What rebound? 'I got left behind'
It is now five years since the Great Recession officially ended, but these CNNMoney readers still don't feel they've fully recovered from the downturn.
'One of the fortunate ones'
- Name: John Lucke, 68
- Place: Anacortes, Wash.
While the recovery has been pretty much non-existent for us, we have been more fortunate than most.
I was a mid-level manager of a small financial analytics team at the Washington Mutual headquarters in Seattle. I was one of several thousand who lost our jobs when our bank failed in 2008. I had worked there for 25 years in roles of increasing responsibility and compensation.
Once the bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase, I stayed on for nine months under contract during the transition period. After that, I was able to utilize my severance package and unemployment benefits to bridge across to retirement and Social Security.
The 18-month unemployment period was interesting as we'd moved to a small community in far northwestern Washington. I looked for work in jobs somewhat related to my background in banking, finance and technology. During that time I only had two to three interviews, including one in the Midwest and another as an assistant bank branch manager. I was competing against several very young applicants.
In the end we are now fully retired enjoying an even more conservative lifestyle in a small community in spite of having 75% less income. Our only worry is the impact of future financial market instability on our retirement income.
I was really one of the fortunate ones to be close enough to make it to a more-or-less comfortable retirement.
