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I'm Baaaaaaack !

A2

By A2
in Charlotte Coffee House

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A2 Town

A2

Posted
Posted

:yahoo::yahoo:

I want to send a special thanks to monsoon and atlrvr for assisting me in logging back on to my favorite website. I have since moved to ATL and have been lurking for all of the many months I have been gone from CLT. I miss the forum (as well as CLT). I know many of you thought I was gone for good, shame on you. I was always there watching over you all like a Guardian Angel.

:P

A2

ps---after a day or two, hopefully the MODS can erase this topic, since I just wanted to give everyone a shout out in a more direct way and the best way I knew to do it was through a NEW TOPIC.

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dxartist Hamlet

dxartist

Posted
Posted
:yahoo::yahoo:

I want to send a special thanks to monsoon and atlrvr for assisting me in logging back on to my favorite website. I have since moved to ATL and have been lurking for all of the many months I have been gone from CLT. I miss the forum (as well as CLT). I know many of you thought I was gone for good, shame on you. I was always there watching over you all like a Guardian Angel.

:P

A2

ps---after a day or two, hopefully the MODS can erase this topic, since I just wanted to give everyone a shout out in a more direct way and the best way I knew to do it was through a NEW TOPIC.

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Andyc545 Burg

Andyc545

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I've heard a lot of your freakness, which I mean in a sincere way of predictability. So far I know to invest in gold , leave Wachovia, and hold on tight because the immediate future is not looking any better. I look forward to know all about my future from you...

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A2 Town

A2

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Intriguing statment, please explain if you have the time. I remember from economics classes that the Fed was important at one time, now much less so (in terms of it's ability to control inflation and the financial markets), but thats about it.
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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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A2, you and I subscribe to basically the same theory concerning credit and its use and expectations in today's USA. If find it insanity of the highest order that in order to fix the problems caused by credit, we have to create more credit. I posted this a few days ago on another subject but I have been saying stuff like this for years. I am of the opinion they got a license to do this when they took the $ off the gold standard.

......

What isn't going to work is what they are doing now. Printing more money to dump into bankers hands is going to make things worse because it doesn't address the true problems that cause this mess. And that simply stated is that we have fundamentally changed the economy in the last 25 years from one based on production to one based on consumption financed by easy credit. It's not being fixed because that is going to involve true pain that no politician is yet ready to ask people to take on. ....

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Eastman Whistle-Stop

Eastman

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Hello A2, Monsoon:

First and foremost I subscribed to UrbanPlanet for Architecture and cities, but your discussions on banking are fascinating. My question is, what happens on this day when the bubble bursts? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but what are you suggesting happens?

I'm your average guy, no credit debt but paying on a car and a house. Savings, but not enough, especially now. Wife's a nurse and my job seems secure. How will this day affect me?

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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^That will depend a lot on your age, income, debt, etc. You can't control what happens but you can control how it might affect you.

Generally I've always subscribed to the theory of having as little personal debt as possible, preferably none. This goes counter to a great deal advice that you hear, but it has worked very well for me. The 3 most common things you hear are:

  1. Buy as much house as can possibly afford. That doesn't sound like such good advice now in these days of declining prices, does it?

  2. A big mortgage means big tax deduction. Huh? You are spending a $1 to get back 30-40 cents from the government.

  3. Don't pay your house off, invest the money. What investment returns, tax free, the rate you pay in interest on a mortgage? I would rather have no payment rather than to worry about the stock market.

The people who tell you these things have never experienced the freedom of no debt or they are trying to sell you some debt. Never carry a balance on revolving credit. Its a license for the banks to rob you. If you have to borrow for a car, that is understandable. Pay it off as fast as possible, then keep putting that car payment in savings. Don't get rid of your paid for car until you can pay cash for the next one. Maybe you won't be so fast to do it. Going in and plunking down $60,000 cash for that new Mercedes is quite different than signing up for a monthly payment on a 5 year loan for one. (or even worse, a lease) It's the difference in understanding what you need versus what you want.

Don't gamble on the day to day goings on of the stock market or individual stocks. You will eventually get your ass handed to you. If you have time, take the long approach, open an index fund and put money in it periodically and don't mess with it based on events of today. Instead, ask the question, what is going to happen to this money over the next 5-10 years. Shorter than this, don't invest it. Also, don't do this until you have paid off all debt. The one exception is if you get a matching 401k fund from your employer. At least put in enough to max out their match.

Nursing is a very good field to be in these days. Getting an advanced nursing degree even more so. Nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, etc are in very high demand and make good wages. I expect demand to rise as more and more providers shift work off doctors to save money.

You didn't say what field you are in, but always be prepared to get the news that you might be redundant. I can't stress how important it is to be flexible and to continue to educate yourself a much as possible. You never know when some obscure skill you picked up might be something that is useful to yourself or someone else. My formal education is in electrical engineering, but I have done a multitude of things having nothing to do with that since I got my degree and that also has worked very well for me. I will say that it is probably not a good time to be working at the banks right now. 20 years ago, it was not a good time to be working in the technology field (pre-internet) and hundreds of 1000s got laid off. So I moved on, changed what I did and even authored a patent in basic internet technology when that started becoming important in the mid 90s. This in a field that basically didn't exist when I entered the workforce a decade earlier. The point is that people get through these things and move on. It will be that way for bankers too.

Finally I will add that because you can't control what will happen to business, the economy, etc. try not to worry about it especially what might happen. Focus on the moment and the present for yourself and your family. I know that might or might not answer your question, but this is my current philosophy on things.

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