[Econ D+G] how concerned are you about ...

I'm stuck between C and D.  With my job, I have the stability, but I did feel a really good pinch with gas, food, and everything else prices climbing.

We're pretty much paycheck to paycheck right now.  Although the gas decrease of 50 percent plus has given us some breathing room.

My wage hasn't increased, and could easily see being behind in 2 years enough to not make it month to month.

Well my job is secure and I may be getting a new job with my company which would make me happier at work.  My wife will only be increasing her monthly income as her clientel increases.  But with hospital bills eating into our savings we are still paycheck to paycheck.  So I'm just a little worried because we are one more major medical problem away from being really broke.  No way we can afford for me to go to law school in the next year or so.  But I am fairly optimistic about our future.  Especially if I get the new job.  

I'm not terribly concerned about our current situation, nor am I terribly concerned about it getting any worse on a household level. My retirement portfolio has taken a pretty significant hit, but I'm generally optimistic about it getting better.

There's a large gap between options C and D.

We aren't paycheck-to-paycheck, our house is still worth well more than mortgage balance, and we aren't laboring under ponderous debt ... but we're facing some upcoming medical bills and we don't have a 2- to 3-year slush fund, either.  I'm NOT in health care, so my job could go poof if things tighten up enough.  (My old law firm has already had a round of layoffs.)  With big companies in trouble, the impact on patent law is two-fold: their own law departments are always targets for cost-cutting, and they send fewer cases to law firms to write/file.

And of course, I'm always just one patch of wet leaves away from a motorcycle accident.  Short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance FTW/L!

i may be employed but the bill collectors still call every day. 

I answered C (cus I don't own my house), but not because I'm a little bit worried.  My job and place of employment are pretty secure, and my extra spending could be reduced significantly, and rather instantly, if things did happen (give up the club membership, cut back/eliminate my many vacations, etc.).  I didn't buy much house given my income level, so I could still make it on half my current pay should it come to that.

Plus he's a hobbit so he probably doesn't spend much on food.  

The line in hobbit's post that struck me was "I didn't buy much house given my income level, so I could still make it on half my current pay should it come to that". 

What scares me is that Susan and I could be sitting on a mortgage 2-3x what we currently have based on what we, ahem, qualified for according to lenders. I'm thankful today that we put as much down as possible and only used one income for planning purposes.