Wow, this economic crisis nailed my family

Sorry to hear, that sucks.
Do you all drive BMWs?

Yikes.. thats sad.

My brother is going to college next year, and with the rising costs of college tuition and the horrible economy, my parents can only offer him the same amount towards college as they did for me, but that is only going to cover maybe half of the cost for him, where as it covered all of it for me. It's a little unnerving to think about how with the rising costs of education, students have to seriously consider the major they pick if they have student loans. Hard to pay off a 100k student loan if you're going into education, for example. There was an interesting article in Money magazine last month on that.

I certainly don't envy people entering college these days. Not that I am too far removed, but it seems like I got in at the tail end of college being reasonably affordable. I consider myself lucky because I am able to go to graduate school on full loans because I don't have previous loans. However, if I had racked up 50k in undergrad and then wanted to go get a masters for another 30-50k, I would never be able to pay that off in education.

Ugh. makes me sad. I feel bad for everyone at these times.. it seems it will get better before it gets worse.

jbalicki10 wrote:

Grandma must be rich. If she just lost 400,000 and the stock market only crashed 40 percent (being liberal here), she still has 600,000 to go...

Boo hoo...

What kind of college savings? Did she invest all in stocks?? Whoopss... I hear yea.. I did the same but did luckily buy bonds as well. Thats why you have to diversify. I wish you luck! The stocks will rebound slowly, but they will..

I know what you're saying, but a $Million for retirement isn't that much in these times. If you have that much when you retire, you can't exactly just live however you want to nowadays.

The bigger issue to me is why was Grandma's money not in something "safe" like a money market account. If it lost that much, it was in risky stocks and that's a bad thing if you're counting on it to live even when the economy is stable or doing well.

HailHailVitalogy wrote:

I came home for the first time since August last night...and....its bad. My mom lost all my college savings, lost all her assets, they cant afford anything right now, they are thinkin about selling my moms car to make rent for the next few months so they can save up....My grandma lost 400,000$, and she just retired a year ago and shes supporting my uncle

Now the next step is looking into a college loan which is the LAST thing we need to do in this time

that is a drag, a real drag.
i always thought putting money into the hands of big business would not always be a good idea.
personally i'd trust a dope dealer (some life long friends) with my $400,000 before some bullshit legit bunk ass business.
$400,000 would buy an awful lot of marijuana.
that's just my two cents worth.

where did your mom & grandma invest their money?

btw, you can still attend college without your mom's college savings, but you already know that.
that is unless you are planning on attending Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or some wildly expensive fuckin school like that.

know1 wrote:

I know what you're saying, but a $Million for retirement isn't that much in these times. If you have that much when you retire, you can't exactly just live however you want to nowadays.

The bigger issue to me is why was Grandma's money not in something "safe" like a money market account. If it lost that much, it was in risky stocks and that's a bad thing if you're counting on it to live even when the economy is stable or doing well.

Easy greed and pushy 401k agents. You know, the ones that come by at work and give you a free pen and tell you to put it in their investment groups. Grandma probably thought she couldnt lose in a stock market that was rebounding from 9/11 and could will all her children tons of cash. 600 thousand is still alot of cash to live on. If she has a house thats already paid for. Think about it: 20 years on 30 thousand, + SS + any pensions/investments. She will do allright...

Best thing to do in a time like this...

1. Raise taxes on corporations
2. Raise taxes on small businesses

...that will help keep business afloat!

jbalicki10 wrote:

Grandma must be rich. If she just lost 400,000 and the stock market only crashed 40 percent (being liberal here), she still has 600,000 to go...

Boo hoo...

What kind of college savings? Did she invest all in stocks?? Whoopss... I hear yea.. I did the same but did luckily buy bonds as well. Thats why you have to diversify. I wish you luck! The stocks will rebound slowly, but they will..

so what ! a million aint shit anymore. lets not forget, she probably worked all her life to get that.

what a shitty thing to say.

the wolf wrote:

so what ! a million aint shit anymore. lets not forget, she probably worked all her life to get that.

what a shitty thing to say.

Read Chadwick's post:
=========================
what about the grandma down the street from all of us who doesn't have any food in the house?
i am sorry your grandma lost 400 grand, thats a tough thing to take but
i feel more compassion for the grandma out there that has no gd food or medication that she needs.
maybe these grandmas will freeze to death this winter because they can't afford to turn the heater on.
===========================

Some people are really going to hurt this winter. With less money around, people will give less to those who need it the most.

jbalicki10 wrote:

Read Chadwick's post:
=========================
what about the grandma down the street from all of us who doesn't have any food in the house?
i am sorry your grandma lost 400 grand, thats a tough thing to take but
i feel more compassion for the grandma out there that has no gd food or medication that she needs.
maybe these grandmas will freeze to death this winter because they can't afford to turn the heater on.
===========================

Some people are really going to hurt this winter. With less money around, people will give less to those who need it the most.

i did read his post. go back and read my response. look i dont know many well off people. and im broke as fuck, but i cant hate on people losing their retirement, just because they had more to lose than others.
thats just fucking stupid.

chadwick wrote:

what about the grandma down the street from all of us who doesn't have any food in the house?
i am sorry your grandma lost 400 grand, thats a tough thing to take but
i feel more compassion for the grandma out there that has no gd food or medication that she needs.
maybe these grandmas will freeze to death this winter because they can't afford to turn the heater on.

Bring back communism,... that will solve everything!