Down But Not Out

‘We now sleep late because we have no money to do anything’

I consider myself to be a very intelligent person and a jack of all trades. I am a small business owner, and was an employee and sub-contractor for years. I decided early on in life that having all of my eggs in one basket could be disastrous. My passion for music pulled me into the Disc Jockey business where I flourished with many gigs for the last 15+ years. I also had a passion for electronics so I decided that my weekdays would be spent installing car audio and security systems for local shops (my day job).

After the market crash in 2001 (September 11th) business dropped about 15 percent but I was not really hurt by that. I had a comfortable income of about $5,500 a month. After the crash in 2008, I began to feel the pinch. The car audio shops I was working for, slowly decreased my hours, my DJ gigs dropped by 40 percent. It only got worse from there. I had to cut back on advertising due to the dent in my income. 2009 was even worse and I thought I felt an uptick in business in 2010, but it was short lived. 2011 has been the worst of all. DJ business down by 80 percent, absolutely no car audio jobs left, and I have sent out over 100 resumes in 5 months without a single reply. I have also spent what little money I had to print new brochures and put up a website for my business.Once again, it was so far, in vain.

My fiance also lost her job in 2009. She too has applied for many jobs only to get no response from anyone. It’s very depressing and has caused many arguments and led to a very unhappy life for us for the last 2-3 years. I am 39, my fiance 37 and I have 3 children to support. Luckily, my oldest son joined the Navy after exhausting all job possibilities. Now we are on food stamps, waiting for housing assistance, and living on what is left of our savings. My fiance’s unemployment ran out 2 months ago. The only thing we have left to look forward to is our tax refund next year. God help us if we have any major problems (car, medical, accidents, etc) in the next 6 months. We went from $8,000 a month between us, to less than $1,800 a month. We now sleep late because we have no money to do anything. Gas costs too much so most days we stay home and just watch tv. It’s making me anxious, depressed, and my confidence is all but gone. I pray for a miracle at this point.

Paul K., via email