“I will be damned if I ever ask another American to bail us out of our situation or to help us with our mortgage.”
The letter of the day today comes from reader V. It will bring tears to your eyes and give you real hope. God bless you, V.:
I worked for a large bank for 10 years. The bank grew dramatically over the decade, and I put a large amount of my income into my 401(k) through the purchase of bank stock. (The bank was actively encouraging it’s employees to invest in it’s success). In the summer of 2007, I began to feel uncomfortable about the loans being made and about the manner by which the bank was maintaining it’s assets. Accordingly, I sold (so I was assured) the stock and transferred the funds into other investments. (I received a notice stating the the transfer was made, then received a notice that the transfer was in the process of being made). However, by March of 2008, it was clear that no transfer would take place. In May of 2008, the bank was taken over by the feds, and along with thousands of depositors and employees, I became an unsecured creditor. (Which meant that, much like in bankruptcy, I might someday see 2%-3% of the $600,000.00 [we] had saved for our son and daughter’s education and for our retirement).
The area my husband and I live in, Northwest Arkansas, was one of the fastest growing areas of the country for several years. It is the home of several great companies including Wal-Mart and Tyson. But it has been hit very hard by the economic downturn. After the bank closed I had a very difficult time finding work, but did eventually find employment for less than 1/2 of what I had previously made. Moreover, my husband’s job had become heavily dependent on the growth in the area, and he is now working to keep his head above water while adjusting his practice. We are now most likely upside down in our house and our mortgage has become tough to manage. (Thank God it is a fixed rate mortgage). To add insult to injury, our daughter started college this year and our son, god willing, will start college next year. However, I will be damned if I ever ask another American to bail us out of our situation or to help us with our mortgage.
I should have better diversified my 401(k). My husband should not have become so dependent upon the growth in the area. We are ultimately responsible for the mess we are in. If my husband and I have to live in his pick-up and get ready for work at the community gym, so be it. If we lose our jobs, we will move in with his mother, and he will hunt and I will garden. We have never been on unemployment, welfare, nor other assistance. We are Americans. Our ancestors fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and his brother fought in Vietnam. Our family has faced tougher foes than this economy and Barak Obama. We will do as True Americans do; we will not whine, we will persevere.
God Bless your good work, Michelle.
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I understand and agree, however, you will be assisting the dead beats. Sorry but you don’t get a say in this. Just like me.
If you or your husband gets layed off, take the unemployment, it’s been part of your compensation package for all those years at the bank.
And bless you V. our prayers are with you and your family.
God bless to you and yours…hang in there…
Now that is what being an American is truly about. Not whinning and complaining about how unfair life is, but taking responsibility for your life and making things work.
I have been contracting in Iraq for almost 2 years now. The reason why, the money is good and it has allowed my family and I get to get ahead and put some money aside for a rainy day. The downside, I only get to spend 2 weeks at home every 4 months with my beautiful wife and my 4 boys (ages 10,9,7, and 5). We, as a family, have made this sacrifice so that we can have a better life than our parents did and to give our children a better life than we have. If all goes well, we will be nearly debt free by the end of the year and I will be able to go home for good and get any job out there and be just fine without having to rely on anyone other than ourselves. Now I could have gone onto welfare and all after I was medically discharged from the military in 2006 (for non-combat injuries I recieved in Iraq), but I have to much self respect to expect anyone else to take care of my responsibilities to my family and to myself.
No, you don’t. The GOP got us into this mess, and this country is smart enough to give the keys to someone else. It’s all good though. You still get to share in the economic recovery you want to fail.
RSS – there will be no recovery. Open your eyes, open your ears, and see what these unconscionable economic policies are doing to us, and the unbearable burden we’re shifting to generations yet to come. Who’s going to pay the piper when the bill comes due?
You are very rich because you have something priceless that many in this country are sorely missing . . . honor, pride, courage and self-respect.
And your facts behind this premise are what?
Sorry, “Bush lied, people died” is not the basis for substantiation.
“I swear — by my life and my love of it — that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
-John Galt
I’d very much like to see where you get the idea that anyone wants the economy to stay depressed. Nice way to take everything Michelle’s been posting about out of context though.
