Sears and Kmart closings

[rufus]

I have a feeling it isn't just Sears and Kmart. A lot of stores grew too big too soon and now their debt load is staggering. In the past, they could simply roll over their debt, but now who wants to lend to an over extended client in the middle of a depression? The mark of death is upon them.

The staggering debt of individuals, corporations, private held businesses not to mention government entities is overwhelming. The government will attempt to pay its debts with the printing presses. Bond holders will be broke. We will experience a horrible inflation, and then we will all be equally poor.

The dollar will be worthless.

Hyper inflation causes shortages. Those holding goods will not sell them because they cannot afford to re stock shelves. Stores that will sell goods will be constantly marking them up to compensate for their ever increasing costs. One will have to have contacts that are willing to accept something other than dollars in payment. We will have a toaster and waffle iron economy.

No matter who wins this next election things will not get better: the die has been cast.

I don't have a good feeling about the future.

Rufus

 

[EweSheep]

Im very optimstic about our future....not much of a pessimistic about things unless it is staring at me in the face. By then, its too late.

alot of it is due to the high costs, customers would find something that would last longer than the competitive item. I've been noticing people are switching to glassware storage (to store food, leftovers) and the glasswares have the multiple uses from refigerator to stove to oven to microwaves...those plastic storage containers don't last as long. People are getting smarter even they have to pay more for an item than just simply "throwing it away".

 

[rufus]

If you don't look at the oncoming train, it won't hit you? There is little that we can do ourselves to change this situation. The best we can do is to find a way to preserve what little wealth we have accumulated. We need to go into survival mode. We have to figure out what will retain value throughout the coming inflation. It sure won't be cash or bonds.

Gold and silver will hold value, but they will not produce income. Worse, when you cash them out, you will have to pay income taxes on the capital gain that resulted from the inflation.

Real estate is a bargain now, but believe me, being a land lord is an absolute pain.

I am open to suggestions on this issue.

Rufus

 

[JD4570]

Rufus, we do have one thing that could get us out of this mess. First the politicians that are seemingly bent on national suicide must be removed from office. Then we must deregulate the energy sector. We have oil, gas and coal in absolute enormous quantities. How much? How would you like to put O.P.E.C. out of business? That's how much. Unfortunately I don't think our leaders have the stomach to push that hard. Only in the face of total collapse will they react.

 

[EweSheep]

It's true, Rufus....sometimes we are too d**** blind to realize it or that mentalality "Ain't going to happen to me!" attitude. Sure I would MOVE out of the way of the oncoming train, since we have been blessed with a house, plenty of food, chickens, cars being paid off (even they are OLD) and no credit card debts.....

We dont have gold or silver but guns are not going to be carrying the value to survival.

Retirement is almost nil...we saved NOTHING because hubby's income and my income are bare bones, just enough to pay the bills, feed us and chickens and have a little luxury now and then. It was rough scrimping and saving for years until hubby got a better paying job with medicore employers. Its better than nothing. 401K was a big thing ten to 20 years but now the stock market made it not worth much. Bonds seems to be a better route, more secure. No retirement plan is really safe except if you put cash money back in to your own mattress for years. Cash currencies may not exist in twenty years because of people using credit cards/debit cards for their purchases. So we will never know what the government would do, and the employers having more power over their employees, making them work harder, longer for less pay and the hourly wages we make here in IL stays flat while everything else is going up. One hour of work pays for a 24 roll TP or two gallons of gas so you can get to work each day. Bread, eggs and dollar stores are the cheapest you can live on with minimum wage living. I have a pension plan from my old job waiting for me but the problem is this...I am 47, can not get the pension until I am 65. Would I get this pension? Rumors have it that it will not be there when I retire. It will be gone. Company may go broke or bought out by another company. I sure hope as heck I will get it to supplement my disability income. Yeah Social Security will run out. Politicians need to quit dipping their fingers in that fund...as my Dad said, they were supposed to pay it back but never did.

One scary thought is this...what if our stores closed up, everything you buy is online or ordered ahead of time. Like our Schwann delivery guys here in Illinois, customers would be buying food...would they be the next grocery man?

If you don't look at the oncoming train, it won't hit you? There is little that we can do ourselves to change this situation. The best we can do is to find a way to preserve what little wealth we have accumulated. We need to go into survival mode. We have to figure out what will retain value throughout the coming inflation. It sure won't be cash or bonds.

