Forget what the media says Just how bad is the economy & financial security for you & your family?

Question

This form of corrupt Capitalism has not been working for me! i.e. where do you find secure income?

Answer 1

23,000 people today just found out that they do not get secure income from working. They just found out their jobs are gone at Chrysler. Despite the new agreements.
Merry Christmas.
Main Street, and Wall Street might just as well be on different planets for all the sense they make anymore. You work and think you've been paying into a pension, then find out the company has gutted it, or changed the rules, you retire being told you can expect one thing, and they sell you down river and you are getting nothing.
We save every week and have for a long time. We live below our means, our car is going to be eligible for classic status in two years. We almost never vacation.
Last year our home was worth almost $200 thousand more than this year. So that lets out putting your money in real estate.
I'm worried, we heat with oil and its approaching one hundred dollars a barrel. I'm paying $2.70 a gallon for heating oil and it used to be under a dollar. I'm paying $2.59 for chicken and it used to be $1.99. The supermarket is getting to be like high jumps. The things I use are going up and taxes are through the roof. I don't own stocks, so I don't care what Wall Street says, I'm not buying more, I"m not spending more....how can I? I'm not making more.

Answer 2

The currency of the future will be food. There are 6 billion people on the planet that only can sustainably support MAYBE 2 billion. The fact that there are so many people only shows that we are dumber than yeast. At least when the resources are used up in the Petri dish, the yeast have enough sense to die off.

Our 'economy' seems to be doing great because we are going further into debt with each day. The high numbers of the stock market are a delusion. You cannot buy as much with the 13,000 stock 'dollars' as you could with the 1300 of 1929, so think about what those McMansions are really worth if there are too many built.
The construction companies have two choices: either keep building houses and going further into debt, or file bankruptcy. The last development is never intended to be built, only to convince people who are buying the 2nd-to-last development that their house will increase in value.

Food and Energy are excluded from the government's inflation index. Think about what you are paying for energy right now, and how your food prices will be affected by farmers growing corn to make ethanol, as well as the destruction of the soil from corn growing and how that will affect food prices.
The price of wheat I sold this year was THREE TIMES what it was last year.

Now, what job do you think is going to pay you 3 times what you made this year? Do you think the price of energy is going to drop enough so you can pay 3 times as much for food?

The Middle East countries have been lying about how much oil is in the ground.
The Federal Reserve (not Federal, and NOT a reserve) has been lowering interest rates to encourage economic growth. Economic growth via low interest rates is the same as just printing more money and dropping it out of a helicopter. It just means you need even more money to buy the same amount of stuff.

We are freakin doomed. Got food?

Answer 3

Bad economy??? I don't see it. I work part-time for a interstate trucking company and we are moving as much or more freight than we ever have. At times our two block long warehouse is so crowded with freight waiting to be loaded that it is difficult to move around. Out on the interstate highways in the evening and night there are as many or more 18-wheelers moving than ever. People working for other companies in the same business are seeing the same thing. If the freight companies are that busy then business can't be as bad as some people are saying, else there wouldn't be any freight to move.

Answer 4

Secure income is up to you ,Its all on how you do things.
And there is no such thing as secure income it can be here today and gone tomorrow.
people that say their weekly income is secure are not in the real world,their job can be gone tomorrow.
You live and work with the thought that things can happen.
So you have to take some responsibility for your own future.

Answer 5

i am affiliated with a halloween products company.

while they made plenty of money this year, they reported that they found plenty of folks who they have been selling stuff to and with that have said that sales were off this year by as much as 70%.

some blamed weather and others blamed the timing of halloween and others still blamed the timing of playoff and world series games.

i happen to think that the sub-prime meltdown and subsequent loss of value of housing has a dramatic impact on how people perceive their standing in the economy and how much they will spend on non-essentials.

tell a person that their house is worth less than it was last year and that's bound to have an impact on that person's sense of confidence - many people now owe more on their house than it is actually worth.

this will deeply impact how much is spent on holidays this year.

my advice is to put off buying that house for now, there is nothing wrong with renting.

cut up all of your credit cards - there is not a single one out there that is not a glossed over form of extortion and loan sharking - credit card companies are some of the most vicious and heartless corporations in history.
don't have anything to do with them - ever.

save money, and save for your retirement.

these things will make you a bad consumer and will be bad for corporations who discourage people from saving.

forget the amoral corporations, and think about your own savings, future and retirement.

i owe nothing to anyone. i own my car outright, have no credit card debt and am perfectly happy living a wonderful house that i rent...

Answer 6

I've been near the edge for the last few years more so now than ever. I've been cutting spending for the last 6 month and now that the gas is going to be ridiculously high I'm afraid I'll be at the edge, I don't think I will fall but everybody that makes less than me and didn't save, most likely will.
Where I live a crime wave is starting to grow which is a good indicative that people are being forced to do crazy stuff to survive.

Answer 7

We are doing fine. We have a fixed rate mortgage, and make our payments on time. We don't choose to have credit cards, which means we have to live within our means.

My husband has been with his company for 9 years, and I have been with mine for 5, so we are secure and our incomes are enough to support us.

Answer 8

Secure income... the military. Sorry, its the truth.

One bad thing is the cost of living has gone up, but wages havent.

Answer 9

I've made best use of my talents and work hard to provide for my family. The economy is treating me fine.

Answer 10

For the moment I remain comfortable. I don't see this with people who have children. This could be a tough winter for many. The rise in gasoline, utilities, food etc. could do much damage. As these rise I am not seeing this reflected in paychecks.