Are you guys hunkering down money wise?

[LMTC]

It wasn't Uncle Joe buying a house that caused this. The majority of failures were in multi-family dwellings, and administered by Freddie or Fannie. The vast majority of early failures were a narrow spectrum of the market, then supplemented by the folks who got 110% loans on over-valued houses as the mortgage money flowed way too easily. I remember working, saving, living in tiny apartments well under our budget to save even more, all so we could come up with that 20% down required for a good mortgage for our first house. Apparently that is too much to ask of people anymore.

And the vast majority of sources I read/spoke with recommended staying 40% invested in the market if I could live off the other 60% (which is in guranteed equities, i.e., a pre-determined monthly income) when I retired at 57, and then gradually moving that 40% to bonds, etc. as I reached 65. So again, I knew this was a possibility, I never thought it likely, I accept it and will reformulate my plan and certainly change spending habits.

 

[alchemysa]

AIG jams $250 million of taxpayers money straight into the pockets of the execs who helped bust the company. Thats just blind robbery. They should go to jail.


(I had to put this somewhere. It makes me so angry.... and I'm not even a Yank!).

 

[cowboy357]

Sad Situation indeed . Going to Jail I dont think is a good idea We Still would Be Payin to support them .

But I Do Know what They need, But Better Refrain from saying what I think.

 

[EddieWalker]

AIG jams $250 million of taxpayers money straight into the pockets of the execs who helped bust the company. Thats just blind robbery. They should go to jail.


(I had to put this somewhere. It makes me so angry.... and I'm not even a Yank!).

Unfortunately, that's not the story. It's a diversion. The real story is the 30 plus BILLION that's gone to foreign banks. Bloomberg had a story back on Jan 27 about the bonuses, which are actually 450 million. We're only hearing about the top 70 plus people who got over a million each, which was made possible by an amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd.

While Dodd and all those responsible for this are pretending to be outraged, they are really just playing games in hope that nobody finds out that there are billions of tax payer dollar going overseas. How that is supposed to help the economy or anybody here is beyond any form of understanding.

Eddie

 

[rcrcomputing]

Have you guys ever heard Dave Ramsey on the radio or seen his show on FOX business news channel? He believes that "Cash is king and debt is dumb" If you can't afford to buy it without the credit card than don't buy it unless it is essential. He deals all day long with good folks who have gotten themselves deeply in debt by overspending with credit cards for things they didn't really need. Kind of like the way congress operates. Just my two cents.
-Mike

I think this guy should be the president!
We're less two years before we are completely debt free. We have seen no effect from the downturn in the economy. Yet..
OTOH, my better half says inflation at the grocery store seems to be out of hand..

 

[riptides]

Unfortunately, that's not the story. It's a diversion. The real story is the 30 plus BILLION that's gone to foreign banks. Bloomberg had a story back on Jan 27 about the bonuses, which are actually 450 million. We're only hearing about the top 70 plus people who got over a million each, which was made possible by an amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd.

That is the diversion to the diversion.

The real story is none of the committees or other lawmakers actually read the amendments put forth,

Let us talk of accountability.

 

[EddieWalker]

...was made possible by an amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd.

I'm actually surprised. Dodd denied having anything to do with the Dodd Amendment that allowed the bonuses, but then today, he admitted to it.

Eddie

 

[2manyrocks]

There was a story on PBS last week about the near lack of serious business news reporting on the financial mess as it was developing. One of the commentators was a University professor who has been studying financial news reporting, and he basically said that the financial press is still not doing an acceptable job of reporting, and the situation is made worse because of budget cuts impacting serious news gathering.

If people were able to see through all the smokescreen and stupidity, I venture to say there would be a lot of extremely angry folks.

Back to the original topic, I don't have a better crystal ball than anyone else, but I suspect we haven't seen the bottom. I think each of us has to look at how to best weather this and be cautious because no one knows for sure what is next around the corner.

 

[ZetorShaun]

I will still maintain my fixed investments and hope that I am getting bargains. I will continue to max my Roth and 457. I agree that it has not likely bottomed out though. I have always maintained a large cash position and that has worked out well for me the past three years although I thought my risk aversion cost me earnings.

We will have to pay the piper for all of this some day, I expect the more I save, the more will be taken (taxes) and the more (social security) I will be ineligible for because of my due diligence and sacrifices.

As for the sideshow, I watched the testimony by Edward Libby. He had very reasonable, well articulated responses to the wild, grandstanding accusations and questions rattled off by the Congressmen. He seems to have thought things out and has had a measured response. His outlook is bullish but he seems like a smart guy working for us for free, I wished he would have challenged the members of Congress to do the same (work for no pay), especially as many of them claimed to be tax and contract lawyers. AIG is as safe as it will be in his hands as any, maybe AIG will pay us back.

 

[ToadHill]

Well I've lost confidence in the markets, so I'm using a pile of $$ to Hold the mortgage for a home my sun wants to buy. I hold the mortgage for both my daughters homes, and if they run into any trouble I know that the "Bank" won't toss them and my grandchildren out in the street.

It was always my plan to leave each of them a good piece of change when I'm done with this earth so I just guess they are getting some of it early. They make monthly mortgage payments but they each have a very nice interest rate and the monthly payments help with the wintering in Florida.