This is pretty relevant, and especially interesting given our international membership. I'm hoping friends outside the US will respond too! How has this economic downturn / recession affected you? If you're young, has the mood changed around your house? If you are in your 20's are you buying stocks/ extra contributions to your 401k? If you are older or in retirement are you very nervous or panicking? Does anyone need any guidance or a second opinion? I'm curious to see how the iPhone/iPod Touch crowd has been effected by this economy! Any thoughts?
Yes, here in Sweden its pandemonium! The Swedish royal house has declared mob rule so its every man for himself now! Actually as I'm writing this I'm looting a liquor store while wrestling with a polar bear (they roam the streets freely here in Sweden, you know).
I'm currently investing more in my 401k and have been buying stocks since I was 18 years old (that hasn't changed). My undergraduate degree is a B.A. Science in Finance and I work in accounting, and am pursuing an MBA focused in accounting. In purchasing stocks I'm more careful to purchase from a company that is financial strong (like many of those are around now in the U.S. economy). I currently work for one of the biggest real estate owners in the U.S. and its scary to see how tenants are having retail sales slowly decrease month over month as they report their sales to us. We have hit new problems not just in the U.S., as the Global economy has slowed down. You see and hear about it everyday in the news more and more problems. In itunes purchasing, I carefully make a decision on if I need another game on my iphone. Don't get me wrong I still purchase games maybe on a daily basis, but I'm lucky that my wife has a good job, and I currently have a good job (knock on wood). All I can say is that it's very scary and according to some of my professors we should see the market turn around toward the 4th quarter of this year. We should see the housing market pick-up slowly in 1st quarter 2010. I don't know if they are right or wrong, I do think we will see the market pick-up and jobs will slowly start to return. However, one of the big problems is that as an American we always want to go bigger and don't always think about the negatives. I for one want to be able to feed my children and provide for them things they need. I don't need a house that costs millions of dollars just a house that is comfortable to live in. Many people didn't think like that and its the reason we are in the situation we are in. Housing consumers aren't the only ones at fault, as many companies borrowed on the growth of housing markets and we are seeing the past twenty years of people and companies continue to borrow without worrying if the market crashes. There are many factors for the state of the global economy, but mostly when it corrects itself people will need to be more careful about their spending habits and how they borrow from creditors.
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=how+do+I+buy+stocks%3F There's the stocks one http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=what+is+a+401k%3F There's your 401k one
there's a whole lot more you need to think about.. in the UK your retirement options are the same... but it seems more and more each day we share similar economic news... thanks globalization! ummm... PS DanM if you're reading this in time... are you in London? how's that snow going ???
