Thanks for reading Financial Samurai! Here’s a look back at what was happening the week of 11/30/2009. The US consumer was strong despite a bumpy stock market. Funny enough, much the same can be said today in 2021.
The US consumer is alive and kicking! With the world stock markets crashing last week, nobody really cares about the financial losses in their portfolios, except for whether they can save $100 on a netbook by standing in line for 5 hours! The US consumer is going shopping baby. I expect the markets to rebound this week as the UAE publicly declares it will back all of Dubai World’s debts.
The US Consumer Wants More
We will never learn from our mistakes because the desire for things is just too great. You can bet your last dollar that if there’s any hint of a bubble in a new asset class, it’ll grow bigger because everybody will want in to try and capitalize. I know I will at least try!
The fact of the matter is, if you don’t care, I don’t care because a rebound in heavy consumer spending leads to robust profits, which ultimately leads to higher stock prices and a “better” economy. We need others to spend, so the rest of us can get rich. With rabid spending on the rise, I’m hopeful 1Q10 is going to be a job market frenzy. The in-store retail sales figures were only up around 0.5%-1% YoY last week, but we should expect a surge in online sales.
With only one month left in the year, do you feel you are on track to achieve your financial goals? My goals were simply to stay alive during Armageddon, squirrel as much money away into savings, and be the most invaluable colleague as possible. Of course, what I should have done was bet the ranch on the stock market in February and win the World Series of Poker, but I’m not smart enough.
Thanks For Your Support
It warms my heart to see such robust community participation. I’ve been to numerous sites where I ask a question to the webmaster and it’s just crickets (silence). I rarely go back as a result. Hence, I promise to continue being accessible!
To facilitate, I’ve installed the “Comment Luv” plug-in. This plug-in showcases your latest blog post title with link whenever you leave a message and click the box. The highlight spurs me and others to check your posts as a result.
Finally, can someone educate me about Technocrati? I signed up a long time ago, and have done nothing except put the badge up. Is Technocrati useful to you? If so, in what way? I’m also wondering what’s the point of the pfblogs.org, if you don’t donate money to them? I signed up, but because I don’t give them money, I’m on the back page and my posts never get highlighted. Time to remove? Moving them to the footer sounds like a solution.
FAVORITE POSTS OF THE WEEK & CONTEST WINNERS:
* “Sunday Interview Series: Financial Samurai” by Elle from Couples Money. Elle has been such a helpful Twitter supporter of this site, thank you! It was fun to share some of my thoughts with you.
CONTEST WINNERS
The Dow Jones Challenge Winners: Michael At DINKS Finance and Wojo from Fiscal Fizzle who guessed 10,300 and 10,322 respectively! The Dow closed this Black Friday -154 (-1.5%) to 10,309.92! Here’s your BIG pat on the back!
“The New Rules of Mortgages” Book Winners: Kelsey & Geek! Runners up: Chubbuni13, & Tina Fortune. Congrats! Also thanks to @Victoriahouse, @JoeTaxPayerBlog, @EvolutionWealth, @SweepStakesgirl for tweeting! Thanks to Dale for being a participant and offering an extra book for our readers if we reached 30 comments excluding hers. We didn’t, but with the Tweets, I think we did! As such, I will send you my own copy if Dale doesn’t send one, no problemo! Please e-mail your address for where I should send the books to.
Thanks everybody for writing some interesting pieces. And again, if you ever highlight anything of mine, please e-mail me at fs @ financialsamurai dot com so I can share my gratitude! Not showing my appreciation is dishonorable.
Further Reading
- Free $50,000 Bailout Gift From Government To Homeowners!
- Will Greece Default And Blow Up The World?
- Online Poker Crackdown Is Good News
- 2011 Income Tax Rates: Raise Taxes On Millionaires Not Us
- What The Tax Cut Extension Means To You
Keigu (“Regards” in Japanese),
Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”
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You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
I like the detailed content that you have. Have you ever considered submitting your blog to digg ? Keep up the superb work.
@ObamaSpy – I would but I’m too lazy. Doh. Thanks for stopping by!
