Financial news

[cjsmith]

Wow, this was a bad time to ditch a secure comfortable income, huh?

I'm not frantic, as I know I can weather a short- to medium-term financial storm, but I continue to be impressed with my lifelong knack for pessimal timing.

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

That's OK. Come sit next to me, the just-bought-a-first-home-two-years-ago guy.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. And if joedecker is still reading my LJ, he might recount the story of -- I forget, a week after he closed on his lovely 90%-glass* Eichler? -- the 1989 earthquake.

* I exaggerate. But not a lot.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

It was a couple months after we moved in, yeah, we were "under water" for several years, having bought at the peak.

On the other hand, $295K for a 1500 sq ft 4br 2ba house in a decent neighborhood seems cheap enough today....

PS: Lost a flowerpot in that earthquake, 11 miles from the epicenter. Nothng else.

[brooksmoses]

And me, currently involved in a family member's attempt to refinance a mortgage.... Rates went up a whole percentage point last week alone, even before the recent vote went down.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. You're the first person I've known who's working on a refi. (I do know someone who wanted a home equity line of credit for a remodel that would put at least that much value into the home -- it was a kitchen -- and she didn't get it.)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Try selling your house.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's coming right up, believe me.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

We're still getting regular traffic to at least one or two showings per week, but the perception of the market has to have suppressed buyer interest in general.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. On the other hand, for a buyer who's financially stable, it's a good time to pick something up.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I think I would still wait a year or two.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Waiting is also good. Would you wait a year or two for real estate or for stocks, or both? I might not wait that long on stocks, depending what they were.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

For real estate. I have no idea what stocks are going to do. The volatility is way too high right now.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Me too. I quit a job with great co-workers and good pay. (But a hellish commute and insane bosses.) It's going to be a fun winter.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is, it sure is! Mmm, lots of veggies and legumes.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Eh, it turns out, if you're going to go back to school, during a time when you might not be working anyway is not the worst timing in the world. And, because a lot of people think "huh...can't get a job...guess it's time to go back to school for a while..." it's not bad to get in right before the economy tanks and admissions gets competitive.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, true, if I couldn't have gotten a job. I do feel a bit funny having thrown away a job.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Actually, in the weird way things occur, you just might be better off having made your choice and following your heart. Despite the fact that I am unemployed (and have been since mid-2004) and we are living on sordak's SSDI and Vet Disability (just over $1400/mo), we seem to be doing better than people who are scrabbling to maintain their lifestyles. If I were still working we might still be trying to keep up our bad spending habits. It has been tough adjusting to our current income, but I am learning things I probably should have learned in my 20's and didn't because credit (and credit cards) were too easy to get.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are advantages to learning to stick to a budget -- as I'm doing now for the first time in years. I'm definitely living more frugally than I did a year ago. (For one thing, eating out is now more of a chore than eating in!) Really, though, the only significant useful step I could take at this point is to ditch the Bay Area mortgage and property tax. Everything else is chump change by comparison.

[jb98.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think my timing is great for doing just that. I think it's better leaving a job to follow my dreams, than to lose one and not have a clue what to do about it. At least I have a plan and know I'm going into debt for a very good reason instead of finding I don't have a job because the whole thing tanked.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, losing a job would have been worse. (In my arrogance I think I'm still employable; as the saying goes, if you're willing to clean up poop or haul garbage you'll always be able to find a job.) But throwing away one I didn't show any signs of losing, and starting to sell off investments to survive, at a market point like this -- well, bad timing. :-)