now some financial news to cheer you

[The Doctor]

Bad news from Asia this afternoon as Japanese banks are the latest to be hit. Apparently,

* Origami Bank has folded.

* Sumo Bank has gone belly-up.

* Karaoke Bank has gone for a song.

* The Bonsai Bank is cutting back its branches.

* Yesterday, shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

* Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks.

* Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

* Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop.

* Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

--from Manuel Klausner

[Remodeltdt01]

I got my "good" news yesterday. I got a 401k statement and it was down 12%. The only area I made money was in Real estate. :confused:

[JRINJAX]

I got my "good" news yesterday. I got a 401k statement and it was down 12%. The only area I made money was in Real estate. :confused:How did you do that? My Wife's and Mine are down more than 22%, we could buy a couple of houses with just what we lost.

[Remodeltdt01]

About 30% is in real estate. That offset the losses in everything else. When I got the statement I was expecting a 25% drop.

[acmanko]

I sold my IRA 2 1/2 months ago. better to take the 10% penalty than lose what the Mutual Fund I was in has lost.

[mark beiser]

Unless I win the lotto, I have 25 years before I'm retirement age, so I don't worry to much about what the stock market is doing today.
I upped my contributions to my retirement fund to take advantage of the current sale on non financial institution stocks.

The funny thing about the stock market, it always finds its way back up.
It crashing and bottoming out is the ideal time for long term investors to invest.;)
The funds I have money in are index and biotech funds, none that play the derivatives markets, so I don't even feel the need to shift anything.

If worse comes to worse with the stock market, going off the last 2 generations of my family history, I only have about a 30% chance of needing to be concerned about how much money I have to retire with anyway.:eek:

Well, I'm also quite a bit shy of having a 6 figure retirement account, so it isn't like I have a lot to loose at this point anyway.:D

[JRINJAX]

I am like you, heredity says I don't need to save that much so I guess we'll leave it to our Kids.

A friend asked me while in the boat the other day, "Doesn't it bother you, about getting older?"

I replied, "No, I'd hate to be stuck here".

[acmanko]

Timing the market is dangerous, but if you continue to invest a dollar today and loose a quater for every dollar, you'll never get ahead. Quit partnering with the government on retirement and you'll be better off.

[chaard]

I'm in it for the long haul. The good thing about the market being down is now my contributions will by more shares. So when the market goes back up, I'll be worth more. Nows the time to buy not sell.

[glennac]

double post.

[glennac]

I sold my IRA 2 1/2 months ago. better to take the 10% penalty than lose what the Mutual Fund I was in has lost.

You really need to see an advisor. Should have moved the IRA fund into a money market IRA account and draw interest and not take a 10% hit. Sorry to hear about your loss.

[acmanko]

You really need to see an advisor. Should have moved the IRA fund into a money market IRA account and draw interest and not take a 10% hit. Sorry to hear about your loss. I've got an advisor , everything he wanted me to do is losing . Thanks for worrying , but it wasn't that big of a loss and I'll get it back:)

[Andy Schoen]

Factoids regarding the Dow Jones Industrial Average:

Largest one day percentage gain: 15%, on March 15, 1933

Largest one day percentage drop since 1914: 23%, on October 19, 1987(Black Monday)

Largest one day percentage gain since the 1930s: 10%, on October 21, 1987. Two days after the above.

First reaching the 10,000 mark (10,006.78, on March 29, 1999)

On October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at the record level of 14,164.53.

Today, the Dow closed at 8,579.19. :(

[KB Cool]

Gas was $4.00 a gallon not to long ago and now it's $3.10. I think were moving in the right direction.:D

[mark beiser]

Timing the market is dangerous, but if you continue to invest a dollar today and loose a quater for every dollar, you'll never get ahead.

You only loose money if you sell for less than what you paid. Loosing value in the short term isn't the same as loosing money to a long term investor, which is what retirement accounts are.
Since I have 25 years before retirement age, and the stock market always goes back up, this is a real good time to increase my retirement fund contributions, since I'm getting more shares for the same money.

If any of the funds your IRA or 401k are in were heavy into mortgage backed funds, and other derivatives, that would suck these days...

[acmanko]

You only loose money if you sell for less than what you paid. Loosing value in the short term isn't the same as loosing money to a long term investor, which is what retirement accounts are.
Since I have 25 years before retirement age, and the stock market always goes back up, this is a real good time to increase my retirement fund contributions, since I'm getting more shares for the same money.

If any of the funds your IRA or 401k are in were heavy into mortgage backed funds, and other derivatives, that would suck these days...
You sstay in the market 25 years and you'll lose most of you gains every 8 to ten years.

[mark beiser]

You sstay in the market 25 years and you'll lose most of you gains every 8 to ten years.

You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works.
You only loose money if you sell during one of the short term drops in the market. Historically the stock market ALWAYS goes back up after a big drop, and always increases over time.
A short term drop in value is not the same thing as loosing money. In the long term the value always goes up.

Since against the advice of your professional financial adviser, you nuked your IRA during a down market, and took the 10% hit on top of that, you are probably beyond convincing anyway, so I'm not going to argue the point with you anymore.

[acmanko]

You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works.
You only loose money if you sell during one of the short term drops in the market. Historically the stock market ALWAYS goes back up after a big drop, and always increases over time.
A short term drop in value is not the same thing as loosing money. In the long term the value always goes up.

