I pulled my Euros out and had them converted to gold... sure gold might go down... but they can't take 40% of it if they tried in Europe..Quote:
Originally Posted by speechlesstx
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I pulled my Euros out and had them converted to gold... sure gold might go down... but they can't take 40% of it if they tried in Europe..Quote:
Originally Posted by speechlesstx
How much did your 401k lose during the financial meltdown?
can't speak for anyone else. Nothing... I shifted to a bond /money market account that had a guaranteed return about a year before the collapse. I thought that the stocks were irrationally over valued. That has been good for a while ;but as bond funds have dropped ,the guaranteed yields have been dropping . So I've slowly converted my 401 K to a lifestyle fund.Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
However ,had you been totally invested in stocks ;you portfolio temporarily took a hit . But in 4 years ,it has more than recovered (although I thing that the stock market is again becoming over valued... ) . Had I been in the lifestyle fund in 2008 ;and I left the money in it until now .The financial collapse would not be a factor in my portfolio performance.
That my friend was a great strategy, and no doubt a few of us thought the same way after negative growth from 1996 to 98. Rollit over to a guaranteed return. One question though was what made you wait?
I don't watch it every day... stocks go up... stocks go down... a 401K is a long term investment... and not a day trade situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
I was not in a position to manage my money until after 2000 . Before that I was in a profit share plan.Once in the 401-K I got aggressive for a few years and then got gun shy... I don't like peaks .I actually would've gone back into the market in 2009 except the guaranteed funds were paying out above 4 % returns (based on old bond prices... once they started maturing ,new bonds did not match the rate of return) .
I'm thinking that I'll let the lifestyle fund manage it now because I'm getting closer to retirement age and am becoming risk adverse. But there are other ways for us to take advantage. 1st the match by the employer increases the actual rate of return ;and 2nd the deferred income. I'm guessing you are about my age more or less. I am now using the "catch up" provisions . The 401-K has really become my primary saving mechanism since the Fed decided that Americans shouldn't save.
I never had a matching fund but even in the late nineties it was obvious it would take decades past my retirement targets to be in a position to leave my job. The markets were just not that strong for lower level investors.
But the rollover worked better for me. I am 59 now and was feeling the daily physical grind even back then. That was the biggest factor in my thinking back then. To be honest though I am still leery of any market investments because of the losses my friends took. Sure they are rebuilding now, but many of their grand plans were destroyed at the time.
They are in a holding pattern running out of gas.
The safest pattern Tal is to place investments in well managed interest bearing deposits otherwise market volatility will mean you won't sleep at night over several years you may find the returns similar to the allegedly higher earning investments
Depends on your age.If you adopted a strategy like Smooty when you are young ;then you pick good performing stocks ,and ride the waves. It all dollar cost averages in the long run .Yes as we get older ,shifting to less risky investments is prudent. That's another reason why I opted for the guaranteed return that invested in long term bond instruments . But now the yields are going down as the old bonds mature so that is why I'm shifting out of them .
Bottom line is that 401-Ks are very popular ,and lots of money is sitting in them making the Dems drool . Look for them to make a play on 401-K plans . After all ,the government has proven they are much better money managers
I also didn't mention in my post above... Is that money wasn't part of my 401K... but money I've had in a Euro account for a number of years... and being that country is on the list of those likely to pull that stunt... it didn't make sense to take the hit I would take on a currency exchange to get it where Obamas cronies could screw with it... particularly since the yields in banks overseas is way higher than those here thanks to the FED printing money like there is no tomorrow.
And no... I'm not rich by a longshot... they are fairly modest size accounts... and they aren't tied to a US ID #. Less risk than stock... way higher gain than Money markets... CD's or saving accounts here.
What I know is this I have only suffered loss since 2000 because men are stuffing about
Guess who else managed to grab their loot before the ship sunk... politicans ,Commies and unions... no surprise there .
These are the people dedicated to public service ,justice ,and equality .
ekathimerini.com | Cypriot banks 'forgave' loans to firms, MPs
What do you expect in that part of the world, the fix is always in
Sort of like the scewing of bond holders of GM . That was another theft of property by the government ,and transfer to the unions.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
When you are bankrupt you wind up under new management, it's the way capitalism works
Come on Tom, everyone knows the unions agreed to concessions in pay, and benefits.
GM union swallows cost-cutting concessions - May. 29, 2009
Quote:
Seventy-four percent of UAW members voted for the contract, which will allow the company to cut costs and "eliminate the wage and benefit gap" with competitors, according to the UAW president and a statement from GM.
Obama
The U.S. government got 60 percent of the new GM (;the Canadian government got 12.5 percent, the UAW health care fund got 17.5 percent, and bondholders got the leftover 10 percent. In traditional bankruptcy ;the bondholder would've been the first considered ;not an afterthought.
So that's the rub huh, the rich guy didn't make as much profit off the top from bankruptcy like he always does.
Bummer. All those workers still working and retirees getting pensions stops the investors from profits. Why didn't they invest in making the company healthy?
Tal do you realise you are talking socialism. Workers owning part of the company, investors having to face up to lossesQuote:
Originally Posted by talaniman
So you would destroy all the existing bankruptcy laws to achieve your utopian visions ?
