Posted on 06/08/2009 6:52:11 AM PDT by PeterL
I retired in late 2006 with a conservative financial plan in place that would last through the lives of my wife and myself and still leave a little something for the kids. My financial planner and I choose an appropriate asset allocation model and we needed only 5% returns to be in good shape. My wife and I planned on working or volunteering, but we could do things because we wanted to and not because we had to. After many years in corporate America, this was a great place to be.
I am still in a little bit of shock over everything that has happened in the financial markets over the past year. On one hand, events unfolded in the blink of an eye and on the other, it was a death by a thousand cuts. My retirement plans were solid and in place and now they are gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Dead. They will not be revived and I am left with the shock, disbelief, despair and anger of trying to figure out what to do next.
Who is to blame for all this because I would like to introduce them to their worst fears and nightmares? Not really, but they should suffer. I played by the rules. I put my money in secure investments. I didn’t gamble on housing or any of the other get rich schemes out there. Perhaps I was too willing to accept the advice of financial planners with all of their asset allocation models and long term investing theories. History always repeats itself, the market runs in cycles, you cannot time the market and so in the end you buy and hold knowing that which comes down will eventually rise even higher…but I don’t think so this time. The mess we are in right now feels very different. No one is talking about rebounding to past highs. All of the talk is can we avoid the dire straits of a total system collapse.
There is probably much blame to go around. For years, while I was still a part of corporate America I was incensed at the salaries, bonuses, perks and power being given to our CEO and to all CEOs. In the good old USA our CEO’s average 450 times the salary of the average worker. The next highest country averaged 22 times the average worker. Not too hard to see that something was terribly wrong, but times were booming, money being made, stock prices climbing so who cared. Of course now we find out that most of these profits were just shell games and the people who could manipulate their way to huge paydays. The foxes raided the hen houses and they have all gotten away.
I need to get back to work. I need to make money comparable to what I used to, but it won’t be easy. My age and experience work against me not for me. The job market is terrible and we just hit 23 straight months of net jobs lost. There is no end in sight, but still, I conduct my daily job searches and try to stay positive and pray I do not lose everything I have worked so hard to acquire.
I am an optimistic person, but it is clear to me that all of the rules have changed. I have no confidence in the economic stimulus plans, although I am a supporter of this President. I do not see how we can buy our way out of this mess. It is like we are trying to pay off the judge in order to avoid going to jail, but the judge is a harsh judge who does not accept bribes. Something tells me that we must accept our sentence and learn from all this. I don’t claim to know what our lesson or lessons might be, but I feel certain that our lives need to change and our desires need to change. “He who dies with the most toys wins” was a funny bumper sticker, but it is funny no more. I think it is time to end this era of greed and selfishness and over consumption. It is time to focus on needs and not wants, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think about how our actions affect the other guy, and not just that it is good for me.
There are so many of us in this predicament. It is as if we are stranded on an island and there is no one coming to our rescue. Certainly not the government! Perhaps therein lays our opportunities. Those of us with first hand experience on how the old rules no longer apply can begin to create the new rules. We find strength as we look to each other for strength. Our unique bond expanding into a feeling the connection between us…and this connection feels good and right…and we begin to desire this connection…and nurture this connection…and begin to realize what our world could look like if we took care of each other instead of taking care of our self. Why not put this into action? It has been talked about often but never implemented. What do we have to lose?
Yup
Its incorrect to say noone saw it coming, some did and prepared for it. Most financial advisors just suck badly - being one have been very easy these past 20 years because in general stock went up. Its not til we saw a big down turn do we seperate the geniuses from the wave surfers who collect big salary for doing basically nothing
Why are you “a supporter of this president”?
My wife got her statement from her savings account Friday she is being paid .82% interest on her money.
“There is probably much blame to go around. For years, while I was still a part of corporate America I was incensed at the salaries, bonuses, perks and power being given to our CEO and to all CEOs.”
CEOs were paid well for raising stock prices and profits. The left has been successful at demonizing business leaders.
The collapse of the financial sector due to sub prime loans is the root cause. The story is getting out. Needs to be repeated over and over.
To quote Jimmy Carter (from his apparently one lucid moment as President): “Life isn’t fair.”
