Retirement in stocks and mutual funds?

[d.k]

* While we're on the topic of the market, does anybody participate in an NAIC-style investment club (other than your 4O1K, etc.) and if you do, how is your club handling the "crisis"?? Just curious.

 

[rufus]

It seems as if every other house in the neighborhood is vacant. People are just walking away from their homes. If I add the empties to the ones that are being rented out by banks that have already repossessed them, it is astounding.

Bank of America just settled a law suit with several states. They will institute a home retention program relative to homes financed by Country Wide Financial, a company that BofA ate up in July.

This is an 8.4 billion deal to renegotiate mortgages that were deemed to be predatory lending.

So, hang on and make your house payments.

On the flip side, my son just bought a repossessed home worth at least $350,000 for $140,000. I guess the bank was really anxious to get liquid.

Rufus

 

[mtnhomechick]

In many cases the banks want to unload them because they are being looted.

I watched a program which explained what happened to a half million dollar home in CA. While the bank puttered around ppl looted it....stripped it of copper cupboards........you name it. The walls were bashed in and it was a shell.

Now, the bank is hoping to get 25,000 for it and yes..........I DID get my zero's right!!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thank you. I just want to try and offer encouragement. This comes from a "self-made" woman. I started out pretty much an orphan at 13 with nothing - dirt poor, abused, you name it and raised myself. If I can do it, anyone can. The difference is I just don't know the word "can't" as in "it can't be done" and I see opportunity where others see negatives.

Let me give everyone a "for example". I bought my first HUD home about 7 years ago as a sort of wedding present for my daughter and her husband when they got married so that she would have a low rent but good place to live till she finished grad school - which she graduated from LSU with her Master's and a perfect 4.0 and they bought their own home. All that time they paid us rent which covered the low payment we had. I sold it last month for more than double what we paid. A year after buying that home another home on her street became available so we bought that one as well and rented it for double the payments and sold that one last year for double what we paid for it. While it rented for $850 a month, I could have rented it for $1,800 a month because that's what the government would have paid me to rent it to Section 8 applicants - I choose not to for many reasons. We sold both homes within a year, one just last month, before all the crack down/collapse of the market. Both sold to people who got 100% financing, had bad credit, as part of the "deal" they overpaid asking price in exchange for having us pay off some of their bad debt and the lenders who just recently went down, gave them a loan. Was it a house they probably couldn't afford and will lose? Probably. But I made money on the deal. Now when all the other homes hit the market that were sold to people like them, I'll be there to buy them at a great price and I'll repeat the process. Do I have stellar credit and lots of cash lying around - no - I got some of those same 100%, no money down, no doc loans - but I paid mine back. I pay an extra one percent for a no doc loan but since I've been self-employed for 16 years I find it's well worth it and besides it might add an extra $20 to the payment but I'm renting it for much more. Will those same type of loans still be there for those who know how to use them properly - not sure but I sure hope so. Because if the economy is going to be as bad as "they" say and homes are getting foreclosed, there will be many, many people who will need to rent and I plan to have rental property. There will still be goverment Section 8 that will pay you several times over to rent to them.

Meantime, we're buying and selling daily/hourly on E-Trade. Finally making some money after having it sit there for years earning virtually nothing.

Just started my farm business and bought a professional incubator so I can hatch/sell eggs and chicks/ducks/quail because people are going to be needing that as well.

I find that fear is what keeps most people poor and living paycheck to paycheck. They are afraid to take a risk and think only the rich can invest but you don't get rich working 9-5 for a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle and earning 1% on your savings while paying 28.9% on your credit card.

I have multiple businesses and I'm not afraid to jump at an oppotunity when I see one. I encourage everyone else to keep your eye out for great deals that are going to be happening soon as a result of all the fear and panic.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Quote:
Good Call Mahonri!

 

[Mahonri]

Well, I was wrong... it went down over 500.

Could we go down another 300 tomorrow? I just don't think that there are enough bargain hunters out there that have faith it won't go down further.

The housing market has hit no where near bottom yet... expect that sometime next year between July and September. Foreclosures in AZ are at an all time high. Large new subdivisions sit mostly empty in many parts of the valley of the sun. Perhaps in early 2010 it would be smart to get into a little real estate.

At present, short term treasuries (9 moth T-bills) are the ONLY safe bet.

The BAILOUT (I'm calling it was it is) still irks me. It irks me even more that McCain voted for it. (both of my senators and congressman voted for it) AIG got bailed out and then immediately spent millions on a junket for it's corporate leaders to have a get away.. Bar tabs were in the thousands, high priced hotel rooms, massages... you name it, and our tax money had to be given to them to keep them solvent!

I can only imagine where the other billions have been flushed.

It won't be long and our nation will soon be the Abamanation (sp) of Desolation.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, our IRA rollover acct is less per share than when we got it 4 years ago. We are not old enough to take any out, but I feel if I could have done it and bought land, I'd be better off now. So, what the heck do I do now? We have an appt with the bank's adviser on Friday, but we could lose lots more by then. Should we just stay and hope that in another 4 years, it will go back up several dollars a share like it did before? Its not that much, but it's all we have, other than our equity in this property.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Quote:
Can you transfer it into Money Market or CD Accounts?

I think it depends on whether you need it now or in the next few years.

We transferred ours into MM a few months ago.

 

[DuckLady]

I have my 401k in a safe simple interest account. It is the only fund in the group I can choose from that has not lost money.

 

[quizzle]

Recently bought a house- right before this craziness happened. Happy I have a place for chickens now, but oy. Wish we'd emptied the stock portfolio instead of the savings account for the down payment.

There is less in my 401K then what I put into it. I'm just grateful I'm still young and not looking at retirement soon. Regardless of what happens though, as long as I spend less than what I make, my savings account will fill up again.