Anyway, God bless you, V. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Put down the crackpipe. The economy is slipping under with the Dems firmly in command, intentionally steering the ship for the rocks, just as they have always wanted. The Repubs were implementing liberal policies.
Gee the economy seemed to be chugging along until 2006 when, oh that’s right, the Democrats took control of Congress….
Is more like it.
People like V and her family are the reason the democrats and their communist friends will NEVER kill the spirit of America. NEVER!
More denial from the left…
What “recovery?” We don’t want “recovery” to fail, you brainless git! The fact that we KNOW Obama’s obviously doomed Marxist lunacy will fail (just like it failed everywhere else it has been tried). In fact good conservatives are trying to warn him that it cannot succeed so he shouldn’t try it!
But if Obama insists on doomed Marxist policies then, of course, we want that man bent on turning America into a socialist wasteland to fail! Anyone with half a brain would feel the same way.
You mean the Republican majority in the House and Senate that passed the first stimulus and TARP? Or would that be the Republicans that blocked reform legislation in 2005?
Republicans are not blame free, but they are only minority owners in this blame game.
Oh really? How smart are you to have voted for a marxist? How smart were 53% of the voters who got fooled into thinking Obama was the true savior?
And Obama may have the keys but he is driving this bus straight towards a cliff.
Geez, why bother with you?
I would love to see it work. In fact I would be overjoyed.
Except it can’t work unless everything goes exactly the way obama wants it to with no suprises for 10 years. If there is even a minor bump in the road, the entire economy collapses completely.
So I will bet you 10 3/5/2009 dollars that it will not work.
The talking points of the Obama Cult have to be refuted, but only for the benefit of others. You can’t really expect a glassy-eyed Kool-Aid drinker to ever come to reason.
Personal responsibility. Hmm, what a novel idea. We’re in the same boat. Business is abysmal, 401 is KO’ed. (and it was diversified) So I work full time at our business and part time for a friend, for a fraction of last year’s income. But we work. No complaints. Life is still good.
Courageous woman. Don’t see much of that kind of courage any more. I’m know it’s out there, but the media would rather focus on deadbeats and ACORN law-breakers. Reader V, you’re an inspiration.
Yes, you need to take the unemployment benefits. Your employer paid into it all these years and you’ve earned it. It’s not a hand-out or a bail-out.
Oh really? That’s good to know because I was under the impression that it was Frank Raines, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy and a host of Democrats making sure free-market deregulation failed by using government and Fannie and Freddie to force lenders to put people into homes who couldn’t afford them. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Sounds to me like the bank was playing a shell game of sorts with its investments. If you had any money, V (and I’m willing to guess that the lack of money is what the bank is counting on), you could probably sue for their refusal to transfer your money. Granted, now that the feds run the place and without another bailout they’ll probably go under, it won’t get you far, but there may be other investors in the boat who can participate in a class-action lawsuit.
I got distracted. V., I think you and your family will do just fine after reading this passage:
God Bless you and good luck and health to you and your family!
How long before they stop waiting for you to “ask” and just step in to help you. For the children of course.
Folks: don’t waste time, oxygen, life, etc. responding to the cheerleader waving the pom-poms.
Amen to that.
So, V. was screwed over by being, at the least, misled; and at the most, lied to and essentially robbed.
We’re not talking about the risk of market fluctuations; V. evidently was told that the stock had been sold, when it had not.
What else could that be called but lying and cheating (essentially robbing)?
Then, she “became” an unsecured creditor…translation:
compared to how the “bail-out bill” recipients are being treated, she was essentially screwed over by the government (by “becoming” an unsecured creditor) because she was a responsible, self-supporting taxpayer.
I’ve likely simplified the situation somewhat.
But, the meaning is clear – I guess those of us who are responsible, live within our means, pay our mrtgages and other bills, etc, ARE chumps.
Once again:
Excellent pre-emptive wager! By the time BO leaves office- if by some miracle you lost the bet- you would still only have to fork over 10 cents.
Actually, she paid for it via her payroll deduction, not her employer. She chooses to work rather than collect it. That is the point here. God bless her and her family.
Could be that your point of view is commendable. Wreaks of pride to me.