Since against the advice of your professional financial adviser, you nuked your IRA during a down market, and took the 10% hit on top of that, you are probably beyond convincing anyway, so I'm not going to argue the point with you anymore. You seem to have lost the meaning of what's really happening in todays market. There is a realignment of value for american business. Its due to oil prices. companies work x amount of money with oil under 100.00 a barrel are worth a fraction of that with oil over 100.00 a barrel. sure oil is falling now , but when the economy takes off, the price will rise again. Now the market has lost everything its made since 2003 as of today and looks like it will lose more. Its not going to regain its value for 5 or 6 years, then the cycle will repeat.

[JRINJAX]

You seem to have lost the meaning of what's really happening in todays market. There is a realignment of value for american business. Its due to oil prices. companies work x amount of money with oil under 100.00 a barrel are worth a fraction of that with oil over 100.00 a barrel. sure oil is falling now , but when the economy takes off, the price will rise again. Now the market has lost everything its made since 2003 as of today and looks like it will lose more. Its not going to regain its value for 5 or 6 years, then the cycle will repeat. I can see that yours is one future scenario, even though pessimistic. There are other scenarios where the oil cartels could fall apart from political, supply or military reasons and the market could do quite well [which it always eventually does].

[acmanko]

I can see that yours is one future scenario, even though pessimistic. There are other scenarios where the oil cartels could fall apart from political, supply or military reasons and the market could do quite well [which it always eventually does]. I took a 10% hit that I will get back, but in the present tense, I've secured what I had and placed it where its making a small percentage instead of losing.

Let's look at this differently. Suppose you are a General and today the battle starts. You commit your troops and as the day wears on, you see your casualties mounting and soon become unsustainable. So you invent a word. Its called "retreat", so you can save what you have for next weeks engagement , or you stay the course, lose the battle and the war. History proves that the smart move would be retreat. I never said quit saving , I just said don't invest. AS to why anyone would follow conventional wisdom about investing, I can't Imagine. CW is what started all this in the first place.

[mark beiser]

That's a pretty stupid analogy, and doesn't apply to the situation at all.

With 25 years until retirement, it would be stupid for me to get out of the market now while it is down. This is the time to put more money in, because stocks in good companies are essentially on sale.

The market always has short term ups and downs, but over the long haul it is always up.

[2cool4us]

Gas was $4.00 a gallon not to long ago and now it's $3.10. I think were moving in the right direction.:DThis drop in prices is no more than an accelerated realignment of the market. It is now reflecting more of all the companies true worth. There are some outstanding deals to be had. Check out Ford symbol F. ;):cool:

[chaard]

That's a pretty stupid analogy, and doesn't apply to the situation at all.

With 25 years until retirement, it would be stupid for me to get out of the market now while it is down. This is the time to put more money in, because stocks in good companies are essentially on sale.

The market always has short term ups and downs, but over the long haul it is always up.

I've got a better anaology, or maybe a more stupid one.

Let's say you are starting out on a trip with a full tank and before you know it your gas guzzler is already on E with no gas station in sight.
So instead of trying to drive as far as you can to the next station, you decide to get out and walk, even though you have some gas still in the tank and the car is still running. So you spend the next hour walking 4mi. to the station and another hour walking back. Just to put one gallon in your tank to get you to the station, where you fill up, but now gas has jumped from $2.50 a gal.to $5 a gal while you were walking, when you could have made it to the station in the first place, only being that it was 4mi. and filled up for $2.50 instead of $5 a gal, and your gas guzzler holds 20 gallons yet it only took 17 to fill it up, but you just had to get out and walk for 2 hrs. ,instead of driving 4 more min./miles, and everyone else is passing you by and now you're late for your friends gay marriage and reception.:rolleyes:

[mark beiser]

I've got a better anaology, or maybe a more stupid one.

Let's say you are starting out on a trip with a full tank and before you know it your gas guzzler is already on E with no gas station in sight.
So instead of trying to drive as far as you can to the next station, you decide to get out and walk, even though you have some gas still in the tank and the car is still running. So you spend the next hour walking 4mi. to the station and another hour walking back. Just to put one gallon in your tank to get you to the station, where you fill up, but now gas has jumped from $2.50 a gal.to $5 a gal while you were walking, when you could have made it to the station in the first place, only being that it was 4mi. and filled up for $2.50 instead of $5 a gal, and your gas guzzler holds 20 gallons yet it only took 17 to fill it up, but you just had to get out and walk for 2 hrs. ,instead of driving 4 more min./miles, and everyone else is passing you by and now you're late for your friends gay marriage and reception.:rolleyes:

Well, you can count on my fat arse not getting out and walking.:o

[acmanko]

Its your money to lose. When ever I lose money I prefer to p!ss it away or burn it in a cloud of smoke.:rolleyes:

[mark beiser]

Its your money to lose. When ever I lose money I prefer to p!ss it away or burn it in a cloud of smoke.:rolleyes:

I haven't lost a dime, because I'm not stupid enough to sell during a temporary downturn in the market.

[acmanko]

I haven't lost a dime, because I'm not stupid enough to sell during a temporary downturn in the market.
well, how stupid are you?

[whec720]

Dumb Dorris was so dumb.............................................. ..........

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