Off Topic: opinion of financial troubles...written a couple of days ago
 

Thanks for posting this bizi. :) It's scary stuff, but it's going to happen, we're going to need to wake up as a country and NOT buy with credit more then we truly need. :(

Yep. :(
Its scary. I've left my husband in charge of monitoring the situation because watching it stresses me out SO bad.
I feel sorry for our next president. Our financial crisis is going to be a heck of a mess to clean up.

The Subprime Primer
 

Hi,

Here's a funny cartoon that explains the sub prime mess.
http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?d...&skipauth=true
warning:
1. loads slow on some computers
2. has bad language

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Regarding the recession:
Suze Orman on Oprah says to pay off credit cards and get some money (cash) in plain old savings or treasure bills:
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20...s_on_oprah.htm

Suze is not the only expert out there and maybe not the best, but she says things clearly.


Mari

should I take out what is left of my ira and stick it into savings?
bizi?????

She is easy to understand. I liked that article. This suggestion was a good one in my opinion:

Bizi,

Do what you feel is best.

I have been told not to touch mine

The people who are hurt are the people who are already retired or who are going to retire soon.

The rest of us have time for the stock market to recover -- even if it is a few years.

Mari

I talked to myIra adviser today...they say now is the time to invest...buy stocks for low prices....when the market is down.
the stick figure cartoons were great!
bizi

I wish I understood more about the stock market and how to choose what to buy. It confuses me to no end. I just have a portion of my check go into my retirement fund; no idea what it does from there.

What are you going to be investing in bizi?

I invest with fidelity mutual funds. I just started a new freedom 2030 account....I just need to start contributing. With the market low My money would buy more shares and could grow more quickly as the economy improves. I jsut don't know when to start.
Most of the funds are invested in aggressive stocks....I was told to leave my little Ira alone it will be fine in the long run...but if someone were looking to retire soon then they would need to be more invested in secure accounts like treasury bills, bonds etc...
...this is all news to me unfortunately.... I should be better educated but am not.
I am just very happy to say that hubby and I will pay off our credit card debt in a couple of months.:)
and we have 2 car titles in our pockets as well.
student loans...that is another topic entirely.....
I know that I feel good having some cash in savings for when we need it....and because my funds are in a roth Ira and I already have paid taxes on them..it acts as a savings account, I can get the cash out with out penalties. So I like roth IRAs.
what are you going to do bobi?
bizi

Student loans *groan* Yep I have those too. But at least the interest rate is good....

We just paid off hubby's truck, and have a year left on my car. We've decided to double up on the payments and have it paid off in 6 months. Good thing they are good cars because we aren't going to be buying newer ones until these die completely lol.

We have no credit card debt thank goodness. We each have one card with a $1500 limit only to use for reservations or business trips where we are reimbursed. Thats the one thing we did right financially.

We burned through our savings with all the legal fees and medical expenses for the counseling and meds when we got the girls again. They wern't covered by our insurance for anything pre-existing for 18 months. Thank god that is now over because it killed us financially. That right there is what finally pushed me into finishing my masters - I couldnt really do anything with my bat; and I'd be up the preverbial creek with 4 kids if anything ever happened to my hubby.

As for what we are going to do - I have no idea. I talked with my hubby a little tonight and he is going to do some research and let me know what he feels is best. Quite honestly I just dont have it in me right now to try and tackle something I don't really understand. Thats good about your little IRA. Thats what my hubby told me tonight too. So i'll just leave mine as is as well.

good for you not having any credit card debt...you are way ahead of the majoring of the middle class that way, so pat your back for that...and for getting ready to own both cars...we will also run ours into the ground...people would be alot better off if they did not constantly buy new cars. I am sorry that you you wiped out your savings...if you converted your ira to a roth then that would/could be a back up savings for you guys if you needed it...but you would have to pay taxes on it though. YOur family is going through turmoil so you don't need all of this extra stress right now.
Good for you for finishing your masters!
bizi

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/187.html

There is also british humor in all of this madness.
Funny but not really....