Are you guys hunkering down money wise?

[pennwalk]

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

I really hope we don't go down that road.

Chris

 

[zionview]

It's already happening in my area. There has been 6 breakins in our neighborhood in the last 3 weeks. 5 miles from here a gas station had all their radiators and scrap steel stolen the other night. A neighboring community has a huge problem with copper theft. A city 3/4 of an hour from here is now discovering that houses left unattended for a week or more have no plumbing or wiring when the owner checks on it. I'm afraid we've not seen the worst yet.

 

[jinjimbob]

worth 150K? when? to who? its only worth what you can get someone to pay you for it. if i bought it for 250K its worth 250k then....

someone thought it was "worth" 400K a few years ago... stands to reason someone will think the same thing in 5-10 years from now.

even if it did take 20 years... what does the gov't care.. they are going to be there in 20 years...

I agree, a house or anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Look at Lake Elsinore, CA, watch this video. Foreclosure Alley - SoCal Connected

These houses will take a long time to reach that price level again, they built too many houses, too fast.

The tax payer should pay for for the bad business practices of these banks. The CEOs and executives are sitting pretty, there are no repercussions for their actions. Bail them out now, so we will have to bail them out again.

The car companies are being bailed out, the airlines . . what next?

This country is fast becoming corrupt a communist land.

 

[MikePA]

It's already happening in my area. There has been 6 breakins in our neighborhood in the last 3 weeks. 5 miles from here a gas station had all their radiators and scrap steel stolen the other night. A neighboring community has a huge problem with copper theft. A city 3/4 of an hour from here is now discovering that houses left unattended for a week or more have no plumbing or wiring when the owner checks on it. I'm afraid we've not seen the worst yet.

Yes, we are all about to enter a real life version of 'Escape From New York City' or 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Click Here.

 

[Egon]

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

Yes, a good idea. It will keep the cash flow the economy requires in operation.

As for defense maybe do some checking of times and places in other countries where anarchy prevailed and see what prespired.

Obscurity and adaptability is the word. Trying to maintain status quo just gets lots of unwanted attention.

Back in the early 80's one could buy lots of magazines on "Tough Time" survival. Read some and find out what you should not do!

 

[browns40]

Fiscal responsibility or irresponsibility is the same today as 10, 20, 50 years ago... your needs and income should dictate your actions. Regardless of what you hear through mass media... and you must keep in mind that they themselves exist to make a profit... there are a number of companies that function within their means rather than borrowing on the future.

It's troubling that we are talking as a nation about purchasing bad debt from fiscally irresponsible companies that made poor decisions based on shareholder expectations for profit.

My concern is that a freeze up of this practice of lending to companies on short-term notes will end up costing people their payroll first, then the company losing those workers, then the community losing those jobs/nation losing a company that adds value to the economy through production.

I appreciate it affects the service industries too, but they redistribute value in the economy rather than create it... production creates value.

If the trade imbalance goes further south and we are even more dependent on other nations to produce for us...

Here's something that freaked me out a little this week, as it's one of the most linear value-adding scenarios for our economy: my buddy got $3.80/lb for sea urchins opening day this year... 50-100% higher than ever before! It is not consumed by Americans, it is headed to Asia... now in Asia they are spending less money on the actual product than they did in previous years... their money is going further.

Now lobster drops to $3.65/lb amid the fear-mongering the same week. It is consumed by Americans, and is one of their luxury foods.

Sorry, digressed there, Shoot yeah hunker down & don't blow your money on a bunch of useless imported stuff you don't really need...

 

[the_sandman_454]

Not really. Paying off the tractor this month or November. Then the only payment left is the house/property, which I'm really going to start hammering away at the principal once the tractor payment is gone.

At the beginning of the year I try to figure what the various "fixed" expenses I'll have for the year will be (i.e. insurance, taxes, contract buy for propane, estimated electricity based on last year, estimated fuel the same, etc) and budget to have them saved by the first half of the year so I don't have to worry much about trying to suddenly come up with all the funds suddenly. Once I get above/beyond that, I can start considering the health of my finances and decide if I can allow myself to buy some new toys or start new projects, etc.

