Job: Escrow Officer (United States)

Five years ago today my life situation was very different. One day,...I had a great job (for a 48 year old high school graduate) working for a major title insurance company in the midwest making $46,000 per year, with 401K, annual bonuses, fully paid health, dental & vision insurance for myself & my spouse, 4 weeks paid vacation & paid sick leave & 18 of the best co-workers ever to work with. The next, I found myself in a small start-up company making less than 2/3 of my former salary, NO benefits (including retirement of any kind) except a ridiculously horrible major medical plan that SERIOUSLY pays squat & that I have to pay almost $5000 a year out of my own pocket in order to include my self-employed husband on. This turn of events is based solely on our immediate area's economical woes since the onset of the "recession" (which according to financial projectionists we're not in by the way). When the bottom started dropping out of the real estate market a few years ago, so did it drop out of the economy's need for some of us. The only bit of advice I can offer to those of you who seem to be having a rough time of it in the position you now occupy, I'd like to say, "Enjoy it!" It may not be there tomorrow.