ugh almost ready to give in to panic

Talk about a feeling of panic. I looked and saw that BRKB was shown this morning by Google and Yahoo as down 46% in AFTER HOURS trading. I don't know what the explanation for that is, but it opened this a.m. only down a smidge. Yikes.
 
windsurf said:
Talk about a feeling of panic. I looked and saw that BRKB was shown this morning by Google and Yahoo as down 46% in AFTER HOURS trading. I don't know what the explanation for that is, but it opened this a.m. only down a smidge. Yikes.
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It may well have been incorrect.

Either that or someone really took it in the shorts by placing a market order after hours.

Market orders and after-hours trading don't mix. I don't trade after hours because of the often-punitive bid/ask spreads, but for goodness sakes, if you do trade after hours, ONLY use limit orders!
 
Dawg52 said:
Unclemick, full of wisdom. :) BTW, your pension is basically an annuity, correct? You may not have had a choice to opt for anything else when you were working, but that is what you have and it is part of your income mix. That is all I'm advocating. Just a piece of the puzzle to possibly make me sleep a little easier.

BTW folks, I'm not a die hard annuity advocate. I just think for some, it can help be helpful product at some point in one's retirement. Now, time to head to the golf course.:D
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I think your broker would agree that an annuity can help in one's retirement. (HIS/HERS)
 
Dawg52 said:
Unclemick, full of wisdom. :) BTW, your pension is basically an annuity, correct? You may not have had a choice to opt for anything else when you were working, but that is what you have and it is part of your income mix. That is all I'm advocating. Just a piece of the puzzle to possibly make me sleep a little easier.

BTW folks, I'm not a die hard annuity advocate. I just think for some, it can help be helpful product at some point in one's retirement. Now, time to head to the golf course.:D
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Pensions and Social Security ARE annuities, whether people believe it or not...........;)
 
ERD50 said:
If one is LBYM - how does one cut back? Unless your means is very high, you already *have* cut the 'frills' from your budget.
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My annual expenses are about $30K. Of that, approximately $12K goes to my mortgage, $3K goes to property taxes, $5K goes to charity, and $10K goes to living expenses. This has been fairly constant for about 8 years (inflation, what inflation).

I can't really cut back on the mortgage or property taxes unless I move, which I'm not likely to do. However, I could refinance and get a 30-year mortgage instead of a 15-year mortgage. I haven't run the numbers but that might "save" $5K a year, at least on an annual outflow basis.

I'm not the late Mother Teresa or that woman in the bible. I'd reduce or stop my charitable contributions if I was desperate. That's another $5K.

I probably could reduce my general living expenses by $2-3K, without too much difficulty ... stop driving my car, stop eating junk food, get rid of cable TV, etc.

Even though I'm a LBYM type, I still feel like a spendthrift in some ways. If I had to, I could reduce my expenses or more specifically my cash outflow by maybe 35% without too much hardship on my overall lifestyle.
 
ERD50 said:
Originally Posted by Razor: "People that live below their means survive inflation better than those that don't. They adapt, cut back, substitute and make due."

I've seen this comment posted before - seems backwards to me.

If one is LBYM - how does one cut back? Unless your means is very high, you already *have* cut the 'frills' from your budget.
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It's not so difficult to understand. Perhaps your confusion resulted from the reference to "cutting back", which is not really the point.

Example: Sheila spends as much as she earns. If inflation erodes the spending power of her $60,000 annual income, she has a problem and must find some way to either consume less or increase her income.

Gary believes in living below his means, and spends (only) $45,000 each year. If inflation erodes the spending power of his $60,000 annual income, the $15,000 surplus is available to restore the lost spending power. It will not be necessary for Gary to reduce his consumption.
 
I have known that traditional pensions are annuities, but is SS actually an annuity? I thought it was a direct worker to recipient payment program (similar to a Ponzi scheme, but I will leave my editorial comments out for now) which isn't set up as a lump sum buy-in to an insurance company or whatever product they are peddling nowadays.
 
CitricAcid said:
I have known that traditional pensions are annuities, but is SS actually an annuity?
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It has some characteristics of an annuity but IMO, it's not an annuity. Annuities are contracts. SS is not a contract and can be changed at will by Congress.

Annuities provide a guarantee to pay benefits according to a certain schedule based on lifespans or a fixed number of years. SS contains no such guarantees. This is why *strictly* speaking, future promises of SS benefits have no cash value.
 
