Jim Cramer Begs America To Abandon Hope - tells us to take any money we'll need for the next five years out of the stock market, now.
Yippee!
DJIA was down nearly 800 at one point today, though it closed down a mere 370. Pussies.
ok-cleek
I guess I could use some rearranging
I’m beginning to think Jim Cramer is a fraud.
Last week he was begging for the $700 billion bailout to get done.
Guy blows with the wind.
I remember 1987 when the market dropped 22% in a day. In today’s market, that would be like 2500 points.
The next day, everybody got up, had their breakfast, went to work, and life went on.
If you are really depending on money you have in the market to live on in the next couple of years, maybe — MAYBE — you want to think about pulling some out. Then again, you’d be pulling it out at a really crappy time. You’ll just be betting that even crappier times are just around the corner.
If you have a job and you can live on what you’re earning, my personal thought would be sit tight.
Then again, I know bugger all about high finance.
Hey bedtime –
You’ve been on my mind dude. It sounds like you’re up against it.
If there’s anything you think I can do that might be helpful, lemme know. You can find me at russell at singingbone dot net.
If you’re anywhere nearby come on over for Sunday dinner.
Sending good thoughts your way, FWIW.
If you have a job and you can live on what you’re earning, my personal thought would be sit tight.
oh yeah, i will. i still have 30 years till retirement… (fuck)
about that job thing, though…
hey man, I hear that.
Got to work this AM to find that one of our dev engineers (out of a team of six) was being cut loose. He’s a great engineer, great guy, they just wanted to “readjust the team size”.
I have no idea why he was cut loose and I was kept, IMO he’s a stronger contributor than me.
Hope your situation works out for the best. Hey, if you’re interested in working in the Boston area lemme know. IIRC you have some background in image stuff, I know some folks working in that general zone.
Best of luck, cleek.
Hey, russell, thanks!
You really touched me.
Hadn’t realized the blogging “hiatus” I took lasted almost a month until I backtracked on cleek’s blog to see that this was the last time I commented.
So this was the first I’ve seen of your comment.
And to think, I was close to signing off — got to call it a day and take the boy to karate.
Yes, I have been “up against it.”
May have mentioned on TiO that I went a couple of weeks ago for a BK consultation. Never thought it could get this bad (for me) — financial prospects are very grim.
I think back to how when I was single and young, fresh out of college, and how I could get by on next to nothing. Now with a wife and kid and mortgage and car payment and on and on, there is never any let-up.
It scares me that economists and business reporters say that a recession is “on the way.” Well, if we are not in a recession right now, how the f— bad will it be when we are in one?
Can relate to: “I have no idea why he was cut loose and I was kept, IMO he’s a stronger contributor than me.”
My owner owns three dealerships, all in a quarter-mile radius: the Chevy-Hyundai store, Ford-Mitsubishi, Nissan-Infiniti, each store having its own pre-owned department. I work out of the C-H pre-owned lot. We can cross-sell, so there’s plenty of product.
We just don’t have customers right now.
First it was the gas — from March through August, that killed business. Then it was the credit crisis, which is ongoing. Banks are flat-out turning down “650s” — people who are never late, but may be pushing it on the income-to-debt side. Worse, the banks are getting picky on top-line credit: 700 scores, which used to be automatically approved by the computer. Not now. Now they want to know the year and make of the car, miles, book value, etc. And money down is becoming a must no matter what you credit score is.
Our dealerships are well-established, family-owned for three generations going back to 1925, but he has had to downsize across the board, laying off quite a few salaried employess (clerical workers, title clerks, receptionists, service and parts workers). Now he is slicing the sales staff — even though we are strictly on commission; you figure he has to pay medical and other things.
We usually run with eight in the Chevy store’s pre-owned department but are down to six, which is good if you are one of the six.
They might go down to five: Monday I got the “low-man-on-the-totem-pole” speech (my sales numbers are last on the board for 2008; picked a bad year for an “off” year as I was fourth in ’07, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world).
Anyhow, the lawyer said I am definitely a Chapter 7 candidate, given my pay over the past six months and my debt-to-asset ratio. Now it’s just a matter of gathering the boatload of paperwork crap she needs.
So there you have it.
Here’s my fear: I stashed away money to pay December and January’s mortgage. But what happens in February?
Even with the credit-card debt wiped away (the BK would be done thereabouts, as we need to wait 90 days from the last time I used a credit card: Oct. 31 — we needed a new heater and, since that was post-consultation, such a new debt will “survive” the bankruptcy, as she put it), there’s still the mortgage, the car payment — the vitals — and unless things start to turn around, I haven’t been making enough to cover that.
Then what?
For now, I am trying to be optimistic and praying for such a turnaround. Can’t imagine having to foreclose on our home — it would destroy my wife (kids are resilient); not sure what it would do to me, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
We’ll see.
Thanks again!
As always,
bedtimeforbonzo
P.S. I will email you from home one of these days. What is “singbone”? Sunday dinner sounds good — sounds great — but I don’t think we live anywhere close. Me, Newark, Delaware. You, somewhere in New England, right?
Hey bedtime-
THanks for the shout back!
Singing bone is just a word that popped into my head one night in a dream. No joke. Turns out that there are a bunch of gory old Grimm’s brothers style fairy tales about singing bones, but in my case it’s just a couple of words that popped into my head.
I did use to play in a band called “Whistle Bone”, though, which elicited lots of odd and interesting comments.
Yeah, I’m up in New England, just north of Boston. If you’re ever up this way, give me shout. I’ll be quite pleased to stand you a pint, or whatever your preference is.
I’m glad you’re hanging in there. Many folks, myself included, are just a couple of paychecks away from tough times. I hope your situation starts looking up soon.
I’m with you, when I was single I just did not worry about money all that much. Now married with a house, it gets pretty real. Like you, my biggest anxiety is worrying about losing the house, and how that would affect my wife. We just have a tiny yard, but she loves having a garden.
We’d get through it, but it would take some of the sunshine out of the day.
Hang in there man. I’m sending good thoughts your way.
Best –
russell,
Interesting how things randomly pop into our heads.
I remember my son telling me, out of nowhere, a few years back — he would have been 6 or 7 (he’s now 10) — how he would like to name our next dog (I guess there will always be a “next” dog with us) “Redbone.”
Asked him where he came up with that and he said, “I don’t know, Dad. I just did.”
Redbone.
He never mentioned it again. Maybe he’s even forgotten about it. But I didn’t. Actually, I thought it sounded like a cool name.
And then there are singing bone and “Whistle Bone,” also cool-sounding.
Speaking of singingbone, before I head upstairs, I just sent you an email, and wondered how it is there is a “singingbone.net.”
I always thought these name are pretty mundane and established: like mine, “comcast.net.,” or “hotmail.com,” etc.
Did not know you could personalize these things — or maybe you can’t. But the email seemed to go through. Very interesting.
Better get some sleep.
As always,
bedtimeforbonzo
P.S. cleek — forgot to mention it in the “Mission Accomplished” post, but I thought that was a very apt title.