How has the financial crisis affected you?

I am not directly affected by the stock market side of things wanderer as I do not currently own international shares; but where I do feel the heat a bit is in regards to foreign exchange rates. I get paid in US dollars which I then convert to Australian dollars through my home account. The fluctuations that have been happening over the last few months have changed my income up and down by considerable amounts of dollars every time I get paid! The effect on inflation definitely hits the poorer people the hardest because they are sturggling enough to make their money go far as it is and the slightest increases to consumer goods pricing etc just pushes them further and further backwards. All we can hope is that we weather the storm because historically after many major market downturns there seems to be significant gains eventually as well so if we can survive times such as this then hopefully the only way is up from here!