60+ year old thread.

The Carter times sucked. I remember being an Army Lieutenant serving in Germany and being denied a Sear's credit card because I didn't make enough money.

Hang in there, Branden and keep trying - and work on your education if you can. It WILL get better.

 

Thats exactly what I'm doing. started my BA in audio technologies(radio, music studio, tv/movie sound etc) this semester. I'd rather not take out any loans but it doesn't seem possible even if I do find work. I guess its not as bad as back then since I get spammed with CC offers in the mail and I currently only go to school.

 

Ralph:
Welcome to our old fart thread. Postup as often as you like.

Branden:
The economy will bounce back but even in bad times it is still possible to make money. Look at all the corporations sitting on more cash than any time in our history. Stop whining and get out there and make some money. Now days small business is where the real profits are. Start up a business.

Mark:
I am taking a little breather before phase 2 of the cookng. Turkey and ham are done and ready for carving. Mashed potatoes are done and in the crock pot. Stuffing and sweet potatoes are prepared and ready for the oven.

Left to do is the green beans, gravy, peas and corn.

 

Happy Thanksgiving All, Hope it's the best ever.. Hi 6, Glad your back I missed the like the sears card. Off for round 1. Jim

 

Happy Thanksgiving EVERYONE!

My wife and I want to wish everyone here a Happy Thanksgiving and to thank all of you for the prayers and good thoughts for her upcoming cancer surgery.
I think this year especially, we have realized we have so much to be thankful for. We have each other. We have a loving family. We have great supportive friends....."some" that we've never met! We have great Doctors that we trust will do everything possible. And most of all, we believe that we have caught the cancer early enough to completely beat it. We are truly thankful.

Have a great day and be thankful!

 

X100000000000 Happy thanksgiving to ALL!

 

We've got two family members fighting cancer, too, Rob. We say lots of prayers for them - and you and your wife are in those prayers, also. I'm so happy to read that your wife's cancer was caght early. That IS something to be thankful for!!

 

It's interesting that you say stop whining because I didnt want it to come across that way but obviously couldn't correctly convey that in text haha. I'm actually involved with a start-up business so its also kind of funny you mention that as well.

 

I didn't take it that way - unfortunately it's a tough time in the economy. But, between the start-up and working on your education, it seems like you're making good headway!

After I retired from the Army I went to work for a 2 year private college - that's where i work now. There are lots of good paying fields out there with the right two-year degree.

Keep at it! I like to apply what I call P3 - the Power of Positive Pessimism. It might be rough now...but it could be a hell of a lot worse.

 

morning all: went through recessions before, usually got laid off. this one just seems to be WAAAY too extended. never saw one that went into years, like this one is.
hope everyone had a good thanksgiving.
OOPS! forgot about this one. started at BS in 1970, worked 7 mo., got laid off for 4 mo., called back to do a job I didn't want, worked scheduled 4 day week, then laid off for an additional 1 yr. 11 mo. I found work at 2 other places untill recalled. the unemployment lines were quite long then. wish they had all the extensions they get now.


I'm staying mostly at home on SHOP TILL YOU DROP day. wonder how many credit cards will get maxed out today !

 

.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a nice & quiet one yesterday (met with family & friends last week for an early Thanksgiving).

Off to work on the house today while wife went to have her nails done and lunch with her female friends.

Life is not fair .... whhhhaaaaaaaa <--- just kidding, of course ...

PS ... I might escape for a couple of hours and check out the "Black Friday" specials at H/D & Lowes ....

Have a good day all ...
.

 

Branden:

Sorry a beter choice of words may have been in order. Times are tough and if you can stay in school for two reasons. 1, there are little to no jobs out there and 2, when the recovery really kicks in you will have the education necessary to land a decent job.

I have been lucky up until this last depression. My age in the workplace finally caught up to me. My family has no debt and we have been socking away quite a bit of money for the past 15 years.

Finance is really interesting. The stock market crash of 1929 and of 2008 are very similar with one exception. The Federal Government did not do anything after 1929 and we were in a depression for 12 years. With 2008 the federal government has enacted changes that have stoppped, accordng to most, the slide into a long lasting depression. Time will tell. Granted that in today's world we are more interlocked with other countries than ever before so what happens globally affects our markets.

 

^^^^ this It's no just me!!!

 

Nothing wrong with maxing out the Credit Cards just as long as you truely are not going beyond your means. I have only 2 debts, a truck I will have paid off it just 2 years, which counts as an asset, and money I borrowed to invest, so really, thats not gone either.

 

if maxed out on credit cards, and pay 1cent in intrest, you are beyond your means.

good for you on investing. smart move at your age. I know guys that got burnt big time by using margin accounts. in a bull market it can be beneficial, but in the wrong stocks it can be disasterous.

if $100 added to the principle, on a $76K home (example used) on the first payment, saves $4K in intrest, how much intrest do you think you save by putting $15-25K down on a home ? It's actually fairly easy to get ahead of the game, just gotta use your head.

 

Which will be my plan, I'll be buying probably a 300k house here soon and I will be putting about 30-40k down on it

 

As long as you have the extra capital to fix the house to be livable that is OK. I would have to check the interest rate to see if the money would be better off invested in securities. Real estate is not the cash cow it used to be.

I would never advise charging more than you can pay off each month. That is a losing battle.

 

Charging more then I can pay off?? You mean like making my base payments too big to handle?? I always try to have medium sized payments on things so I can make bigger payments when I have the spare cash

 

No I mean paying the balance in full every month so there is never an intrest charge. I have a rewards card and use the perks.

Damn I hate the internet sometimes, a lot harder to talk than face to face. LOL
Lower interest cost on a house would mean lower payments for the same amount of cash put down.

 

We pay the balance on our credit cards every month - never pay interest. But, we couldn't always do that when we were younger although we always paid more than the minimum so we could pay them down as quickly as possible.

We're also about to refinance our house - started with a 5% 15 year mortgage, have 8 left now. We found a 2.75% ARM with a 5 year lock-in, no points. So, we're going to refi and pay it off in 5 years..then my retirement pay is gravy every month!

On another note - Lynn and I celebrate 24 years of happy marriage today. Not a bad average out of the total of 37 years that we've actually been married.