Credit Crunch
 

Why would you want to save?

Spend, spend, spend! Do you have a 106" LCD HDTV yet? If not, go spend.

Be a good citizen.

The most important thing to do in this situation is to fight fear. Paying off credit cards should be done in all financial seasons, so there's no change there. Cut expenses to the bone to do it. I'm not paying extra on my mortgage, however, because that would reduce my financial flexibility if I lost my job (better to have the cash or invest in something that I can access within a week or so -- even stocks do reasonably well in this regard).

This is a great time to invest, no matter whether in small chunks or large. Especially for relatively young people. Sometimes at times like these, people lose heart in investing, because their accounts are down so much. Or are fearful when other people have lost so much. These are normal human reactions, but it is important to invest when things are low -- you are getting a discount.

Index stock and bond funds are great because they have low fees and they are diversified. It's dead simple to do. There's no need to be more exotic.

45% off

My stocks are down 40-60%, I don't even bother looking any more. I have a modest amount of cash (I don't spend my entire salary) with which I don't know what to do. I'm ready to bet on further falls in stocks, but we don't have short-selling on the local bourse.

I was looking into derivatives, there seems to be a huge European market with all sorts of exotic options such as leveraged short selling and the like. The problem is, I have no experience at it and I fear manipulation by the issuers so I'm reluctant to join the fray.

I'm in a weird situation I call The Unbearable Lightness of Being Me.

I owe: nothing. No credit card debt (finally paid off in 2007), no student loans (mine were paid off years ago, my wife's were paid off recently, my daughter has a loan-free student aid package), no mortgage, no car loans.

I own: nothing. No house, no car, no plan to acquire either until late 2010 at the earliest. My most valuable asset is either my laptop or my antique Ulysse Nardin wristwatch, I'm not sure which.

So the whole credit crunch is something I'm just reading about rather than experiencing. Right now all my my wife and I are doing is maxing out our retirement fund contributions while building a large cash position; when we get back from Afghanistan, we'll get the lay of the land and figure out what to do with the cash.

No debt, small savings account, own my car...but the SO graduates shortly with an engineering degree from Canada's top engineering school, so he'll be bringing home the bacon. Our plan is to continue to use my salary to pay for everything, then all of his will be funneled into a savings account...in 2 years we'll make a massive downpayment on a house/condo, and get the privilege of being in debt. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/heart.gif

Our only debt is our mortgage. We're doing fine there. We overpay every month by a few hundred bucks, so we're chipping away at the principle a little faster than we otherwise would be. I know there are reasons to not do that, but I makes me feel better. I have a deep and abiding hatred of debt.

As discussed in the stock market threads here, we've put a fair chunk 'o change into index funds/ETFs. We also got a 12-month CD at 4% a while back, figuring that was better than our savings account (2.75% or so, last I checked).

We're extremely lucky. Not only do we have jobs, but we both got bonuses. Mine was solid. My wife's has its own gravitational force.

Our spending habits haven't changed at all. We did make one purchase that was out of the ordinary, but that's b/c it was seriously on sale. So now we have a pool table. We will be giving some contractors jobs soon (some new carpeting and refinishing hardwood floors). I'm still pondering solar panels. Come spring, I'll set up a couple of consultations with local companies. We are also thinking about swapping out one of our cars for a station wagon. That's probably about $10k right there.

-Arrian

Mortgage, no credit card or other debts, still lots of savings despite some investments having being hit in crash. With no interest rates I might use most of savings to bite further into the mortgage capital.

I want to keep some saving liquid though, in case the job goes kaputski on the road ahead. As I work as a supplier of services to state education, there is a bit of a buffer before the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.

Regarding solar panels, I would suggest waiting a year or two. Panel prices should fall substantially, as a shortage of a raw material -- polysilicon -- is solved.

I've heard that the feds are giving tax credits/deductions for solar installations. Don't know the details.

I keep reading Captn. Crunch for some reason.

WHY pay off the mortgage? Rates are lower than they've ever been (for some at least).

My spare cash is going into accounts that are giving higher returns than the less than 3% I'm paying on my mortgage.

Hell yeah, else what's the point of divulging my economic situation?

Don't you work for those people who are supposed to have been keeping an eye on the City? :sherlock: http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif

I think this is a good start for him. He's got a banana resource.

nye - http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/lol.gif

So, Drogue is a first-class screw up?

When I opened my BPI account they gave me a calendar too! So the plantation is already underway. (I wasn't planning on building Stonehenge anyways...)

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...iproperty4.jpg

The bananas that were already there were being choked by brush, so we cleared out the slope. This is the area cleared the first day by Rey (NetNet's papa) and 3 other workers. The clearing took 21 worker turns total:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini169.jpg

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini170.jpg

The majority of the area is on the flat up at the top of the slope, and almost all of it has only been used for grazing recently. (There was a cornfield at some point in the past.) Such a shame to have unimproved tiles, especially when there's so many workers around who need the work http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...s/neeschud.gif

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini121.jpg

The plantation owner and a couple of her siblings, up on top of the slope:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini164.jpg

And down on the slope, with some bananas even:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini125.jpg

And it has fresh water http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.gif

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...gmabini131.jpg

Will be a trick getting the water up to the top. Might be able to run a pipe from further up the wash. The water table up top seems pretty high, there's some small bogs here and there even. will have to see what it's like later in the year when it's not raining so much. A decent sea breeze as it's the highest point on it's line between 2 bays, so maybe a well and windmill will do the trick.

It would seem that the toughest part of Aeson's deal would be to buy adjacent pieces of land of reasonable quality.