<p>$3.99!!! WOW! That’s great. I found a Baxter St. Parka (from LLBEAN) brand new at the local St. Vincent DePaul thrift store the other day for $6. Discontinued color. Heck, by March, all our coats are some shade of “sprayed road grit.”</p>
<p>Are you a devotee of the Tightwad Gazette?</p>
<p>Sax, you were and are very astute.</p>
<p>I also noticed how clueless some of the congressman and congresswoman are. One of them did not even know she was talking to Bernanke. :)</p>
<p>I have been negative about the economy for a long time. I occasionally write my thoughts about this. (Doesn’t always go over too well on CC). 
I have been accused of not liking free markets. People think I am anti- American or something. Or even worse… a liberal. lol (I am socially liberal but I am fiscally conservative).People think I don’t know what I am talking about on CC. I have to laugh. I have only been making my living in the financial markets for 27 years. :)</p>
<p>Anyway, I wrote about liar loans and free markets in 2006.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/242685-liar-loans-how-people-buy-homes.html?highlight=liar+loans[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/242685-liar-loans-how-people-buy-homes.html?highlight=liar+loans</a></p>
<p>You actually got good advice in your thread. Just enjoy life. I just found out a video of my favorite musician was released. A concert of over 30 years ago was released recently. One of my favorite concerts of his too. I’ve been watching and listening to it for the last hour. </p>
<p>Life is good.</p>
<p>“Are you a devotee of the Tightwad Gazette?”</p>
<p>(Shhhh…they might decide we are enemies in the war on terror.)</p>
<p>(There is no such thing as a “free market”.)</p>
<p>Wow, dstark. I missed that one. Talk about on target.</p>
<p>So now what? Will the insurers go bankrupt? Is our money “safe?” Will the money in my moneymarket fund still exist or does this disappear too? Its all pretty frightening as no one is yet fully telling the truth. It has to be pretty bad to have Bush keep coming on TV to assure us that we are fundamentally strong…really?</p>
<p>Hmmm…well, trying to think of a good song…“Fool on the Hill” comes to mind :)</p>
<p>“(There is no such thing as a “free market”.)”</p>
<p>Shhh. In people’s minds there is.</p>
<p>(It’s just part of the democratic “march of progress” - “one dollar, one vote”.)</p>
<p>(Uh, oh, I’m gonna get it now - here comes the waterboarders. Wish me luck!)</p>
<p>“So now what? Will the insurers go bankrupt? Is our money “safe?” Will the money in my moneymarket fund still exist or does this disappear too? Its all pretty frightening as no one is yet fully telling the truth. It has to be pretty bad to have Bush keep coming on TV to assure us that we are fundamentally strong…really?”</p>
<p>The truth is I don’t know if some of the insurers will go bankrupt and neither does anybody else. I hope some do. It would be good for the future economy. I hope Countrywide goes belly up too.</p>
<p>Is our money safe. Most money funds are safe, but what do I know? I have money in one that is down 7% in the last 6 months. I pulled out 50% of my money from that fund when it was down 2%, but my financial advisor told me I should keep the rest in. I never listen to him, but just once, I decided too. I did it so he would know not to give me advice again. :)</p>
<p>I find it amusing that people keep saying the economy is sound while begging for more interest rate cuts and more interest rate cuts and more interest rate cuts. And how about a $150 billion stimulus package too? But we are fundamentally sound! And free markets work. Government stay out of our business. And Oh. Can you please take over some of our insurance companies? You know. Ambac and MBI. lol</p>
<p>I also wrote many bailout threads. I am in favor of bailing out those that are unemployed through no fault of their own. (Well not the guys who ran Merrill Lynch or Citicorp). I’m in favor of bailing out those that have mental or physical problems. Our veterans.</p>
<p>Nobody on Wall Street should get a dime. Nothing for the bankers or the insurance companies either.</p>
<p>Why not? $150 billion is more than enough to provide health insurance (under the current system) for everyone, and the insurance companies would make a living (I mean, a killing!) </p>
<p>Hey, it’s all “their” money anyway - why don’t we just give it to them, and put on our sweaters?</p>
<p>As soon as I heard about those rebates, I sold the stocks in my D’s college fund. I remember very well what happened the last time we were tossed this bone. </p>
<p>Hubby is forced to wear a sweater tonight. No more burning precious gas in our fireplace. Al Gore should be very proud of all us sweater maniacs.</p>
<p>Hmmm. After reading some of the posts in this thread, maybe if everybody would go out and buy a sweater we wouldn’t need a stimulus package and our economy would really be economically sound. :)</p>
