GJ said about 5 hours later

Leave your money in your 401(k) and keep pumping money into it. You're buying shares, and the shares will eventually recover. Right now, if you have a long term plan and patience, you'll make a killing in a few years since you're getting shares on the cheap now. I did this back during our last meltdown after 9/11, and made out very well indeed. My investment lost 25% in a short time, but I was able to purchase 25% more during the meltdown, and so when the stocks recovered, my total portfolio was up 45% over four years, including the loss years. That's not too shabby.

I won't lie--my assets, most of which are in a very aggressive mutual fund, have taken a huge hit--so far this year, I'm down 35%. So what am I thinking about doing? Yep, up my contribution percentage. Thar's gold in them there hills!

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Steve said about 10 hours later

I'm with GJ, in that if the economy recovers, you'll do quite well buying stocks at the low prices they are now. The only hitch is if the economy never quite recovers, which there is a risk of. However, for you, with very little invested, there's not anything to worry about. For people of retirement age living off of 401Ks, I sure hope they moved all their money to bonds before the stock market started it's downward trend.

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Geoff said about 11 hours later

I concur with Steve and GJ...if you have the money, buy buy buy! Just make sure you are making some wise investments, and a few crazy ones too! (hey, you never know)

Today I had my own money crash. Got my school taxes for this year and saw a 27% increase! This is mostly due to the fact that my house was assessed (by some whacky government hijacker) at $125,000. It was being billed at $107,500 as of last year. Somehow I don't think, even with my improvements, that in this market my house jumped up that much in value. I'd be lucky to sell it for what I paid for it 2 years ago...or sell it at all!

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GJ said about 13 hours later

When you get taxed $7k on a house that isn't worth the $220k the government insists that it is worth, let me know.

To Steve's point--a total economic failure will wipe you out. However, if that happens, the world will be going to hell in an express train, so your 401(k) will probably not be your biggest concern. :) I'm an optimist, and I intend to make my $4M goal, dammit, crash or no crash.

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GJ said 6 days later

Weeee! Another 800 points down today! Isn't this fun? They said that the Dow hasn't been this low since 2004...funny, my 401(k) is worth now about what it was worth in 2004. Go figure.

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Geoff said 6 days later

well...they did manage to make up 430 points in the afternoon, so it wasn't a total blowout... I was really shooting for 1000 points, that would have been fun!

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GJ said 6 days later

Cool, so maybe I'm back to 2005. Who needs a DeLorean?

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Kristen said 9 days later

My 401k is down 35% as well since January 08--in fact, it is down much below where it was when I left Wegmans! I'm hoping the theory that buying up cheap stocks now works...although I have 35% less buying power as well.

I think that the media is playing a huge role in this crash. Whenever you see the news you are bombarded with pictures of Wall street suits with their hands over their mouths or eyes in utter disbelief and dismay. All you hear is "are we heading back to 1929 again?" Although I have to say, if I was nearing retirement, I would be absolutely freaking out right now. Good thing my children will live to be 200 and be able to support me for a long time.

Any bets on who might go under next? GM is not looking good, which is scary scary!

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GJ said 9 days later

Ah, Kristen, you've touched on something I've been saying for a while. GM is on the very edge of bankruptcy, and their letter to suppliers yesterday announcing that they are pushing out their payment schedule from 30+1 to 60+2 net days means one simple thing--they can no longer pay their bills on time. Word is, Getrag has come calling on unpaid bills and they're scrambling to pay Peter and delay paying Paul. Funny to see a major business having the same problems a lot of us have these days.

Latest even scarier rumor--China, who the US has gladly sold all sorts of securities over the past decade, could come in and buy GM for next to nothing. How's that for scary?

I don't understand your comment about how you have 35% less buying power--that should only be the case if you're income is down as much as your 401(k). Mine hasn't changed--my contribution is the same, but since prices of the mutual funds that I purchase are lower, I get far more shares for the same price now.

The media isn't doing a very good job of explaining the problem--but then again, our government obviously doesn't understand it either, as this silly bailout plan isn't going to fix the problem.

