To answer the OP, no the economy has not had any effect on my toy fund. In fact, my miata is in the shop having a new exhaust system installed 2.5 Tony DP 2.5 pseudo cat, stepped up to 3” from the cat to the bumper

Ive always been pretty frugal, and even more so now. I put mony away in an IRA & in an ING savings account every pay check, while putting a lot of money toward my school loans. Doesnt leave much for the pimped out G-ride but I can manage.

From what ive read, the whole economy thing is media hype since we have only seen this first quarter go down. I may be mistaken, but regardless im working hard to pay off all debt, save what i can and buy my first house beginning to middle of next year...just in case it really does become an economic mess

a tax advantaged investment for retirement is paying someone to play with your money? any halfway decent roth or regular ira has virtually 100% freedom with what you put your money in. individual stocks, funds, indicies, whatever.

Unless you're 50 (I don't remember you being 50), it shouldn't matter what the market is doing. hell if I was 59 today I'd close my eyes and work another 5 years.

A roth is a great idea. You are taxed on what you put in but when it earns 500% over 20 years and you dont pay federal income taxes on those earnings. That's like a free 25+% that you dont give away to the gub'ment.

I mean shit, put 5000 a year into a roth and tie it to the S&P and you'll make 10% a year tax free in the long run. And you dont pay income or capital gains or anything. compare that to just the regular stock market where you make 85% of that 10% because you pay gains taxes.

Your stupid again Sam. The trick to the roth is the tax savings your getting, which you wont get on your own. Second would be the company match 401k is free money again.

y8s beat me to it.

sadly not all employers match, but regardless its still a good idea to put money away

Here in Michigan it seems to suck. At least I'm always hearing it does.

I did hear on Fox news channel that the media was focusing on all the foreclosures and not on how many people were doing fine. Making it look worse than it is.

There are about 20 houses in my neighborhood for sale though.

my co. is doing better than ever, but unfortunately my boss is getting greedier as well, fucking ass

the economy is fine, its a cycle, things can't just keep going up all the time...inflation would kill us all, lol
recession is a good thing, for the smart people, i think darwin had something to do with the way the economy works, lol

PS the fed dropped the prime by .75%

everyone call your credit card companies and tell them to lower your rate. fixed rate.

gas is $1.10 here right now and the summer its supposivly supposed to shoot up to a $1.50 ridiculous...

Inflation is going to be the biggest issue now.

per..... shotglass?

Better yet, get rid of credit card debt. Credit cards are the meth of our economy.

Guys- he's Canadian. They sell by the litre. CA$1.10 / l = CA$4.16 / gal = US$4.19. (fuck. The Looney is ahead of the Greenback again...)

But we're not far off. 91 octane was $3.98 when I filled up last week.

No your stupid :magna:

What tax advantage? With a roth you put in post tax income, you paid the tax on it already. With a traditional IRA you can write the taxes off.

Unless you are referring to the non taxed earnings when you withdraw retirement?

Btw, when you put your money into a Roth, you allocate the funds to a Mutual Fund, or Hedge Fund and those have Fees. Thats what I am referring to when I said paying someone to play with your money. What would seem is a small percentage they charge, is actually a lot of money in the end.

But it does matter. If the market is constantly going down, why would I want to put my money into it only to wait for it to recover? Id rather invest when the market is doing well, and is stable at least in the short term even though this is a long term investment.

At least that is how I reason it.

I am not saying it isnt a great idea, its a fantastic idea. In fact I have a roth opened with Etrade along with my brokerage account. I was getting ready to put 4 grand into it until I started to think about the near term future.

I need my money to stay available to me over the next 5 years. If I put it in a roth I cant withdraw it for 5 years to buy a house, which carries no early withdrawal penalty.

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I have my 401k tied to the market, if I could id take that money but free money is free money when the company matches.

Simple difference is this. Either A. You retain liquidity and pay tax on earnings or B. put the money away and have it available to you tax free in 50 years.

I want my money available to me all the time. I dont know whats going to happen in 50 years, locking my money up, in my mind is not the smartest thing to do today.

But please don't think that I am advocating against a Roth IRA, I think its a great thing to do if you have the disposable income to put into it. In fact if you have the money and you can do with it, then do it.

Just understand its not the same for everyone.

I moved away from the markets in the 80's the first time we went through the economic issues. Have PM's - gold & silver - the returns/upturn on them is fantastic. I bought a lot of silver when it was $3-$4 per oz - I LIKE it now at $20+ per oz. Gold was around $350-$400 per oz at that time as well. All that in just 3-4 years time, and I expect both to climb a lot more this year and next year.

Right now it is all the independent banking systems that are faltering, the fed guaranteed banking system is being resolved at the FDIC level, only a couple small banks have gone down the tubes because of the mortgage crisis. I believe what we are seeing mortgage wise is just the tip of the iceberg, nore to come this year and next. Employment will continue to take the hit and decline as rising costs of manufacturing and distribution continue to rise due to fuel costs. Belt tightening at those levels has always brought unemployment, it will take a year or so to get it all under control.

Most all the mortgage stuff and credit card issues are brought on by those who cannot budget their lives, think money grows on trees, etc. Everyone will have to tighten their belt to survive that falls into that group.

Reading some of the more 'black' sites, it seems most feel that we are heading toward a New World Order with regard to banking, etc as a whole. That the NWO will pretty much do away with the indepentents, or at least those who will not play ball with the govs and money changers. If that IS the true situation, lots more independents to fly by the wayside in the process. The gov is printing money like running water, killing the dollar big-time. Of course that actually represents the fact that the dollar will finally be worth it's value with inflation being the real difference. We will see prices triple to equalize those.

As for the actual question that this thread is about - NO, the economy is not affecting my ability to pay for the play when it comes to my vehicles. In fact, right now I am in a window of time to go ahead and play more and that's exactally what I am doing and why I am here on this website - learning what the current and new toys are that I might want to pay/play with. I am self-employed so my future depends greatly on my business skills and client base, both have been and are continuing well. If it all goes to hell, guess I'll find something else to do. My home is paid for, actually everything I have is paid for. I am not stuck in all this stuff the way others are, and I truly hope all will come out for the better for everyone.

and this is when the brilliant idea of living below your means all the sudden makes sense, maybe you dont need a BMW, maybe a camry will do, and the house, maybe 4000sq. ft. is too much, maybe a single guy can live in a smaller two bedroom house with 1500sq. ft.

thats the thing, people that live below their means have "disposable" (god i hate that term) income...thats why i dont care what the brokers, bankers, realtors say about what my %net/gross should be for rent/mortgage...i know better than he knows, i am not part of the majority that follows the "rules" i have a brain and think for myself, only reason i have a credit card is to have a credit history since i never bought a car on credit and untill recently i never had a mortgage...

Man that sucks, it was $3.18 for 91 when i looked yesterday.

last i got was 3.30 for 93, but that was a steal
its usually around 3.40 ish for 93 here (SC is slightly cheaper, about 5-10 cents)

I quote this post for truth.

Except the Gold statement. I think it will go down before it goes up, this is a short term prediction of mine.