One thing I've pretty much always done has been pay every bill I have and every purchase by credit card, because I get cash back for purchases on the card. The trick is, it gets paid off fully every month such that there's no interest being charged. If I don't have the cash in savings to pay off whatever I want/need to buy, I'll wait until I do to buy it.

There are a few implements I'm hoping to be able to find used in order to help keep the costs down. I usually prefer to buy new stuff but I'm slowly starting to shift to looking for decently used equipment to save a bit more money. That's about the only real way my habits have changed or are likely to change...

 

[davitk]

Yep. Started stocking "Great Value" coffee from WalMart in the cupboard. SWMBO was buying the premium stuff which really wasn't that good anyway INMHO. Saving AT LEAST 25.00/month.

 

[LMTC]

One thing I've pretty much always done has been pay every bill I have and every purchase by credit card, because I get cash back for purchases on the card.

Let me be clear, Sandman, I am not criticizing you, but rather trying to share something folks may not know about.

How many folks understand that all these cash back and rebate credit cards take that money straight from the vendor, and most vendors have raised prices to compensate? It's a ponzi scheme. Some years back I noticed some of our charges were costing us more than the straight % we had been quoted, and learned that they were rebate, cash back, corporate, etc. cards. My margin is not enough to allow for an extra % or two, so I asked how I could identify those cards, and was told I couldn't. My reluctant response was a 2% increase in all parts & implement prices. And since I'm not allowed to add that only to CC purchases, everybody now pays it. Some cards cost me as much as 3% + a flat rate fee when they are processed, so I'm not really making more margin. The actual effect is that my non-CC customers, and those using "regular" cards, are footing the bill for the others.

And yes, I am hunkering. Not buying replacement inventory at normal levels as my capital is severely depleted. I am nearing "retirement" and have lost a tremendous % of my portfolio in the past two years. I can't afford to raid it for more capital. Our business will have to get by on about 1/3 of the capital we previously used.

 

[Dargo]

One thing I've pretty much always done has been pay every bill I have and every purchase by credit card, because I get cash back for purchases on the card. The trick is, it gets paid off fully every month such that there's no interest being charged. If I don't have the cash in savings to pay off whatever I want/need to buy, I'll wait until I do to buy it...

As I'd mentioned, I do the same thing. With my business I get enough points to cover much of my airline travel but lately I've just opted for the 'cash back' option. Here is a big warning though; one thing I found out from a friend and her attorney this year surprised me big time. I'm told that she did the same thing except her credit card purchases were actually on a debit card, which looks exactly the same except debits the amount directly from your checking account. Anyway, she bought a rather expensive item (several thousand dollars) and it wasn't as advertised. She tried working with the merchant, but got nowhere. She called her CC (debit card) company and disputed the charges and was immediately reimbursed. But, and this is a HUGE but, she was 're-charged' for the entire amount in about 45 days. It seems that in the fine print of credit cards and debit cards that if the merchant responds to the CC (or debit card) company and says that the charges are legitimate, the charges go back on your bill and stick!

This is when she contacted an attorney who verified this. The bottom line was that she was ripped off several thousand dollars and now has to take her fight through the court system. However, since this was done on a "debit" card, she is doing so without all that money! The huge difference between a debit card and credit card is, in this situation, you simply wouldn't pay the amount you were robbed out of if you used a credit card and you'd have the CC company working with you to solve the issue. With a debit card, the bank isn't out any money so they bluntly tell you that the dispute is between you and the merchant since they aren't out any money; you are!

I don't know if I am allowed to mention the name of the bank this happened with here or not. If I can, I gladly will. It is a huge bank and one of the largest credit card companies around. With there being more and more cyber-thieves out there and the economy being terrible, this sort of thing happens quite often now. I guess this is why banks really like you to have "debit" cards rather than "credit" cards. With a credit card you have the option of just not paying what was robbed from you whereas with a debit card your money is gone until you go through the court system and then hope the criminal merchant is still in business. Even then, after losing court cases, many bad merchants simply opt to not pay the court ordered amount. If they don't pay, you have to start all over with the court system and go after them; proving they have the means and ability to actually pay you. Needless to say, it's a HUGE mess! If I can tell what bank took her on her debit card, someone let me know. I'll be happy to post their name here so you can call them and ask what would happen to you if you were involved in the above mentioned scenario.