Are you guys hunkering down money wise?

[Doc_Bob]

The last year of Pres Clinton presidency, the stock market took a huge drop (NASDAQ 5000 to 2000). The tech bubble burst.

I don't behave any differently during good or bad economic news. I am always frugal.
Bob

 

[MossRoad]

If I can make $7.00 bucks an hr. off a job these days I feel I'am doing great

Really? Is it that tough there?

 

[forgeblast]

Going cash is how we just paid off all our credit cards and car loan. About 5 years ago we took a realistic look at our financial situation. didnt like what we saw.
so we do this,
take out gas, spending, and grocery money from one check, bank the others.
if we run out of spending money we do not use the credit, card or atm.
if we run out of grocery money we tighten our belts and eat more pasta or leftovers.
going out money comes from spending money.
this way you still pay yourself, you can still save up for items, and you dont feel like your
taking a vow of poverty.
it made us more aware of what and when we spend.
the biggest thing that happened is that we shop now, instead of consume. We look for deals, we return items, and we are just smarter about our purchases. Before "go ahead throw it on the card" was something we would say, not now. We keep our credit cards for emergencies. but pay them off. its difficult, somedays i just want to use them but in the long run we are better off. if you think of it this way every dollar you spend on a credit card almost cost you 1.25 with interest every month you will never want to use them.
when we first started we went with envelops and put our money in each of them to know what to spend it on, but now after a couple of years its all we know so its much easier to save. just paying off our credit card this month, and car loan, we will be pocketing a decient amount. which is good because the wife is due with our first in november.
later all

 

[Dargo]

I think I've mentioned here before that I lived the "Dave Ramsey" plan long before I ever heard of Dave Ramsey. He really does give a lot of folks some good advice. My father and grandfather both were pretty upset with me when I actually borrowed some money to buy our first house. They have always believed that if you don't have the cash to pay for something, you don't need it. It's rather difficult to live that way, but it sure is hard to knock that advice.

Since my newlywed and I put more than half down for that home back in 1985 we were able to pay it off in short order. Since then we simply haven't bought anything we couldn't pay for. Yes, we use credit cards every month for the convenience and perks but have never carried a balance. Some people likely think I'm nuts for doing the "pay as you go" plan for building our place, but that is what I did. I built all I could myself and hired out other pieces bit by bit.

Having lived this way my entire life I can say that I don't live any differently now than I ever have. I've never borrowed money on a tractor and never will. I did borrow money on a car once because I made more on a CD than the interest charged on the car loan, but I just couldn't take it and paid the car off anyway. At least my wife and I have never once had an argument about money. Hopefully my kids will live the same way. My only huge issue now is property taxes. Dang it if we only "rent" property in this country!! I don't owe a dime on any piece of property I "own", but if I don't pay the government thousands of dollars a year in rent (property taxes), they'll come and take it away from me. I want to pay it off!! Why can't they come up with a figure I can pay where it will be all mine after I pay that amount? Otherwise I just feel like I'm renting....and I'm not a renting sort of fella.

 

[SPIKER]

Jinjimbob:

they (gov/feds) are not supposed to pay the top dollar it is supposed to be highly discounted per what I'm reading/hearing. that means that that 150K home is valued at 150K and has a loan outstanding balance of 400K that BANK will get less than 150K for that LOAN that they stupidly gave away 250K to the guy dumb enough to think he could pay 400K for a house worth 150K. I don't blame JUST the BANKS, I BLAME BOTH the guy in effect stealing money from a banker dumb enough to give it to him with just his signature on the line.
What I want to know is HOW HOW do the guys with these loans walk away and not get hounded by the banks??? if I tried anything like that they would be giving me a free REAR END exam for POLYPS daily...

I am just as mad about the Wacoiva Deal. that the Feds forced onto them last weekend... a VIABLE bank per their books, (had enough value to keep working) was forced to sell it's self off and was NOT taken over for any bankruptcy or solvency issues... NOW a better offer for share holders and bank is being met with resistance...

go figure.

BTW I have always lived below my means, kept $ in bank, where it didn't help me a lot. I bought a home & paid it off, & bought a farm, and am paying it off, I keep ~20K in bank Just In case... Rest I started Investing it. I made a good bit right up until September when things went WONKIE with the stock markets... Since then I've lost ~20K in profit and 6~8K of my deposits/Principal. mostly do to the Wacoivia Deal and 2 Speculative stocks that I got into when I first started buying stocks which I wasn't paying good close attention to details with...