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Kristen said 9 days later

Well, since I stopped working at wegmans I don't contribute anymore to that 401k, I now have a retirement account that the school contributes to for me...although I need to set up a roth ira once I get settled in a house. That's why it feels like I have 35% less buying power. I would love to be wrong!

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GJ said 9 days later

Don't go the Roth route until you max out your 401(k) contribution, unless your 401(k) investment choices suck. You can contribute up to something like 15% of your income to the 401(k), and the tax breaks are better than in a Roth (roths are post-tax dollars, 401k are pre-tax).

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Geoff said 10 days later

Yes but with Roths you don't have to pay tax on your earnings, unlike regular 401K/IRA's.

It all depends on your current tax bracket and what you expect to be at when you retire. Right now I am in a low tax bracket, so I'd rather pay tax on what I contribute now, and assuming the market goes up, I won't pay tax on my earnings. Thus I am going with Roth for the moment. Of course, I won't realize any benefit until I am 59 1/2.

A traditional IRA or 401K will give you an immediate tax-free benefit. So if you are considering a Roth IRA, make sure you live long enough to enjoy the money, make sure you are in a low tax bracket, and pray the laws don't change too much :)

Also, if the market goes boom boom when you are about to retire...you aren't forced to take cash out of the ROTH IRA...too bad for those folks today who don't have a Roth.

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GJ said 10 days later

ok, let's clear up some misconceptions just introduced by Geoff.

401(k) are pretax...you pay no tax going in, and you pay income tax on what you take out and it is based on your tax bracket at the time of withdrawal.

Roth are after-tax--you are using income that Uncle Sam is taxing, so that means when you take it out in the future, you don't pay tax on it again.

If you are in a low tax bracket today, it may make sense to have a Roth. I can't speak for Geoff, but I'm definitely not in the bottom tax bracket today, so I used the 401(k) to help lower my current tax bracket (remember, it takes away from your taxable income). Yes, I'll have to pay income tax on it when it comes out, but I expect to be in a lower tax bracket than I am now--that's called smart living. :)

Now, let's say you were close to retirement before this whole fiasco started. If you had a portfolio like mine (high risk) at age 60, you are an idiot. Rather, you'd have a portfolio with next to no stock, few mutual funds, and lots of bonds and cash equities. Want to know why? Right now my stocks and mutuals are down anywhere from 25-50%. My bonds? Up 1%. That's right--they're unaffected...unless inflation goes bonkers, and then everyone gets screwed. :) So as you get close to retirement, you move stuff from high risk, high return to low risk, low return...because your goal at that point is cash preservation, not gains.

Now, I'm 38. I have lots of time for the market to rebound, and it ALWAYS rebounds. At least, so far it has. If it doesn't, we'll all have far worse problems to worry about, so I won't give a crap about my investments and worry more about feeding my family. Even if the recovery takes 20 years, I'll still come out ahead, and my investments will still be measured in the millions of dollars.

So...word to the wise. Don't pull out of the market. For sure, dump stocks of dead fish, like domestic auto companies and mortgage firms, and instead stick to mutuals and "newer" blue chips stocks. In ten years, you'll be thanking me. :)

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Kristen said 11 days later

This decision might be easy for me because I don't think my "company" (the county school system) offers a 401K. I don't think you can just create one, can you? I've heard that my choice is basically between a 403b and a Roth Ira. I am also at the bottom of the tax bracket now, and will stay (firmly) there if I stay single, but will rocket to the other side (of the moon) if I end up with Drew--so I'm thinking that I better pay tax now and hope that the laws don't change.

Good news though--gas is down below $3 a gallon here. Anyone else?

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GJ said 11 days later

Gas is hovering about $3.20 at the moment out here.

Kristen, if your employer offers any retirement program by where they contribute *anything*, that's your best deal. We folks in the non-education business have 401(k) plans (they replaced pension plans, like what Dad had back in the day), and most companies match you to some degree on the first few percentage points of your salary that you contribute to the plan. My company matches dollar for dollar (100%) of the first 4% that I contribute, so I'd be an idiot to contribute any less than 4% to ensure I got my free 4%.

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Geoff said 11 days later

I paid $3.82 the other day...premium of course. :)

Rochester sucks when it comes to gas. We're about 20 cents more than Syracuse, and I think Albany is 10-15 cents cheaper than SU!

