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I feel like a deer caught in the crosshairs
02-26-2009, 01:44 AM
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#1
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 54
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I feel like a deer caught in the crosshairs
I've been laying low lately, trying to avoid the business channels & stock markets. But I feel like a deer caught in the crosshairs. Totally immobilized. Had a coffee after dinner tonight, therefore I have insomnia right now and am overthinking every (financial) decision I've ever made.
Am I the only one, or are there others out there that feel the same? (Maybe just the caffeine?)
We attended a seminar hosted by our financial advisers this evening. A large group of investors with very ruffled feathers in attendance. They (the grand poobah of advisors) talked about trends & the positive & blah, blah, blah. It was the spin doctors putting on a show. (According to the Grand Poobah "The stock market has had an upward trend - as illustrated by this graph - for the LAST HUNDRED YEARS"- Oh gee when I'm 150 yrs old, I'll be laughing all the way to the bank) I left there feeling less positive than when I went in.
Well, thanks for listening, sometimes u just gotta vent.
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02-26-2009, 05:11 AM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Denver, Colorado
Posts: 6,258
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__________________
"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu
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02-26-2009, 05:46 AM
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#3
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,501
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by canadianteddy
I've been laying low lately, trying to avoid the business channels & stock markets. But I feel like a deer caught in the crosshairs. Totally immobilized. Had a coffee after dinner tonight, therefore I have insomnia right now and am overthinking every (financial) decision I've ever made.
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It is only natural to think and overthink about financial decisions in the middle of a worldwide partial economic collapse. I know that I would really love to figure out some way to keep my money absolutely secure and yet experience more substantial yields on my investments. Oh well.
A deer caught in the headlights doesn't move. Being a "buy and hold"er at heart, I tend to think that when I have doubts, doing nothing is generally the right choice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by canadianteddy
Am I the only one, or are there others out there that feel the same? (Maybe just the caffeine?)
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Probably not. For the past few months I have been drinking just one cup of half decaf and no other caffeine each day. I worried. This week I am on vacation and have been drinking full strength coffee, but haven't been worrying as much. Maybe it is the vacation, or maybe I have just decided that the best tactic for me is to do nothing and wait until the market rebounds. OK, I have to admit that when the market dropped around 250 points on Monday I was talking like a survivalist, but just as a tactic for dealing with the inevitable and not experiencing worry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by canadianteddy
We attended a seminar hosted by our financial advisers this evening. A large group of investors with very ruffled feathers in attendance. They (the grand poobah of advisors) talked about trends & the positive & blah, blah, blah. It was the spin doctors putting on a show. (According to the Grand Poobah "The stock market has had an upward trend - as illustrated by this graph - for the LAST HUNDRED YEARS"- Oh gee when I'm 150 yrs old, I'll be laughing all the way to the bank) I left there feeling less positive than when I went in.
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I am a do-it-yourself investor, with Vanguard, and to tell the truth, I have never had a financial advisor. Vanguard would provide me with a free financial plan if desired, so maybe someday I will take them up on that. It has got to be difficult to trust any financial advisor during times like these. It seems like losses have been pretty much across the board.
Investments with reasonably high yield are risky, by nature. Sometimes we forget that when the market is doing well, but during times like these the risks that we take are illustrated in every day's market news. I can't tell you that the market will recover any time soon. All I know is that selling low is not profitable and I am waiting for happier economic times.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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02-26-2009, 07:07 AM
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#4
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 54
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Thanks guys
Love the cartoon.
I am feeling slightly more rational now that daylight has come. That's always the way.
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02-26-2009, 07:25 AM
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#5
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 162
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A day does not go by that I think I want to get all out of equities and bonds, and riets. DW was going to retire in November but now we are not sure. FA said yesterday that the numbers still look good, just down close to 7 fidgets now. He always has that attitude that it will come back starting six months out.
Last year our discussion was just how much the market hated the unknown and how that would play out after the election. We moved some more into cash last August but that was way too little.
I see this as a spiral of illogical thinking, again. Everyone should have a house. The government will buy electric vehicles to save the auto industry. Don't drill for oil, put up solar panels, zero efficiency at night, wind turbines for running the AC on those hot windless days of summer.
I soon expect to be proposed a high speed rail track around the earth at the equator to move the solar panels around the earth following the sun. Perhaps I should file for another patent.
This weeks DW employer stopped 401K match, require one week off w/o pay in 1st quarter, and not allowed to do any work while off and when you get back make up your missed work. No bonus, no merit pay increase. The stock dividend will go probably Friday.
It is bad and getting worse. The housing loan market has been a joke for years. A guy down the streeet went to prison for mortgage fraud. His alien family still lived their while he went to prison.
Corruption runs rampant in my state and probably yours. Some of the largest public corruption here involved real estate. Everytime a new public project, jail, ball park, or other land use project, the politicians or their friends would buy up the property before anyone else knew of the need. this made them millions.
