I know we all want to talk about our prejudices but please stay on the topic, which I think was "My Transition".
I'm a lot like Ayoob in that I'm pretty happy with our changes so far. Granted we were more CA. R.E. "expats" than PO refugees in that we "knew" the RE crash was looming and would be bad (though maybe not as bad as it's turning out) whereas PO is still a mystery. I think when I first started posting here I wasn't looking for PO trouble till sometime around the early teens, from a couple of my first posts here in early '04:
A short-term political or terrorist induced oil crunch could be devastating to this [economic] house of cards. Long term I’m still worried about the economy and my non-expert energy outlook is flat and even declining prices for maybe 5-8 years, then at first gradual then accelerating increases thereafter.
I don’t believe there will be an oil “crash” soon, but there certainly could be an economic crash as the cost of oil and virtually everything else begins its inevitable rise. That is the wild card; how long do we have to prepare before the cost of preparing is out of reach or the necessities unavailable?
In '04 oil was around $40 - today $80 (he conveniently ignores that little blip to $150!) so the "flat to declining" price forecast wasn't so good - we'll see about the "accelerating increases" by 2012 soon.
But the last two years have been a pretty good test of our transition. First, just evacuating CA was a great move, unemployment in the Central Valley is 18%, underemployment is over 25%, foreclosures and BKs are some of the highest in the country and most of the people there who are in my line of work are either tits-up or getting close.
My income over the last 2 years is a tenth of what it was a decade ago and though it's bounced back a little this year, it is good to know we can get by on $10k-$15k a year just fine - in fact we live pretty good. Medical insurance is of course a problem but I've given up worrying about it.
Energy wise, I've concentrated on conservation. We have an old house and have spent beaucoup bucks on sealing and insulating and still we have a ways to go yet. We "harvest" rainfall for much of our garden and a portion of our livestock needs. Of course we earn all our income at home so no commute and we try to keep down the number of trips to town - not always easy when you are plumbing a hundred year old house!
Speaking of which, as we remodel the old place we are trying to rebuild as strong as we can, tying and bracing everything together - foundation/wall/roof, much better than they were able to do back when. We're adding fire-blocking, vapor/moisture barrier and of course updating the mechanicals with the best we can afford.
So far so good.