Marc said about 3 hours later

This reminds me a lot of my college physics exams.

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GJ said about 5 hours later

Unfortunately, Jurassic Park hadn't come out in time for my physics exams in college, so we got silly ones like "a ball is perched precariously at the top of an inverted bowl having the following dimensions (...). The ball begins to roll down the side of the bowl. At what elevation does the ball leave the surface of the bowl?"

I got that one way wrong on my exam--and of course, never bothered to learn the answer, only to find the SAME PROBLEM on the final.

Yep, I got a C in Mechanical Dynamics that semester.

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Marc said about 5 hours later

I got that same problem on my final. I actually just threw a number out because my answer from using the equations didn't make any sense. Turns out, my number was only a couple degrees off and got partial credit for using the correct equations incorrectly. :)

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GJ said about 12 hours later

My teacher wasn't very forgiving. I didn't use the proper formulas, and instead derived my own approach. It wasn't very far off (about 10%), but he gave me a zero both times for using the non-standard approach.

GJ said about 4 hours later

The draft is complete--go check out your teams! First week of games is Oct 5-12.

Geoff said 8 minutes later

interesting...and scary

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GJ said about 21 hours later

Is it any wonder that many people still find Sarah Palin an attractive choice for VP after the Couric interviews? I give props to Katie for keeping a straight face--I certainly couldn't.

But, drifting away from politics...watch how many miracle gas-saving devices are being peddled these days in the wake of high gas prices. My favorite has to be Brown's Gas, or other alternatives that provide seemingly amazing MPG using water in your car as a fuel. See this wiki for some details.

Anybody with a modicum of understanding in conservation of energy can see the water-powered car is a farce--yet time and again, people get suckered into making expensive modifications to their car that actually *decreases* their mileage. Of course, after spending the amount that you spend on the conversion, few people will then accurately measure their results--instead, they use positive filtering to show that they're getting better gas mileage.

What we need to do--somehow--is teach kids at an early age how to think critically. We're certainly good today at teaching them how to fool themselves.

Marc said about 9 hours later

I'm in and this weekend would be fine for the draft. Doesn't matter which day or what time, mostly because I'll probably be up 40 out of the 48 hours this weekend. :)

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GJ said about 10 hours later

Sunday is looking to be the better day for me, and I already have one draft scheduled at 4pm.

I'm thinking maybe 2pm--that work? And everyone else--sign up already!!!

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GJ said 3 days later

Sunday, 2pm is the time. I have nine teams registered--Kristen, if you want in you need to be registered this afternoon (Saturday).

Geoff said about 9 hours later

Interesting. Glad to hear the little guy winning every once in awhile.

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Steve said 5 days later

Glad to see Congel get set in his place for once. Not only does he have to buy out their lease, then, he ends up having to sell. Haha.

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GJ said 5 days later

This is Robert Congel's kid, by the way. But it's still awesome, as the kid is as much an ass as his father.

Geoff said 7 minutes later

Double bass pedal, cymbals, velocity sensitive....tell me why did I drop $1500 on a set of Roland electronic V-Drums?

I'm already excited to try it out!

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GJ said 42 minutes later

I still hate the visual interface for RB. I'll take Guitar Hero WT just because I prefer circle targets to skinny rectangles. I don't know why this is--but I have a way harder time timing them straight-edged targets.

Might get an XB360 someday. Not so much for this, but for the loads of cool games that will never see the light of day on the Wii.

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GJ said 42 minutes later

Oh, and great review, Marc--very nice on the detail levels.

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Marc said about 2 hours later

I forgot to mention they have a new mode for drummers besides the Freestyle Drum Trainer...they have a couple other trainers (rolls, fills, etc.) that actually teaches you some beats. GJ, in terms of the circle vs. rectangle targets, I was the same way starting out. I absolutely hated the rectangles, but I've gotten used to them and now prefer them.

And if you need another reason to get an XB360, Halo 3 is about the only thing necessary to bring up. That's on my top 5 most addicting games I've ever played. Rock Band/Guitar Hero and Half-Life/Team Fortress is a big battle for first, and the jury is still out.