I need help with my mortgage. Due to a physical injury I had to go on short term disability. My mortgage company has stopped helping folks on purpose due to the structure of the current bail out plan. So based on your point of view you are going to judge me as a deadbeat? A person who wants to live off government handouts, does not want to live up to my responsibility?
Hardly.
You are taking an issue that is now by design goofed up and blaming people who legitimately need help for the consequences of this goofed up government.
If it doesn’t work for you, hey that is YOUR business.
For some of us we actually need help, need it for legitimate reasons, need it for a short period of time.
Please do not judge me based on your understanding.
On March 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am, Red State Skeptic said:
Collectivists are so enormously stupid.
Despite six thousand years of historical evidence that collectivism does not work, you idiots still think you can make it work next time, with just the right tweaking and just the right “leader” to run it.
Go tell it to the Cubans, you slave-mongering murderous enabler.
Sad to say, if the bet had been simply for “10 dollars”, that might be the case.
However, “10 3/5/2009 dollars” might likely be equivalent to many more than “10 dollars” by the time B. Hussein Obama is gone.
Thank goodness you posted this Michelle. I was about to complain here that there are some good people who have been drop-kicked by all of this, and we have to stop lumping everyone who can’t pay their mortgage in with those who took sub-prime adjustables and started this mess when they couldn’t re-fi.
I can show you people who invested their money in real estate (2 or 3 properties here and there) who thought they could always sell a property if there was a problem to be met.
Three years ago those folks would have been called smart investors. Now they are losing everything through no fault of their own.
Thanks for posting this viewpoint.
On March 5th, 2009 at 12:09 pm, jsmiddleton4 said:
Hypothetical question:
If all of your woes and tribulations could be cured by having just one person enslaved, would your conscience allow you to sleep at night? You will never meet this person, never know this person, and never be confronted by his or her suffering as a slave. And all of your troubles will be cured.
Or maybe it’s not such a hypothetical question.
granite–is that what he was waving? I didn’t think the left had ‘pom-poms’.
No. No tears from me, just curiousity. Why is Pres Obama a foe instead of the bank that screwed up her savings?
Why would a simple transfer of assets take from the summer of 2007 to March of 2008, (and not go through) unless the employer was surreptiously doing something wrong in the background?
You suspected your bank (employer) of some nefarious activity and you allowed your 401k to sit in their hands. And, you say the economy and Obama are your foes?
It is good that you accept responsibility for your actions, but assigning any further responsibility beyond that is, well . . . just wrong.
However, I do wish you well, and hope that you and your family recover.
I don’t believe she is judging you. She is perhaps judging those who are able to help themselves, but don’t. Your situation is the exception, not the rule. God bless you too. I sincerely hope you make it through.
Michelle,
Tell V that if they have both worked all these years that they are entitled to some Unemployment should they find themselves out of work. They paid into it. It is designed as a stop gap to help people live while they actively look for work.
Geez, where to begin? But first, is that actually a serious question? Surely you jest.
There is a difference between what you are saying and one of my sister-in-laws and her 3 friends who are DELIBERATELY not paying thier mortgage to get the bailout. The trouble is that the bailout is blind to the difference. Short term disability can usualy be worked arround unless the government interfers (which you story seems to indicate).
DOW6655.37 -220.47 -3.21%
Any more questions?
Actually the stock market would skyrocket if our dear leaders would stop inventing projects that require tax money; if Congress would lock it doors for a year and go fishing; and if BHO would leave country on a grand world mystery tour for as long as Europe, et al could stand to host him. The reason the economy has tanked is no one with money wants to risk putting it in a place where the socialists can get to it.
V, I’ll also say a prayer for you.
I empathize with the story’s author.
My spouse has now been out of work for five weeks. He earned approximately 60% of the household income. Needless to say, the loss of his salary impacts us significantly.
He is actively looking for a job with little success. We have two young school-age children who struggle to fully wrap their heads around why Daddy isn’t going to work anymore. Nevertheless, they seem to understand and appreciate that, with our current situation, we have to watch what and how much we spend.
For the time being, we continue to meet our obligations as we normally did in the recent past. We will continue to make every effort possible to meet our obligations for as long as possible, making additional necessary cuts to our budget wherever we can.