No but I would change them to be fair. I mean forcing a bankruptcy to make investors rich and destroy the lives of MILLIONS is fair to you?
Last I checked those investors are still making money. And workers have a job.
Fair ? What skin do the workers have in the game ? They do a job and get paid .You think the bond holders are just a bunch of greedy capitalists who were ripe to be screwed. To hell with the retires who had money in funds with GM holdings .They don't deserve the protection of the rule of law either . In Obamanation ;the Emperor makes the rules ;even if they violate years of law .
I guess their lively hood and future isn't skin enough.
I expect no one explained risk to you, stockholders acquire certain risk and so do bondholders. It is unfortunate that some securities are more risky than others, you want security invest in government bonds because any additional yield on other securities is compensation for risk.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
GM was rescued, not for the benefit of investors but for the benefit of employees and the national economy. What was already lost was lost due to inept management. I expect it cost you some money, that's sad Tom but we all experience loss in these difficult times unless we become risk averse
GM was "rescued " as a political payback to the UAW . Ask the non-union employees of the GM chain if the government gave a rat's a$$ about them .$1 billion went to Delphi's union retirees, their non-union retirees nothing.
Ask the thousands of dealership employees who lost their jobs because they worked in dealerships owned by Republicans if the Obots cared about employees . The bailout violated every fundamental principle of America's bankruptcy code, undermined the rule of law, and cost taxpayers an extra $26.5 billion.
Had GM gone through chapter 11 ;the company and the employees would be on firmer ground. All the bailout was ,was picking the pockets of taxpayers and bond holders and giving that theft to the union.
Obama's own car czar Steve Rattner admitted, “We should have asked the UAW to do a bit more. We did not ask any UAW member to take a cut in their pay.”
Obama said “The free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can. It only works when there are rules of the road to ensure that competition is fair, open, and honest,”
Yes it does work when “the rules ” are honored.The GM bailout violated all the rules.
Well tom a few other things violated the rules too like selling junk Bonds around the world while giving the an AAA rating. WhatI see is the system is broken and unbridled capitalism isn't the answer. We have had this answer before there are winners and loosers
putting words in my mouth again ? The whole bankruptcy system is a form of regulating . Unbridled capitalism ;if it was ever truly practiced ,is something that happened well before the beginning of the last century.Quote:
unbridled capitalism
Look ;I know our laws differ from yours . I just want us to honor our laws . You can do in your country as you wish.
The UAW retired Union employees.got raped by Obama during the GM Bankrpucy... My Father was a retired UAW union employee... he died the year he retired... my 78 year old mother lost all of her medical and much of her survivor benefits... with that bankruptcy.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
The retired WHITE COLLAR non-union employees kept all of theirs...
Beware April Fools also...
The racist menace? Muslims declare victory in fight over ‘anti-Islamic’ Lego
Apparently 'Jabba’s Palace’ looks a little much like a mosque?
Steriotypes
Muslims as troglodytes isn't a stereotype... its a proven fact.
I think Jabba the hut is actually a capitalist steriotype not a muslim one but I see the likeness of the St Sofia mosque. The muslims are stuck in a time warp, just like some others I know, they choose to be there and to take offense at whatever the west does. They even take offense at their own because deep down they know their religion is flawed. When you can't laugh at yourselves you are in big trouble
Beware April fools indeed . I have been predicting that the Aussies will fall under the Chinese sphere of influence . It is happening even faster than I realized.
Thanks, World Reserve Currency, But No Thanks: Australia And China To Enable Direct Currency Convertibility | Zero HedgeQuote:
A month ago we pointed out that as a result of Australia's unprecedented reliance on China as a target export market, accounting for nearly 30% of all Australian exports (with the flipside being just as true, as Australia now is the fifth-biggest source of Chinese imports), the two countries may as well be joined at the hip.
Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation,.
So what we are saying is the american's don't get their cut. Tough isn't it. Actually you should think of the Australian dollar as a reserve currency it is directly negotiable in a number of countries and worth more than the Yankee dollar. Look we are going to grow food and other agricultural products for China, we don't see this as negative thing, they have a market that is opening very quickly to high end products which we have an ability to meet and they aren't as queesy about certain things as you are and certainly not as protective. You had the opportunity to do the right thing with the FTA and you screwed us like you do everyoneQuote:
Originally Posted by tomder55
You need to get over yourselves... or at least pay more attention to how China REALLY treats its subjects.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
We are not Chinese subjects, we trade with them, would you have us ignore them and leave the field to you? IIt doesn't work that way. We opened diplomatic dialogue with China while you were still playing cold warQuote:
Originally Posted by smoothy
Bwaaaaahahahaha... yeah... for now... but not forever.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
So you may not last forever yourselves, nothing lasts foreverQuote:
Originally Posted by smoothy
Talk to Taiwan... and Japan... for that matter talk to the People in HongKong.Quote:
Originally Posted by paraclete
Yeah... you should love them when they decide to flex their muscle...
Exactly... soon their hegemony will draw you into their geopolitical sphere of influence.
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