I’ll feel better once all of the money that has been dumped into the financial system by the Fed and Treasury gains traction and helps reverse the course for the markets and economy. Until then, I’m keeping my seatbelt on because it’s going to be a bumpy ride. On the brighter side, I have faith that things will work out and there will be clearer weather on the other side of this storm. Just hang in there everyone.
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Life is cyclical at best. No guarantees when you come into this world and there is only one guarantee when you leave,,,you come into this world with nothing you leave the same way. While you are here you should be preparing for eventualities that this life hands out. If you are a spiritual person who believes in a higher power then your faith sustains you. If you don't believe in a higher power then you are on your own to get thru this life as best you can with no hope of anything except what this life has to offer.

My wife and I are retired and slowly built and provided for our retirement days and didn't lead the extravegant lifestyle that a lot of people do. We lived without the "new" things that everyone else had to have,,,boats, big houses, new bigscreen TV's, big cars, jewelry,etc. Our parents taught us to live without over indulging in "things" and it worked for us. I tried to teach my kids the same thing but each generation has it's own hurdles and my kids are saving like crazy because they don't want to have to go thru what other generations are going thru,,credit crisis, foreclosures, loss of their jobs, etc.

I read the other posts here and it makes me sad that good people suffer,,,sometimes things are not their fault and bad things happen to good people. Tightening our belts, though not easy is sometimes the best thing to do in hard times and shows character to do the hard things. When was the last time you learned a lesson the easy way? Hard lessons toughen us and make us experience those times for the future.

Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. This isn't the first time we have all faced economic hardships and it certainly won't be the last. Remember to provide for the future and not live for the day. Good luck to us all.
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What the old timer (like me ) said. :-)Lucky ( In some ways ) to have a job that doesn't pay much but pays and have been in tough times since the oldest of the "4lp" was born. It is kinda like a Ironman. You start fresh in the swim, have highs and lows and some how keep moving thru each event no matter what happens. So carry on and keep your chin up.
Rob :-)
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Wisdom comes from the most unlikey of places. :-)

The world our children inherit from us is much different than the one our parents left us. But it is there to inherit so we have that going for us.
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I'm afraid of bad/rash decisions that we may make during these tougher times. An economic system is a natural thing, it runs in cycles like the weather. Sometimes it rains, sometimes its sunny. I just hope we don't start building financial levees that are sure to break at some point down the road...causing much more distress than we could ever have during this recession.

Its important to keep in mind that f'in with companies' business plans and profits is the reason that we entered into this mess. More of the same will not solve it. If we step back and let the market correct itself, we'll be OK in due time. If not, we'll prolong the BS.
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When I first saw this thread I thought, oh no this is gonna be a downer. However after reading some posts I now I think it can be used to help each other.


Though I would share.

Last night I was watching a hockey game and the home team did a piece on the Make-A-Wish Foundation. When the guy was asked "what is the best wish you have ever granted?" he told the following story.

A two and a half year old boy wanted as his wish to ride the school bus. That's all, he could have whatever he wanted and he wanted to ride the school bus. Why? Because he wanted to know where his brothers went each day. So he got his wish. He rode the bus. His mom said she had never seen him so happy, ever. That little boy is no longer with us.

I think from now on when I'm thinking I'm having a bad day I'll just tell myself to, go ride the bus.

No matter how bad you think you have it, you don't have to look far to see your wrong.

Wishing each and everyone of you the best life has to offer.
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In my short life, I've lost my father at a young age, my job, my life savings, I've lived out of the trunk of my car, survived a serious automaobile accident, and cancer...what's a little economic instability???

