Is anyone else out there scared about the economy?

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Heather* I couldn't agree more Most of us are young enough that we can wait all of these dips out. The key really is starting young and keeping it in there for the long haul.

yes, and having an emergency fund.

also, emotions can work the other way. like in 1998 when people saw how much money was being made in tech stocks they piled all their money into them hoping to get rich fast. we know how that went.

also in 1984 when there was a big crash, people pulled out money or stopped investing. so they missed out on some great years for growth right after.

investing internationally helps diversify too.

i keep my house down-payment money that I'm going to want within 5 years in a CD. the money in the market is retirement or money I don't need at any set time.

also, i want to make sure everyone knows that you can have your roth IRA (or traditional) be any type of account. so don't let the fear of the markets keep you from saving for retirement. my first IRA was a five year CD with a credit union.

[*Lo*]

I agree with what everyone is saying...if you diversify and stay long term focused, you should be ok. Watching the ups and downs every day can make you go crazy!

 

The problem is when widespread panic happens and everyone sells. Since I have time on my side, instead of selling and moving investments around I am thinking of just buying more. We probably haven't seen the worst of it yet, but once people start to buy back in when it gets low enough, the markets will see some recovery.

 

I just took a call from a client who lives moved to Canada a year ago but still has $500,000 in a US bank account. She wanted to know the tax consequences of transfering it up here, etc., but basically she wasn't comfortable leaving it in a US bank as the total amount would not be insured. I clearly cannot tell her what to do, but I am thinking that it makes it worse when people start to withdraw large sums of money from the banks! I cannot believe it has come to this where people don't even trust their bank! And it is a very large, for the time being considered to be safe bank. I was reading some people are actually withdrawing all of their money and storing it in their homes!!!

[lmg970]

I think it is a great time to buy, not that all the stocks are lower in price the $10 dollars per share in stead of $20 means now I will have 2 stocks instead of one, so when the price starts to increase that means I will make more.

I am not going to panic and take any money out of anywhere at this time.

[*Heather*]

Stock markets soar as U.S. proposes rescue package

Updated Fri. Sep. 19 2008 10:25 AM ET

 

CTV.ca News Staff

 

North American stock markets soared Friday in reaction to news of a U.S. government plan to buy up toxic assets, such as bad mortgages, from troubled banks.

 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday the bold plan will be expensive but less costly than if the government does nothing.

 

Paulson said he will work through the weekend with congressional leaders to finalize the plan.

 

It "must be finely designed and sufficiently large to have maximum impact," he said. Yesterday, Paulson said the root cause of the stress in capital markets is the real estate correction.

 

BNN's Michael Kane said the new plan was like "cancer surgery where you get the bad stuff away from the good stuff."

 

In reaction, the Toronto stock market skyrocketed almost 600 points in early trading Friday.

 

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was up 583.42 points, or 4.9 per cent, to 12,647.99.

 

New York's Dow Jones industrial average spiked 380.97 points to 11,400.66.

 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 9.6 per cent to 19,327.73, while Japan's Nikkei 225 average rose 3.8 per cent to 11,920.86.

 

Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 9 per cent to 5,329.6 and France's CAC 40 shot up 8.2 per cent. Germany's DAX added 5.7 per cent.

 

Daniel McCormack, a strategist for Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong, said the U.S. plan has given investors a "light at the end of the tunnel.

 

"The solution is of such a magnitude that it could eventually fix the problems," he said. "That's hugely important at the moment because that's what markets are focused on."

 

Meanwhile, in a dramatic step Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned short-selling of financial stocks.

 

Short-selling is the practice of betting against company stocks.

 

Short-sellers borrow shares in hopes of selling them later at a lower price while claiming the difference.

 

Some short-sellers have been accused of spreading false rumours to make sure stock prices fall.

 

"The commission is committed to using every weapon in its arsenal to combat market manipulation that threatens investors and capital markets," SEC chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement.

 

"The emergency order temporarily banning short-selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets."

 

Heavy amounts of short-selling have been blamed as one of the reasons for the fall of investment firm Lehman Brothers and other major companies.

[MikkiStreak]

I think the buyouts were necessary, but it now poses the question: what programs are going to be cut to fund the buyouts? or how much will taxes raise to offset the buyouts? Because if taxes raise without wages increasing, it saves the business'es, but screws the consumer...

 

I also think the end result was inevitable (the buyouts), but what about fixing what caused the collapse? We had a presidential directive to decrease regulations for the finance/mortgage industry back in 2002 in order to use real estate and banking to boost the economy after the tech collapse in 01. But then they took the 'no government involvement' approach of not regulating business to make sure businesses were acting ethically.

