Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
palmetto heel - this whole thread just makes me livid. really, for real...everything i want to say here would get me into a LOT of trouble on this board and possibly kicked off forever. but i am going to say it anyway in the nicest possible way i can think of.
you really sound like you have no idea what is happening to people across our county right now. they are losing their HOMES. they are losing their CARS. they are losing their INSURANCE. they are losing their GROCERY MONEY. people who are already so stretched so thin that they're almost not making it are NO LONGER MAKING IT.
these circumstances aren't something they've talked themselves into...these people didn't quit spending b/c they got scared or paranoid, they quit spending because their money RAN OUT. because they lost their jobs.
jesus. you have been so incredibly lucky, and you don't even seem to realize that fact. you could wake up tomorrow and have everything taken away from you, just like that one percent of the one percent or whatever you quoted, and then maybe, JUST MAYBE, you might begin to understand what is happening to the hundreds of thousands of people around the country right now. the same people that you have frighteningly little sympathy for.
your attitude astonishes me.
Perhaps I don't have enough sympathy for people who got in over their heads. Maybe we should bail them out? Regardless, you seem to be taking this thread way too personally. Step back from the keyboard and take a deep breath. Cheers.
BTW you must have missed my earlier post when I wrote that I was once part of a RIF. This was back in 2001. That experience makes me confident that if I lost everything tomorrow (and I won't because I always hedge by bets) that I'd have it all back and more inside of 5 years.
Last edited by Palmetto Heel; 12-29-2008 at 06:07 PM..
no, no, no, no. i am NOT talking about people who got in over their heads and were spending money they really didn't have. i am talking about the average person on the street. i am talking about breadwinners with families who no longer have incomes to support their families. i am talking about single people who only have themselves to depend upon who no longer have jobs. i am talking about single parents who are looking at their children with desperation in their eyes.
you may have been part of a lay-off, but it is obvious you have absolutely no clue what lay-offs do to most people. you are astoundingly arrogant to believe that you can take whatever life throws your way and recover so easily.
i look around at all the people i care about and strangers i don't know...and you are just belittling those people (people who work hard and have struggled for everything they've ever earned) with every word you utter.
Well, Palmetto, DH and I don't have but a few years til retirement. Sadly, tho, we will not be retiring any time soon. DH is older than I and we figure he will never be able to retire. I don't see myself being able to, either. That is a real problem when one is dealing w/ health issues.
And we have lost over 60% of our net worth. Did we do anything "wrong?" Nope. Put away every penny we could in our 401K's . . . put four kids through college (fifth in school now) . . . bought about half the house we qualified for . . . own investment property . . . drive our cars for years longer than most people do . . .
Yet, we have lost real money as well as property value. And yes, we were planning to sell property so we could pay cash for a retirement home (or condo/townhome). And no we didn't just buy the mountain house - we have had it for over 15 years. We have lived w/in our means. Regardless, we just got screwed. If DH were to lose his job now - or be forced into an early retirement - we would truly be screwed.
ETA: DH just informed me that overall, our losses are closer to 70% of our net worth. We really are not sure yet how bad it is, until we can get all the reports together and see what we truly are dealing with.
There is nothing we can do about all this. How would you like to know that your retirement funds just got cut by more than 70% and you are only a few years away from retirement?
My dad is nearly 80 and on a tight budget. Thank God he has very conservative investments, but his monthly income has just taken more than a 20% hit, and on a tight budget - that is a lot of money. We are not sure about the rest of his investments as they are in a pension fund over wh/ he has no control (as to how the fund is managed).
So there are a lot of us out here who do NOT have time to recoup. What can we do? Not a damn thing. We will just have to figure it out, pray for good health and hope for the best. It is not so easy to be flippant about how we will be just fine in five years - cause we won't be just fine. When you have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars - and did nothing "wrong" - this is a pretty hard blow. You really need to step back and think about the fact that Boomers are a huge segment of the population - and you add WWII vets in w/ that . . . and there are a lot of people w/ no hope for "recovering" from a mess we sure as heck did not create.
no, no, no, no. i am NOT talking about people who got in over their heads and were spending money they really didn't have. i am talking about the average person on the street. i am talking about breadwinners with families who no longer have incomes to support their families. i am talking about single people who only have themselves to depend upon who no longer have jobs. i am talking about single parents who are looking at their children with desperation in their eyes.
you may have been part of a lay-off, but it is obvious you have absolutely no clue what lay-offs do to most people. you are astoundingly arrogant to believe that you can take whatever life throws your way and recover so easily.
i look around at all the people i care about and strangers i don't know...and you are just belittling those people (people who work hard and have struggled for everything they've ever earned) with every word you utter.
you are really something else.
I never wrote that I could recover easily. You assumed that little gem.
That experience makes me confident that if I lost everything tomorrow (and I won't because I always hedge by bets) that I'd have it all back and more inside of 5 years.
