What is your survival Plan for Recession[modified]

[Paul Conrad]

I plan on just pressing on to the best of my abilities through these uncertain times.

"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham

[Paul Conrad]

Chris Austin wrote:

I've been brewing my own beer for a few years now.

Cool. A friend of mine has a microbrewery going and it's pretty sweet :)

"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham

[micmanos]

To all you feeling a bit assured ... Murphy Lay No26. ------------------- If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop. Sweet Dreams to all ... ;P

[Lee Humphries]

Live in a least developed country. They are largely isolated from first world financial meltdowns thanks to long term aid commitments, and let's face it, they usually have bigger problems to deal with. Not so great if you've got kids and you want them to get a decent education. And if you want a simple answer as to how long it can go on for just consider that there are still large tranches of the US sub-prime mortgage belt to flip over to the higher interest rates, probably around another year of that. That will continue to be a highly suppressive influence on any desired recovery.

I just love Koalas - they go great with Bacon.

[Duncan Edwards Jones]

I have invested in cattle - if their value drops I'll eat them :-)

'--8<------------------------ Ex Datis: Duncan Jones Merrion Computing Ltd

[BillWoodruff]

Hi Tapas, First I will ride Depression with a saddle : if he throws me, I will sell him to the glue factory, or the cat food factory, whichever offers the better price. best, Bill

"The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis

[hairy_hats]

Christian Graus wrote:

I have a three year contract ( if I get fired, they pay me out )

Why not get yourself fired and take three years off?

[stevepqr]

Starting my own business - www.keepitunderthemattress.com Only problem is as I get more customers I will find it harder to sleep... ;)

Apathy Rules - I suppose...

Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect

[ghle]

Best career move I've made. I took a job as CIO for a company that buys bad loans. Business is better than ever. Sorry folks.

Gary

[Lost User]

Stay in work and out of debt.

Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.

[Dan Neely]

I'm still renting, but the money I've saved towards a down payment would cover at least a years living expenses (assumption being I live frugally ofc). Otherwise, my program's got about a years work waddling through the fed contracting process so I should be good for a bit regardless.

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall

[Roger Wright]

Mine is probably a poor one, but I have little saved and few options. I plan to keep working, and try to keep my head, financially speaking, above water. In the short term I've done something I always advise others against. We have a 401k plan at work, but the particular securities we're allowed to choose from have all lost money for two years running, and the recent fiasco has only accelerated the losses. We're allowed to borrow up to one half of the balance and pay it back to our own account (with interest) by payroll deduction over a period of months or years. In the meantime, I have a house that is falling apart and a vehicle that needs maintenance I can't afford to do. So I've taken a loan to effect repairs on both, and to stop the bleeding in my 401k. Hopefully the market will settle down in a year or two, but my savings will no longer be exposed to it, and the loan interest will probably be the only earnings my account has. That's ordinarily bad investment tactics - staying in the market during bad times and selling when good times return is the smart way to invest. But in this case there are immediate needs for ready cash to protect much larger investments (home and vehicle) which I can't count on future cash flows to maintain. It was a tough choice, but the right one, I hope. On another front, though, when the market tanked a couple weeks ago I immediately bought shares in troubled banks at or very near the bottom, and both stocks are doing very nicely. :-D

"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"

[Dr Walt Fair PE]

My wife and I own all our houses and condos and cars. I rarely spend money on gasoline. I paid off all debts before I started my own business in 1991 and have never run up a credit card bill since. I plan to keep dealing in cash and not buying things I can't afford. I'll be turning down job offers I don't like and keep working --- and buy cheap houses from those who over estimated their economic worth.

[grgran]

So how will you be able to tell that it's the bottom and not just a local minimum, on a long downhill coast?

[grgran]

This is of course if you actually believe the 'signals' as provided by the gov'ment. Over the last 30 or so years this data has been skewed that it's almost useless. Most of this foolishness was to reduce the reported cost of living thereby reducing the future SSN outflow. Compare the rapid rise in commodities with the relatively tame gov'ment reported inflation. Add to this that these signals are lagging indicators, that are often 'corrected' months after there initial release. We've been in a recession ... the question is will it slide into a depression?

[grgran]

Chris Austin wrote:

Christian Graus wrote: I'm contemplating solar. What are your thoughts ? It's really cool. It's just really expensive, at least in my part of the world (Dallas). We decided to do it just because we were was getting pissed off when we saw our electric bill go up ~15% despite our year to year consumption going down by more than 20%. If I could get away with it in my HOA I'd put in a wind turbine as well.

In Raleigh NC, power costs aren't too bad (as long as the big nuke plant doesn't melt down) ... Solar is insane, everytime I look the ROI suggests that I would have to live to around 250 years ... and that's with the tax breaks. Finding someone to do the work is another problem. People here who know which end of a hammer to pick up consider themselves 'master craftsmen' and I've yet to find one who's work I would consider even 'good' ... on the other side here everyone seems to be buying 800K houses on postage stamp lots ... they can't build enough of them, and if it's slowed down it certainly hasn't shown up here ... ya can't throw a rock without hitting a 800K MacMansion under construction ... I don't know what these folks do for a living but it must pay a whole lot better than computer work. Maybe they are all signed up to get baled out

[Joe Woodbury]

I don't believe we're in a recession. The availability of loans, both personal and business, as well as historically low unemployment belie an overall economic contraction.

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

[Theodore M Seeber]

14% is historically low? Or are you believing the "official government numbers" that exclude "discouraged" workers from the labor market?

[Joe Woodbury]

Theodore M. Seeber wrote:

14% is historically low?

Try 6%. This is valid since that's how it's been calculated for a long time and which is how you create a legitimate basis for any economic measurement. You can't compare numbers calculated one way with numbers calculated another. You may not like it, but (Strictly speaking, if you count every adult over 18 and who is not unemployed, the number is over 50%. So what?) (The same thing happens with inflation numbers; too many people get all uptight since it doesn't measure everything, but you can't measure everything and constantly changing what is measured and how would make any inflation number meaningless over time.)

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

[Ri Qen Sin]

Add more money to my mutual fund account, and hope the economy gets back on its feet again. Imagine the return on my investment if all goes well! :-D

So the creationist says: Everything must have a designer. God designed everything. I say: Why is God the only exception? Why not make the "designs" (like man) exceptions and make God a creation of man?