Thread: Savings in Wall Street and Dow 9,000

A persons saving should never be put in the stock market...playing the stock market should only be done with money you can afford to lose.

401K's we were told were the safe way to go when corporations, mines etc. across the country were closing down, or moving out of the country and people lost their pensions. Its like every few years they figure a way to screw the next generation out of their retirement.

Here we go again...looks like if you want a retirement to be there when you are ready to retire you better just have cold hard cash because you can not trust the thief's.

And then again inflation is going to get us in the end....so we just can not win.

If obama gets in office we haven't seen anything yet!

I am investing heavily in food, dried goods, medicine and paper goods at the moment, it could save 30 to 40 per cent on every dollar you have down the road as prices keep rising and they will....to help get through this recession and in the long run save me money.

BTW...our biggest problem is no manufaturing jobs for decent wages, as for the trade they are speaking of, we have very little to trade any more..

I am looking to purchase an upright freezer, well don't hold your breath while looking for one make in America because you will be dead before you find one!

Next question is what country out there do I want to support?

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Since when, in America, did the stock market become a place for a family's savings?


W

No you're absolutely right. Much of it is fear-mongering. I used to work for a brokerage.

Our brokers always adhered to the philosophy that you shouldn't have money in the stock market if you expected to need in in the next 5 years.

Retirees shouldn't have any retirement money by the time they retire. THey should be entirely in bonds and fixed income instruments.

Might I add that my old firm didn't lose any money when the junk bonds collapsed in the '80's, didn't have money invested in the tech sector, and also steered clear of the mortgages in the 2000's.

Originally Posted by LuvMyCountry

People have lost alot of money in 401K plans offered by their companies. Many people have stock in the company they work because it is given to them thru time. This is part of their retirement. When prudential lost 10 points in their stock today that had a direct effect on my wife because she has worked there and holds their stock.

I'd be willing to bet she's still not at a net loss if you count the money that her employer matched. And was she participating in an ESOP, getting a discount on the market value of the shares?

But one of the reasons that Enron employees got such a hard shaft was that they were required to keep all their money in Enron stock.

Even Grandma knew that keeping all your eggs in one basket was a bad idea. Prudential probably has it's various funds available to the 401K participants.

Anybody with money in the market lost unrealized profit, but most of the 401k participants are still showing a net profit.

Originally Posted by butterbean

Even the most conservative investors with an IRA have money invested in the stock market.

IRA's can buy bonds.

Rule of thumb - your age should equal your bond position percentage. So if you're 40, 40% of your money should be in bonds.

Yup, if you're young, have a long time horizon etc., now is a good time to do some research, and think about getting into some low cost quality mutual funds or ETFs.

Originally Posted by LuvMyCountry

I have a feeling this is all an effort to socialize the western world into possibally one Gov. Might be far fetched but our ability to function as our own country is being atacked by our own Gov. There was no need for a bailout and it sure didnt do what they said it would do.

China and France called for a one world currency and government four days ago. You are not wrong.

Yes most people's 401K's have diversity in them. Stocks, bonds, savings. If you invest in a mutual fund make sure it is a Growth Mutual Fund with over 10 years experience.

I heard of one man who had $33 million in cash and took $25 million out of the states and put it in Switzerland. They have been the most stable through wars etc. Now if the wealthy are doing that. . .. . you figure it out.
I've been saying for awhile, we don't have much but I'm thinking of taking it off shore. You have to be careful with that too.

AngelaTC wrote:

Might I add that my old firm didn't lose any money when the junk bonds collapsed in the '80's, didn't have money invested in the tech sector, and also steered clear of the mortgages in the 2000's.

Could that firm have been Drexel Burnham Lambert? We were the premier junk bond creators and traders in the 1980's. Unfortunately, Mr. Mike Millken had the pump-and-dump scheme in the bond market, where a select circle of folks (like Meshulam Riklis of Rapid American Corp.) would issue the bonds, to be mostly bought by the rest of the gang, making the product seem more valuable, even though there was really nothing behind the whole mess except fancy accounting.