We have thoughtful, kind, and generous neighbors and friends. I have the same in the form of my co-workers. These people we interact with in our lives consistently ask how we are doing and extend offers of helping us in anyway they can if and when we need them to.
However, the day will not come when I ask anyone to meet my obligations for me. My spouse and I have not been absolved of our responsibilities simply because circumstances have changed. I find myself saying “we” in conversations about how the job search is going, such as, “we’re still looking,” or “we have an interview next week.” “We,” my spouse and I, are in this together, but “we” does not include having someone else, be that friends or complete strangers, pay our way.
Exactly, but to answer his question more directly to his point, please watch HERE
After watching zyzzyg, please tell me how Obama is not involved in the banking meltdown. Please also explain why he has not been able to offer a SHRED of consumer confidence since he took office?
I swear, this government is TRYING to get us to default on our loans. Do you know how many other bills I could get rid of if I didn’t pay my mortgage for 6 months???
AND I would get a lower mortgage payment at the end of it????
I personaly would be better off under these rules if I simply didn’t pay my mortgage. THAT IS INSANE!!!
Average Joe: Just wish PBO would get “hoist on his own petard!”
Perhaps that will happen soon!
It won’t even work then. Check out “Economics In One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt. It was first written in 1946 (!!!) but you’ll find that just about everything in it applies to what Obama and the Democrats are doing today. You’ll understand why failure is inevitable, and why history does indeed repeat itslef.
BTW, it’s available all over the internet in pdf form and web page form. I beleive it can also be purchased at Amazon for those more tactilly inclined.
Read it, and weep…
Well, the good news is that I really do see all this coming to a screeching halt. You have the stock market plummeting, Chris Matthews going against the One yesterday, Cramer saying wtf to Obama, the tea parties, etc.
The tension and anxiety are palpable now. Critical Mass is coming, and it is going to favor the opposition. It has to. He has already overreached and the correction is imminent.
I’m getting laid off June 1, but I’m not sweating it, I’m actually going forward with a business startup to hopefully kickoff in late June or July. I am very confident Obama is going to be stopped dead in his tracks, and soon.
That’s sort of “question asked and answered,” no?
Good point.
Which reminds me, anyone have any guess as to what George Soros and his buddies and minions are up to?
Issuing Order 66 to his CEO Obama, to strike down Capitalism?
Now that is exactly the sort of person that I’d mail a check to…if only the Feds didn’t feel it was necessary for them to manage my charitable contributions
Good luck! I’m retiring in May and my wife and will be starting currency trading as a business. I could stay another 10 years (I’m only 55) but I don’t trust my 401(k) or pension outside of what little control I’ll have when they’re in my posession. I’m taking one hell of a risk with both, but we feel we have to.
Please, dear God, make this so…
Red State Skeptic. Your facts are grossly incomplete. For who got us into this… look to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Yes, W was complicit, as were others, but it was liberals and some so-called moderates that brought this on. It’s not a right to get a mortgage. That’s a conservative take on all this.
V. You and your husband appear to be resilient people. Stay resilient and keep moving forward. You tried to take action to avoid this, but it didn’t work out. That seems criminal on the part of your past employer. I doubt you are many others thought you would lose it all. It
s hard to lay blame with you, but noble that you take responsibility for your own actions and lives.
You are both truly great Americans. Thank you for sharing your strength and heart with the rest of us and may God bless you as you recover from this.
Tempered steel is the strongest. If God is seeing fit for our country to go through this, then He is either meaning to make us stronger and ensure those of us who follow Him will cling to Him all the more; or He means to see this country dissolved for the perverse sin we have allowed to abound in our country(San Francisco ring a bell?). Either way, He is still, ultimately, in charge.
Most people who engage in securities trading carry an insurance called “error and omission insurance” meaning that if V can indeed prove that she put in a “sell” order and it did not get executed, there is an insurance company somewhere who is on the hook for damages.
Red State Skeptic: typical liberal move – try to distract people from the message.
To the letter writer: This is exactly the type of people we Americans love to help. From your spirit we know that if you take any assistance you will get back up on your feet and turn around and help someone else. That’s what American charity is all about – helping those down who have every plan to get back up.
It’s not your “fault” that your bank stock was not sold as your requested nor is it your husband’s “fault” that he was human and made a mistake. It’s wonderful that you take responsibility for your decisions.
