<p>" Edison, N.J. – Mona Mond had a plan – and it didn’t include Wall Street going haywire and giving up a three-bedroom house with a half-acre yard for a small apartment.</p>
<p>She’d married a man with a career on Wall Street, and at the very least she was going to live in a house, preferably brand new, with a Jacuzzi in her bedroom and a pool in that yard. There’d be a maid – and no skimping, no worrying that any day Amar, her husband, would lose his job.</p>
<p>The Monds would retire early with $10 million to $12 million in a rock-solid retirement account that would spew off enough interest to keep them going until . . . well . . . they actually got old.</p>
<p>Because that’s how it goes during good times on Wall Street.</p>
<p>But now there are no sure bets – “the Street” is besieged by instability.</p>
<p>“I’m so angry,” says Mona, who is 32 and about to have a second child. "We are living so tight, and we feel so limited. I wanted a big nice house. . . . This was planned…</p>
<p>About 185,000 people work in the securities industry in New York – the hard-core Wall Street world of investment firms, banks and hedge funds. The average income is about $365,000…</p>
<p>It’s hard to have sympathy for people who make that much money when the average New Yorker makes $85,000. But beyond the tales of fat cats having to make it on $250 million when they used to get by on $1 billion, there are stories of families reeling during this downturn. Many insist they are as much a part of Main Street as the denigrated Wall Street."
[Wall</a> Street wives had the richer, now they’re a bit poorer - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wallstreetwives25-2008oct25,0,1224656.story]Wall”>For richer and for poorer)</p>
<p>I’d like to try survive on $200,000 a year. Really, I’d try. That’s more than double what we bring in now.</p>
<p>The person I truly feel sorry for is the homeless man we saw in McDonald’s yesterday in Atlantic City. He was sitting a few tables away from us. He finally got up and asked each customer for some change so he could get an Egg McMuffin. My H said no assuming he was just hustling for some money for alcohol. One person gave him change and he immediately went out the door. H said “see, he’s heading for the liquor store.” We were there a while and watched him approach people in the parking lot and then disappear again. Just as we were finishing, he came back in the store and got on line. He came back to his original table and wolfed down the Egg McMuffin he was finally able to buy because he got enough change. As we got up, my H went over and gave him some money for lunch. The man was just truly hungry. It really put things in perspective.</p>
<p>That is the person I have empathy for. I can’t seem to not think about him.</p>
<p>People’s feelings and expectations are determined by their circumstances. Any drastic change is hard and requires adjustment. There are many people who would like to be able to live on what we earn, and yet I can’t consider myself wealthy and am facing my own cutbacks. (No, it’s nowhere near $200,000.) kitty, that homeless man would love to live on your income; he thinks you’re rich. “Rich” is usually defined as about 25% more than the individual has at any one time, no matter how much one has. (Just as “middle aged” is 10 years older than I am.)</p>
<p>The ones I feel sorry for are the ones who did everything right: took out mortgages they could afford, paid their bills, limited their debt load, saved for their kids’ college education. There’s no “bail out” for them when their jobs are eliminated or the income from their small businesses decreases. And they get stuck with the the bill to bail out everybody else.</p>
<p>This guy on Wall St could probably get a job in industry with his qualifications. He wouldn’t be making as much but it would pay the bills and then some. He likes the buzz, thrill and potential. But you pay for it in your time away from your kids.</p>
<p>“kitty, that homeless man would love to live on your income; he thinks you’re rich.”</p>
<p>We actually discussed that on our ride home. I realize that and that’s what I mean about putting things in perspective. Maybe the people who have to downsize to $200,000 will understand that, too, and will make the cuts that you and I have to make (although their cuts will amount to much more).</p>
<p>My family’s income is maybe around kitty56’s–and heading downward because I am tired of working two jobs. And yes, I do think I am rich. As she says, it is all a matter of perspective. But I would add , and I think you, kitty, would agree, that some perspectives are skewed.</p>
<p>Someone who thinks 200K is poor, or doesn’t see how they can live on it, has entitlement problems and needs a reality check.</p>
<p>Senior citizens have been hit so hard financially. Many have seen their meager retirement funds waste away because of the market. Are they supposed go out and get jobs at 80 years of age? Social security isn’t enough to cover their living expenses. Many can’t work and those few that can find it impossible to get hired at their advanced age. These are the people that I feel sorry for. They’ve served our country, raised their families, spent the majority of their lives working, and now they’re left trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage, utilities, and grocery bills. It’s very sad. </p>
