Are you watching the market? Are you stressed? Is this not much of an issue for you?

The big question...
Are you stress eating?

I am certainly watching the market and I do feel some stress. I am not, however, stress eating. So far, I have been talking about it and trying to just sit tight because there is nothing I can do at this point.

Exercise seems to be helping. (It helps my stress level in general. Without enough exercise, I tend to get cranky and lethargic.)

Just wondering how/if you are reacting...

Diana - My dh just read an article about the "strategy" of not paying the mortgage. Makes me crazy too!

I yanked out most of my 401K and IRA savings back in March for a down payment on a house, so I don't have much to lose right at this moment, but I think I am diversified enough that I won't take too bad a hit on what I currently have invested. Besides, I look at investing like I do at gambling: Don't invest anything you can't afford to lose.

We've lost about 20% of our "downpayment" account, but...housing prices continue to drop. One house on my "watch" list started a couple of months ago at $299 and is now at $259.

Thankfully, our credit is good, our debt-to-income ratio is darned good, and we counted our current home payment as a continuing expense when we applied for a mortgage, so we're already approved for one that takes into account what we could afford IN ADDITION TO what we already have....we didn't want to be in that group trying to hold on to two mortgages they can't really afford.

However, it stresses me to an unhealthy point to hear some of the people at work--who bought at the top of the bubble--talking about how to best "use" the system so they don't lose money on their homes. One of them is just going to stop paying and see how long it takes to actually get kicked out (free house for at least six months, right?). Not because he can't afford it, but because when it's time to sell in one or two years, he knows he'll owe more than the house will sell for. So rather than just save up NOW and prepare, he (and others) think it's a better idea to ADD to the problem. It bothers me because I know there are people who really didn't have a good financial education who were schnookered into bad deals...these people at work aren't among them. They made a bad decision to buy homes bigger than everyone else's, in neighborhoods that were all the rage. And they KNOW it!

Argh. I'm going to go clean something now.

My husband is in the finance area (He's a CPA who owns a small business.) so we watch the stock markets closely.

I'm not concerned about our personal investments so much, because ours are all IRAs, 401Ks and a 529 account for college. Alek isn't near college yet and we are FAR from retirement so we have only lost money on paper and we should have plenty of time to recover.

I'm more concerned though about the economy as a whole, particular since my husband owns a small business and his clients are small business owners. I'm also concerned because I work in a position in a school that may be one of the first cut, should the school system have to make personnel cut backs. I also work in retail part-time and I can tell you that compared to last year at this same time, retail is sales are way down.

It isn't causing me to stress eat though. I think I agree with Susan that this kind of stress doesn't really trigger stress eating for me, it is more the day to day stress that gets to me. I'm actually probably eating a bit better now, because we're watching our finances more closely and cutting back where we can.

Dawn

I can handle a normal stock market correction, but this is just scary. Thousands of dollars of my net worth have just evaporated into thin air.

I'm just glad that my money is in mutual funds, rather than individual stocks. That way, the bankruptcy of an individual company or two won't significantly impact me. One mutual fund I have specializes in buying distressed companies, that eventually recover. They should have a lot of distressed companies to choose from.

I was already superstressed, because of other personal problems.

Yes, I do stress snacking. Stress also cause me to completely lose focus.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sheltieguy,

i am with you sheri. i just dumped a binch of money into my retirement as part of my divorce settlement, and i don't want to see how much is gone. it must be bad, but as you say, what can i do about it right now? we are just all waiting to see how the government plans to helps its own people. so it does not bother me on a day to day level at all.

the little things affect my eating--like lack of sleep and fatigue.

Just hearing about it on the news doesn't impact me that much, but I just got my latest statement from Ameriprise (the financial advisor arm of American Express) yesterday and my stomach sank when I saw how much of my OWN money was lost--my retirement money--that's when it becomes personal.

Still, is there anything I can DO about that lost money? Nope. If my investments were too risky, I could change them to be more conservative so that I don't lose any MORE money; but, beyond that, there's really nothing I can do about the stock market's volatility, so I let it go and hope for the best.

Because of the volunteer job I do, I am more in touch with how bad the economy is than a lot of people--than I ever was when I was a full-time worker bee myself. I see how many people are suffering--unable to pay their bills, feed their children, go to the doctor or get the medicine they need, even put gas in the car.

Knowing how bad our economy is at this time saddens me a great deal, but it also helps remind me of how incredibly blessed I am. I may not be among the wealthy, but I am still very blessed to have a home and food and be able to pay my bills and even add another little mouth to feed to my family.

I have been keeping up with the news reports on the struggling economy. I'm not sure if, for me, this is fortunate or unfortunate. I guess it's all how I choose to look at it. After my divorce in the early 90's I spent the next 10+ yrs struggling as a single mom and had barely enough money to live and keep my daughter fed. So I never had money to invest. Which means I've lost nothing in the way of stocks. I am mortified at how our government shelled out billions to "bail out" these irresponsible financial institutions and their greedy executives. If any of us, in a small business, were foolish with our customers money and our own spending and ended up in a financial crisis, our gov't sure wouldn't jump in to save us! All those people who went into foreclosure on their homes-I bet they would benefit from some of those billions.

I know little about buying/selling stocks but I wonder if now may be the time to buy into some safer investments because I'm sure stock prices are quite low. I've always been interested in learning more about stocks and plan to read up on it and possibly contact a financial planner. I've really got to get on the ball with retirement savings as well.

It is a scary time for our country. The economy is in the toilet, big cities are plagued with violence and poverty, our education system is in desperate need of an overhaul. We can only hope with the upcoming election that there will be light at the end of the American tunnel.

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by susanrows:
I tend to stress eat more over comparatively minor things,

Me too. During my summer when feelings and tensions were super high, I did not stress eat. But, I am more vulnerable when I am just tired out from work or traffic is heavy.

Our investments are through a state funded retirement system, so at this point, we're just going to ride things out. I'm pretty annoyed that our lovely government has driven us that far into the ground, but since there's not much I can do about it (really, nothing), I'm just going about my life as normal.

However, if you want to talk stress and stress eating, I'm seriously trying to not go crazy looking for crispy stuff like pretzels & chips, because I am suffering from differential equations hell. And an applied statistics test on Thursday. Unfortunately, I'm strugging with not caring one iota about either one, but that's the typical mid-semester freak out.

This should level out for a few weeks after Thursday, at least until the next diff eq test. Unless grocery prices continue to fly upwards, because that is really causing grief to my food budget.

Thankfully I run alot, and have been really, really good about not chucking the exercise in favor of other activities (or nonactivities like holding down my couch).

Interesting question. I tend to stress eat more over comparatively minor things, like being annoyed at someone at work or my child misbehaving. For really big, the-sky-is-falling kinds of crises, like this one, my appetite evaporates and my tummy gets all tied up in knots. I hardly want to eat at all.

We're watching closely and having lots of discussions but not panicing. At this point, we are just looking to see what stocks to buy since everything is so low.

Definitely not stress eating!