You can always make up for lost money, but you can't make up lost time. Spend time doing what you love with people you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life again.
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I actually feel bad for the older people (baby boomers) whos retirement was based on the now market..Have a friend who's Dad was supposed to retire this year but cant and now he has to work another 5 years probably to retire. If you saw this guys, you would think he should have been retired 5 years ago. I think it sucks that people will had to see their 401k get crushed but at least they have one..most people dont even have a retirement plan but I still feel bad for them. As for people like me, I think this might be an opportunity of a life time.
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I feel fine :-)
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I am just really grateful to be in school right now. I have about two years left until I have my BA and hopefully the market will have stabilized by then. I have friends who are just coming into the job market right now and are not having a good time of it.
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Actually, I feel generally optomistic, but that is pretty normal for me. Other than having a job I am not too happy with and this being a difficult time to make a change, I am trudging along as normal. As far as I can tell, things go bad, then get good again. Just a matter of holding on until they turn around. Not only that, there will be some great opportunities for investing in the next couple of years as the markets turn back around.
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If I had been asked this about three weeks ago an angry rant would have followed that would last about 3 pages. I got laid off about that time, watched my 401K get cut by 75%, my other investments do the same, and I have a second baby coming on Dec 11th. With all that said I feel great. i have seen this as an opportunity to seek out what I really want to do. I got lucky as my father is just starting a new company and needs my type of talents, i get to go back to school and I get the whole month of Dec off. I have been able to make a great herf and stay up late at nights talking and chatting with some of the best BOTL/SOTL around and have gotten to spend more time with my wife and son in the past 3 weeks then I have all year. Though the economy looks bleak I feel that the Lord has shut a few doors on me and opened all the windows. I am going to have to start a completely new career and leave the old one that I worked so hard at advancing in behind but all in all its for the better. I have great confidence that the upswing is coming and if its not oh well cause I have my health.
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If I'm only tihnking of myself and my family, I'm in pretty good spirits. If the news weren't telling me that the sky is falling, I'd see home prices coming back down to reality, gas prices that are much more reasonable, and my 401k contributions are buying many more shares now than a few months ago... which'll come in handy when I retire in 40 yrs.

I can't imagine what the older generations are going through, especially those losing their pentions, postponing retirement, etc. Or those losing their jobs due to the recession. Hopefully we've got smart enough people in Washington who can find a way out of this mess...
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how am I supposed to feel? I do what I can within my control.
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6% unemployment doesn't sound bad until it's stated as the 2 million people it represents. Add .9 kids to each of those that suffer under the unemployment and a few spouses and it's affecting an incredible number of people directly.

We live in a backwood hick $8.00 an hour economy here.
Gas prices rising to $4.00 a gallon absolutely devastated household incomes. The recent drop has made all the difference in the world. There are twice as many cars buzzing around, stores are full, and there's a line at the ice cream stand again.
It may be hard to imagine something that that's simple, but that's what it's like here.
Most families here take home about $1600 a month.
They drive old junk cars because that's what they can afford. Putting gas in those cars at the rate of 40 bucks a week for two cars is $320. That's 20% of their income.
When gas prices doubled, it immediately took another 20%.
Imagine what would happen if 20% of your income disappeared tomorrow?
That's what happened to roughly 40% of the families in my county. Another 30% lost 10% of their income.
It ain't right.
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I feel pretty good as I am in a career that does good in good times and unbelievably great in bad times. Business is up 35% and we have some large institutional deals coming in. I have been a Sr. Manager there for 5 years and things look good. I agree with someone in the past post as he said he feels bad for the older people. I am 32 and know I have time. I minimized my risk in the stock market and still have over $100K equity in my home. I flipped my parents 401 (k) money out of internationals and index funds and into bonds right before the 778 point drop in the Dow 2 months ago. My dad said his old fund dropped 22 % the next week and the one I put him in did + 4% so I guess he dodged a bullet. Hey could you imagine if gas was still at $4.25 per gallon?
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I am nervous about the current situation...but when I think back on what my parents went through growing up in the Great Depression, and what my friend the watchmaker went through (being a slum kid in the Depression, dropping out of school to feed his family, and then going through five years of hell in the southwest Pacific), I realize that things could be one helluva lot worse.
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I work in an industry that depends on consumers. I have been in retail for over 20 years. Consumer confidence or lack of is a nasty cycle. The more scared people get the less they spend, the less the spend the less that gets recycled into the economy. I have seen some tough retail years, this is turning out the be the worst. Even the big boxes are feeling the squeeze. There will be some names in retail we are all familiar with disappear after the holidays. Maybe the market is correcting itself, I think it is over correcting itself.
As a country we must cut back, but not shut down. I work for a very large discount retailer, that gives back 5% of its revenues to the communities we do business in, with revenues down 4% we give 4% less back, we have less labor, which means less jobs available. It will come back... when is the question!
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On my own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone ...

Actually, although I have tenure and high degree of the job security that comes with that, they will have to cut programs here to keep up with the huge budget cuts we've gotten from the state, and they can fire tenured faculty if they eliminate programs.

We'll see ....

On a different note ... I just bought Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica CD ... and after listening to a couple of songs, I'm starting to wish I hadn't stopped smoking weed in 1984.
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Maybe we can have a unique herf when we both retire, Sean. :-) :-)
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