And the stimulus package, stop I just can't stand this anymore. Take all the money from the wealthy, be done with it, just grind all forward motion to a halt, the wheels have come off...
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02-26-2009, 07:50 AM
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#6
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 5,105
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cashbalancetrouble
A day does not go by that I think I want to get all out of equities and bonds, and riets. .
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I think you have expressed what many feel. And they will take action - selling at various levels of the market - muting any rallies.
I some times think I would like to sell my house and buy that retreat in Arkansas and stock it with food, generators etc.
__________________
Sometimes death is not as tragic as not knowing how to live. This man knew how to live--and how to make others glad they were living. - Jack Benny at Nat King Cole's funeral
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02-26-2009, 08:02 AM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Denver, Colorado
Posts: 6,258
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dex
I some times think I would like to sell my house and buy that retreat in Arkansas and stock it with food, generators etc.
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Missouri is not that far away. This one might be just what you are looking for:
Cave House for Sale in Festus, MO | Zillow® Blog
__________________
"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu
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02-26-2009, 08:44 AM
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#8
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 162
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I saw that also. I drove by this years ago when I worked in power plants in that area. I am opting to relocate after DW retires to somewhere south of Ohio to a 24/7 gated community. The most recent execution robberies here are just too much. Only the local news covered these ghastly murders that have been occuring here. Eough to rock our hall of fame ceromony next month.
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02-26-2009, 09:42 AM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright
Posts: 2,847
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RonBoyd
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Bah, too close to St. Louis. You would go through most of your ammo in the first month of the end-of-the-world dealing with them streaming out of the city looting for food.
On a more serious note - the cave house looks kind of interesting. I wonder what the utility bills are on a 17,000 square feet cave home.
__________________
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. - Andrew Jackson
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02-26-2009, 03:29 PM
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#10
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
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They said they were about the same as for their 800 SF starter home. They don't have heating or AC, using geothermal and sun power. Sounds a little chilly, but definitely livable.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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02-26-2009, 03:44 PM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,323
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That cave house, RonBoyd, was on Extreme Homes on HGTV once. Very beautiful. And really interesting hearing how the owner built it, too.
__________________
Please consider adopting a rescue animal. So very many need a furr-ever home and someone to love them! And if we all spay/neuter our pets there won't be an overpopulation to put to death.
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02-26-2009, 03:54 PM
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#12
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Lawn chair in Texas
Posts: 14,183
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Do they throw in a Flintstone mobile?
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Have Funds, Will Retire
...not doing anything of true substance...
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02-26-2009, 04:10 PM
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#13
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 12,880
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It really isn't fun, is it?
Here's a video I watch when my fears get out of hand. It's actually good advice. Watch the whole thing.
__________________
Al
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02-26-2009, 06:01 PM
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#14
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Location: the City of Subdued Excitement
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I wonder it the cave house has radon in the air. Lung cancer is the occupational hazard of troglodytes.
__________________
I have outlived most of the people I don't like and I am working on the rest.
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02-26-2009, 06:03 PM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,645
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Anyone else remember them selling the old missle silos out west? I'd love to hunker down in one of those puppies, but fear my SAD would get to me.
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02-26-2009, 06:35 PM
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#16
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Central MS/Orange Beach, AL
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Retired 3/31/2007@52
Investing style: Full time wuss.
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02-26-2009, 06:45 PM
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#17
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Quote:
That's actually the sad thing. I've lost enough in my stock allocation that I'm pretty much desensitized to further losses in it. At this point, I'm all in with what I put into stocks. I ain't selling now, but I'm not in any hurry to throw good money after bad. I've decided equanimity is healthier.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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02-26-2009, 07:20 PM
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#18
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 54
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Quote:
Numb sums up what I feel.
Ironically my youngest is reading the Great Gatsby for english, or rather I am reading and explaining it to him. Just FYI I do love that book. Era, 1920's pre crash, Nick is selling bonds. Alot of shady goings on-how did he make his money? (shades of Madoff- even back then they weren't that corrupt)- Sorry- I digress- The more things change - the more they remain the same.
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02-26-2009, 08:44 PM
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#19
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,898
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cashbalancetrouble
I saw that also. I drove by this years ago when I worked in power plants in that area. I am opting to relocate after DW retires to somewhere south of Ohio to a 24/7 gated community. The most recent execution robberies here are just too much. Only the local news covered these ghastly murders that have been occuring here. Eough to rock our hall of fame ceromony next month.
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You live in Ohio, Cash? Where? And do you have a link for those "ghastly murders"?
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02-26-2009, 09:00 PM
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#20
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,281
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dex
....
I some times think I would like to sell my house and buy that retreat in Arkansas and stock it with food, generators etc.
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How's your Spanish?
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Retired 2009!
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