BTW: I'm NOT rich at all, I work most of the time harder than most, I have NEVER made more than 50K Gross in one year, I've saved $ for last 20 years scraping by doing odd jobs after working 8~10 hr days. I worked on cars & tractors. Done side jobs for friends & family only and or invested in items I knew I could fix & sell for more, (cars trucks tractors buy low fix up & sell) rare was time I ever sold something for less than I paid. I welded stuff on the side for local friends & cut wood for people that had trees down mowed pasture ect for "compensation" when I could.
Mark M

 

[scgargoyle]

We've been living below our means for some time now. We paid cash for 7 acres, and plan to move there in a couple years, hopefully with NO mortgage. We haven't had a car payment in 10 years, and we keep the credit cards at zero. Since the value of our current home is falling through the floor, we are saving as much as possible towards our next home. I rarely buy anything except food and gas these days. (okay, the occasional antique tractor, but those are necessities!)

 

[ultrarunner]

I can show you several Bank Owned Homes on every block in some neighborhoods. They are either people that bought in the last 3 years or homeowners that got caught-up in the refinance game.

I do think reality is starting to sink in and the result is discretionary spending will bear the brunt of it.

My Father and Grandparents went through the Depression and my Grandmother thought my getting a credit card would be the financial ruin of me. To this day, I have never carried a balance over to the next month.

As a child, I remember going to town with my Grandmother. Each trip would start and end at the bank... she paid cash for everything and lived by the motto, "If I don't have money in my pocket, I can't afford it." She was also dead set against Stocks and had numerous stories of people she knew who got wiped out.

On the bright side, I've been able to pick-up some equipment second hand at a price where it made sense for me to buy it.

My fear is the Government will use inflation to deal with the massive debt we are taking on. Inflation is one way Governments can deal with debt... paying off existing debt with cheaper dollars.

 

[Egon]

[paying off existing debt with cheaper dollars./QUOTE]


Ssshhh!

 

[ihookem]

I have been hunkerin down since the day I was born. One reason is because I worked with my dad, and the first year I had to work late most nights and asked him is that all there is to life is work? He said the more you save when you're young the easier life will be when you get older! So I hunkerd down even more cause the last thing I wanted was to work like him. Thirty years later I am proof he was right, thankfully it's the only advise I ever took from him. Now do I think you should hunker down and save? No not at all if you think your job is good. This is why, if you NEED a tractor buy it cause in a few years that tractor might cost a lot more money. Inflation is going go nuts like it did in 1977. Today the feds dumped 800 billion dollars into an economy with borrowed money. Now our money is worth less and anything from over seas is going to cost more soon. We are going to go into a recession soon. You will see uneeded stuff for sale, boats, atv, and big trucks for cheap. Most people need their tractors so they wont sell too cheap. A year or two life might be a lot different. It will get downright scary if (when)Israel attacks Iran. It will stop the world for at least a little while and you might not have a job for a while. Oil will go to 300 dollars a barrel for a while and there might not be much gas. Pay off ALL your debts and get ready for anything. I hate to sound like a doomsday nut but things are going to happen, this is why I'm going to beat the band to be debt free. I have 10k against my house and in five months I will be done at my rate. later,ihookem

 

[texasjohn]

Hunkering down.... and watching Craig's list for really good deals of stuff I NEED... or at least think I do.

Retired
House, paid for.
Ranch, paid for.
All vehicles paid for..tractor, camry good MPG, 4 Runner 4wd comfortable long driver, 1 ton unlicenced pickup for ranch work, 1 ton ,97 diesel dually just bought cash Craig's list to pull 20 ft dump trailer/28 ft cattle trailer.
Cattle paid for
$ in bank
investments at stock market risk
I buy tools on sale at HF that I need to repair/maintain what I have
I buy needed computer equipment at Fry's on sale.

I'm anticipating that there will be a very significant number of people who will be hit hard, some unexpectedly, over the next few years and that some very reasonable deals on real estate and toys/tools will be available as bankruptcy, foreclosures, job losses, cause people to sell down/out.

I'm seeing/hearing locally that things are really slowing down.. and this area is one of the fastest growing in the USA. ALCOA is shutting down at Rockdale..600 jobs lost.

I'm believing that this downturn will be deeper than any since the Great Depression... and that it will hit faster than anybody anticipates... witness how in the last month alone so many huge companies/banks/institutions have "suddenly" had crisis change of ownership. That's FAST

Annual corporate and personal budgets for next year are being set in the next few months.... does anybody anticipate that ANY will be expansionist?

I think all will be retrenching... thus layoffs will continue and "new" jobs be limited to critical turnover replacements.

That said, there are always opportunities to have a satisfactory lifestyle and perhaps even flourish even during hard times.. but one has to be careful.

I'm thinking I may need to invest more in personal protection and perimeter penetration devices.... sometimes people become desperate.