Honestly the cigarette tax combined with a "hahahah no I dont think legalizing marijuana will help the economy" was a big slap in teh face from the Obaminator. How wholly hypocritical for him on the one hand execute a tax hike on one drug and be so dismissive of another perfectly viable income for the government. I'm a big obama supporter and i was very disappointed in the whole racket.

On the other hand, it takes a long time to screw up the economy and you cant hold the few months Obama has been in office accountable for the trouble we're in now. \The banks and GW Bush are the ones really at fault here.

Man, I'm really sorry to hear about this kind of situation. I guess all I can do is be glad I'm still in college and haven't been hit by this directly yet, and hope that things will be on the upswing by the time I graduate. My dad told me that it might be a good idea for me to go to grad school when I finish here because of how bad the economy has been.

On the subject of the President, I think a lot of people just expect far too much from the President. People should start learning to take everything with a scoop of salt (a grain isn't enough, honestly) and to also make sure that they're being careful with electing their state Congressmen. If you've got good, level-headed, intelligent people representing you, it doesn't matter who's President, because the President can't make the laws (or at least, isn't supposed to be able to).

I hope things turn out okay, but I'm sure things are going to get worse for a few more years before they start really getting better.

Well, it doesn't affect me currently, because this is my retirement money. At this rate, it will most likely be gone in ten years or more - at least by the time I retire.

I certainly do not blame Obama for the economic crisis. This isn't his recession. But, he has a chance to fix it, and he's trying. I really believe he is trying to fix it. I just disagree with his methods, and I also think at this point anyone who has invested in 401Ks and IRAs should be able to pull their money out without a tax hit, so they can invest it however they see fit.

It's not rape if you don't know any better.

I think the lesson we can learn from this is to die before retirement.

Sorry to hear about the economic woes catching up with you Blankfist.

I too have had my retirement bundle halved by following "the prevailaing wisdom" offered by government and financial types. Funny thing is, I havent even heard from the people handling my retirement plan. They used to keep calling me to have a sit down and send me mail, then they lost half my savings and seemingly, my phone number.

I'm starting a new savings plan called "Biscuit tin in hole in the floor".

Everybody tried to get me to buy into a 401K...because I am so intuitive and I realized this situation would arise, I did not. Actually it's 'cause I'm a douche that lives paycheck to paycheck that doesn't want to see a penny less every week. But I'm glad I'm a douche now, because I haven't lost squat. And you should be pissed about what happened. So now you're paying to bail them out and you lost that money. In my opinion, they should waive taxation on withdrawal of up to the amount you will personally end up paying for the bail out.

^That's a great solution, RS. Look at the big brain on you. All grown up now and wearing adult pants.

blankfist, you sound like a poster on DailyKos or some other liberal blog.

Boiled, way, way, way down, you're saying "where's my piece of the socialist pie?"

Welcome to the club man. Here's some Kool-aid^TM. That'll be $9.99, the proceeds go to the Obama 2012 campaign fund.

But seriously, by "penalty fee" do you mean your IRA/401k has an early withdrawal fee, or simply that you'll have to pay the income taxes on what you withdraw? You didn't pay income taxes on it when it went in, did you? You knew the rules of this game when you went in, didn't you?

The tax increase on cigarettes was for SCHIP; the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Assuming you make less than $250k/yr, your income taxes are being cut generally by Obama (as part of the stimulus package). The local/state tax increases are due to those lovely "balanced budget" requirements that conservatives love. It means in an economic downturn, as tax revenue drops, the states need to either make massive cuts to services, raise rates, or levy new taxes. They can't just borrow money to take up the shortfall, to be paid off in better economic times like the Federal government can.

Us liberal/progressive people are also starting to get mad with Obama for not tossing these Wall Street yahoos in jail, or at least seriously working to determine the causes of our crisis via a series of non-partisan criminal investigations.