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GJ said about 20 hours later

Halo (1) never really struck me as good. I played it on the Xbox and got bored with it. Is Halo3 (in terms of level design and gameplay, not graphics) really much better?

Of course, the closer these games get to real instruments, the more horrible I do. Musically, I am virtually talenless...and even after much practice, I still can only be fairly decent on Medium in GH3, and play maybe 1-2 songs (barely) on Hard. So, long term, it doesn't have much appeal.

It's games like Dead Space and RE5 that will get me over to the 360...and their indie game support through the marketplace. The Wii is simply killing me in that space--with no hard drive to speak of, it's really just limited to disc-based games for all intents and purposes. And I tire (greatly) of memory management, which is clunky and slow on the Wii but I'm forced to do it frequently now that my memory is close to full.

Oh, and Forza 2 would be a nice bonus. :) That's why I got the first XB.

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Marc said about 20 hours later

I never played Halo 3, so I'm not sure how to really compare them. I rarely rate games in terms of graphics, mostly because we all learned early that was a waste of time. I'll also admit I haven't even played the single player campaign on it, all I do is multiplayer. The levels in the game (short of one really terrible one) are fantastic. There always seems to be a different area in the level that people try to defend or hold. In most other games, after a week or so of playing it was the same spot every time and the strategies were practically nailed down. Not so here. I've played games where it's 4 vs. 2 or even 4 vs. 1 and we lost because that player was able to kill one of us a couple times and manage to sneak away and hide while we went off on a search and destroy mission. In a World War II game where you're all camo, that might be easy, but in Halo, you're either bright blue or bright red. So that gives you an idea of the size and depth of these levels. But they're just perfect sizes. If you ever played any of the Battlefield games, some of those maps were so big you could play an entire round without finding someone.

In terms of the games feeling like real instruments, the drums will always be that way. Although I will say the game has really improved my ability to separate movements of all my limbs. I've managed to step up to expert on a bunch of songs, but Neil Peart still kills me, as does any offbeat bass drummer. The guitar however will likely never be as complex as the real thing. I think the No Fail mode might lend well to a lot of people. I know playing on Medium or Easy I often want to strum what I hear. Even if I couldn't play something on Expert, it would feel natural to at least try. The No Fail will let you do that.

The Live Marketplace is awesome. I've picked up a couple oldie games on there, and probably would get more if I wasn't so addicted to some of the new games. Things like Worms Armageddon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade game are a lot of fun to go back and play. Worms even lets you play online, which is cool.

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Geoff said about 23 hours later

Wait...Ninja turtles the arcade game? The REAL arcade game? GTFOOH! (can you decipher that puppy?)

Is it really the arcade game? What about the Simpsons...

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Marc said 1 day later

It is the arcade game. They don't have the Simpsons though...I really wish they did.

Marc said about 2 hours later

Here is a subtle reference: PCSOFG8

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GJ said about 9 hours later

NOTPRIUS
YUMMYGAS
OMNOMNOM (sorry, taken)

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Geoff said about 10 hours later

hahaha lovely

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Marc said about 11 hours later

Haha, I like YUMMYGAS.

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Geoff said about 14 hours later

Got a few others:

G8 FORCE (I like a lot)
GASFIEND
KISMY8SS

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GJ said about 16 hours later

Methinks NYS won't let you pick up KISMY8SS. It's kinda lame anyhow.

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Geoff said about 16 hours later

lame, please. It's pure genius is what it is.

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GJ said about 19 hours later

Kiss my 8SS. Ah, I get it. I'm supposed to read it like "kiss my ass," but you inserted an "8" in there that sorta doesn't really ever get used to replace an "A," but in this case, your car is a G8 so that makes it genius. Even GR8 RUSH is better than that, dude.

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Geoff said about 19 hours later

I'm going conservative and doing FIRST888

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GJ said about 22 hours later

that's not taken? I'm kinda surprised.

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Geoff said about 22 hours later

Me too! I snatched it up while I could. It's taken now baby!

Geoff said about 3 hours later

oh man, I am down with conquest of the new world. Sign me up baby!

