Velo- whats even more interesting is people are living life like theres no tomorrow.. Im a control freak, so I have every bill figured out months before I see them, wether its gas for my heating or car, electric, food.. and Im a bit on the extreme side (I have negative balances on the credit card, no joke...) and I wont even take out a car loan.. but on the other hand, my brother is working for a .com (lucky he still has his job) and yet, despite 6 figure salary and insane bonuses, he has credit card debt that would take years to pay off.. he constantly draws on his 401k money, cant save a dime, and was only able to put down a few thousand on his new 50k car..
Then of course my coworker- who makes nearly 100k, he hubbie makes about that as well, and they only could find 10k to put on a downpayment because they dine out each eveving, drive new cars, etc etc.. I believe the 10k was the allowable deduction for first time home buyers from your IRA savings..
This is what REALLY scares me.. because our generation has really no understanding of money.. I remember going grocery shopping with my mom and if I was able to actually get a name brand soda like Coke or Pepsi, it meant she had extra cash.. but typically we had to settle for the 'Foodtown SoDa' which was .05 a can.. My father was a chemical engineer, and made decent money- but im sure you all remember growing up in the 70s.. A house was THE purchase, and it was a struggle to make that payment each month.. and as we grew older and the savings piled up and the years of budgeting paid off- he now has a nest egg, can enjoy his retirement, and can splurge every so often on a nice bottle of wine or a dine-out.
When/If people have to honestly cut back.. change their lifestyles.. what will happen? I still have people swearing to me that their fund managers are profesionals and they arnt losing much in the 401ks etc etc.. problem is, most of these people dont even understand how to READ the statements.. they just follow the herd.. Buy and hold.. if under 40? go all aggressive.. Dont worry! it will work out to a 15%-20% almost guaranteed..
boy.. someone put a dime in me this weekend thats for sure.. Ill go back to sleep now and get plenty of rest for tomorrows trading.. I sure hope my brother/co worker dosnt read s/i to see they became the object of my negative talk :) |