Gold and silver will hold value, but they will not produce income. Worse, when you cash them out, you will have to pay income taxes on the capital gain that resulted from the inflation.

Real estate is a bargain now, but believe me, being a land lord is an absolute pain.

I am open to suggestions on this issue.

Rufus

 

[hemet dennis]

If you don't look at the oncoming train, it won't hit you? There is little that we can do ourselves to change this situation. The best we can do is to find a way to preserve what little wealth we have accumulated. We need to go into survival mode. We have to figure out what will retain value throughout the coming inflation. It sure won't be cash or bonds.

Gold and silver will hold value, but they will not produce income. Worse, when you cash them out, you will have to pay income taxes on the capital gain that resulted from the inflation.

Real estate is a bargain now, but believe me, being a land lord is an absolute pain.

I am open to suggestions on this issue.

Rufus

True being a landlord is a big pain but if you are picky about your tenants it's the best thing at this time.

 

[rufus]

Well, I have been retired for about eight years now. I had been putting money into a deferred compensation plan for about thirty years. When I retired, I withdrew that money on a monthly basis and sent two kids to law school.

I was lucky; I took my money out before the market crashed. The people I worked with are still at work because they lost most of theirs. They are in their seventies and still working. I don't suppose many of them will ever get to retire, they will probably die in place.

My fear is that my retirement and social security will not keep up with inflation. What little savings I have left will probably lose most of its value. Sadly, one cannot get enough interest off of their savings to cover the cost of inflation, and they have to pay taxes on what little interest they get.

Sometimes we get a rough deal in life, but we are luckier than a lot of other people.

Rufus

 

[KristyHall]

Im very optimstic about our future....not much of a pessimistic about things unless it is staring at me in the face. By then, its too late.

alot of it is due to the high costs, customers would find something that would last longer than the competitive item. I've been noticing people are switching to glassware storage (to store food, leftovers) and the glasswares have the multiple uses from refigerator to stove to oven to microwaves...those plastic storage containers don't last as long. People are getting smarter even they have to pay more for an item than just simply "throwing it away". 

Normally I am a "what if" person. I often make contingency plans for contingency plans. But it is strange. As of late, i have been feeling rather optimistic about our future as a nation (US) and as a species.

I still prepare for the worse, but I just can't shake the feeling that while things may get worse for a while, we'll survive as a whole.

 

[hemet dennis]

Well, I have been retired for about eight years now. I had been putting money into a deferred compensation plan for about thirty years. When I retired, I withdrew that money on a monthly basis and sent two kids to law school.

I was lucky; I took my money out before the market crashed. The people I worked with are still at work because they lost most of theirs. They are in their seventies and still working. I don't suppose many of them will ever get to retire, they will probably die in place.

My fear is that my retirement and social security will not keep up with inflation. What little savings I have left will probably lose most of its value. Sadly, one cannot get enough interest off of their savings to cover the cost of inflation, and they have to pay taxes on what little interest they get.

Sometimes we get a rough deal in life, but we are luckier than a lot of other people.

Rufus

Well if 8 years ago you had put money in gold you would have $1,700 for every $350 you put in. So you would have 5 times as much.
But I don't think now is the time to buy gold.

 

[rufus]

Well, years ago I and some co workers got into gold investing. We never had a lot of money to put into it, but we discovered that the local pawn shop would price its bottom price for the day on the price of gold for that day. When the price was real low, we would go on our lunch hour and shop the pawn place.

Pawn brokers have a lot of lee way. They may only loan a few dollars on something that has a lot of value.

We would put rings and other heavy jewelry on lay a way. That way we stopped the price of the object from going up with the price of gold, and our original outlay was minimal. The stuff stayed in his safe and wasn't being stolen from our homes.

Then when the price of gold went up enough, we would redeem what we had on lay a way, and then we would sell it for scrap.

They would let us keep it on lay a way for long periods of time. We just had to make the weekly payments.

We did real well with that. I also bought Krugerrands and Maple Leafs for a while. The day after Anwar Sadat was shot, the price of gold soared. I called in sick and went and sold them. At that time, it was considered just a currency transaction and no taxes were due on it.

I sure wish I had that gold back.

Rufus