What a crazy morning! The behavior of the Dow this morning demonstrates the fear of the market right now. It opened on this bright sunny day with a 900 point drop! That's 10% and it even went below the 8,000 point mark! It recovered very quickly back to even but it continues to go down and up and down further and up. It is seeming that the global markets are heading into a recession and there is zero confidence in the governing bodies to right this ship.
How is this effecting you and your financial situation? Many people are saying that it is such a great time to buy stocks because everything is so cheap! However, I still think it is a bit risky right now because everything is volatile right now, I would not buy anything! I am clearing off my credit card debt first (next week we can all celebrate!) and then saving as much money as I can right now into my ING.
As far as doing things different, I am really trying to cut spending as much as I can. My parents and I started cooking larger meals at dinner so there were more leftovers to bring to work everyday. One positive out of all of this is that oil is at a 12 month low and gas prices are fluttering close to $3! This does not mean that I will drive more because it is cheaper but it definitely feels a little better filling up my tank for less.
What else can be done? Are you going out less on the weekends? Weeknights? With the economy the way it is, prices are going up everywhere, even bars! Even the cafeteria at work had to raise its prices for the first time in 5 years! I spent last weekend home the entire time and am definitely going to try and attempt that again this month. You will not believe how much money I do not spend when I stay home!
The crazy thing is I am hearing the same response to almost every question. My friends went to Cali this weekend and I wish I could have gone, but my response to whether I was going was "Dog, we are in a recession!" Another friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go out to eat for lunch and I replied, "We are in a recession man, but I am down for the dollar menu!"
So what changes are you making to cut a few corners during these rough times, I am sure there are a ton of creative ideas out there. Lets hear it. Be easy people and stay positive. We are in a recession.
Friday, October 10, 2008
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2 comments:
bizarrely i keep going over budget with my monthly dinner-out allotments... maybe i should be a little more cautious. :)
This was a great post! I really enjoyed what you had to say! I wanted to offer you a link to another blogger who is doing great work. His work is about emotions, and how it affects our financial decisions, and how the best approach to stability in today's market is to resist letting these emotions control our buying/selling habits. It is really fascinating work. His name is Brent Kessel, and you can view his blog at http://brentkessel.com/wordpress/.
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