Some interesting comments like stick your head in the sand and then what's threatening me will go away. All the while your a$$ is hanging out there. Look. We all make mistakes and now we are suffering from it. So if you got those houses because you thought that you could flip it. If you got that car because you thought you could afford it. If you were going to send your kids to a private college because you had saved up for the past 18 years $50,000 to afford it, well all of that is spilt milk. Your in a hole now climb out of it. I can't stand all of the comments about "tough luck" and the finger pointing "you should have known better". Everyone does need to accept responsibility for their actions but these people are really in a bind. You don't have to kick a dead horse. What people need (anywhere in the world) to give themselves opportunity is a new start in life. A way to make new revenue streams. Inject new additional monthly income to get out of the mess they are in. Give yourself a pat that at least you are finally admiting that you need help. Then go read books that can help you develop yourself and find ways to make money. One of the best ones out there is being offered for free to help people control their lives instead of the other way around. "$500 Startup I Want You to be Happy & Wealthy" A step by step guide to starting your own business is written by a successful Entrepreneur who reveals exactly how he did it and how anyone can do it. You can get the free ebook by going to the book's website www.500DollarStartup.com. Hope this helps all of you. Good luck!
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Surviving the Crunch
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Stretch out cheap debts. Don't make extra payments on your mortgage if it's a fixed-rate loan under 6 percent. That's a handy loan to have; instead, use your extra cash to build up that emergency fund.
Stash your cash safely. In tough times like this, that emergency cash should go into an FDIC-backed bank money market account. For yield, you can look to the online banks like zionsbank.com and ingdirect.com. Or simply keep it at your neighborhood bank.
Avoid the urge to get more adventuresome with your investments as a way to make back losses. Foreign stocks have boomed, but they're still moving down with the U.S. markets. And now that the dollar is at an all-time low against the euro and sinking in Asia, too, you're paying a lot for those foreign shares. The time-tested safe haven during market turmoil, gold, has already come close to doubling in two years. It costs money to own, trade and store, and gold earnings are usually taxed more heavily than earnings on stocks and bonds. All the hype about making money by buying foreclosures, derivatives, tax liens, commodity futures and options? Eh, definitely not as easy as it sounds, and best not tried at home.
Hunt for bargains. If you thought you were a couple of years away from buying a house, you might start looking now, says Hultstrom, because loans are cheap and it's a buyers market. Study stocks to see whether there are some good companies getting beaten down along with the troubled ones.
Put that 401(k) statement away. Just because you can watch your retirement fund in real time doesn't mean you should. Individual investors usually do themselves more harm than good by reacting to each hour's economic news. Just do what you're supposed to in a recession: tighten the belt, pay down the bills, salt away cash and keep investing for the next upturn of the economic cycle. And don't waste time worrying. Leave that up to the Bernankes and Paulsons. It's what you pay them for.
© 2008
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