<p>Come on people, way too much over reacting, our economy has had these patterns consistently for 60 years. It’s part to due with globalization. I think things will get a bit worse and then start rising again in 2 years.</p>
<p>Who is over reacting?</p>
<p>We are going to get a stimulus package. Some people are going to lose their jobs. Some financial firms made poor decisions. Some people made poor financial decisions.</p>
<p>Some people buy sweaters. :)</p>
<p>I’m listening to Keith Jarrett … “The Koln Concert”.</p>
<p>Ever listen to it?</p>
<p>Beautiful.</p>
<p>No, I am the cheap queen!</p>
<p>thermostat at 64 during the day and 60 at night in the winter. In the summer, it’s at 81 (the basement is cool)</p>
<p>I think I have the oldest working microwave in the country.</p>
<p>Got it the same day I bought my Sony Betamax VCR in 1984</p>
<p>Yes, my Sharp Microwave/convection oven is almost 28 years old!</p>
<p>That’s even older than my 1991 Honda Civic.</p>
<p>I still have the tv I got in 1987 (It was a top of the line Mitsubichi - stereo). Only reason I got a new TV 2 years ago is I needed something bigger. I can’t see a 19 in tv from 6 feet away.</p>
<p>I don’t really understand cheapness/frugality. You can’t take it with you and giving it to your kids just spoils them. The only reason I can see being cheap is to save money to make a nice donation to a worthy cause. Otherwise why be cold and uncomfortable if you don’t have to be?</p>
<p>If I didn’t live frugally my entire life, I wouldn’t have what I do.</p>
<p>Paying for college will effectively deplete my saving account of all the saving I did for the last 15 years.</p>
<p>I lost my job 2 weeks after my son was born in 1989.</p>
<p>had I not had savings to augment my unemployment and subsequent underemployed years, I could have ended up in serious debt. I didn’t surpass my 1988-1989 income level until 1996. Now I make 2x was I did in 1989. You can’t live large under those circumstances. </p>
<p>I have been a single mom since the day I got pregnant and never got any child support. I collected welfare after my 6 months of unemployment ran out in 1990 and was on WIC from the time my son was born until 1994. </p>
<p>My salary has gone from $7 hr in 1991 (when I got the job I currently have) up to $30 an hour now. I took a job that paid less than half of the job I lost in 1989</p>
<p>Living frugally is the only thing I’ve ever known…</p>
<p>Now, after my son is off the parental payroll, and I’m 50 years old, assuming I’m still in this job, I will have disposable income for the first time in my life. I don’t intend to squirrel it all away. I plan on actually being able to take a vacation that costs more than $500.</p>
<p>For some of us, being cheap has been a necessity. I feel blessed to be able to pay for my son to go to school (along with the hefty scholarship he got and some student loans)</p>
<p>“I have money in one that is down 7% in the last 6 months. I pulled out 50% of my money from that fund when it was down 2%, but my financial advisor told me I should keep the rest in.”</p>
<p>Dstark, why are you even in the market if you expect stocks to always go up? And since they will go up again, how will you know when to reinvest?</p>
<p>We bought bonds years ago and they are through the roof now! I love supporting public entities.</p>
<p>I do not consider living within your means being cheap or frugal. When I think cheap it’s somebody who can easily afford to have a nice lifestyle but rather live like a poor person as if it’s some badge of honor. I have had to live very cheaply at times as in government issued peanut butter and cheese cheaply with no car an no TV. But I prefer buying my own favorite peanut butter today.</p>
<p>“I have money in one that is down 7% in the last 6 months. I pulled out 50% of my money from that fund when it was down 2%, but my financial advisor told me I should keep the rest in.”</p>
<p>Dstark, why are you even in the market if you expect stocks to always go up? And since they will go up again, how will you know when to reinvest?</p>
<p>In the above example I was talking about money market funds, not stock funds. I do not expect to lose 7% in a money market fund. </p>
<p>Erewhon, I don’t understand your first question. I would be fully invested and leveraged to the max if I thought stocks always go up. Stocks don’t always go up. I own some that are down and I am pretty confident I will lose money on some of those. ;)</p>
<p>“And since they will go up again, how will you know when to reinvest?”</p>
<p>I don’t.</p>
<p>Makes things more difficult.</p>
<p>“In the above example I was talking about money market funds, not stock funds. I do not expect to lose 7% in a money market fund”</p>
<p>Sorry. Because of the 7 % loss, I assumed equities. Fire your advisor if he didn’t explain the different types of money market funds and possible risks.</p>