I got 99 problems and a home was one. December 2007 may have marked the beginning of the Great Recession, but unbeknownst to many, there were signs of trouble beforehand. I know, and it took months before I realized what was happening.
2005 and the following year turned out not to be a great time to start businesses. I started off okay, building my customer base and having repeat customers. Then came the summer of 2007. I'll never forget that week when I suddenly stopped getting customer calls. It was one of the most bizarre things I had ever experienced.
And this continued for months. I started questioning if I was doing something wrong or if there was a new competitor in town, but both of my businesses were affected.
Adding insult to injury, my mom passed away from cancer that year.
In a strange and admittedly twisted way, I was relieved when I learned there was a recession because I thought I was doing something terribly wrong.
I'm highly responsible, organized, and self-sufficient. Heck, I was voted "Most Reliable" in my senior year of high school. I never thought I would find myself in a position of such dire financial hardship. I was not evicted from my home, but bankruptcy carries a stigma I would never want to experience ever again.
My FICO score now has been hovering in the high 700s. (It was in the low 800s before I got a car loan.) I still get approached by job recruiters. Above all, my family and I were able to keep the house. Without a college degree, I consider myself extremely fortunate.
But millions of other hard-working people were not so fortunate.
It boggles me that personal financing is not taught in schools. I would prefer not to live with any credit at all, but the reality is that maintaining a good credit history impacts our daily lives, like for employment and getting a car loan.
The housing bubble and the resulting bailout of the banks, which helped spawn the Tea Party, will forever be one of the worst episodes in American history. Understandably, there's been so much resentment and animosity towards the top "1%".
Based on actual personal accounts, 99 Homes tells an engaging fictional story about the housing crisis. Andrew Garfield plays an evictee who becomes an evictor under the tutelage of a realtor, played by Michael Shannon. The already excellent cast adds Laura Dern, and Michael Shannon earned several accolades for his performance in the film.
I've heard of heartbreaking stories of people being evicted from their homes, but 99 Homes gives more insight into the process where it involves law enforcement, in which things can certainly get heated and even violent. 99 Homes may be technically fiction, but the film portrays several stories of evictions and foreclosures that are not far from reality.
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