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Have you changed.....

kolanuraven

Well-known member
ANYTHING about your lifestyle, purchases, etc since the economy has basically ' tanked'





Me, I've not really changed anything.

I work from hom via computer 90% of the time so driving is not an issue for me.

I still buy the same groceries, but I have noticed lots of items no longer available here in our local store due to business going bust.

We've always ' put in' a garden.....

So, it's not really ' hit' me in this little ' holler in the woods'
 

jigs

Well-known member
not a lot has switched here either, but we are looking at altering a few things...

I think the farther you are from the city, and the more practicle you are the easier it is to ride out a tough spot.
 

Richard Doolittle

Well-known member
Our habits haven't really changed. We never have eaten out a lot or been very extravagant.

As far as the grocery store, I get frustrated with marketing strategies. First they try to reduce the amount of product without making the package size noticeably smaller and then the package price goes up anyway. Chips, cereal, and ice cream are good examples.
 

Clarencen

Well-known member
Yes, I have made several drastic changes in the past year and a half. Two years ago I felt confident and secure, now the future look pretty bleak.

I am up in the years and had expected to live on my savings, rent, and return on my assets. I still do run my ranching business but in a limited basis. My ranching has got to be hardly more then a break even affair, and my savings have disapeared, or are disapearing.

Fuel prices last summer greatly raised prices of everything I buy, and although fuel prices have declined everything else has not. I see nothing in the imediate future to keep fuel prices from going back up. and with more phoney money going into the economy, and increases in labor costs, prices wil contuinue to rise.

My only hope is that the value of my land and other assets will continue to raise, but the real truth is that if prices of them is based on production, they are already over valued.

You people can tell me what Obama is doing for me. Talk fast, I will be hard to convince.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I bet Clarnecen and folks like him live and have lived, a very conservative lifestyle. I know we do. Therefore, what Clarencen is talking about is "reduction in quality of life." This is exactly what was predicted by Conservatives.

The one thing in our favor, is that we (meaning most of us) were never "riding high" so we don't have so far to fall. But it still hurts when we had retirement plans that should have/woud have worked in a capitalist society and we could have been comfortable. Now that we are barreling toward socialism, the things we had acquired for ourselves is being taken away in one form or another.

Not a good feeling when you've worked and saved all your life.

I'm totally with you on this Clarnecen. We must be about the same age.
 

nmhighdesert

Well-known member
I haven't changed much, but I live 43 miles from town and usually get my stuff once a week at the most. What really hurts me is when I just a few days ago got my quarterly report from the mutual funds I set up for my kids college education, they are now worth 60% of one year ago. And what I have for myself was a 401K had now became a 201K. I have another 2500 acres of grass coming available from a neighbor in June, maybe I will get it and another 6 cows and be totally destitute a year from now. Maybe I can get a handout then? Oh well, the sun is up and its a beautiful day so I gotta keep smiling. It could be worse, I could be Mr. Pelosi.
Ya'll have a good day!
 

Mike

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Mike said:
Kola wrote: Me, I've not really changed anything.

You might need to change your underwear at least once a week?
Or at least wash the "Skidmarks" out. :shock:


That's an " alabama trait"...... you keep thinking I live on that side of the Chattahoochee....

It's a known fact that all Georgia gals have "Fizzledust" in their underwear. :roll:

Anyway, the gals in Bama don't wear any drawers at all!!!!!!!! :lol:
 

Steve

Well-known member
Kola
ANYTHING about your lifestyle, purchases, etc since the economy has basically ' tanked'

It totally wiped out my new business venture, (which was more of a hobby according to the IRS then a businness) as the Russian economy tanked and the Russians added in a whole new set of import taxes.. (just when it was getting to busy and to much like work) so I am not really complaining.. and I did meet some really nice people.

but I didn't have anything invested other then time..

so now I have the same amount of money and I was able to upgrade my hobby alot, .. and plenty of time.. so I started re-outfitting my workshop.

I have bought some racks from boaters world, that is closing, and a truck load of tools and equipment from a outfit in the Bronx that was retooling as well. .

so basically according to my wife. I've been shopping and traveling and bullshitting with folks and getting great deals on equipment..
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Mike said:
kolanuraven said:
Mike said:
You might need to change your underwear at least once a week?


That's an " alabama trait"...... you keep thinking I live on that side of the Chattahoochee....

It's a known fact that all Georgia gals have "Fizzledust" in their underwear. :roll:

Anyway, the gals in Bama don't wear any drawers at all!!!!!!!! :lol:



Why should they wear drawers.....just slows business down for them!!!!
 

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
reader (the Second) said:
.
, losing 40% of my retirement savings .



WOW!!!! That's a chunk

I think a person has to take complete personal responsibility for themselves. I personally invest no $ with anyone else, instead I invest it in property that I manage myself. I seem to trust myself and my judgement better than I trust some unknown CEO and his bonus sucking cronies.
Now with Government control taking over so many businesses I definatly will not be investing in someone/anything else.
I would rather have property that I can be responsible for than $ in someone else's bank, and have structured my business this year to reflect that.
 

MoGal

Well-known member
Well, for the last couple of years I think about how many hours my husband has to work to buy it and if we really need that.

I am tired of $500 electric bills and this summer we are putting up solar panels and seeing about putting more insulation (if we can) in.

