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Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

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21–29 of 29 posts

Re: Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

#21

I've built up a life around me that appears as if I make half what I do. My peers all have a second car and lots of nice luxuries that I don't. As a result I could take a job that pays half what I get now and wouldn't have to change a single thing about my life. Stability for my children is the most important thing for me. I also think that most of us are likely well into diminishing returns for what happiness can be…

Seconding this. If you live well within your means you can get through almost any crisis.

Re: Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

#22
You will have a unique experience. One thing I learned through the dot-com days was that there were wildly different experiences. I struggled to find employment but after a lot of hustling finally found one as was surprised that most of the people I worked with barely knew there was a problem. They continued to have employment and all they knew is they got up in the morning, went to work and got the same paycheck they always did. It was like musical chairs. As long as you had a chair you were fine. If you didn't have one when the music stopped you were devastated.

I was in NYC during the 2008-9 financial crisis and did my best to make sure I always had a chair but here's the difficult part, people can give you tons of advice on what to do but you don't usually have many options available to you. You pick the best option you've got an go with that. It's all you can do.

We all know something big has happened but I don't think anyone can say what that thing is. It's going to be complex and defy and single explanation. I think the most you can say is that there is a great deal more uncertainty in the world than there was before and a great deal more randomness.

Outstanding people will be destroyed and unworthy people will find great opportunities and there wont be any more reason than just because. That will probably make you feel very uncomfortable.

Do the best you can and persevere.

Re: Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

#25
post #12

In 2000 I was lucky (?) to be working for a stable company developing a product with a bright future. During the dotcom boom, the main developers on the project, including me, got retention bonuses so we wouldn't quit and run off to the Valley. In 2008, at the same job, the company had instituted a hiring freeze, but we were still solidly profitable so we weren't really concerned. In 2020, I've already taken a pay cu…

I cannot agree with this strategy at all. Pay cut requires a time cut. And with that extra time, do whatever you want, but one of those things might be finding alternatives. It is not your responsibility as an employee to prop up the business. SBA Payroll Protection Program. Your company could take out a loan and pay you 100%. 8 weeks is forgiven (strings are attached). The interest rate beyond 8 weeks loaned is 0.5%…

You're right; it's not. But as an adult, I get to make that decision.

Re: Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

#28
Nothing changed for me 2008-2009. My company was (still is but not with me) in finance sector and apparently all those banks needed companies like us to implement new regulations and stuff which came as a result of the finaancial crisis.

We also did write financing software (which calculates your monthly rate) and that became more popular too.

I'm not really sure how corona will play out but right now i'm again in a very stable position: Company is very big and is in the software area which is quite critical to companies. I was thinking about becoming a freelancer but never liked the idea too much because of risks.

I also never bought a car, don't have any loan and no kids. If i would get fired now, i would need to find a job in 10 month.

Re: Ask HN: How did you make it through the 2008 financial crisis or dotcom bust?

#29
I didn't really experience the 08 crisis directly but the aftermath for sure as I got my degree in 10 and the market in my home country was really bad at that time.

Had to go back to my less than stellar family for a year and a half, all of us surviving on the struggling family business while slaving away pretty much all the time.

Got a way out to move to Belfast and build a career slowly moving up from shit job to less shit job.

While lots of it has sucked, in hindsight it was the best thing that happened to me.

So you know, there might be a silver lining, maybe it's even platinum but you can't even tell yet.

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