Annuities by contract can be changed by bankruptcy too; can't they? So the real point is that any annuity check next month is dependent on someone else. However, somehow I kind of trust the SS check a tad more that the AIG (or whoever) check, especially since I have already received about 100 of them so far along with about 350 from my "other annuity". Fortunately, thus far, the only changes in these checks is to increase in dollar value each year.
 
73ss454 said:
I think your broker would agree that an annuity can help in one's retirement. (HIS/HERS)
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Well that's pretty much the standard anti-annuity line. And they might like the idea for the reason you imply. Never asked their opinion. ;)
 
OAG said:
Annuities by contract can be changed by bankruptcy too; can't they? So the real point is that any annuity check next month is dependent on someone else. However, somehow I kind of trust the SS check a tad more that the AIG (or whoever) check, especially since I have already received about 100 of them so far along with about 350 from my "other annuity". Fortunately, thus far, the only changes in these checks is to increase in dollar value each year.
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The original name of the Social Security Act was the "Old Age Pension Act", so it is a sort of annuity...........;)
 
FinanceDude said:
The original name of the Social Security Act was the "Old Age Pension Act", so it is a sort of annuity...........;)
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Wrong country and too young for that one. England and AGE 70 - and it was free (no contributions). Predates SS a bit as it was enacted in 1908.
 
OAG said:
Wrong country and too young for that one. England and AGE 70 - and it was free (no contributions). Predates SS a bit as it was enacted in 1908.
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From Wikipedia:

Provisions of the Act
The Act is formally cited as the Social Security Act, ch. 531, 49 Stat. 620, now codified as 42 U.S.C. ch.7. The Act is also known as the Old Age Pension Act. The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death. Payments to current retirees were (and continue to be) financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer. The act also allocated money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Titles III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X).[9]

 
Thanks FD-strange how we Americans seem to copy the Brits in so much. I googled it "Old Age Pension Act" and it gave me the English version. I do agree that I do have 2 annuities. I even am open to a 3d and 4th one in 2013 when ALL of our IRA CD's (Traditional and ROTH) mature on the same date.
 
OAG said:
Thanks FD-strange how we Americans seem to copy the Brits in so much. I googled it "Old Age Pension Act" and it gave me the English version. I do agree that I do have 2 annuities. I even am open to a 3d and 4th one in 2013 when ALL of our IRA CD's (Traditional and ROTH) mature on the same date.
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Well, in 5 years, maybe CDs will be 8%, and you'll be whistling Dixie.........:D
 
OAG said:
strange how we Americans seem to copy the Brits in so much.
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Especially in television. So many American shows are [-]inferior copies[/-] remakes of British originals. See e.g. All in the Family (originally Till Death Us Do Part), American Idol (originally Pop Idol), Men Behaving Badly, The Office, Queer as Folk, Sanford and Son (originally Steptoe and Son), Three's Company (originally Man About The House), Too Close For Comfort (originally Keep it in the Family), The Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc.

End hijack! ;)
 
FinanceDude said:
Well, in 5 years, maybe CDs will be 8%, and you'll be whistling Dixie.........:D
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Yeah and the South will rise again!:D Btw, the DOW is now officially in a bear market. I'm almost glad it closed in bear territory, maybe the talking heads will now start talking about when the next bull will begin.
 
Dawg52 said:
Yeah and the South will rise again!:D Btw, the DOW is now officially in a bear market. I'm almost glad it closed in bear territory, maybe the talking heads will now start talking about when the next bull will begin.
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I'd much rather the talking heads start buying stocks than talking about when the next bull market will begin.

I guess I'll be doing some tax selling early this year.
 
I'm afraid that today will go down in history as the beginning of the end. I decided to start buying into the stock market today and I've noticed in the past that I'm able to move global markets by my actions. I also control the weather just by virtue of washing my car....:D
 
Bernie Lootz

ejman, you could make a good living, if you're prepared to work under contract to short sellers! :D
 
ejman said:
I'm afraid that today will go down in history as the beginning of the end. I decided to start buying into the stock market today and I've noticed in the past that I'm able to move global markets by my actions. I also control the weather just by virtue of washing my car....:D
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Don't be so sure. If I couldn't take down USO by buying it, I don't think this will work either... :)
 
ejman said:
I'm afraid that today will go down in history as the beginning of the end. I decided to start buying into the stock market today and I've noticed in the past that I'm able to move global markets by my actions. I also control the weather just by virtue of washing my car....:D
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Wow!! I'm really glad that I didn't buy, then. :2funny: I almost did, but then got caught up in some stuff at work.
 
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