WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON????
I have a long time to wait for my money in the stock market to come back around, but it still upsets me incredibly how it is tumbling. Freefall.
We watch it all day long; on and off. One co-worker will announce “it’s down 200 points”, then a little while later someone else will say “it’s down 350”!
Today it dropped 680 points for another record breaking fall.
This has to do with that really bad idea of the presidents’ (oooh…déjà vu) – the bank bailout plan. I’m not pretending to know anything about how Washington and Wall Street work, but I had a gut feeling* that this was not a good idea. In fact, when I thought it was to bail out individuals that got themselves into trouble because they purchased a house that they couldn’t afford, it pissed me off even more.
Why should the American people that take care of their bills and have good credit be held responsible for the others debts?
Back when Jerome and I were purchasing our house, we were told by our mortgage rep that together, we could afford a house that was three times more than the one that we ended up purchasing. Our thinking was that if for some really bad reason, one of us would lose our jobs, then the other would still be able to afford the house. We've all learned now who is the more likely to lose their job. We didn’t want to get in a situation where we could lose it. Yes, it’s a smaller house than some of our friends have, but it is WAY sufficient. Another thing that we did was put 20% down on the house. This is something that used to be standard, but the U.S. has gotten away from that way of thinking lately…but I believe it should once again become the norm. If you haven’t saved money in order to put down on a house, then maybe you shouldn’t buy one.
We watch it all day long; on and off. One co-worker will announce “it’s down 200 points”, then a little while later someone else will say “it’s down 350”!
Today it dropped 680 points for another record breaking fall.
This has to do with that really bad idea of the presidents’ (oooh…déjà vu) – the bank bailout plan. I’m not pretending to know anything about how Washington and Wall Street work, but I had a gut feeling* that this was not a good idea. In fact, when I thought it was to bail out individuals that got themselves into trouble because they purchased a house that they couldn’t afford, it pissed me off even more.
Why should the American people that take care of their bills and have good credit be held responsible for the others debts?
Back when Jerome and I were purchasing our house, we were told by our mortgage rep that together, we could afford a house that was three times more than the one that we ended up purchasing. Our thinking was that if for some really bad reason, one of us would lose our jobs, then the other would still be able to afford the house. We've all learned now who is the more likely to lose their job. We didn’t want to get in a situation where we could lose it. Yes, it’s a smaller house than some of our friends have, but it is WAY sufficient. Another thing that we did was put 20% down on the house. This is something that used to be standard, but the U.S. has gotten away from that way of thinking lately…but I believe it should once again become the norm. If you haven’t saved money in order to put down on a house, then maybe you shouldn’t buy one.
Owning a home is a privilege, not a right.
*Other "bad" gut feelings:
- in 1999, I felt that the market was getting way too large and that something had to happen to make it come “crashing” down.
- do not get into a war in Iraq.
- end of last year felt that I needed to stop putting so much of a percentage into my 401K – we needed liquid assets, so I started putting money in a Money Market account that had a very nice interest rate.
- something fundamentally wrong with the “interest only” loans and the “no money down loans” and the “we’ll give a loan to anyone, no matter their credit”.
- all the building that has been going on for the past couple of years – mostly for environmental purposes, but also economic.
- all the bankruptcies.
- people feeling like they need to purchase or build the huge McMansions.
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