Sharemarket and Global Meltdown. How has it effected you?

[Faniel]

Just wondering

The stereotypical image of the surfer from the 70s as laid back dope smoking hippies,
has metemorphisised into a sport enjoyed by males and females alike, euro backpackers, weekend warriors and hard core devoties.

Us surfers are a diverse bunch with individual personalities and varied interests, we work on building sites, office buildings and everything in between.
We are a sub culture within the greater aussie culture and whether we like it or not are a part of the global economy, from the board shorts we buy to the whitegoods we purchase and the properties we rent and the houses we live in.

So just wondering, as this stock market 'corrects itself', overseas banks go under and the worst economic downturn in years occurs, how has this effected us as surfers?

Who is out there buying those bargain stocks as shares hit rock bottom, who is selling them off in a vain hope of survival?
who doesnt give a damn, and says well there will always be waves lets just go surfing?

As the tentacles of human greed permeate down into the average joe blow how has this effected us as surfers?

interested to know?

[--++sunstroke++--]

The only people that will be majorly affected will be those who got greedy on the housing / mortgage game, racked up humungous debt on credit cards or were stupid enough to solely rely on superannuation as a retirement fund.

Bring on the global recession. You can't have too many coked up b(w)ankers or stock brokers jumping out of buildings to their timely death I say! Order out of chaos et al.

[Trev]

[quote="--++sunstroke++--"]The only people that will be majorly affected will be those who got greedy on the housing / mortgage game, racked up humungous debt on credit cards or were stupid enough to solely rely on superannuation as a retirement fund.
quote]
Not sure where you're going with this, sunstroke. So what are the alternatives to superannuation as a retirement fund?
Term deposits? Big on income tax.
Investment properties? Who will rent them in a depression? And you'll need to keep paying for their upkeep (and mortgage if you haven't bought outright).
Shares????
Money under the bed?
I give up. Tell us the secret.

ps. I'm retired. We built in a solid buffer before we retired. The buffer has shrunk a bit but it's still there. And I can (and do) still work from time to time.
I feel for the workers who struggled all their lives just to make ends meet and give their kids a decent education and start in life, just able to get by without adding any extra to their compulsory super. They're the real victims here.

[Hano]

Serious Financial Protest



Retrenched Lehman Bank employees staged a protest by blockading the entrance to the Bank's Headquarters

[mustkillmulloway]

hi fanial

i haven't lost anything yet because i haven't sold anything....yet

does that make sense

it's only a paper lost at the moment

it's when u cash it in it becomes a actual lost

now sunnystroke

i like your bad arse attitude

but this will effect many people, arguable, the people who had least do with it will suffer most

tourism has taken a huge nose dive, just answered a freinds email in cairns....he has a great cafe...his struggling with having lay off staff

i mean how can you sack friends coming onto xmas

normally his hiring this time year ....normally his desprete for staff



but the trades gone....people just aren't spending

and the flow on will be huge

so what can u do.....go broke or lay off crew and ride it out in hope you can start hiring again next xmas

i have no faith in any goverments answers....in many cases i think it's gonna make it a lot worst in the long run

now.....sux a dick

[GAV!N]

I dont have shares so i'm not really affected that way.
I'm only 24 so my super has plenty of time to grow.

My main problem is the Aussie Dollar. going on an OS trip for 6 months in January, and with the AUD plunging, it's going to make it a bit more expensive. but all in all i'm probably in a pretty good position compared to a lot of people, so I dont really care too much, just hoping the AUD gets up past .80USD by January!

[Freshie Boy]

im not really affected to be honest. the small amount of shares i do have i'll just hold onto and let them grow again (hopefully). work is fine, being a bartender, this situation is just gonna drive more people to the bottle

[2nd Reef]

I'm currently undergoing a career change (let's call it a vocational correction) that has me excited and inspired. Unfortunately it's also tempered by this pall of collective anxiety currently hanging over us. So yeah, it's affecting me, but not in any tangible way.

As for Sunstroke and his wishing hellfire and brimstone on the brokers, well, I'm with him up to a point. I have a vast loathing for money manipulators, financiers and people who's sole reason for being is to make money money off others money. In my eyes it is the most base and unethical way to make a living. While brokers and financiers may call me naive I'll call them way worse than that.

Anyway, back to Sunnyboy...unfortunately the world financial sytem is structured such that it is extremely hard to isolate yourself from it. All financial products and instruments (super, mortgages, funds etc etc etc) are at the mercy of the collective whims of the market. Innocent people - including people who don't advocate this model but are helpless without it - are going to be victims.

From an old textbook of mine on globalisation: There was something distinctly unethical about an unregulated economic progress that literally made billions for the few (especially those in the finance sector) while generating insecurity for the many. However this was the price to pay - or so it's defenders inferred - if there was to be economic progress. If there was to be one thing worse than being part of this runaway system it was not being part of it.

[puurri]

No worries for us. Paid house off, two indexed pensions tax free plus my consultancy gig and the missus casual teaching. Get more walung in hand now than when both of us in harness full time. Only 2 demutualised (free) stock holdings on good p/e ratios.

BTW it's looking bad for the next 4 years (slow but not like the 30's that needed a kick start from WW2 to recover). Some stocks will recover but if you're over 50 and not in a defined benefit fund then hang on and hope you can last the DEPRESSION. "Self funded retirees" have taken a bath and we won't hear the end of it in the election cycle for years. Frock me it'll be like the wailing wall at Solomon's temple!