God Bless V and her family. She personifies what an American is. Contrast her with the typical Obama voter who says, “now I don’t have to pay for my gas or mortgage”.
It’s people like V’s family who made America great and who’ll make us great again. I just hope that there’s something left to it when the liberals are done with their garage sale.
When did Bill Clinton and Barney Frank become part of the GOP? Come on Red State Septic, you’re not dealing with a bunch of liberals here – we conservatives cannot be fooled like your mind numbed obamabots marching in lock step to their Fuhrer’s tune. We research, read and decide for ourselves.
Not with liberals involved in the dumbing down of America. However the coming crash that Obama is working on will be a good hard lesson for this country and spell the end of you fascists.
Of course, we’ll even let people like you partake in the recovery that the 2010 republican led house and senate will engineer.
RSS: That is more like it…
Oh for goodness’ sake. Honestly, are you out of your mind? Show me, please, exactly what Republican policies caused this downturn. And don’t give me nonsensical soundbites like “de-regulation!!”, show me the actual policies.
If you want to make the case that both parties contributed to this, fine. But to say we’d be fine if only we’d listened to the wise Democrats is beyond stupid.
And a bang-up job he’s doing with it. Every time he opens his mouth the market loses a hundred points.
You may not believe this, but I hope you’re right. I hope things turn around and I’m given cause to say “maybe I’ve been wrong all these years”. However, since your messiah is advocating policies that have been proven, time and again, to be growth-killers I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Get over yourself. What kind of political or economic sense do you actually have? Or, are you, like most of the benighted American sheeple, so dependent on a slimey politician, that you can’t take care of yourself or even have a clue? No, the American people aren’t smart, or we wouldn’t be experiencing Jimmah Carter Part II.
You are very naive, like most Americans, if you think that Obummer gives a rat’s ass about you. Both political parties are stupid. They look out for number one not you, me, or their constituents.
I agree with V. 100%. It must be frightening for most Americans, like RSS, to have to rely on their own luck, labor, and fortitude in troubling times rather than a government who just wants to take everything away.
They’re both foes.
The bank specifically for failing to follow instructions, if I did that I’d lose my license.
Obama for insisting on following a course that is continuing her pain, rather than helping cure it.
The historic low for the dow is 42 in 1929. obama is going for the record.
In fact if it continues like this, we will be there by june.
I am sick and tired of the Fear Mongerer in Chief. Impeach this foolish little man now.
sonofdy: I guess we are about to find out if the Dow can go into negative territory!
Heard that song this weekend.
Reader V, this is not aimed at you. I would urge everyone to think twice before putting your company’s stock into your 401K. Think of it this way – your job with them is already a huge investment, and one that can disappear. It’s as much risk as you need to take with one company. Buying other stocks for your 401K spreads the risk around. (In fact, also consider bonds and gold if your 401K has these things.)
I know V is hurting, God bless and hang in there. You can do it.
And check the high. We have now gone down below the halfway mark of the Dow’s climb from 1932 to 2007. (or so.) Several generations of wealth evaporated in a year.
Dear V.,
Please know that you have the support and best wishes of many friends you have not met yet. You are not alone.
RSS How’s that kool aid? Looks like it’s working well for you. How is it you lefties can never remember the course of action that got the country where it is? Like, abusive lending tactics by “franie” and freddie” overseen by Dud Dodd and Bumbling Franks. Remember you socialists were in control of Congress when all this crap was hitting the fan.
Keep your accusations straight if want any of us in VRWC to pay attention to you.
Stop! You’re killing me!
Seriously – I wonder what that 42 would be, adjusted for inflation?
Another day in the Mines
I disagree. This is your estimation. My mother’s family was dirt poor during the delirious LBJ “War on Poverty” yet they never took money from the government. Once you take any government handouts/benefits you’ll always be their slave.
Are you in debt? Are you in a fixed-rate or an ARM? Or something even worse? Why do you need help exactly? Are you upside down in your house? Did you budget enough and calculate correctly (long-term) to see if you could even afford this house?
