seems to think that the way to solve drunkeness is to change the type of liquor one is drinking. And all those engineers going to Wall Street that is just fine with him as he and his boy wonder do their best to restore the games on Wall Street.

[BannedNBoston]

Renegotiate trade deals like you promised LIAR-IN-CHIEF!!!

[VOTER]

(-)

[iridium53]

The effects of the "jobless recovery."

The stimulus package is, according to Obama, "long term" - no sense of urgency.
And, the still not quite proposed healthcare package won't begin to start until 2013 - not exactly demonstrating a sense of urgency.
Unemployment continues to go up.
Underemployment is going up faster.
Obama has done nothing to help small business - where most jobs, and innovation, are created.

I just don't see much action from Obama that is designed to help the current situation in any good timeframe.

If, as Warren Bennis writes, "Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing." Where does that leave us with Obama on the economy?

[MathIsTruth]

Obama made a speech a long time ago, wait...it was yesterday...where he focused on how he does not consider a jobless recovery to be a recovery at all. And how he will continue to work to improve the situation.

So much for your making up baloney about "no sense of urgency".

I will presume that the remainder of your comment was as un-fact-based as the beginning.

[BradSmith]

President Obama can spout all the pretty words he wants, its kind of nice compared with the Bush babble. However, his great plan has not been significatly different than Bush. A bailout for the rich with tons of added debt. Expanding the war that is costing us Billions of dollars we don't have. I just don't see the change everyone was hoping for.

[crazyv]

he is really good a making speeches- but I think Hillary was right all he does is make speeches. BTW I maxed out in contributions to him during the primary and general. Was that the worst money ever spent.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

You're obviously right. There is no sense of urgency with respect to the working class.

Watching Obama smile and doing little is like lookiing at the photo of Bush during his fly-over moment during the Katrina disaster.

Bush was oblivious to the Katrina victims. Obama, other than showing some urgency for passing money to the ultra-rich and relying upon the trickle-down theory, also seems to be oblivious to the real-world suffering.

If he had some success as a "community organizer" in turning around the economy in the community in which he was organizing, that might give some economic-victims more hope. If anyone thinks that he turned around the economy in that community, if would be helpful to have some examples of his economic success.

[candyc]

Its incredible to me that the people on this blog believe that Obama is "doing little" and that the stimulus should have fixed everything in 6 months.
Both my husband and I are unemployed and scrambling. We are in our 60s, He gets $1300 from SS and medicare (he's 66). I was self employed (also a recruiter) and get nothng. I wake up scared to death every day. For months we have barely eked by. The Utility company in Maryland raised our gas and electric bills by 75%. It has killed us. The IRS is ruining our lives because of a coule of thousand dollars that we have been unable to pay. We have nothing to look forward to. We are barely surviving. We need help.
We DO NOT BLAME OBAMA.

[krocklin]

As America descends into a Banana Republic more and more people will be richer and richer.
Just the way the Rightwing wants it.

[Rog49Thomas]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Galt's Gulch.

And don't expect any compassionate conservative to provide you bootstratps. You are on your own!

[DennisMM]

Who is John Galt?

A second-rate fictional character in a third-rate novel by a fourth-rate human being.

[moonflowerjewelry]

i keep reading elsewhere how things are looking up... and i have to wonder, for whom?
a lot of folks i know who were comfortable just a few years ago are having to reteach themselves how to just not spend money and live frugally.

...and for that dear woman whose son killed himself, single payer health care could have saved his life if mental health coverage was free and available. mental illness like depression is one of the many things that insurance companies refuse to pay for. it is one of the leading causes of homelessness because if you don't have money to pay for doctors and medication your ability to function productively in society comes to a screeching halt. often, even the most compassionate among us are still afraid of and disgusted by mental illness.

[pfrogger]

how sad, that wisdom about mental health issues are espoused here, and barely a word anywhere else.
how can mental health issues be treated as some "lesser" disease. why is there a sense that depression, and other mental health issues are some minor problem and often seen as an excuse and not a legitimate disease by the vast majority of the population.
at least 20% of those who visit a doctor's office have some mental health issue. how many are evaluated and treated? definitely not 20%. that's 1 in 5 people.
preventative care for mental health issues could have such a dramatic and positive effect in someone's life. like other diseases, if you catch it early, many serious issues could be avoided.
sadly, if universal care was available, mental health issues would be more appropriately addressed and maybe this person's son could have had a chance.

[keene]

After all we have been through the past nine years and more hardship to come there are going to be plenty more people with mental health issues. Maybe then we'll see some action around health care esp. mental health.

[PDH5204]

For the author, you might tell the elderly woman to look into a reverse mortgage. See:

http://www.gilbertguide.com/articles/reverse-mortgages-pros-and-cons/

[semoto]

Yes, if you're at least 62 and own (or nearly own) your own home, a reverse mortgage can guarantee you'll stay in your home for the rest of your life (if you so desire) while also providing extra income. Unlike borrowing on the equity in your home, which means you'll have a loan payment every month until it's paid back, a reverse mortgage comes with no monthly payment. In fact, the reverse mortgage either gives you a lump sum or gives you a check each month. (You can also have a reverse mortgage line of credit which you access as needed.)

Also, the holder of the reverse mortgage (the bank) does NOT take title to your home. You keep the title. And if you live a long, long time -- meaning the reverse mortgage could possible pay out more than the home is worth over your lifetime -- no other assets can be taken to pay off the reverse mortgage debt at your death. The home itself is the only guarantee and the only asset they can claim, meaning your life insurance policies, etc. will go to your loved ones..

AARP has a lot of good information on reverse mortgages, both pro and con, at their website.

[JBS]

Be very wary. There are just as many predatory lenders doing reverse mortgages as there were before the housing bubble collapsed.

[Charl Liebenberg]

The cost of medical care in the United States is unbelievable. How can a cesarean section cost $33,000. I am an Anaesthesiologist in South Africa. Here you can have the same operation, in a private clinic, for about $2000 to $3000!

[SonofLiberty1]

Which is why, Doc, that some folks decide to go overseas..
Best wishes!

[Dynamohum]

Why don't you go overseas and stay there?

[sandiegoconservative]

I don't know how. My better half and I are expecting in 5 weeks and we may be going with a facility that our insurance does not cover. Assuming we do, we have found out that a C-Section procedure with normal operating costs and a 4 night hospital stay with our own room will cost us $9,500 out the door. Natural birth will be less, but our baby might be too large already. With insurance, we will pay $1,500at another facility.

[haval2]

The government can't and won't help us because everything is predicated on their next run for office. ...the $$$ they'll need, the positions they take...once "in" they are all working to stay in and another term. the search for $$$ is their guiding light. these comments are sad, truly sad and wall street bonuses returning to normal are like salt in a wound.

[Harrier]

I applaud Huffington for publishing these letters to read. We need to see this everyday and do everything we can to help all of American to get off their butts and help those who are in such pain. We need to write our law makers and hit them as hard as possible and focus on providing relief.