Do not take on any debt right now. Good buys are here and will be here for quite some time whether for vettes or homes, so there is no reason to rush. Unemployment numbers are high and will stay high into '09, therefore inflation will not be a problem into next year. A year from now, who knows???? Rethink your wants in 6 months.

 

Well before you buy a vette one would hope you owned a home.

 

Part of GM's announcement today was that they plan to sharply reduce dealer promotions. Along with that production will be cut to more closely match demand. As a result, I would think the best deals would be found now, not later.

 

I'd shop hard now for a house. You must look for location hard tho, as many huge track houses are going to become getto areas with multiple people living in them to make the payments. The unfortunate folks that bought on there own are going to live in down gradded areas with miniature loans compared to theirs.

Look for upscale area homes at bargain prices. Wait and pounce as soon as things start to change upward.

Remember location not the house is the key.

As far as Vettes go forget them until this thing passes and you have 100k equity in your new home.

Good luck!

 

Looks like we're living in a different one than you are.

U. S. inflation for September, 2008 was 4.94%, Aug. = 5.37%, Jul = 5.6%, Jun = 5.0%. Those are the highest rates of inflation since 1989 and 1990, when inflation was running 4.83% to 5.39%.

Source

2nd Source

 

Not just yet.

I'm keeping myself 100% debt free except for mortgage. As to what would be good to buy about now? Ah, extra food with long shelf life, extra water storage capability, winter heating source like wood or pellet stove, first aid supplies.

All we really need to do is bring back the 30 or 40 million good jobs we exported to third world nations and then protect our domestic producers from foreign dumping. Gonna happen? No.

Great depression ahead? Maybe.

But who knows what the future holds. I'm more concerned with when my next kidnet stone will start to move.......

 

We will have a new president in January and even with a majority, the guys in Washington don't move fast unless there is something in it for them.

The first quarter of 09 will bring more bad news as we hear how terrible the holiday sales were and more layoffs.

I would not expect anything to really happen until the start of the second quarter of 2009 and then you need time for whatever our elected officials do to work, providing they don't throw our hard earned tax dollars into a bottomless hole.

They need to look at what FDR did putting individuals to work. They need to stimulate businesses and not **** away money with refund stimulus checks.

In any case it would be prudent to hold on to cash for now. I would expect that there will be plenty of opportunity to purchase expensive cars or a houses at a discount over the next two years and maybe a bit longer.

We are facing the same credit crunch that our grandparents faced in the depression. Fortunately, the numbers of people losing their jobs and homes is nowhere near the number of those who were displaced then. We are also fortunate that some of banking and finance regulations are still in place......which may have saved our collective bottoms

Even though our cup seems half empty when you consider other people in other countries ours is always HALF FULL

 

Dude, buy a house if you can afford it and you can get a mortgage. Make sure you get a fixed rate mortgage. Don't try to time the market for rock bottom. If you get in now and prices go down a little more so what. You will have the tax write off and you will be paying down your principal while the market recovers. The "experts" are predicting that housing prices will bottom out sometime in 09. Don't over extend yourself and put money into your 401k plan. Make sure you get the full amount that your employer matches and if you can max out the pre tax contributions. Good luck, work hard and you will no doubt be successful.

 

Sky falling, probably.......... Today I found out many good friends (all management like myself, but higher up) got the boot because of budget reasons........... They didn't even see it coming....

 

Wow...all this doom and gloom...I have been preparing for this to happen for some time and I'm now on a buying spree. I only buy at fire sale prices. If you do your research there are some great buys in real estate and just today I bought a 40 power boat for a song. The boat wasn't an investment but I have been wanting this particular model boat for a while and just waited until somebody had to unload. Both of us came away happy. He was happy to be free of it and I was happy that I bought it thousands under it's value.

 

Like i said.... An economic downturn for the next 1 to 3 yrs. I doubt it will be the decade of 1972-1982. And.... even if it is, I'm sure we will survive.
to quote FDR: [I]This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance[/I]

That was 1933:
13 million people became unemployed. (~ 25% !!!)
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.

keep those number in mind the next time you hear about the "crisis" we are in. If this is a Crisis.... than what do you call those numbers?

 

And we're all getting ready to get hit by a piece of it. Some harder than others.