I think it speaks volumes to many that there are other people not willing to own up to their own mistakes. V. is not one of these people. My husband and I don’t own a house because his military career makes life very unpredictable and homeownership impossible for those who don’t know where they’ll be in 3-5 years. Were you one of those people?
This is utter nonsense. If you and these other people need government help with your mortgage then I think they and you need to reexamine why you’re holding on to a home that you can’t pay for anymore. You and other Americans who need “help” really don’t own the homes you’re making payments on. It’s rent.
Anytime you take help from government it comes with strings. I think you’re taking way out of context what V. is trying to say or you have something that you knowingly screwed up yourself (like paying for a home you can’t afford any longer) and expect government to take care of it.
Every time I see people trying to hang on to something that’s nothing but an illusion, I thank my lucky stars that my husband and I never “bought” a home. If you’re already in debt, have health issues, are taking care of a family member’s health issues, your job is not the “secure” kind (whatever that means) then you’re better off not owning a home.
While I can appreciate your dilemna, why are you taking V. to task? Why are there approx. 92% of Americans paying their mortgages on time or already paid their mortgages off? These folks found a way… probably by making a concerted effort to stop being slaves to debt or they got another job or two to make sure they could pay.
I’m sorry you’re in a tough spot…. but somehow even when folks lose a job they find a way. Just sayin.’
Fixed that for you.
Yep.
Life sucks when you make bad choices.
Read the story again.
Yes, my question is serious. And, the figures quoted for the Dow are current.
Did Pres Obama tell V. to put all her eggs in one basket? Her Employers?
Did Pres Obama tell V. that the bank was doing nefarious things and that she should move her money?
Did Pres Obama not allow V. to move her money?
Did Pres Obama send her any information regarding whether her 401k had been transfered, or not transfered?
Did Pres Obama tell V.s husband which business to get into, or not get into?
Her entire story is about, and based on her getting screwed by her bank back in May of 2008. I don’t know what the Dow was on that day, but Obama certainly was not President then. And, don’t go thinking that it was Pres Bush’s fault. He didn’t tell V. what to do either, and he is also not V.’s foe. V.’s travails begin and end with her employer, the Bank.
My question is and remains, why the jump to calling Pres Obama a foe?
Northwest Arkansas is my second home. Beautiful country. Love those Hogs, too!
One door closes, another door opens. God bless you!
Welcome to investing. There ARE NO GUARANTEES. (or at least there shouldnt be) You make the best judgement for investing based on the best research YOU YOURSELF MAKE. And even then YOU have to make the judgement that the research is valid and timely.
You can hire experts to help you in your judgement and management, but unless they legally make a contractual agreement to guarantee your success YOU ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE.
Research and Diversification. Those are the best options you can expect.
If you lose everything, so be it.
Durangodarlin:
Sooooiee Pig! Go Razorbacks! (Class of ’71)
May God indeed bless V and her family — after all, Heaven is right there in NW AR!
RS: Granted, but it doesn’t help when the gubmint gets involved and screws up any long-term planning (where you do best in the market) by constantly moving the goalposts and changing equipment from a soccer ball to a football, to a golf ball and then tells you that you are now playing on a billiard table, without cue sticks and the goal posts are now in another country!!
I didn’t read every post here, so this may have been covered.
I’m not sure, but I think, a 401(k) program has a Trustee (individual)who has a fiduciary responsibility and is personally liable.
Failing to follow explicit instructions should, at a minimum, end them in jail.
Nope. Never said that Obama has no culpabilty in the banking meltdown, since he became President in January of 2009. He is President now, and pretty much owns everything, including Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, etc.
I do not speak for Pres Obama, or pretend to understand his rationale for doing, or not doing, what he does. I am not nor will I play the ‘Devil’s Advocate.’
The video you linked had this in the blurb -
“. . . It discusses policy changes 13 years ago . . .”
Yep, there is responsibility and culpability enough to go around for everyone, Government, Banks, borrowers, etc.
V.’s situation happened well before Obama became President, and I am curious as to why, based on the story she told, ending with her calling Pres Obama her foe.
See my Post # 76 for very specific questions. Answer them, don’t answer them, but I will no longer respond to tangents. If you can connect V. and her situation from Summer 2007 – May 2008 to Pres Obama, and conclude that he is her foe based on the information she provided, then I will listen.
