Am I too optimistic?

I would not throw a thing into the market right now the dow will go down to 9k or lower and that is when i would consider putting money in if some positives arose....but right now no way man not until they can stop the credit freeze...up to you obviously but i think you need to keep the cash i would not trust anything right now..if lehman can go down then ANYTHING can happen and it does not look good

I'm 28 and I wish that I did not own a house right now so I could pack up and leave out of the country tomorrow.

 

Also 28, also own a house, and also wish I could pack up and leave the country.  Things not looking good.right now. 

I don't think we've seen the bottom yet.  My opinion, keep the cash, you will have opportunities to buy much lower.  If you are concerned about this being the bottom, dip your toe in, but I think you would be foolish to not keep a substantial portion of your cash on the sidelines in this market.

While I don't live in the U.S. we live and die by the US economy.  I'm in a very similar situation.  I'm 28 and 3 years into the job market.  Fiance and I both have good jobs ... both pretty secure, I work in finance for local government and she's a teacher.  I don't have any money in the market right now .... I made the decision when we bought a house to keep all of our savings in 3.0-3.5% interest savings accounts until the subprime lending mess shook out with hope of getting into the equities market in a downturn.  I have a feeling this isn't even close to bottom yet though. 

Since there is no clear direction presently- instead of trying to time the market- why not pay off your student loans?  This would decrease / eliminate ( for now ) your debt, and free up a little more $ for investing when the market stabilizes.  

ccl is right

get rid of your debt ASAP boys. the mkt will not take kindly to debtors in the next phase

once the bailout of sorts is done...i think we drift for the next 5 years. no growth, deflation, foreclosures...nothing government can do will stop the foreclosures and deflation

heaven help us if obama gets in and raises taxes on the few people left who make any cash in this country. it will put us into a depression

I have narrowed my choices down to Belize, Costa Rica and Bulgaria is a distant third.

I've never been to Belize or Costa Rica, I have been to Bulgaria but learning to read cyrillic is not high on my list of things to do when I move.

I spent a week in Bulgaria last summer and it was definately the best week I've had that I can remember in my 28 years.  Laid back, nice, peaceful, hot young women, perfect.  But I had a young lady with me who was from there so I really didn't have to deal with the language/alphabet difference.

But I started looking at Belize last night and its closer to "home" and seems pretty good as well.  Just have to worry about hurricanes in Belize as opposed to a Russian invasion in Bulgaria.  Decisions, decisions.

JWK,

If you are SELLING them then good for you, but from a client perspective I think those annuity type of products are doing a client a TOTAL disservice and when I was a broker I refused to sell them..they made me feel like a slimy dirty broker..personal opinion.

I would rather be in a AAA bond fund or a money money market and buy some term insurance.

Annuities are for the uninformed or those with too much cash and who are looking for somewhere to throw it.

Friend of my wifes was telling her that her mother received a 1M settlement after a fatal crash of her father and she put 500k into an annuity and all I was thinking is that broker got over on her to the tune of 35k or so AND yearly payments..the lady was under 60 and this slimeball fleeced her knowing that an annuity is not what she needs being under 60.



Sorry JWK, I would never sell annuities..with all the clauses and toxic early redemption penalties, I would rather earn scraps than sell that garbage.

Do some research and find something you are comfortable putting your money into.  You are young so even if you are wrong, and you will be wrong at some point, it will not affect you too much in the long run.

You can come back and run it by these guys when you narrow down your options if you want.  Maybe someone in here has some info that you may have missed, I know I have been shown things that I was not aware of by the guys in here.

Palladium,

When I was a broker I could have offered Annuities to clients and it wasnt THAT long ago that I was a broker.. 6 yrs or so.

I couldnt in good conscience sell people an annuity..when a broker is making both a BIG up front fee (I recall it was 7%) and a yearly residual income, it is NEVER good for the client. You cant sit and tell me that an annuity is the BEST investment for anyone. About the only people I MIGHT consider selling an annuity to is one who might not qualify for life insurance for some reason and since an annuity CAN offer insurance it might be worthwhile..still if you were to tell me nearly ANY annuity, give me the company and description, I can look it over and pop holes in it because I have never seen an annuity that didnt have redemption fees (terrible fees) and whatever the underlying investment is, say it is the SPX or the RUT or some international index...an annuity will never be as efficient as a ETF.

I also dont care for the "They are locked in at 7% return" because that is all and good in a dropping market, but if the underlying asset performs better than the stated return, I never saw an annuity that gave the better return to the customer..the return goes to the annuity company.

Annuities are rarely good for the holder and are ALWAYS good for the firm and the broker.

Sorry but I know enough about them from being a broker to call it as I see it..

JWK,

FIA?



Just kidding, I am out of the market and have been for a while as noted above.

I never sold an annuity, so my 7% number was probably incorrect but for some reason it stuck in my mind.

When I was a broker in Philly we would get the normal sales call from the firms pushing fixed products/annuities..bring some lunch crap and a bunch of handouts, chatchkis (sp) and stuff to motivate us to sell the product. I would sit and listen, then read the details and puke on the way home.

That is why I wasnt a million dollar broker..the people who make the big money either have contacts galore or are light on conscience..I dont mean that in a bad way but the real way to make money in the market as a broker is to put people in products that pay you TOP dollar..so annuities or VA/FIA gems, A share funds, anything that makes YOU the most money, and for the firm as well.

Now people are total saps if they cannot read and understand what they are agreeing to and dont take the time to figure out that the annuity in question is usually a mock of some other index or mutual fund but with some lousy insurance policy thrown on and a boat load of fees and restrictions..if people were to look at the average annual returns for the annuity, say an SPX based annuity, and an ETF for the same index, they would punch the broker in the face.

Sorry but I just could not do what was best for me and not for the client.

Costa Rica is nice in some areas....but damn it I live in Arkansas and Costa Rica makes our horrible humidity during the summer look like a nice cool October breeze.  That place will suffocate you during the summer the air is so thick!