You invested cautiously, saved properly, and tried to do the right thing ..... but then ......

[Stinky The Clown]

..... those with much more power than you went on a feeding frenzy and in the process caused all of your assets to plummet in value, pretty much overnight.

Through no fault of your own, you are worth far less than you were and are pretty much unable to see a comfortable retirement .... ever. Your 401k (so goes the joke) is now a 200.5 and your IRA will never pay.

What do you do?

[janx]

1. Get ready to work for peanuts

'til you die.

[begin_within]

2. Make it look like an accident.

[atreides1]

4. Ditto

[Bucky]

29. For yourself or for your 401k manager?

... or for your life-insured spouse? :hide:

[begin_within]

32. For whoever is responsible

[tridim]

3. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

It's easy, according to souless Republicans.

[spinbaby]

5. "positive thinking"

According to them, we could all be rich if we just thought positively:eyes:

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Or, according to some, prayed/believed enough!

[spinbaby]

9. It all amounts to the same thing

There's this weird belief that seems to exist on the far right, that if we believe it to be true then it either is or will become true.

[KansDem]

12. And "work hard."

Ya gotta "work hard" to succeed in this country.

So if you find you're falling behind a bit: "Work harder"

If you find you're way behind and unable to pay your bills: "Work hardest"

But above all: "Work HARD!!" damn it!

Work Hard... Work Hard!... Work Hard!!... Work Hard!!!... Work Hard!!!!... Work Hard!!!!!...

[Control-Z]

18. I was packaged without

any bootstraps to pull myself up by. I've looked for them. They're nowhere to be found. I just don't have any.

Shouldn't I get a refund?

[LooseWilly]

38. Naah... just go to a shoe store and shoplift yourself a set...

That's my plan. It's the American Way.

[Taverner]

6. Curl up into a corner and die

At least that's what I would do

[liberal N proud]

8. I guess I will be door greeter at Wal-Mart

With their new uniform and all...

[CoffeeCat]

13. You're going to have...

...some real issues on hot days!

Oh well, you can carry your groceries home in your clothes.

;)

[azmouse]

15. That looks really uncomfortable.

...especially in certain areas.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. Yeah a bigger longer bag is needed. Maybe a different material

[jgraz]

10. It's your own fault for not having the foresight to own your own bank

Many of us are in the same boat. My girlfriend was planning on retiring this year. Now her choices are to sell her house and move in with me or work until she's 68.

I don't really have a solution other than what I alway advocate: make noise, get organized, cause trouble.

[CoffeeCat]

11. This is what we're doing...

...and fark if I know--if it will help--at all.

We continue to hoard money like lunatics. If we find a quarter on the ground, we're like rabid squirrels--putting it
away with the other quarters we find.

We are gardening, and I am freezing fruits and veggies when I find them super cheap.

We have cut out most non-discretionary spending.

We pulled out of the roulette wheel stock market last fall and we aren't back in. No more of that baloney.

We have a food/essentials stockpiles that could keep our family of four going for 4 months or so.

Seriously...I don't feel protected, even after these measures have been taken--because there is so much
disinformation and spin out there.

You know what RIGHT NOW feels like to me? Remember the scene in Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg? People
were stunned after the impact, just like we were stunned when the market really tanked late last fall. Our
current situation feels like the time when the Titanic passengers just stood around doing nothing and remaining
oblivious--as the doomed ship's lower levels filled up with water.

That's what we are right now---oblivious and unaware of how devastating the damage is and how damaged the underbelly
of the economy is.

And it doesn't help, that we've got supermodel reporters--telling us that "all is well" and that he initial impact
was all a bad nightmare, but it's time to move on and spend some money in the dining room.

Like the captain of the Titanic, I wonder if Obama has been told, "This ship will sink"?

[pscot]

20. It really does feel like we're being lied to non-stop

The government, the media, the business community; none of them are leveling with us. The only honest words I've heard recently from a public figure, was when Dick Durbin said the the banks own the Senate. It's still possible to find out what's really happening, but you have to work at it. We no longer have any say in either in what's being done to us or the things being done in our name.

[mnhtnbb]

14. Investing carries risk--substantial risk.

Lots of investment counselors will advise what percentage of your portfolio should be in equities, international investments, real estate, fixed income, depending upon your age and circumstances. The older one gets, the more capital must be protected, especially if you're planning retirement within a few years.

A lot of people threw caution to the winds with dreams of big gains, not realizing big losses were equally possible. I feel for them. That said, history does tend to repeat itself, and when markets recover
from recession they generally show big gains early, when people are still reticent to get back in--or to hold tight. It's not for the faint of heart. If the roller coaster isn't your thing, then you should
back off into safer investments, understanding that smaller gains will accompany the safer ride.

[The2ndWheel]

16. Stop relying on a system I had no say in planning, creating, building, etc

That system is based on distance, and all you are is a digit on a screen, an expendable and interchangeable cog, standardized and molded by the state for its own continued existence, and worn down by the corporation for its own continued profit.