I agree but thats why I tempered the research to be valid and timely. 9/11 wasnt part of the plan either. But I learned my lesson in the tech bubble bursting (didnt lose much and I more than gained it all back by ’05)
Fortunately, I am young enough to weather this (and I expect at least 4 more complete cycles also). Needing any of my retirement money in the next 20 years is not part of the plan (note:”plan”) Thats my long term. But then I have medium, sort-term, immediate and then investments I am gambling with in my portfolio also.
I’ll think about starting to panic in 2030.
RS: We can only hope it will be turned around by then!
Calling Obama her foe and blaming him for her situation are not the same thing. Valid reasons for considering him a foe include:
- His polices, which at this point actually seem intended to deepen and prolong our economic pain
- His budget, which will give hundreds of billions to nanny-state programs that she apparently holds in contempt.
- His party, which is full to the brim of the sort of tax cheats and theives that actually didcause this mess.
When V mentions Barry, she is by then speaking in generalities, if we’re going to parse words. So in general, how about this, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’. Seeing as how the Obama administration is clearly running the market into the ditch, can’t we assume Obama is a foe of sorts to everyone, as a crashing market will undoubtedly touch everyone?
I agree that keeping all your 401K plan in any one stock is very unwise. I allocate about 15% of my current contributions to my company’s stock. But, I recognize this is very risky and I will reduce that percentage over time. And based on this letter I will make sure sell orders are actually executed!
Of course, it is a bit late to sell any stock right now so adjusting your portfolio right now could be an even bigger mistake. Even though I expect the market will go down another 1500 points or so I am not selling because I believe it will eventually rebound but I don’t want to try to time the market.
I have heard some financial advisers recommend never holding more than 3% of your portfolio in any single stock. Of course, for small fish like me that isn’t practical.
I think zyzzyg’s point is that there is plenty of blame to go around (as in, “there is responsibility and culpability enough to go around for everyone, Government, Banks, borrowers, etc”), yet everyone here seems intent on pinning it all on Obama, Frank, Dodd, and all the people who were stupid enough to accept money when banks were offering it. But I do not speak for zyzzyg.
But anyway… feel free to place the blame wherever you like, whatever it takes to make you feel better. But just recognize that all you’re doing here is shouting into an echo chamber. Meanwhile, all of us — even the responsible ones — are still screwed and just wondering how we’re going to get out of this mess.
Read the letter redstateskeptic!!
V clearly says she noticed the trouble starting in the summer of 2007!!
Who had control of the legislative branch of the government in the summer of 2007? WHO? anyone bueller anyone?
What you people don’t seem to understand is that the Obama people figure they have a very narrow time window to get all their “crap” passed. Their support is decreasing daily and opposition is growing daily. As long as this goes on the stock market will continue to tank. If universal health care can be killed the market will start to recover. It would have started to recover before this without Obama.
You don’t “get out” you ride it out. The Obamites want the nation to panic and withdraw all their money from the private sector and put it into government bonds. mmmmm how convenient for them. If that scenario goes to infinity then they collapse the system and have achieved complete control.
Hard as it is to do: DO NOT PANIC! DO NOT EJECT! You don’t have to be a soldier in uniform to display courage and real courage is for months and years, not during a brief few moments of terror. Pray, have courage, and as one of our Founders said “Either we stick together in this thing or we will surely hang together.”
Stand against the tyranny and keep your heads up. We will overcome these domestic Socialist enemies, and the country will leap forward and be better for the experience. Then one day maybe we might become eligible to be called the new “Greatest Generation”.
Someone way up high in the beginning responses in this thread, stated that the REPUBLICAN MAJORITIES voted for Tarp 1 and Stimulus 1 last year. When are the idiot liberals going to realize that Pelosi and Reid have been running Congress since January 07? And in 05, when there was an attempt to reform the banks stuff, the Dems had the filibuster numbers, so no reforms of fannie mae and freddie mac got done.
Also, I am an EMPLOYER. Our company pays UIA taxes to the feds and the state. If anyone is laid off from their employers, GO GET YOUR UNEMPOYMENT BENEFITS!! Employers are charged by the fed and state based on our payroll numbers. We pay a rate for the first $7K or so of compensation of our payroll. The money that we pay for this is written off in our payroll expenses. This is like a hidden tax the employees don’t see, but it comes from our payroll budgets.
