Dow goes below 9000

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The depression is a comin'! !

The stock exchanges are shortest term indicators. we must NOT use them to comment on the long-term outlook of the economy unless we combine them with lots of additional data. Yes, the companies have issues getting loans, thus they are facing a hard couple of months. Even banks have issues getting short term loans. Yes, this means they are in serious short term problems, but I think many companies still have a good long-term outlook!

I am seriously considering buying stocks now... Won't get them as cheap anytime soon! And I bet that in one year, I'd have made a huge profit!

think the dow will go below 8000?

Suze Orman's advice last week was that as long as you have a time horizon of at least 10 years, then continuing to dollar-cost-average into your 401(k) account will be a good idea. If you have a shorter time horizon, then don't jump into the stock market right now, with the idea of making a huge profit in one year. You might, but stocks are probably going to be down for many years to come.

I'm old enough to remember the high inflation and high interest rates of the carter/reagan/Bush I era. I remember buying a car with a loan that had an interest rate of about 11 percent. I keep wondering when we're going to have high interest rates again.

401(k) is not really a pension, its basically ways for corporate people to ream the money that you earn while working that you set aside for when you retire. Since most American companies have no concept of job security, people tend to work with many companies in their lifetime...

Well its hard for me, a college student who has never actually held a real job, to explain, but ill attempt to do so..

Pensions are usually just where a company that an employee has worked for his entire life continues to receive some amount of money after he retires from the company. This was more prevalent in the early 20th century America, where americans would work at one company their entire working life (especially in small towns, where there was one predominant company that drove the economy of the small town that most, if not all, of the town's workforce worked for).

This does not apply in 21st century America, where the average worker will have 7 careers (career meaning major change in job, not just working for another company doing similar work) in his lifetime. One does not hold a job long enough for a company to warrant giving a pensions anymore. Instead, americans use a 401(k) plan (or similar retirement plan) to provide enough money for after retirement. This plan would have worked as well, but in comparison to the mid 20th century, the average lifespan has gone up at least 10 years, while the generally-accepted retirement age has been fairly constant (65). People are living longer after their retirement, thus putting a strain on these retirement plans.

Okay, it is what I thought it was, ToadOfSteel. Your explanation's fine. Maybe there's some difference in how we use the word in the UK. Over here the word pension would refer to the money you received in retirement from an employer, as you explained. But we'd also use the word to refer to a fund we'd built up privately, controlled by specific legislation, for the same purpose. We'd then use that money to buy an annuity on retirement that paid out every year.