 

We also changed bankruptcy laws so that no one can walk away from debt; which means that these companies could have absorbed the losses slower and easier over the last 5 years, than having it all come crashing down suddenly. And, the bankruptcy laws changed so that now, when a consumer files for bankruptcy, they use poverty level for that area as the guideline for how much "income" that consumer needs to have for survival, and everything over that poverty level goes to pay debt.

 

It will be interesting to see not only what transpires over the next 1-2 years for bailout's, but what congress does to prevent this situation from replaying over and over...

 

I, personally, think we're just starting to see the "bottoming out" of our economy, and it'll probably be another 1-2 years before we see the consistency of a "recovery" occurring. Question is: how bad will it get before then?

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Heather* Meanwhile, in a dramatic step Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned short-selling of financial stocks. Short-selling is the practice of betting against company stocks. Short-sellers borrow shares in hopes of selling them later at a lower price while claiming the difference. Some short-sellers have been accused of spreading false rumours to make sure stock prices fall. "The commission is committed to using every weapon in its arsenal to combat market manipulation that threatens investors and capital markets," SEC chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement. "The emergency order temporarily banning short-selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets." Heavy amounts of short-selling have been blamed as one of the reasons for the fall of investment firm Lehman Brothers and other major companies.

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t29363

This is a great podcast talking about the short-selling & how it wasn't a helpful move by the SEC chairman Christopher Cox. There is a recording from 2 congressmen warning him about the dangers of the ratings agencies giving AAA ratings to bad bonds & him just saying he doesn't plan to do anything about it.

it's really frustrating to see that people were aware we were heading for this huge crisis, yet doing nothing about it.

[LoriCalleWed]

While I have faith that the economy will recover in the long term -- if the people in charge decide to care, that is -- what I'm concerned with is the short term of planning a wedding in the middle of the economic chaos.

 

We have money saved for the wedding, but my parents insist on contributing even though they are both retiring in the next year on now depleted 401 k's. So I feel bad about taking money from them (and will try to convince them to contribute less). And, even though we are in fairly good financial shape at the moment, we work for the same company, and that company has had lay offs in the last year and might have more before it's all over with.

 

Also, I am pretty sure this is going to keep a lot of our potential guests -- who otherwise would be there -- from coming considering the cost and their other financial priorities. The beauty of a destination wedding is having a more intimate wedding and inviting only the people you really care about, so the people on the list are really important to us and we really want them to be there.

 

I'm honestly considering whether I should postpone the wedding now while we would lose some money but before we are in so far that we lose a whole lot. And then rescheduling for later when maybe things will have cooled off with the markets. And possible even ditching the destination and doing something domestic that would at least be cheaper for the guests.

 

Is anyone else having these thoughts? And have you had your guest lists dwindled to fewer than you had expected?

[blkladylaw]

it was difficult using a lot of cash reserves and adding more debt for the wedding this year; it is scary to think about the fact that one of us could get laid off and then need that money

in addition my fully paid off car died right before the wedding so I had to buy another car and have a car note that I was not expecting to have

I'm glad we went ahead with it all though

Actually it was probably for the best that the economy is the way it is because we ended up with just our core close family and friends and not a bunch of extraneous people who in the end cancelled due to financial concerns mostly. Neither of our families are well off people at all (and we are paying all our own costs) so I know it was difficult for many of them to attend...I even had one girlfriend get laid off two weeks before the wedding (she came anyway using frequent flyer miles for her ticket and stayed with a family friend who lived in Nevada). My guests were very resourceful in saving money on their travel. We had a few guests sign up to do go to timeshare sales pitches and got their rooms for free. We had friends who had timeshares in other places get their week transferred to Vegas for the week of the wedding and shared space with other friends who let them crash in the room. People who may have normally wanted their own rooms/beds shared rooms/beds. If you give people enough notice they should be able to work out similar ways to save money. You may consider picking a less expensive location to travel to...I know for me Lake Las Vegas, Nevada was an affordable place for most people to get to which is why I chose it though we had toyed with Hawaii. I got my palm trees, beautiful scenery, mountains, water and an intimate get away ...which was everything that I had dreamed of in having a destination wedding on an island someplace else. I was even looking at resorts near the Chesapeake Bay in my own state at first or other "local destinations" that were a short drive away. There are ways to have a "destination" without it being very far away on the usual islands/countries. In these times we all will have to cut back on non-necessities to get the things we need or that are very important to us. In saving for the wedding for several months I stopped unnecessary shopping, skipped hair/nails visits, stopped eating out and brought my lunch, sold junk I have around the house and don't use on ebay, use public transit and save on gas, etc etc. Many guests can come up with airfare by doing the same. I feel if it is important enough we all have luxuries/habits/things in our daily lives that we can cut back on to save money for something more important to us.