Saving TOO Much Now

[stormy night]

With all the foreclosures, job loss, and inflation, how can ANYBODY feel safe spending money? Keeping bills paid and putting food on the table have to be the priority. If prices came down, I would spend more, but until then, I can't afford to.

We don't know how much worse things will get before they start getting better. People need to have enough put away to take care of their families for a long time.

[subsound]

Originally Posted by southward bound

I don't know exactly how that exchange works; however, I've heard from people in those countries who went on the Euro that they lost some value in relation to prices of goods in effect at the time.

You are right in that we don't know whether that will happen, or what will happen, or how. But so much is happening that was never expected or anticipated, that I don't place anything beyond the realm of possibility anymore.

When I went to visit Soviet block countries some years ago, the ruble was so worthless that six of us had a great five course meal in a truly fine dining restaurant for the equivalent of roughly $4.00 total. People there were buying stuff for daily needs and stashing it under beds as a hedge against inflation, which was continually rising (and still is) Makes one think.

Yeah, places where the economies were doing well lost a little bit (like Germany, France, and Holland lost about .5-1%) while places that were doing bad (Portugal, Spain, Greece) gained a bit in offset in the conversion. The growth after that pretty much wiped away the losses though.

Yeah, people like to champion the worst in the media to make everyone scared and sell newspapers. It might well happen, I have stores of canned goods and emergency supplies in case something happens (from a blizzard or car breaks down)...but the really bad stuff is less likely to happen then the not so bad things. Hedging against inflation with precious metals and things, they are really high...so high I'm waiting for a crash when people find things are not going to explode.

I've made a good amount of money buying what people say is never going to go up again, because things go in cycles. If it crashes I would have lost the money anyways really, but so far it's been good in buying it up and having increasing basis.