 

The vette me and my wife own we paid cash for (I was raised not to buy what I can't afford) , a bit tougher for a house so we had to wait for the 30% before making a move. Plus we wanted the vette before the kids show up, and it was one of the best decisions we made, hence the thought to upgrade. But I guess after all the discussion, and sincerely thanks all for the input, I will take my time for the house and will only pick up a bargain. Things are bad, but I guess it could get worse or better so no rush in making big purchases unless the deals are great. Was just reading the Carter bio on wikipedia, really incredible parallels between his rise to the presidency and Obama's, I truly hope for the sake of the country that he does not turn out like Carter making a mess at home and abroad, but would not put money on it. Democracy is rarely right, but is always fair....

 

Over my working life, I lost a job twice for nine months each time. One was just after the Carter years when unemployment in the area that I was living and working went to 25%. The worst in the nation in 1982. I I made a list of all the possible jobs that would use some of the knowledge and skills that I had. It took nine months but, I found a job with about 66% of my past pay. The main thing was it had good health and life insurance. I gave the job everything that I had and over several years was promoted twice. The got me back to the my old pay level.

Later, I lost another job. It took nine months again. But I wound up with a better position.

Now that I am retired, the work and investment have made me very prosperous. Nothing can impact my position. Not in the stock market. My retirement check's (3) have inflation increases every Jan. 1.

My CD's are in credit unions which avoided the risky loans mess completely and yield over 4%.

I buy new vehicles every year and just love to muscle the dealer with low ball cash offers.

31% of home owners do not have mortgages. 80% of retired people are in solid financial positions. This country has several million high income individuals.

So the sky is not falling,

In three years we will have forgotten this cycle.

 

The sky is not falling but it should be for certain people that got the country into this mess. I wonder who is making record profits now? Good old oil companies. I said a couple years ago that easy credit would dry up and gas prices will cause an increase in everything, which will affect what people buy, causing a loss of jobs, etc, etc.

The economy is just going through its normal cycle. Now is a very good time to have a job that is real stable and doesn't depend on people buying your goods.

Unfortunately once the economy turns around a lot of people will splurge on the latest must have items, people will rape their home equity to buy crap, and we will be relieved of a few more freedoms by saying that it needs to be done so this doesn't happen again.

 

now that IS depressing...

 

omg... THANK YOU breathing some sense in to this topic! Soooo much hype! It makes for good ratings and good campaign topics. I'm not saying things aren't bad, but I look around and certainly don't see the The Grapes of Wrath as the media likes to indicate...

 

Sorry but I can hear my Dad speaking about the 70s like they were yesterday. So I am sure a lot of people think of '89 as just a few years ago. It's a subjective word...

 

Few years ago I would have agreed with you , now I don't agree at all . Smart people rented , didn't purchase . I bought my house , which is 16 miles northeast of Detroit in 1985 for $110,000. At one point it was worth over $400,000. Now , I'd be lucky to get $200,000. If having a house makes you feel good and increases your quality of life then that's great . Otherwise , in this market , I'd say renting is the way to go .

 

Sorry, that is incredibly bad advice. Cars are not a good investment. But the housing market is going to continue to bottom out over the next 2 years.

Are they going to just start going back up? no.

Don't buy before you know where the bottom is. Real estate brokers will tell you it is a great time to buy.
It isn't. "real estate is always a good investment and always goes up". Well part of the problem is that this is what people believed. If my house continues to go up, I can always pull equity from the house. This is what they are selling you on. Which is unethical and BS.
It is a great time to for you to buy because they(brokers) make money when you buy.

It sucks to say, as it hurts the economy. Cut your spending.
Instead of going out to dinner, go to a movie. Bring your own candy.
Rent movies, watch them on TV. Little cost.
Start saving. You don't know where this is going to go, when it is going to recover, how it is going to recover.

Get yourself backed up. Cut all thinks not needed. If you are in a rented place, and have been for a while chances are renting is the best thing. Depending on your state, they can only raise rent 3 percent a year.

No property tax, no repair cost, ect. You get the idea.

Look it is all unfortunate the way things are going. But do me a favor. don't listen to people on a forum.
Do some research. Get the angle from both ends.

And on a side note. If GM goes under, the C6's will become valuable in 10 years regardless of the V8.
Gasoline will be around for 50 plus years.
Take care of those C6's, Z06's and the few Zr1's that will be out there.
It is doubtful GM will continue the ZR1 even before the end of the 09 production year.

Which means the 500 ZR1's out in the wild will, in years to come, be extremely valuable, but impossible to service.

Talk about a catch 22.

Frank