how much did you lose already?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Yeah, word on the street is that Steven has poker night with a group of commies every Thursday night in his basement.

Those bastards.

Everybody wins...takes the fun right out of it.

What you need to do is establish a Politburo and appoint yourself Chairman... and put yourself in charge of the distribution of winnings

[wayno 9]

Try not to look at my IRA and mutual funds. By most standards, probably not very much, but for me it is a bit. Deafanatly down several grand from my initial investment so I don't look at it as a paper loss. But at 40 I'm in for the long haul so it'll go back up.

Of course being a sportfishing mate/captain, my industry has taken a big hit. Of course my two main employers for the last several years are sportfish dealers, so I'm out of work with one as they are not returning to C.R. and the other is a summer time, seasonal deal in MD. My freelancing is practically non exsistant right now as no one is traveling or using boats right now. Of course this indistry got hit hard this past year with the price of fuel. I'm an optimist. We made it through the luxury tax of the early 90's and we made it through the post 9/11 travel scare. Once everything gets going I feel people will start going on vacations again, or go fishing. It will get better.

[mawilson 2,133]

Are you better off than you were 4 hours ago?

[Amby 490]

I don't want to know

[mawilson 2,133]

Actually I find that he's right a lot. I pulled my 401K too.

Just remember to reinvest when we hit the bottom. We still have a way to go...

the Dow is now at 8,200 and more bad news is likely to come before things get better.

how low do you think it will go? 7000? 6000?

Possibly. 7,000 is 50% of its peak which is consistent with previous bear markets.

However it can go much lower if something really bad happens (i.e. GM is allowed

to go bankrupt.)

The problem right now is the uncertainty that exists with regard to US companies'

future earnings. How can investors value a stock if they don’t have the foggiest

idea what the 'e' in p/e will be?

The bad news is, most companies have now reported their third-quarter results,

and they are worse than forecast for all sectors. Analysts were too optimistic

and didn't see it coming. They are much more pessimistic now - maybe too

pessimistic. We'll see.

Well here we are at 6,550.

Didn't take too long either.

[almaty 19]

Yeah, word on the street is that Steven has poker night with a group of commies every Thursday night in his basement.

Those bastards.

Everybody wins...takes the fun right out of it.

What you need to do is establish a Politburo and appoint yourself Chairman... and put yourself in charge of the distribution of winnings

he is the chariman and president for life...

[Nikita2Charles 32]

House down from $650,000 to $360,000 so $290,000 down, only downer banks still expect payment on $650k

Stop looking at 401k and investments another $100,000 down the drain

But have great news life is wonderful there are things in life that are priceless!!!

Edited March 10, 2009 by Nikita2Charles

[Kathryn41 3,205]

My husband has lost so much through his 401Ks that he is now calling them 201Ks. Retirement was supposed to be next year. Who knows when it will be now.

[Sylvia_n_Joseph 3]

I don't even look at my retirememnt stuff at the moment . Zillow estimates my house went from 821k in 2006 to 471 K now and still falling at about 23 k a month. Good thing I don't plan on moving.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Nothing. Easy to do when you have nothing to lose.

[peejay 327]

Gee! I don't feel so bad anymore. I guess after reading these posts it's really true that misery really does love company.

My 401K took a sh*t just like everyone elses'. At 52 years old I've ridden the ups and downs of the market and was always confident that the market would rebound. This time around I'm not so sure. I can taste the fear building. I see a tsunami of hurt coming in 2009 and beyond. My visions of retiring before hitting 60 years old have faded considerably. The problem is that there are almost no 60 year old guys working in the offshore oil fields. It's a young man's job. There aren't many 52 year olds working there either. Looks like I'm screwed unless Obama puts me to work in one of his abundant green jobs that he is creating for old oilfield trash like myself.

As far as my house goes, it has been paid off 100% for years and it is still worth almost twice what I originally paid for it many years ago. I bought it when the housing market in Houston was still dead from the 80's Houston oil crash and burn. I survived that fiasco then too.

My job appears to be safe at least for this year and the company I work for has actually picked up more work recently. They are actually doing some limited hiring of experienced oilfield personnel to work some oil leases in North Dakota on a 28 day on duty / 28 day off duty schedule. Too damned cold up there for me...I'll stick with the leases on the Gulf of Mexico unless North Dakota is all that is available.

I do have enough cash socked away for a rainy day and I have next to zero debt. Those two facts are a plus on my side.

So, for me the near future looks OK, but the distant future looks a lot scarier than it did even a year ago. My optimism is on the wane.

Edited March 11, 2009 by peejay