Anyone feeling the crunch?

[rightyal]

Hi Fellow Pooners and SPs,

Just wanted to do an informal survey about whether this hobby/industry has felt the effects of the economic downturn.

Pooners, have you been feeling the crunch and resisted continuing with this luxury?

Dear SPs, has business gone down? have you made any changes (increase service / reduce price) to reverse the flow?

Rightyal

 

[Adriana✿]

Sex, Drugs & Alcohol will always be a sellers market. Always.

 

[Thatotherguy]

Nope. The paper losses I've had on stocks and my home are just that: paper losses. Since I don't plan on selling either for 5+ years (probably longer), those paper losses won't be locked in as actual losses for quite some time. By the time I actually sell, they should be at least back up to where they were when things started tanking, so I won't be any worse for wear. In the meantime, the current economic situation hasn't affected my cashflow in the slightest, and it doesn't seem likely to do so (other than increases in prices of many things, but I've got plenty of room built into my budget for that), so no change for me.

 

[melissa.in.abby]

Yup... we are have faced losses in every monetary way possible, I believe! oh well... things always change...

 

[moi]

I'm not too sure on that as I seldom work now, but from the days I do and what I've heard from all the major agencies in town is that it's been very slow.

Not sure about MPs though.

 

[rightyal]

For those who don't think the current crisis will have any effect on their spending, you are either filthy rich (and you better have some gold bought up 'cause currency may not hold up) or you don't know the true extent of the crisis.

If you think that your stock will come back in 5+ years you will probably have to think again. The companies for which you have the stocks may just go bankrupt and you will have no way of recovering the losses.

If you think you have a stable job or stable income, think again.

As for SPs, either the monetary gain will become so low that SPs will start stepping away from the industry because it's not worth it. Or we'll have a flood of new SPs who want to make ends meet. In any case, we'll eventually have SPs that have low job satisfaction (either because monetary gain is low, or because this industry is their last resort).

 

[mclovin76]

over inflated currency and over inflated stocks and house prices, too many people made a lot of money the last few years,i think it will b over inflated again but in how long who knows, but money has been dissapering into the air noone is making off this thats why its a recession. I believe this is a good thing its kinda a clean up time , no more spending thousands of dollars in one night but more of an at home time with friends and family having drinks and making some healthy good food at home.

 

[Thatotherguy]

If you think that your stock will come back in 5+ years you will probably have to think again. The companies for which you have the stocks may just go bankrupt and you will have no way of recovering the losses.

And that's where having a diversified stock portfolio comes in. If any 1, 5, 10, or 20 of the companies I've got stocks in go bankrupt, my stock portfolio can still recover, especially since it's spread across various sectors so if and when a single sector tanks it won't affect my whole stock portfolio. That's also where having a diversified overall portfolio comes in. Anyone who invests solely in stocks is an idiot. Ideally you should have a mix of stocks, bonds, cash, commodities, and real estate (for most people who own their homes, that's all the real estate investment that they should have - anything more and they're most likely over-exposing themselves).

Given that I won't be accessing my investments for many years (5 was an extremely low estimate - in fact I don't really plan to touch any of it for 15-20 years, with the possible exception of selling my home to buy another depending on if real estate prices in other locations drop more than in my location), the only way I'll be taking a serious dive is if absolutely everything tanks and we go back to a barter economy, in which case everyone will be in the same boat anyway.

All the people in the world screaming about how the sky is falling won't change the fact that wise investors plan for long-term economic disasters and, barring a complete collapse of the entire worldwide economy, can ride them out. And if a complete collapse of the entire worldwide economy does happen, then we're back to medieval times anyway, because modern society can't function without the global economy.

 

[mclovin76]

if you have 100000 in the market your gona take a 34 percent hit and to recover that will take 5 to 8 years but by then 100000 is gona seem like 80000. The wa they are trying to drive up the market is by buying at what they think is low thats why you got 300 plus days and 500 down then 550 up and then down again. The market is worht about 7000 points right now, were at 7700 as of today i believe so i wouldnt b buying anything till it hits the 7000 mark and obama brings back those troops but what the hell are they gona do for jobs they better work it out.