Share Your BEST 1980's experiences/stories.......

[FinanceDude]

Thought this thread could be fun, most of us remember the 1980's........

I will share a few once I exercise a few brain cells and think about it.

 

[eytonxav]

DW and I bought our first home in 1984 for $143K and sold it two years later for $340K (the first day it was on the market). Thought to ourselves, wouldn't it be nice if we could do this for a living

 

[Marita40]

I bought my first home for $45,000, altered between Farah Fawcett and Dorothy Hamill (the "wedge") hairstyles, and managed to get through a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. with no student debt.

 

[Mulligan]

Thought this thread could be fun, most of us remember the 1980's........

I will share a few once I exercise a few brain cells and think about it.

Can u change decades Finance? Very little can be shared from that decade in this family rated forum. But if you would like an idea, I recommend watching "Hot Tub Time Machine" story about current day 40 plus year old men finding themselves back in the 80's inside their teenage bodies.

 

[bo_knows]

I was born in the early 80s. I remember some excellent summer vacations... but nothing as juicy as I expect to come out of this thread.

 

[W2R]

I was born in the early 80s.

We have a winnah!!! Can't beat that one.

 

[bo_knows]

We have a winnah!!! Can't beat that one.

I do enjoy coming in and busting up polls which obviously don't take into account my age group

 

[Gumby]

I spent much of the 80's underwater.

 

[pb4uski]

I quit my first job in 1980 to move to Boston following my then girlfriend, new job required travel around the eastern seaboard and Carribean, got married in 1982, DD born in 1984, bought a house for ~75k at 13% interest rate in 1984 (later added three bedroom and a master bath and sold for twice what we paid for it - whee...), got my MBA in 1984-1986, moved to a different job in 1986, lost our second daughter just after childbirth in 1987, DS born in 1988........ sported a mustache back then...

 

[oldphd]

Got my BS in '82 and started w*rk! Followed soon after by getting married (30th anniversary soon come!), buying a house at the "great" interest rate of 13%, lower than anybody I knew at the time, and two kids.

Maybe not what you expected, but early '82 was also the last time I shaved. Always hated doing it and decided I didn't want that to be a daily routine once I started w*rk$ng. DW has seen me without a beard prior to getting married, but not the kids. Got to be a joke with some of my son's friends, to the point that at #1 son's rehearsal dinner (per tradition I was picking up the tab for 60ish folks at the local steak house, thankfully in a small town at a very reasonable price), a few of them offered to pick up the tab if I would shave for the wedding. Needless to say, alcohol might have been a factor in them making the offer... I have a few friends, who, upon hearing that story, question my sanity. They can't understand why I turned it down.

 

[MDJO]

Best memory I have of the 80's was selling everything I had in the market in the summer of 1987 because I felt like things were just going up too fast. Then one day in October my boss came walking down the hall in an extreme hurry, and I said, what's wrong Bill? And he said, "the market just went down 500 points".

 

[pb4uski]

But did you get back in an when?

 

[M Paquette]

Best professional experience? Well, there was the back to back missions on the USS Parche in 1980 and 81 where REDACTED... That was really neat! Certainly the most interesting experience. (if a bit scary)

Second best career-wise would be getting hired by a startup company in 1986 that would launch my career in very interesting directions. They were really taking a chance on hiring me, but I think it worked out well.

Best personal experiences were easily the birth of our first two children.

 

[growing_older]

Bought my first house in the 1980's and financed it with an almost 16.5% ARM loan. The fixed loans were pushing 17.5%, so it was a relative bargain.

 

[bbbamI]

In the 80's, I had boundless energy. I put all of that intensity into the w*rkplace and partying. Bought our first house, later sold that house and moved to the big city of St. Louis.

Went on trips to Las Vegas with my mom, experienced a hot air balloon ride, and waded in an ocean for the very first time. Happy hour after w*rk was the norm and going out dancing every Friday and Saturday night was a must. One of my dance partners would spin me like a top on the dance floor. Ahhhh...he was more intense than I.

Kind of makes me tired when I think about it...but what fun memories.