Well, Palmetto, DH and I don't have but a few years til retirement. Sadly, tho, we will not be retiring any time soon. DH is older than I and we figure he will never be able to retire. I don't see myself being able to, either. That is a real problem when one is dealing w/ health issues.
And we have lost over 60% of our net worth. Did we do anything "wrong?" Nope. Put away every penny we could in our 401K's . . . put four kids through college (fifth in school now) . . . bought about half the house we qualified for . . . own investment property . . . drive our cars for years longer than most people do . . .
Yet, we have lost real money as well as property value. And yes, we were planning to sell property so we could pay cash for a retirement home (or condo/townhome). And no we didn't just buy the mountain house - we have had it for over 15 years. We have lived w/in our means. Regardless, we just got screwed. If DH were to lose his job now - or be forced into an early retirement - we would truly be screwed.
ETA: DH just informed me that overall, our losses are closer to 70% of our net worth. We really are not sure yet how bad it is, until we can get all the reports together and see what we truly are dealing with.
There is nothing we can do about all this. How would you like to know that your retirement funds just got cut by more than 70% and you are only a few years away from retirement?
My dad is nearly 80 and on a tight budget. Thank God he has very conservative investments, but his monthly income has just taken more than a 20% hit, and on a tight budget - that is a lot of money. We are not sure about the rest of his investments as they are in a pension fund over wh/ he has no control (as to how the fund is managed).
So there are a lot of us out here who do NOT have time to recoup. What can we do? Not a damn thing. We will just have to figure it out, pray for good health and hope for the best. It is not so easy to be flippant about how we will be just fine in five years - cause we won't be just fine. When you have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars - and did nothing "wrong" - this is a pretty hard blow. You really need to step back and think about the fact that Boomers are a huge segment of the population - and you add WWII vets in w/ that . . . and there are a lot of people w/ no hope for "recovering" from a mess we sure as heck did not create.
First of all I don't think that your husband calculated the implicit bond of Social Security payments when he told you that you lost 70% of your net worth. Add that money back to your net worth and the picture doesn't look as bad. Secondly, you will be fine in 5 years. So what if you have to work for a few more years? I don't know where Boomers got the idea that they deserve to work for 35 or 40 years, retire at 65, and live comfortably into their 80s or 90s. Retirement at 65 only worked when the average life expectancy was much lower. Finally, my blue collar WWII generation grandparents have lost millions but they're not panicking because they've been through this before.
That experience makes me confident that if I lost everything tomorrow (and I won't because I always hedge by bets) that I'd have it all back and more inside of 5 years.
I'm confident but I never said that it would be easy. It would take hard work and sacrifice but I would get it all back come hell or high water. Please, stop reading your own biases into my posts. Thanks.
I don't know of anyone not hit seriously by this meltdown. Of course I don't traipse around with multi millionaires...I don't even know a single millionaire. All my friends are in the same boat, some worse than others, with one flippantly saying she and her husband don't have a 401K so "she guessed she lucked out!" Hubby and I feel so small and insignificant compared to the big players out there who dragged us all unwillingly into this big horrid mess. But we thought that instead of living our lives in constant fear and angst of whether my layoff will come tomorrow, next month or the end of 2009, we just do the best we can, live within our means and have a bad ass Plan B, which includes moving out of the country and going back to where I was born and grew up. We probably could ride this tide for the next 15 years, as that is what is left before we retire. We just refuse to let this somber mood hang over us every waking moment of our lives. Gosh, we both didn't even feel the Christmas spirit at all. All our neighbors kept to themselves this year, so much different than last year's. But he or I could go tomorrow. Our minds ar on the here and now and our kids right now and laying out a plan, and contingency after contingency. That's all I could offer as advice, as it's pretty depressing. I may be acting out as a Pollyanna about the whole thing, but any action or preparation, can only come from us. I refuse to get caught flat footed. Events may not play out the way we had planned, but we plan like a chess game, 10 steps ahead. We plan the best we could, we pray, and then leave the rest to God. The sun will come out tomorrow. Keep your heads above water...keep your faith and hope alive!
Unemployment insurance is there to quiet the masses.
Yes but that doesn't nearly cover the costs of raising a family just enough to possibly put food on the table and utilities, not enough to even keep a roof over your head!!! If a family only has one income and then looses it, then that $500 a week covers just barely of what $1000/week covered. And btw that is not living beyond your limit, that is just plain living. Of course kids aren't expected to understand exactly what is happening but how do you tell them to stop eating an extra at lunchtime each day because the lunches just are enough to fill them. Or those new shoes that need replacing due to the soles wearing out, then try telling a 12 yo that he has to have the walmart special's while his friend wear Nikes. Its not so easy to do. Of course you have been there correct, well some of us have made it this far and just go hit with this whammy. Therefore, it is all new to us and we just have to learn how to make it through but thank you for your insight. You are just so comforting and reassuring... Not!!!!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