Most of all the changes in the last six months have been food. I do not want genetic modified foods because dr's are now saying Americans are nutritionally deficient (genetic modified foods do not have the nutrition). Processed foods do not have the nutrition. I've not been able to find any canned corn as yet that is not gm and the vegetables we mostly use are potatoes, frozen peas, corn and carrots............ we're growing all those in the garden this year. I also got a brand new Mantis tiller last week and I hope this one lasts ten years like my other one did.

For the past 2 years I've bought a hog from someone in the area but I'm not satisfied with the taste. I think pig farmers must be trying to utilize distilled grains and the taste isn't there. I intend to get 2 or 3 this year and raise them ourself on corn and see if they don't taste better.

I believe food and utilities are going to go up further and those are what I am concentrating on to reduce my expenses.

I've become very interested in naturalistic medicine. I'm not satisfied that I have to worm the cows more often and black walnut hulls kill worms......... I'm gonna search it out more and seep my own black walnut hulls and see if that don't work better. I will have to wait until fall to try that though.

We've added grapes, black raspberries, blueberries and pecan trees to the yard. We've transplanted from the other place to here our peach, crabapple, black walnut trees and blackberries.

The pond has fish, I just don't know how many. The canadian geese stay here all year round and there's wild turkey a field over.

We've got our own chickens and I may have to get some ducks (just in case the hubby doesn't get me a goose for the table).

Oh and I've stocked up on 22 hollow points and shotgun shells.......... never ever had a gun in my house until the hubby and I got married and he brought his deer rifle and 22 over. Don't get the wrong idea, I have no intention of killing anybody, I'm just not gonna go without food when wildlife abounds, let someone else fight over roadkill (if it gets to that point).

Actually, I think many rural folks are in better shape than city folks as rural people usually help each other out and you form alliances with your neighbors. Perryville is known for its german ancestry and those folks don't waste anything (my husband was raised that way), men still open the doors for women and most children have manners and know the words, "please and thank you"

I guess the biggest change and it wasn't for financial reasons is that my folks and my husband and I went together and bought a 4 br place last september. As a little girl, I would tell my folks all the time that when they grew old, I would take care of them. Dad will be 80 in June and mom is 73 so they've finally decided that maybe they need just a "little" help. It works out fine (much better than I thought it would as I've not lived with my parents since I was 19 (30 yrs ago). Dad calls this place, "an old man's paradise" and I think we'd have heaven here on earth if we had at least 41 acres or more to go with the 9 we now have. At least then we could have
all the cows here instead of in leased pasture. Perhaps someday we may be able to add to it as there's a 300 acre farm surrounding us.

IFthings get really tight, then we may fence the hubby's acreage over at his homeplace and run most of the cattle over there instead of leasing pasture. We used 180 round bales last winter (however we still have 800 square bales of alfalfa in the barn) and we have 40 acres in orchard grass/clover and 20 acres in alfalfa. At least we have an option, plus one brother in law has 190 acres adjoining the homeplace that we could put up electric fence around after he gets his crops off and utilize some of that but that's only if things get really bad.
 

MoGal

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
I've postponed my retirement 10 years. I stopped fixing up my house. I stopped traveling. I was not able to help my kids out the way I did previously.

I think a lot of parents have been helping their kids out the last 20 years .......... far more than anyone can imagine.


That's one of the things Larry Bates talks about in his book, " The new economic disorder"

The federal reserve is targeting the people over 50 with their shenanigans. Basically what he said is that if they can devalue everything the over 50 crowd has, then everyone will be equally poor as the old folks won't be able to leave an inheritance to their children.
 

Cal

Well-known member
I'm afraid by the time they get done with cap and trade it's going to damage everyone. Some of the shameless will milk this program.

I hope to see property values decline for years just to keep the government's greedy hands out of the pockets of any that might have paid inheritence tax.....but with all of the money the gov. will be printing how will inflation play into that :???:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
My financial advisor made a lot of money for me and I was able to do a lot for 5 years -- cut down my work hours, take my mother on a cruise, travel, have my kids travel, help my kids out, fix up my house. I was very diversified but who knew that the whole economy would tank?! I have gained back some in the last months. I should have had a larger amount in cash and I definitely should begin to economize more.

But after seeing my husband die at 52 I decided what the heck enjoy life, you can't take it with you.

People like me who did well in the economy of the 80s and 90s and are older now are going to be hurting because we don't have 20 more years to recoup.

You need to periodically rebalance and set stops. The 200 day moving average is good for funds.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I can sympathize with you, Reader 2. Kinda sounds like me.

Sandhusker, what's the 200 day moving average is good for funds, mean?

Thanks for your reply.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
I can sympathize with you, Reader 2. Kinda sounds like me.

Sandhusker, what's the 200 day moving average is good for funds, mean?

Thanks for your reply.

I'm a techincal trader, which means I trade off the charts. I don't want to hear about profits or analysts or any of that, I want a picture drawn for me, and the charts do that. The 200 day moving average is the average price of the last 200 days. Every day, the new day's price gets figured in and the 201 st day drops out. When a fund trades below that, I sell and when it trades above, I buy. It guarantees that you will be in on strong ups and out on strong downs. Every now and then you get whipsawed when it straddles the line, but it works in the long run. It's a great way to manage a 401K. For stocks, I like using the 50 day average.

It's about as basic and simple strategy as there is, but simple usually works.
 
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