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We are better off, but I don't necessarily equate it to the general population, the presidency, etc. Especially in MI, I think we are an anomaly.

DH and I both have doubled our income, purchased our first home, gotten married/pregnant, and have doubled/tripled our savings/retirement in the last four years. We are blessed and forever grateful to be in our shoes, but it's definitely not the common theme around our area.

4 years ago, I was in law school. Living alone with my dog, up to my eyeballs in student debt, driving the car of my dreams and I was happy being single.

Now I'm living in another state, happily married for 3 years and 1 day to the man of my dreams! I have a beautiful daughter, a son on the way, student debt is paid off (thanks, DH!), we live in a lovely home.. Life is a million times better than it was 4 years ago. I couldn't be happier.

I'm pretty much the same economically. I'm still at the same stable job with standard raises every year. I've since met and married my husband, who also has had the same stable job, and bought a house, luckily after the crash. Life is good, but I don't really attribute it to the president/economy.

Far better off. This year we're about to pay off our last student loan and be completely debt free (except for the house/car). We own our home instead of renting, have two new cars, a new baby and savings for the first time ever.

I think it's just the time in our life when these types of things happen though, I don't blame/attribute any of these things to the economy.

I think I'm probably not any better off.

4 years ago I had zero debt and I worked a lot more. Now I have student loans and I'm making about half as much money (working way less).

Hubs has been the breadwinner for a few years now though, and even though I haven't been contributing much we're still ttc and looking to buy our first place.

@mrbee: I think a lot of people in the auto industry and its surrounding suppliers, etc. were able to salvage their careers/companies due to the economic bailout; personally- dh and i aren't in industries that are directly affiliated with the auto industry so we weren't adversely or positively affected by the auto bailouts. As a whole I think it helped the MI economy sustain itself through the last four years and it def helped keep MI afloat, but it hasn't personally affected us.

Yes, while DH has a better job, I think that it is mostly due to the fact that we now are dual income family with only one mortage to pay.

We're better off now because of some decisions we made about buying our own business and our land/farm.

Absolutely. What DH and I share now is what we'd wished for. Back then he was saving up for our house and I petitioned for my resident permit to stay in Sweden. But there was still a ton of uncertainty. In my mind, I was planning for a trial run of living together before I truly made up my mind about staying here. We bought our first house, got engaged, then married. Now that we're blessed with DD, it feels like everything finally came together. We're still pinching ourselves - we feel truly blessed.

We're better off than we were 4 years ago - our household income is up about 40%, but I think that's mostly because we're at an age where we're advancing in our careers more so than because of the general economy.

That being said, we have a lot to thank the government for in the last four years as well. We got married (tax savings), I was on unemployment for 8 months, and we recently refinanced our underwater mortgage thanks to HARP.

Four years ago DH and I were both unemployed and living at home. As 28 year olds it was pretty humbling. We had both graduated from Ivy League graduate school into the worst job market ever for our specialities.
Now we are both employed have multiplied our savings by 20-fold, have paid of my student loan ($120k), will be buying a house when we can find one I like, and have a pretty little girl on the way.

We are 1000X better off now than we were four years ago and I believe the government is directly responsible for it.

@mrsjyw: Interesting, thanks so much for sharing!

Well, I guess I'm the first one so far to say NO, financially we are not better off than four years ago. Four years ago I had my first job out of college, and I absolutely hated it, but it paid the bills. My husband and I had just moved in together and didn't really have any debt. His job paid all right, and we both had health insurance.

Now, I have a Masters degree and am having a horrible time job hunting. My husband's job is seasonal and ends in November, and we might have to move in with his parents if neither one of us can find anything. I also have some student loans now that I didn't before. We are the perfect example of people that are getting screwed over by this economy--solid work histories, marketable skills, degrees, and we can't find any jobs, let alone good ones.

BUT: I'm proud of my degree and we met some amazing friends here, we're married now, and we're making it through--so in many intangible ways I do consider myself better off.

I was way better off 4 years ago, but I only have myself to blame. I had a great job with great benefits right out of college but left it to immigrate to the US for DH.

Now I'm SAH and he works and his base salary is about $20,000 less than mine was. I'm pretty sure if I were to get back into the job market I wouldn't be able to find something similar with equal compensation.

Better and worse in some ways. DH and I were dating seriously 4 years ago, I bought a townhome when the housing market was good and was working hard at my first job. DH had just started his job.

Now I have a wonderful husband and baby, am more skilled at my job but currently a SAHM. DH moved up considerably in his company and is working hard.. But, we are trying to sell the townhome now and the housing market blows and we are living off of one income which is rough.

Much better... Own a house, got married, am making $20,000 more. We did get $8000 from the first time homebuyer's act that Obama passed, so I would attribute that to him!

Definitely! Life was good 4 years ago, I was in college, living with three other girls, working part time, and casually dating DH.

However, I'd say life is much better now. Married to DH, finishing up my Master's degree, we've both been working full time for a few years, we own our house, have a dog, are in a good place financially.... Life is good!