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GJ said about 9 hours later

you gotta check out fallout. get you ready for fallout 3 coming soon. :)

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Steve said about 10 hours later

How about old board games? Stryker Oil Company ring a bell for anyone? I just picked up that game.

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GJ said about 21 hours later

Old board games rock! I have Outdoor Survival, a few bastardized copies of Axis & Allies, and all kinds of other board games (normal ones) going back 30+ years. Where'd you find it--eBay?

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Steve said 4 days later

No, we actually went in to a Goodwill store looking for an old sewing machine for Parsla. We ended up with a bunch of stuff. Funniest thing is, that game (Stocks and Bonds) was the most expensive thing we bought ($3.50). Even the sewing machine was only $3.00!

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GJ said 4 days later

Grandpa had Stocks & Bonds...from what I recall, the game had promise but suffered from overly simplified rules that limited the outcomes of the game. Not that simulating the stock market is an easy thing to do, even as a computer game. :)

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GJ said 6 days later

Oh, btw, you can snag the entire X-Com series on Steam for $15. Not too shabby. I'm back playing X-Com again--which I did own, but couldn't be bothered to config DosBox to work as well as it does in this setup.

GJ said about 8 hours later

Dude, your point B is the same as point C. So, basically, you dislike the slick lineup setup that yahoo had. Tough noodles.

Espn's smack commenting, live scoring, player info dialogs, and score board all beat the crap out of yahoo. As painful as you make the lineup change tool out to be, it's not that bad.

Finally....ESPN makes score corrections, something Yahoo doesn't do. In a close game (we had two this week) that could mean the difference in a win versus a loss.

Still, I'd love to hear from everyone else on this subject. What do you think of ESPN so far?

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Geoff said about 13 hours later

B is not the same as C......C is a criticism of the current ESPN system. The system wouldn't be so bad, if it didn't require an extra, unnecessary step.

Point A, being the most critical as I use Safari at home on my Mac. I don't use Firefox on my mac because it is grossly slow.

So yes, the lineup change tool does blow.

Lastly, I find it a bit more difficult to interpret some of the data vs yahoo on the scoreboard. I'm sure the more I see the system, I will get used to it, but I think their is some poor GUI going on in some areas (other areas are very good).

As for live scoring...I don't sit by my computer and watch my fantasy score as the games progress. Not as important to me personally.

I wasn't aware Yahoo didn't make score corrections. So you're saying if Yahoo screwed up a score, they just left it screwed up? Perhaps this is why I lost the finals to Marc. Obviously it wasn't a result of Brady...thats for sure. :)

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GJ said about 14 hours later

Correct. Yahoo does not make much in the way of score corrections--while this hasn't bit us in football that I know of, it has bitten us in hockey several times, and actually made the difference in a playoff game a few years b
Point A: There are lots of web apps out there that don't like certain browers. Most are IE-specific, some are firefox-specific. Yeah, it sucks that it doesn't work on Safari. However, you're the first to make this complaint, so for now I'm not considering it a major suckage point.

Point C: Almost all websites today still use forms with submit buttons. Yahoo doesn't. ESPN, Fanball, and pretty much every other fantasy football site does. Strangely, Yahoo isn't the market leader in fantasy football. I'm guessing they don't get many complaints about their lineup tools. Yes, you like Yahoo's system. Guess what? I like ESPNs...because I CAN USE IT IN A SMALL WINDOW. Try dragging and dropping when the window can't show you the whole lineup...some of us like to click on the player to replace, then scroll down to the list of players and play around with who to sub in. It's a matter of personal preference, and again, so far, you're the only complainer. This isn't a bad design...it's a different design--one that likely suits their subscribes to a large degree. Yahoo caters to a more casual player, so their setup fits their site well. One isn't just naturally better than the other, in my opinion.

Point B: Please rephrase. I don't see how this isn't covered above, so elucidate me.

Point D: interpretation of data. Again, Yahoo caters to a more casual crowd. I think you'll learn to appreciate ESPN's info.

Point E: Live scoring is fun for some people, not for others. It's a lot more fun when it's free. Yahoo charges $10 for that privilege.

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Geoff said about 23 hours later

I'm just pissed I lost to dad 98-90.

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GJ said 1 day later

Yep, and that game cost me the win in my other league. :(