well, i'm no math wiz, but it doesn't take a lot of smarts to see that i'm losing money with some of my investments...

am i stressed? not really, i know that i have a LONG time to make my money grow...but it is still a little scary...in a way, i wish i listened to my gut and shoved my ish under a mattress.

i really want to buy, Buy, BUY while the prices are low and bush is still in office. but i'm worried that mccain might just win thus making things more difficult. unfortunately i don't have a trust fund to fall back on and i'm scared as hell playing with my retirement money like that.

is anyone else worried? 401k? life insurance? rental properties?

I dont have none of the things you mention but hopefully i will in the near future. The thing i'm worried about is bringing another life into this world with the economy the way it is. Its a lot of things i'm praying for these days, but one is Obama. I hope that our countries economic situation can get better to give people hope.

hate to be pessimistic...but i don't think any new president is going to be able to fully resolve this mess, but they will be fully blamed especially on how well they handle it. No matter who it is.

People have been predicting this economic crisis for years...and at first i was worried and nothing happened, but NOW...it has my attention because yesterday it really hit home when my job sent a memo around about a hiring freeze, i talked to other people that work for other companies and they are under a hiring freeze as well as various cutbacks, and some fear layoffs.

Its national and it seems to be happening fast. Recovery might be possible, but it seems like it will get worse before it gets better. That's why i started the topic about "passports".

I also heard that people are being more encouraged to invest in the metals (gold, silver) because paper money is on its way out....and possibly the V-chip is on its way in.

gold skyrocketed this week when everything else crashed...

VARR$ITY - i feel ya. it's hard...unexpected things just creep up...but it's well worth the sacrifce...

i'm not worried about investments. i'm worried about hiring freezes because i am in the job market.

Well my company was in a hiring freeze a while ago. It's been lifted for months and is far from being reinacted. Matter of fact they keep encouraging us to work O.T. It must be the new products we added and are currently marketing. There is more to it but I'm not even going to get into it. As far as investments, yeah I'm a little concerned. I'm concerned because I just started my 401K. My had urged me to do it long ago. I'm not lost in the financial market but I must admit I've become a little lazy. I still have some investments from my old company. Haven't worked there in almost two years. Since I haven't put much into this 401K I don't have much to lose but I am concerned about the housing market. I don't want the company where I have my mortgage or one of the banks where we have money to fold. I'm concerned for my sister who is a single parent-student-business woman who wants to buy a home for her children. With this crisis, lenders are damn near scared with the funds and are looking for folks with damn near perfect credit.
I can't believe all the people who are running to get me and my to refinance. I'm like damn we have a fixed rate and have only been here a year. Wtf I need with your variable and your unexplained, unsolicitated terms? I'm scared for all the people who'll get suckered in, looking for some much needed liquid funds. Cause banks always come for their money.

On a lighter note, I'm also concerned with the way Alyson spelled economy.

There's an old curse - "May you live in interesting times."

Today was a very interesting, probably historic, day for the economy. The proposed bailout plan was rejected. The DOW fell 400 points in 10 minutes. As I write this, it is down 777 points. My own stock portfolio is now at the lowest that it's ever been since I started investing earlier this year. I dunno what the fallout of this all will be, but I'm sure it won't be good.

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic depression in modern history, and is used in the 21st century as a benchmark on how far the world's economy can fall. The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use as a starting date the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The end of the depression in the U.S. is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.

Several similarities with the Great Depression. (same time Sept 29th, vs. October 29th), originated in US, started with stock market crash...interesting times for sure)