If you have some spare cash and can afford a neutral medium term investment start to buy into small acreages or subdivided real estate in FNQ or NSW south coast in abt 2-3 years as all the "investors" (LPTs etc) will have done their money and bailed big time with banks repoing the lot; liquidating what remains of the outstanding principal then and writing the residual off as book losses off . (suggest maybe Eden, Cooktown or Mackay)

Otherwise if you can stand the high pitched whine and bad fashion sense of the remaining retirees buy a unit in one of their gated seaside grey ghettos and hope there's a pandemic.

[One Mile Point]

I was looking forward to retiring in december on my super annuation funds.

[mustkillmulloway]

puurri raise the interesting point about land prices

i mean with share market diving...well actually sinking...well actually just being wrote off

bricks and morter would be your traditional turn too

why than.....is it turning upside down

huge generalisation but i'll say prices on a average place would have lost at least 50 k in the last year

and still dropping

their are some amazing buys around

but i'm thinking theres still some huge corrections to come

people who know a lot more than me are suggesting prices too come in line with mid 80's land prices in the next 4 years ( and b4 u get all excited about buying up...think....the banks wont be lending...credit will become very tight)

regardless how much $$$$ the goverment pumps in

it's a natural cycle....nothing can stop it :?

and it will effect us all.....just some sooner rather than later

[Natho]

I sold my entire portfolio over a year ago before this all really hit.

Am I some sort of genius? No. The writing was on the wall for a while. The market was over heated with many stocks becoming over valued, yet people kept buying in. When I was reading in the newspapers how great the market was and how you 'couldn't go wrong'. When I heard avearge mum and dad investors talking at the local cafe about how the market was booming and how they were going to start investing in shares. Well it just confirmed to me that it was time to get out. It wasn't a matter of if the market would dive, but a matter of when. I don't think anyone predicted that we would be in the exact situation that we are in now, however the balance of probabilities said that after several years of a boom market we were getting much closer to a correction. I don't think anyone predicted we would get the correction we did. I certainly didn't.

I think a major mistake many people make when jumping into shares is that they spend all their time and efforts on deciding what and when to buy. Yet people give little thought to at what point they will sell. To me knowing at what point you will sell is more important than knowing when to buy. After all you only make a profit when you sell.

People then panic because they have no plan as to when they will sell, and they end up selling at the worst possible time. Like now.

While there are certainly some bragains out there the big question is when will this all end. The real answer is that no one can possibly know. If you buy a share now, and it falls by say another 15% (possible), then its going to have to increase by more than 15% just to get you back to the price you purchased at. A better strategy may be to start drip feeding money into shares from now and over the next few months. I prefer to sit on the side lines and wait for confirmation that the market is starting to rise again over the medium term. Sure I may miss the bottom of the market ( no doubt many at the moment are trying to pick it), however I don't believe anyone can pick bottoms other than by luck.

People also forget that shares have performed very well for the past few years, so in many cases with Super you are only seeing some of your profits eroded on paper. You don't make a loss until you sell.

For those of us with time on our side, this will provide some great buying opportunities once the market starts to recover. How long will that be, no one knows and if they say they do they are full of sht.

Don't believe all that you read and don't follow tip sheets. The so called 'experts' more often get it wrong than right.

If you are going to invest directly in shares make sure you spend plenty of time educating yourself and have a clear written investment plan that has been back teasted and follow it 100%.

If you can't do this you are better off leaving it up to a managed fund or your super fund.

Enough from me. As you can tell I am very passionate about all this stuff.

[Natho]

Oh and one more thing.

Never own a credit card.

A debit card will do everything a credit card does except you tap into your own cash.

If you have to go into credit to buy it then you can't afford it. Simple as that (unless it is something that will appreciate in value or generate an income).

Ive never owned a credit card and never will. There is no need for it. Id rather just go without.

[puurri]

Oh and one more thing.

Never own a credit card.

A debit card will do everything a credit card does except you tap into your own cash.
If you have to go into credit to buy it then you can't afford it. Simple as that (unless it is something that will appreciate in value or generate an income).
Ive never owned a credit card and never will. There is no need for it. Id rather just go without.

"Ye cann'a hand a man a grander spanner" eh?
Endorsed in full (unless ye can pay the outstanding balance off in full inside the no interest period ay Hamish m'lad)

[DucksNuts]

I might not be able to go to Indo anymore in december because of the exchange rates and paying for flights. tears

[scomber]

The share market is like the Tasman Sea in springtime. Just when you think its the right time to get wet on that brief pulse, the Nor'easter blows in and it turns to mush. Take the good with the bad and in the long run you'll eventually get shacked.

[marcus_h]

bricks and morter would be your traditional turn too

why than.....is it turning upside down

Interest rates went through the roof so people defaulted on their mortgages and had to sell. So there was an influx of property in the market, it's a simple case of supply and demand then.

[Trev]

Oh and one more thing.

Never own a credit card.

A debit card will do everything a credit card does except you tap into your own cash.
If you have to go into credit to buy it then you can't afford it. Simple as that (unless it is something that will appreciate in value or generate an income).
Ive never owned a credit card and never will. There is no need for it. Id rather just go without.

"Ye cann'a hand a man a grander spanner" eh?
Endorsed in full (unless ye can pay the outstanding balance off in full inside the no interest period ay Hamish m'lad)

Too true, Puurri. Own your own home and pay off your credit card at the end of the "free" period. We own our own home, but only for the last few years. But we have NEVER left a debit balance on our credit card.
Unfortunately, too many people are poor money managers and credit cards are too easy to get.
The guys where I sometimes work love it when those door to door Citibank sales people turn up hawking their credit cards. They leave 'em to me. "No. I own my own home. No. My wife and I both own our cars outright. No. We pay off our credit card (only one!) in full every month.