But really, as far as personal investment advice, I'd say let your money ride, unless you really think this economic crash will never fully recover, and that you've already witnessed the peak Dow Jones value for your working lifetime. You bought in at the peak (or thereabouts), and selling now would lock in the losses you've suffered since.

Unless you're going to retire this year or next, most of the market fluctuations aren't a big deal for retirement plans. However, if you think the stock market won't be a good investment generally over the next 10 years compared to bonds, you should switch your investment mix to bonds, though personally I'd wait till the Dow hits 10,000 again before I'd do that.

The shill hath spoketh.

That is a good point NetRunner makes. Ride it out. And thems were the terms you agreed to when you signed up for the 401K. I've been thinking about getting into it soon. Get in at the bottom. I just don't know how low we can go! I guess that makes me the same as most Americans.

That sucks, BF. If it makes you feel any better I'm still covered in school debt.

^Me too.

I raped you first.

The bright side is that you have enough money to want an accountant. You can't be that bad off.

I have to have an accountant. They're not just for rich Fortune 500 CEOs; sometimes us lowly middle class peeps need to use them, too.

You need a BETTER accountant.

{ahem}



Sucks man, though. A few of my friends, even some not living paycheque to paycheque, were not too happy to see where the economy was headed. Anyone who left money in the market in the past year definitely got burned. Be glad that it's still early before retirement and there's time to make up for those losses.

The big question is when the economy is going to stop flushing itself down the toilet and it'll be 'safer' to invest again.

Investing isn't safe, mind you - that's why all the hardcore types advise plowing your money into a good home before diddling with stocks. With a non-mortgaged home, your costs of living are significantly lower than those of someone paying rent/mortgage while still retired.

I personally think its a brilliant time to buy up stocks and shares given the massive price falls which are not inline with their book value.

>> ^blankfist:
The shill hath spoketh.


In other news, I hear it's fun to blame the new guy on the block for all the problems the old guy caused, particularly if you were a supporter of the old guy.

The guy that agrees with the "shill" has spoketh...

Good thing you will still qualify for social security and medicare, huh?

Too bad you are incapable of handling your own finances.

Go Ron Paul!

>> ^Asmo:
>> ^blankfist:
The shill hath spoketh.

In other news, I hear it's fun to blame the new guy on the block for all the problems the old guy caused, particularly if you were a supporter of the old guy.
The guy that agrees with the "shill" has spoketh...


Yeah, that would be fun if I was a supporter of Bush. I wasn't.

When people invest for the "long term" it is with the understanding that the stock market will go down at times, possibly by a lot. The gamble is on whether or not your portfolio will be higher in value 10 or 20 years from now than it was the day you invested. It very well could go back up by a lot... then again, maybe not.

Executives did what they were paid to do (mostly). Their pay was based on maximizing quarterly profits so that is what they did. Sure they were greedy, but that's how people are in general. If their pay was set up to reward them for long-term sustainability then the outcome may have been different. They are there to make money.


As far as long-term stock market stuff, it is getting less predictable. We're in a world of ever-increasing technology, and the increasing speed of change in the business world is making predicting the future much more difficult. The more uncertainty there is, the less likely people are to invest heavily.

I'm staying the hell away from the stock market for now (especially USA stocks). I'd be terrible at short-term buying, and I can't think of many things that will definitely be stable long-term (including the dollar).


I am sorry for your loss. It sucks to trust people who are supposedly "experts" on a subject only to have them get caught by surprise. I wish I had some good advice for you, but the best I can do is wish you luck.

Explain to me why it is blankfist's fault that he invested in an IRA because it was a tax advantage to do so...maybe if he had the freedom to invest or save and didn't have to shelter money from taxes he wouldn't even be in this position.

Instead, you support laws essentially forcing him to give money to wall street, and then when they make profit and he loses his money, force him to give even more money to bail them out - and you probably don't think twice about it because you haven't put two and two together since elementary school.

move along, sheep.