Ah, alas, it feels kind of odd to be commenting right after a post about commenting when you link to someone, especially when it took me so long to make it here. Anyway, I appreciate your link, and I’m glad I keep writing articles (on my own blog and in the occasional guest post) that catch your eye. Apologies for the late comment, but alas, I tend to be slow when it comes to catching up on my blog reading. (I do try to make up for it by commenting on plenty of posts that don’t mention me, but I suppose I should be much quicker about those that do…)
As for whether I’m on track to meet my financial goals, I have to say no. Being laid off definitely is not going to help my financial situation, and a snafu with unemployment means that things are going to get worse before they get better. The best I can do is just try to keep the pain to minimum and attempt to make the holidays as painless as possible.
.-= Roger´s last blog ..How to get Ahead of the Game: Three Tips for Students =-.
Genius – Highlighting other posts are for me and the readers first to enjoy. I make it a point go visit and thank every single website who links to me. I really appreciate and feel humbled.
I always tell myself that nobody cares what I write, but me. So, with that mind set, I don’t think about others who don’t stop by and recognize. If others want to stop by, they are free to comment and participate in the community.
But, I guess I will notice over time those who don’t stop by, and therefore will stop linking to them naturally. With Comment Luv, I’ve focused more of my reading on fellow commenter’s posts, which is great!
.-= admin´s last blog ..Domain Name Investing 101: Online Real Estate as an Asset Class =-.
@Len Penzo No worries Len. Glad you stopped by!
.-= admin´s last blog ..Tuition Hike For The Poor Is Like A Tax Hike For The Rich =-.
Thanks for the shout out, Samurai! That’s me, always late to the party! LOL
Been quite distracted lately at work, so sorry for the late reply.
Best,
Len
.-= Len Penzo´s last blog ..What Would YOU Be Willing to Do for a Million Dollars? =-.
The next bubble to burst is going to be tuition and student loans. Tuition has been rising significantly higher than inflation for a very long time now…but because the economy’s been so terrible the past couple of years and states have slashed the amount they contribute to their public institutions, state universities are having to drastically increase tuition just to remain afloat…so the student loan industry is going to go bananas. California’s state system (the largest state system in the country, with 23 Cal State universities serving almost half a million students, 10 UC universities serving another 200K, and 110 community colleges serving almost 3 million students) is increasing tuition by about 30% in AY10-11, and lots of other states are probably going to do something similar.
.-= Honey´s last blog ..I’ve Had Weird Dating Experiences Lately. But I Think I Have a Girlfriend. =-.
Honey – I agree with you and others about the tuition bubble. Nice Gravatar btw! Perfect!
@Don@MoneyReasons Ok, I’m joking a little, but it would be nice wouldn’t it?! DJ 20,000 or bust!
@Stuart You’re probably right, but that statistic is a lagging indicator. Credit is loosening, and people are spending like crazy folks again!
@Valentina I’ve come to believe that Technocrati is useless. Congrats on meeting some of your financial goals!
.-= admin´s last blog ..Tuition Hike For The Poor Is Like A Tax Hike For The Rich =-.
Financial goals for the year are on target – not in every area, but on target. My goal was to reduce personal liabilities and increase cash flow and net worth. Both have been accomplished albeit the numbers are not exactly … errr… on the money!
Technorati? I signed up a long time ago (just because my husband said I ought to)… and quite honestly, I have to go revisit it to get a grasp on it … but hey! that Chalijandra guy is a site for sore eyes!
Gokurosama ………….valentina
.-= Valentina´s last blog ..Blog Income Life: November Results =-.
I think the U.S. consumer is still frightened. The savings rate in America has gone from -2% (meaning the nation spends more than it makes) to +6% (Meaning the nation is saving). This dramatic shift will have long term implications. I believe peoples mentalities when it comes to money have been altered. This Christmas people will spend less than they have in the past and this theme will continue.
.-= Stuart´s last blog ..Montreal Canadians Sold! =-.
@admin Hmmm… Dow 20,000… No complaints here!!! :) Maybe my portfolio will be close to breaking even at that level ;)
.-= Don@MoneyReasons´s last blog ..Lemons to Lemonade Series #1 – Long Commute Drives =-.
Great day on the market. How would have guessed! I’m in Mr Hyde mode :evil: today, that’s from sure!
I wonder how high this market will go, Dow=11,000?… GO! Santa Claus Rally GO!
.-= Don@MoneyReasons´s last blog ..Lemons to Lemonade Series #1 – Long Commute Drives =-.
Don – Dow 11,000? The way it’s going, it’ll be Dow 20,000 by yr-end! :)