raise your hand if you are worried about the economy

angelaa73

What (if anything) are you trying to do about it?

BBKiddo

::raises hand::

I am just shitting myself like everyone else, I feel pretty helpless to the whole thing 

Sexilexi

I'm a little worried, I know it will turn back around.

Just_Ali

I am worried, but in all honesty, I don't know what I *can* do about it.  I still buy things (although not excessively) and pay my bills on time.  What more should I be doing?

Cristin Welch

I am very concerned about the economy. I just think that it is so sad that all of these people got themselves into a situation without looking ahead to the consequences. (sub-prime/adjustable). It has caused the economy to do a 180 and make a lot of companies cut staff. So sad. My H and I still have our jobs and they are very stable, so we are very blessed. In a very selfish way, I am enjoying the economy because my H and I are in a situation to make some big purchases, and now is the time...so I get a new car in December and we will be looking to buy a home in January. Way sooner than we ever thought possible. We also have a few big trips planned because the deals are just out there.

I think the solution to this problem is education. I feel that a lot of these people that are loosing their homes did not make educated decisions and just bought another home (that they couldn't afford) hoping to get ahead. I work in Collections and I foreclose on about 50 people a month...a large majority of the people I foreclose on have sub-prime/adjustable rates and it is their second home that they bought in the early 2000's....so sad.

 What I am finding now are people buying a second home (while their credit is still clean) and then walking on the other house they own...after they get the second house closed....that is going to really hurt the economy. The good news is that the state is frantically passing a law to make it a criminal offense to walk away from a house....(if in-fact a court determines that the person made a bad decision about the purchase and they "could" afford to keep paying the mortgage.)

Axobride

I have been worried about the economy for a while, but truly believe that past history shows that it is a cycle and this has happened before.  It's just a matter of not panicking and riding out the storm of the economy.  As for those losing homes, it was a matter of being smart and knowing what they could afford rather than accept the options for loans in excess of those amounts.  A lot of these problems come from people not knowing their limitations and making rash, impulsive decisions.

I work for a school district that is anticipating cutting close to $15 million from it's budget for the next fiscal year.  When 80% of a budget is salaries and benefits, the cuts will come from people, which means an extensive amount of layoffs.  In 2003, the budget was decimated, but not as bad as this time.  In the next few weeks, my office will have the pleasure of preparing and delivering layoff notices to people.  So, in my daily contact with people, I feel the pressure of the economic downturn everyday.

It's a scary thing, but in all reality, there is not much that can be done. 

shell1016

Me me!

We have a good savings JIC. Like everyone said prior to me there isn't much i can do. We are just living within our means and hope that others will too.

sarahbear

I'd say we are concerned about it, especially since we're looking to move in 3 years and right now we're about even with our mortgage/sales price. So I definitely hope it rebounds, but don't expect it to that quickly. Oh well. We have the standard 3-4 month salary in savings, max out our 401k's @ 20%, participate in ESPP, other investments/savings --plus I've definitely cut down on my spending (but not drastically).