Wall Street wives
Fran Alvarez, with daughter Isabella, 4, and her husband Carlos, are adjusting to his smaller income at his new job. Fran Alvarez says that in the last five months she has canceled magazine subscriptions and expensive cable. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Fran Alvarez prepares dinner with the help of daughter Gabriella, 6. When her husband worked on Wall Street, she says, “If I didnt feel like cooking, wed go out.” (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
When she was growing up, Fran Alvarez says, her mother “used to buy the scratchiest toilet paper and when we complained she would say when you get your own job, you buy the expensive type.” Now Fran is a mother herself, and in the wake of her husband’s financial setback, “Well, were back to the scratchy stuff. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Carlos Alvarez, 43, was making $250,000 writing software programs for Credit Suisse. Now he’ll be earning half that in his new job away from Wall Street. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Mona Mond and her husband once owned a three-bedroom home with a half-acre yard in New Jersey, but when he saw trouble ahead on Wall Street, they sold their house and moved to a two-bedroom apartment in a modest complex filled with immigrants from India. Here in Jersey you just have to have a house unless youre just a fresh immigrant, says Mona, who has a 3-year-old daughter and is pregnant with her second child. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Mona Mond immigrated from India with her parents 20 years ago. Its ironic, but I feel even poorer now,” she says. Maybe its because ... we got used to having things. Now we want things more and its heartbreaking for us. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