How many people in countries like Belgium, Greece, Holland, etc.. lost everything they had during WWII. Simply because another country decided (Germany) decided to invade their country and grind it under its heel.
Keep some perspective.
You’re far better off. You will likely also live longer. You have to look at the bright side.
“...I played by the rules...”
I myself realized there are no rules, when I saw our CEO have alcohol problems, and his marriage end - and I thought, “He’s a nice guy, but I am counting on him to take care of me, when he can’t even take care of himself?”
I realized then also that Government promises are the same thing, even worse.
Jobs are going to be at a premium. Hell, they already are. And that aint gonna change any time soon. Illegals will take American jobs. The heretofore retired folks will go back into the job market taking jobs away from younger people. Temporary summer jobs are gonna dry up faster than a pool of water in a heat wave. That is what is going on and will continue to happen in this disastrous economy which Obummer and his administration has made even worse by his financial and economic policies.
CEOs were paid well because their buddies were on the corporate boards. What you have now is a corporate oligarchy that basically played right into the bubble - they made their millions, and now taxpayers are left holding the tab.
People saw this coming.
You are just one of those who didn’t think it could happen to THEM.
When you say you are a supporter of this President, what do you mean?
His agenda includes taking advantage of people in your situation, who are running scared. Hope you don’t end up in that category, because fear is a great motivator for people to start thinking along the lines of what is good for the collective, blahblah.
I think it is time to end this era of greed and selfishness and over consumption. It is time to focus on needs and not wants, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think about how our actions affect the other guy
This is straight out of Atlas Shrugged..Holy Crap this is scary..
I'm guessing it would look like a socialist nightmare in which the smartest people had no interest in running major corporations because the people at the top were no longer appropriately compensated.
Well, there is not much to say about that dichotomy. Enjoy the Change.
We all suspected the mortgage situation was a time bomb. We all suspected there was no real value behind the Bubble. We all suspected the derivatives were fake.
So, everyone sat there chewing their cuds.
Hadn't we seen posts here for YEARS questioning this?
Exactly.
One thing we conservatives must realize is big corporations and big business are just as bad as big government. They only exist after a certain point to protect itself and get larger at the cost of ordinary Americans
We must become the party of small business, where there are higher wages and jobs created
How is that working out for you?
Why? Has he no Social Security? Is his home not paid for? Did he lose ALL his investments or just about half?
I feel for folks. I really do. I am retired. I live off the income of my rental properties, which at this point in my life are owned outright, and my Social Security check is currently gravy. I'm not rich nor am I fully retired, because I work at maintaining my properties, but that's what keeps the income coming in.
I'm not trying to be flip, but wouldn't a minimum wage job as a Walmart greeter or somesuch cover the shortfall in investment losses if you had really played by the rules? With no teenage boys to feed or mortgage or tuitions to pay or braces to buy, my wife and I are more comfortable now than we were most of our marriage.
To be fair, many seniors are feeling the pinch from their investment losses, but most I know are making do by cutting back on their day trips and gifts to the grandchildren, and a few are supplementing with part time low paying employment. But then their homes are paid for.
The term Financial Planner is an oxymoron. There is no planning involved, as “they” get paid when customers enter and exit the market. Trading volume is how this industry survives.
Now I am not saying absolutes, like “all” planners are . . . but what this industry sells are “things” that fit a customer’s “wants” => steady retirement, big house, boats, etc. This industry uses simplified tooling to “project” what earnings will be based on very simple assumptions.
If they were true planners, they’d be higher degrees in Economics and Mathematics, instead of being certified salespeople, state-by-state. Since markets strive for efficiency, once any given model becomes known and fully utilized, it losses it’s ability to exploit the given inefficiency.
The information age guarantees zero certainty over time, as information becomes more accessible by the masses. Basically, market inefficiencies get erased far faster than they in days past because more people learn of them and can act with greater rapidity than ever before.
Same sob story we heard during the last financial crisis: I lost everything!
When are people going to get smart? There is no “everything” in an unstable world. There are necessities. If you *really* want to prepare for the future, take a portion of your retirement fund and invest in:
Land away from population centers
Guns and ammo
Food
A reasonable amount of silver or gold
Then, try to live a normal life. But - the way I see it - this house of cards will collapse within two years. Only those people who prepared will outlast the chaos that will follow.
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