Have You Been Affected By Any Of The Big Three?

[Staceyy]

1) Job Loss or cut in pay?

2) Home Foreclosure or loss In Home Value?

3) Investment Loss (401k etc.)?

Or have you been unscathed?

I lost my job a couple years ago. It hasn't been pretty. Luckily I have not lost any home value and I moved my 401k to a money market before I could suffer any losses.

[Seeker]

1) Job Loss or cut in pay?

2) Home Foreclosure or loss In Home Value?

3) Investment Loss (401k etc.)?

Or have you been unscathed?

I lost my job a couple years ago. It hasn't been pretty. Luckily I have not lost any home value and I moved my 401k to a money market before I could suffer any losses.

Everyone is touched by today's economy.... the only ones technically unaffected directly, would be those:

1) not working outside of schooling (ie the young)
2) not owning a home
3) not investing, since not working

But even the pre-adults are affected to a certain extent by their folks troubles.

[blankcheck]

I can't imagine someone's 401K not being affected unless they are 100% in a money market account...in which case, they are going to remain flat no matter waht.

[disneysteve]

I can't imagine someone's 401K not being affected unless they are 100% in a money market account...in which case, they are going to remain flat no matter waht.

Actually, even those 100% in a MMF would be affected since rates have dropped quite a bit over the past year or so.

#3 is the only one we've been victims of. Our portfolio is down about $125,000 from 12/31/07.

[GREENBACK]

Anyone in a 401k, 457, 403b, thrift or any other retirement plan has been affected directly or indirectly by the big 3 or something connected to their well being.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Major losses in our investments.

[simpletron]

I have to question how much of an impact they really have on options 2 and 3.

how many people that were never employed by the big three have large percentage of their portifolo with them? take the SP 500 for example, back at the end of 2007 ford and GM combined comprised only .28%. even if you add in all auto part makers and sellers, it is still less than 1%. so for most people, they can only blame 1 maybe 2% of their lost on the big three. also not all of them are down, ex. autozone is up ~33% since the end of 2007.(note: chrysler is a privately held by cerberus and daimler)

as for MMF rates dropping, this was caused by the federal reserve. while I don't know exactly what their reasons because they study a ton of information, I believe that problems in the banks was the top 10 or so reasons and by far outwieghted the problems in the auto industry, if it was even considered.

if you don't live near where the big three have plants or their supplier's plants, how much of effect does it have on your home price or the ability of people to pay in your town? the nearest plant to me is nearly 100 miles away, if it was closed that town would fall apart. but it would have little negative effect on my town, and possible a positive effect as people move here to get jobs.

I realized that everything nowadays in interconnected and a lost of jobs somewhere is going to have a ripple effect to everyone, but I think that outside of people who work for or live near auto/parts plants, the effect is going to be somewhat limited.

correlation does not mean causation.

[creditcardfree]

#3 only. But really it's not all bad considering our age. We will keep buying at record low prices and those shares will increase in value over time.

[DebbieL]

Not so far. I still work full time, as well as DH. We don't own a home, so not affected there. I took all my money that was in mutual funds out in 2007 (I got nervous then) and put them into 5 year escalator GIC with the best rate I could find (started at 4.3% in year one and goes up each year until year 5 it is 7.5%). I am currently a full time college student as well as working full time, but I will be quitting my job to do co-op in May, so after that I may experience some period of unemployment. I hope not, but it could happen. I don't think it would be long, as my field needs people (especially in the winter/spring months). Worst case - I could be unemployed for a couple months.

[tripods68]

[QUOTE=Staceyy;213001]1) Job Loss or cut in pay? NO[COLOR="Blue"]
Temporary pay reduction (4.62%) till June 2010 but I'll make it up through my step raises starting in July.

2) Home Foreclosure or loss In Home Value? Loss home value yes

3) Investment Loss (401k etc.)? Yes
Or have you been unscathed?

[Scanner]

Losses in investments.

[jIM_Ohio]

Automakers account for probably close to 30-50% of my companies software revenue. I am sure my company was feeling that when they laid off 5% a few weeks ago.

[thekid]

Investments down about 15-20% over the past year.

The kicker is that I had sold most of my US equity holdings at near highs after the first news of commercial paper and subprime. .....But I bought back in too quickly.....d'oh! Classic trying to catch a falling knife. *knocks head on wall*

They are retirement savings and I'm 31, so I'm not overly worried.

[paladin]

Loss of job and loss in investments

[thekid]

Loss of job and loss in investments

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully things will turn around quickly for you.