Therefore, don’t feel righteous about collecting unemployment. You have earned it by the virtue of being employed in a qualifying job for the qualifying period. Also, by the virtue of you being there and getting paid, your income contributed to the rate and amount charged to your employer for the UIA funds. As an employer who is struggling to hang on to my employees, knowing that at least the unemployment is out there, eases the pain I have if I have to make cuts. We are on the edge at my company and I have deferred paying myself both last year (60% of my pay) and this past month, I have not paid myself.
Is there something wrong with pride? Let me tell you something. I am the child of an alcoholic who met me for the first time when they passed my newborn self through the bars of his jail cell. He stayed in prison the majority of my chilhood, getting out just long enough to beat my mother senseless and bully us kids. My mother remarried, and eventually that marriage broke up, in no small part due to the emotional demons of the first. I grew up rough, shall we say. I became an unwed mother at 19, but I loved my child with everything in me. Years later, another of my children was murdered as a toddler. To say that I was a mess is an understatement, my life had been one long episode of standing myself up off the floor, dusting myself off and moving forward. I am a survivor. I have been through more hell than most people see in their nightmares.
But I, like V, am a FIGHTER. So WHAT if pride carries us through? I could cower down, go on welfare, hide away and be an emotional mess for the rest of my life. I refuse. I am the daughter of a fighter, I am the granddaughter of immigrants whose children nearly starved to death when they first arrived here, and they refused to beg for anything from anyone.
I have made a life for myself and my kids and NOBODY will take my pride away from me.
Who are you, with your hand out, to judge anyone? I have a little secret for you, being disabled does not mean being incompetent. There are ways to work and feed your family, and it is not this government nor OUR obligation to take care of you. Take pride in who you are, take responsibility and stand up on your feet.
More than that, save your judgemental attitude, lest you are ready to get it handed back to you in spades. A little pride is not a bad thing. Might even do you some good.
I live in NWA, too. What kind of work do you do? We have not been hit by the recession like many other industries. I would be glad to help in any way I can. You should be able to e-mail me by clicking on my username.
Okay, that didn’t work. You can e-mail me at rsc@redstateconservative.com.
Same as Steve said above. I am not from the NWA area, but I am not far from it as the crow flies. Anything Mrs TwoFoot and I can do to help.
Believe me I understand each of your fears in saying what you did. And, not simply admitting that V. gave no specific reason for calling Pres Obama her foe.
V. told a very specific story from her past. She did not speak of the future and Pres Obama’s policies. She made no hint, or projection, about the impact of the coming Obama agenda on her current situation.
Yep, a crashing market under Pres Obama will affect everyone, but did it impact V. and her story?
Yep, if the situation continues, it may very well further impact V., me and you. Too bad she did not say so.
Fair enough, calling Obama her foe and blaming her situation on him are two different things. I agree, because I never suggested such a thing, but then why mention him and not explain why he is her foe?
My original question from Post #35 -
Why is Pres Obama a foe instead of the bank that screwed up her savings?
OH, yes because of what he will do in the future. Yet, that requires some kind of psychic talent, tarot card reading, and some serious assignment of what V.’s motives and meaning is, when she called Pres Obama her foe. Seeing as how she gave no reason. And that is all I am looking for. A reason. And, I am prepared to accept that there is no linkage between the story she told and calling Obama her foe.
Make all the assumptions you want about the future, assign motive to V. all you want, disconnect the apparent linkage between her story and calling Pres Obama her foe, and I still don’t get it. Why does she think Pres Obama is her foe? Because, she does not say why. We have to guess and speculate as to why. I am going to speculate, too. My guess is that he is too tall.
The Bank who screwed her out of her money is her foe.
RSS…
We got into this mess by spending money we did not have on things we did not need. Now you want to spend even greater amounts of money we don’t have on more things we don’t need to get us out.
It won’t work. A depression is coming and people had best get ready to live a more simple life.
Also…you should remove ‘skeptic’ from your name. You don’t seem to get what a skeptic is really about. Go read up on some Michael Shermer to get started.
Thanks, I needed that!