[L0oniX]

17. Cat food is getting too expensive. Dirt is still cheap.

[AnneD]

45. Depends on where you live....

Dirts pretty expensive in NYC,DC, and LA. You can get dirt for less in Seattle now.:hide:

[pacalo]

19. I got on my knees to thank God that the Repukes didn't get the opportunity to botch Social Security

by requiring us to "invest" in the stock market.

[Speck Tater]

21. Other: learned to adapt to low income a long time ago. BTW: Cat food is WAAAY more expensive than

decent human staples like dry beans, rice, flour, corn meal, etc. bought in bulk. A person would be crazy to think they could save money eating cat food.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Do you prefer hair shirts, too?

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. Yep. Cat food is expensive. Check out the prices of the little bitty fancy feast cans.

[Bucky]

26. Pfff. You use the cat food to lure in neighborhood cats and eat *them*

Cat is good eatin', nutritious, a fun hobby, environmentally responsible, and gives you a great work out!

[LooseWilly]

39. Cat- the other white meat...

[Bucky]

25. Keep in mind that before the market correction, you had an inflated price on your assets

For the responsible investor (who didn't cash out before the Bush Crash) your 401k holdings were never really worth what you thought they were worth. As far as bubbles go, it wasn't historically devastating. It sucks, of course, but you won't be eating cat food.

The correct answer to your poll, of course, is "Fight like hell to bring down medical costs by establishing a government run insurance carrier." This will bring down the biggest cost of being retired anyway.

[TheMachineWins]

27. LOL, "it always comes back"

Half the respondents have bought the big disaster capitalism lie and will continue to feed the dead system. The markets went nowhere from 1966 to 1982 and again have gone nowhere since 2000, unless you lost it all in the Nasdaq bubble in which case a person lost big time. Don't let reality interfere with sloganeering people, just keep chanting "it always come back, it always comes back".

[Hannah Bell]

28. Other: the masses are cattle; allowed to fatten, then slaughtered at least once every generation.

[frebrd]

30. Haven't lost a dime. For the last 22 years, what money I have .......

has been in insured Certificates of Deposit. I lost a couple of hundred in a mutual fund in '87 and said "Never again". One of the best lessons I ever learned.

[Stinky The Clown]

33. The question in the OP was different from the one you answered.

Your post is in answer to a question that might be similar to "How have you avoided financial ruin over your lifetime?" which is an interesting question. But it isn't what was asked.

What was asked was about some poor schlub who who did what he thought was right and would have been okay of the false reality had been the truth. He isn't a bad guy. He isn't greedy. He did what he saw his parents do. He's pure average. What ought **he** do?

[Ignis]

31. Clutch your copy of _Atlas Shrugged_ tighter...

Then close your eyes, click your heels three times, and chant, "Personal Responsibility!"

That'll fix everything, amirite?

[DemReadingDU]

34. other

plan for a depression

[quaker bill]

35. Defined benefit pension

I had to take a pay cut to land a job with one, but am fully vested and recovered now. I did not lose a nickle.

[earth mom]

36. Funny how some still believe in the scam of the stock market.

:wow:

[Mike 03]

37. Great post. Some combination of all of the above.

1. Many people think they have invested wisely and safely, and when you look at their investment statements, their brokers or advisors have made terrible decisions on their behalf.

2. The future is dire even for people who were fortunate and smart enough to save and invest wisely, that we are still all in the same boat, and would be wise to heed your advice to learn to live more modestly, be able to provide the basics and dispense with the luxury items.

The future is not going to be easy, it's true.

And designing the perfect configuration for how to contend with this difficult time will take some time, but I think caution and austerity are two key factors.

[MilesColtrane]

40. Wait for the market to come back.

Of course, if you are retiring next year and most of your money was in stocks when the bubble burst, you've screwed yourself.

The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund is up over 10% on the year...already chipping away at the past 2+ years of losses.

[janx]

42. It IS?

I took money out of Vanguard before this happened (not because I had a crystal ball), and Vanguard was good to me--but then my mother was good to Vanguard and did a lot of research before investing with them.

That is very good news, Coltrane. If I ever get back on my feet, I'll feel comfortable investing with them.

[MilesColtrane]

44. Oops...

It's actually the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund that's up over 10% since Dec. 31st.

Domestic fund is only up 3.8%.

Sorry about that.

[LooseWilly]

41. I thank my lucky stars that I've never had a "real" enough job to get a 401k...

... and that I never met an investment counsellor that I trusted to give me advice.

I just go get me some of that money under my mattress, and I go buy myself some of that whiskey they got on sale at the store down the block... doing my part to keep their inventory moving.

(It's really kind of amusing, actually... the funny looks you get when you use those old old $20s... the ones that are older than ATM machines... the young kids and recent immigrants at the counters look confused, as they try to decide if it's really money or not... some actually refuse to take them...)

[Zorra]

43. Shakespeare in the 21st Century: "First....we kill all the bankers" nt