 

[scrabbler1]

I had a lot of get-up-and-go in the 1980s. I flew to California (from NY) 7 times to visit my cousins and went on many weekend car trips to visit friends in the NY area. I had the get-up-and-go to survive a terrible LIRR strike for 2 weeks in January 1987, 2 weeks of hell which included 2 snowstorms as we had to drive partway to work instead of using the commuter trains.

I moved several times after I finished college including 3 times in less than 12 months. I recall being so happy when, after living in one place for one year, seeing my phone bill drop because I had finally paid off the installation charges I had stretched out over 12 months.

I sported a moustache for a few years in the mid-80s and bought my first car. With a shorter workday in the 80s than it would become in the 90s, I went out many nights after work. Life was fun and exciting in those first few years on my own in the mid to late 1980s. I actually had some early success with women for a few years!

I had a few sad times in the early 80s. I got knocked off a bicycle and fractured my wrist one summer (before I learned how to drive). My grandmother died the night before my HS graduation.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Started bicycle touring in the early 80's - by 1989 had ridden SF to LA, Portland to LA, LA to Denver, LA - Tahoe - LA, and Denver to LA.

Hiked Whitney, Half-Dome.

Bought my first house.

Got my first 3 dogs (as an adult)

 

[WestLake]

Was anyone working as a waitress in a cocktail bar?

 

[JOHNNIE36]

1980-got transferred and into a job I hated.
1983-got transferred and into a job I loved.
1986-DW diagnosed wiith breast cancer-surgery. Sad times. Survived.
1988-RETIRED!! Yipee!! 5-1-88 =the first day of the rest of my life.

 

[NYEXPAT]

ER'd in Oct 1987 , life was pretty much a blur before and after that as I partied through out the 90's!

 

[Nemo2]

I spent most of the 1980s in the Magic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.......still remember the night I arrived, (at the old airport, near 'Teapot Circle', for those familiar with the locale)........"unauthorized parking" (LOL) was a factor, and I watched agape as a forklift operator put the machine's tines through the windows of a car, lifted it up and deposited it on a raised area that it couldn't be driven down from.

On reflection I think of it as "being softly eased into the culture".

 

[rescueme]

The 80's? A decade I would rather forget ...

 

[Sarah in SC]

Those were the years I growing up in a small island town, beachfront elementary school, surfing/swimming after school, bicycling to the corner store, exploring Revolutionary War-era forts and military batteries scattered around the island, including Fort Moultrie, and generally enjoying the ease of a safer time to be a kid.

 

[cj]

Somewhere around 1980, someone suggested putting money into a money market account paying 16%. I asked my dad, "what's the catch?" He said there is no catch. So that's where I stashed my savings. Did alright there!

We also bought our first house in 1984 at the bargain interest rate of 12%. We thought we were so smart, as my brother and a friend both had 15-16% interest rates. Of course, all that money we had stashed in that 16% money market account meant that we could put 25% down.

I remember the crash of 1987 and my coworkers stressing out about their company savings plan. Me? I didn't know anything about investing back then, and had all my money in the "guaranteed interest" category and was making probably 8-10%. I thought that was just fine! Market crash? Doesn't apply to me...

 

[Walt34]

Lessee, 1980 I was halfway through the first marriage, that ended in late 1983 but the house didn't sell until summer '84. Moved in with my mother and spent 18 months saving money for a house I later bought in Oct. '85. Meanwhile I repainted her house and prepped it for sale as she was on a waiting list for an independent living/continuous care place that worked out well for her.

While there I bought a bicycle and joined a bicycle touring club and rode on day tours in the Washington, DC area. I was seeing DW-to-be occasionally but it wasn't serious (at least I wasn't serious) as I was more focused on relaunching life after the divorce.

Moved into my own house - it didn't have any furniture in it but it was mine - and things got more serious with DW-to-be. She was understanding and tolerant when a date was taking the Metro (subway) to museums in DC or renting a movie and sending out for pizza. If I had some overtime money I could even spring for a bottle of wine.

Married DW in July '88 and have been living in marital bliss ever since.