<p>For the young who lost money in their retirement plans, sit back and hope for a correction. For those who rely on their retirement funds now to live, they are really hurting.</p>
<p>Yes, garland, I agree. How many times H and I have talked about how blessed we are. But we try to make smart choices. Who knows what the future holds?</p>
<p>I feel sorry for the lady in the article. 6-Months pregnant and diagnosed with breast cancer? That’s terrible, because it takes many life-saving treatment options for the mother off the table.</p>
<p>What will be difficult is that many of these 200K people in the financial markets probably have little training for other jobs. They are going to have to rethink their lives…move to a different part of the country, rethink what kind of jobs they are willing to take, cut back to the basic necessities,etc.<br>
Not saying it can’t be done but in a small way I do have empathy.</p>
<p>“I feel sorry for the lady in the article. 6-Months pregnant and diagnosed with breast cancer? That’s terrible, because it takes many life-saving treatment options for the mother off the table”</p>
<p>When I got to that part of the article, I did feel sympathy for her.</p>
<p>It was hard for me – impossible – to feel sympathy for her at the beginning when she was lamenting not being able to have a house with a jacuzzi in the bathroom, and not being able to count on $10-20 million at retirement.</p>
<p>America is the land of optimism - an East German engineer told me that in my office a few years ago. Where else would students borrow huge amounts of money to pursue their educational dreams? Same deal with houses.</p>
<p>We have access to a jacuzzi at our local YMCA. We’ve never used it though.</p>
<p>Thankyou for your sympathy. We do not have a mortgage, did not leverage or hedge fund our retirement or any other “bubble” things. However, as I look at our quarterly statements, we are easily down considerable from the first of the year and disasterouly from the summer peaks. A quick analysis showed me that we are about par of 1999 when we were then 100% invested and more aggressive. IOW, a more conservative portfolio during the W’s terms of office has netted us a net loss, and I would expect more losses before this begins to turn around.</p>
<p>Toblin, I agree. I resent getting stuck bailing out all the people who lived beyond their means. </p>
<p>The Wall Street types who make so much “extra” over & above their salaries really get me mad. In my neck of the woods, auto workers used to get overtime. The general consensus was, “Never depend on the overtime.” Folks knew that the OT might end at any time. Those who followed that advice didn’t have to lose their homes when the OT stopped some years back. Those same workers have endured a slow progression of stagnant salaries and decreasing benefits (combined with increasing copays). They have managed. Now, though, the jobs themselves are being cut so quickly it takes my breath away. Am I really supposed to have sympathy for someone who still earns their base salary … a very generous base salary, at that?! Maybe they weren’t actually asking for my sympathy, but it still bugs me. Chrysler, GM, and Ford have already cut 10’s of 1000’s of jobs. They are preparing to cut 10’s of 1000’s more … really soon … and the cuts are made WITHOUT REGARD to the value the employee added to the corporation. Merit has nothing to do with it. A guy could have been a stellar engineer for 25 years and he will be out the door without so much as a thank you. And I mean WITHOUT … because the next round of cuts comes without any kind of assistance … they will be straight separations. The domino effect will then begin … suppliers … surrounding businesses … on and aon. </p>
<p>Who will bail out the regular folks? How will all these displaced workers find new jobs? They could move … but they can’t sell their homes. They could find new jobs … if the unemployment rate wasn’t 8.5%. I am becoming increasingly alarmed. And I get to read about some sad women who won’t get to buy what they like when they go to the mall. Yeesh.</p>
<p>"Senior citizens have been hit so hard financially. Many have seen their meager retirement funds waste away because of the market. Are they supposed go out and get jobs at 80 years of age? Social security isn’t enough to cover their living expenses. Many can’t work and those few that can find it impossible to get hired at their advanced age. These are the people that I feel sorry for. "</p>
<p>I too have so much empathy for these folks. My mother in law has lost $8000 on her investments in the last couple weeks. I read an article a few months ago on how people are retiring to Mexico in droves because you can live well there for under $2000 a month.</p>
<p>And honestly, I’ve thought it about many times since. I wonder if my husband and I will end up retiring there too, even tho we have been saving for retirement.</p>
<p>It’s pretty bad when retiring in the United States is not a good option.</p>
<p>It is an old rule that retired people should never be in equities unless they are wealthy. The old rule also states that retired people should be a combination of AAA rated fixed annuities and AAA rated short term debt securities. </p>