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All that money you've lost — where did it go? (http://fe41.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_bi_ge/where_s_the_money;_ylt=ApxK4XRKJtJ_ESKpAgwn48UDW7oF)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/591/dollar.JPGERIC CARVIN - Associated Press- Oct 11, 2008

NEW YORK - Trillions in stock market value — gone. Trillions in retirement savings — gone. A huge chunk of the money you paid for your house, the money you're saving for college, the money your boss needs to make payroll — gone, gone, gone.

Whether you're a stock broker or Joe Six-pack, if you have a 401(k), a mutual fund or a college savings plan, tumbling stock markets and sagging home prices mean you've lost a whole lot of the money that was right there on your account statements just a few months ago.

But if you no longer have that money, who does? The fat cats on Wall Street? Some oil baron in Saudi Arabia? The government of China?

Or is it just — gone?

If you're looking to track down your missing money — figure out who has it now, maybe ask to have it back — you might be disappointed to learn that is was never really money in the first place.

Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a "fallacy." He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money — it's simply the "best guess" of what the stock is worth.

"It's in people's minds," Shiller explains. "We're just recording a measure of what people think the stock market is worth. What the people who are willing to trade today — who are very, very few people — are actually trading at. So we're just extrapolating…http://fe41.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_bi_ge/where_s_the_money;_ylt=ApxK4XRKJtJ_ESKpAgwn48UDW7oF

Don't worry... if you're a multi-millionaire with a sagging investment portfolio, the Bush Administration will just cut you a bailout check so that you don't have to sell one of you nine mansions.

If you're a working stiff, however, you're basically out of luck because the super-rich have stolen everything that's not nailed down.

And the super rich democrat congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, will certainly fill their cofers!

Basically we all own stuff. that stuff is valued at a price. the price just went down. You still have your stuff its just not worth as much. Doesn't really matter unless you were planning on selling your stuff. Your stuff will be worth more in the future.

Basically we all own stuff. that stuff is valued at a price. the price just went down. You still have your stuff its just not worth as much. Doesn't really matter unless you were planning on selling your stuff. Your stuff will be worth more in the future.

What if you don't own your 'stuff', but purchased it on credit? The bank still wants you to pay the old value...and I'm not so sure everything will be worth more in the future.

It matters that your assets have gone down, and now you realize that, and now you are going to spend less, and that means more people are going to lose their jobs, and that means they too have less to spend, and it goes on and on. Not good IMO. We really do not know when this ends....................recession or depression?

I'm still ahead in the stock market. I sure hope that doesn't jinx me.

Get Murphy's "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets," and Nison's "Japanese Candlestick Charting Methods" and do your own stock picking. You can be more nimble than the average mutual fund manager. And if things don't look good, like last week, you can sit on the sidelines.

Harry

What if you don't own your 'stuff', but purchased it on credit? The bank still wants you to pay the old value...and I'm not so sure everything will be worth more in the future.

The solution would be to pay those things off and then only by with cash in the future. Living within your means I believe it is called.

What if you don't own your 'stuff', but purchased it on credit? The bank still wants you to pay the old value...and I'm not so sure everything will be worth more in the future.

That turns out to be a pretty common problem with homeowners--nearly 1 in 6 is underwater (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27089919/) on their mortgage.

It's not a problem for me, thankfully. You have to hope most of the people underwater don't have balloon notes that they probably wouldn't be able to refinance.

See, the problem with pat, glib answers like Ratnose86's ...only by [sic] with cash in the future. is that an attitude like that is wrong about 95% of the time. If you're paying a lower interest rate than inflation, the stuff you bought (or buy) on credit is a good deal, because you're paying for it with dollars worth less than they were when you purchased (and utilize) the items. Until recently, oil prices drove the inflation rate abnormally high. Obviously the economic crisis we face today has put a trememdous amount of pressure on everyone--the rich are less rich, the rest of us poorer. OTOH there is no reason to believe or expect this decline to continue indefinitely. The economy will recover, :flag: and the markets will come back. :Banane27: Now he is correct about living within your means, but that doesn't necessarily equate to paying cash only for things that are needed. It does mean to avoid at all costs paying credit card interest rates for those necessities that are more than your on-hand funds. It does mean staying away from payday cash advance-type places. It's a matter of [not so] common sense.
IMHO!

The solution would be to pay those things off and then only by with cash in the future. Living within your means I believe it is called.

That is a radical concept...perhaps someone should tell the American public. Unfortunately that is much like the proverbial closing of the barn door after the horses have run off...