What are you going to do to protect yourself from the impending financial meltdown?

[boston bean]

I've got some plans that include removing all money from financial instruments and into safer environments.

How about you?

[guillaumeb]

1. Most people have very little in personal savings.

And many people apparently do not earn enough to save.

[boston bean]

2. many people have a 401K. If they do, they ought to be doing something very safe with their $$.

But yes, I agree, many have nothing saved.

I only have my retirement funds... and they aren't anything to write home about, but mean a lot to me.

[kimbutgar]

3. I inherited my Mother's house and wanted to take a loan to convert it into a duplex

But now I don't know what to do because I might get stung by a predatory lender since they're getting rid of Dodd Frank. I might just sell it and my home and move to another country. So much unknown and toxic things coming in 2017 and beyond. It's as I can't dream anymore of getting social security, traveling or a positive future anymore.

[juxtaposed]

4. buy seeds and dig a bucker

[pinboy3niner]

9. Dig a what?

[juxtaposed]

14. no bunker

[LearnedHand]

49. DUzy! (eom)

[gwheezie]

5. I paid off my debt & retiring next week

I was going to work a few more years but I don't see the point. My last day at work is 12/16. I told my boss I would do maybe 2-4 shifts a month just in case. But I hope to spend my new free time with doing everything I can to put a stop to trump & gop plans to destroy the country. I'm going to the march on 1/21 & hope to find a group or 2 that is organizing to take them down.
Financially I've done all I can do. I have some saved, some still invested which I'm going to cash out in 2017 asap. I didn't want to do it in tax year 16 because it would boost my taxes up too high but 17 taxes will be at a much lower rate. I don't know if I'm going to sell my house. It's too big & too much work. All my livestock, horses & most dogs are gone but 2 dogs. I don't need this place but otoh it's in the woods & off the beaten path.

[handmade34]

15. congratulations!!

sounds much the same as what I have done... only, I just signed lease for tiny eatery/hash house in my neighborhood... and I just ordered 46 chicks to be delivered Jan 30!! just starting to build up livestock and gardens

[brer cat]

21. Good for you, gwheezie!

Paying off debt makes retirement easier and more enjoyable. Even if you are spending much of your time trying to stop the coming disaster, I hope you enjoy the freedom retirement can bring.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. If you do not have what is referred to as

ability to change asset classes within your 401k on short notice,you have to plan ahead or start contacting the plan Administrator and safe Harbor your investments.

We update our IRA sell orders daily,when we notice the market is about to take the crap,dump and convert to all cash. Learned our lesson in 2006 with Lehman. Hopefully these suckers do not trash the market on Saturday and Sunday again.

[bluedigger]

7. I'm dead broke, so i'm in great shape!

[etherealtruth]

8. I am very worried about my retirement funds (401k)

I am 54 so I am "young" enough to be really screwed r/t ss and medicare ... and way too old to rebound from a catastrophic loss (or even a moderate) to my 401k

[boston bean]

35. I know.. it's like being in a rock and a hard place...

you say.. should I just cash out and take the loss... or what.... I don't know..

All I know is I am scared shitless!

[sarcasmo]

47. 48, my gut tells me that anyone under 50 is royally screwed.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

10. Nothing

I'll deal with it when it happens if it happens. I'll survive some how.

[doc03]

11. I will probably stay the course. I have a 40% allocation in the stock market

and 60% in the bond market. So far I have weathered many downturns and given time always recovered.
I do think we are building to another market bubble again. If I would have followed the Chicken Littles on DU
in the past I would have a lot less now for sure.

[handmade34]

12. allready done

[pinboy3niner]

13. I'm in good shape

No investments, live on Army partial disability retirement, but live frugally and have managed to build savings. You could say that I'm not much of a consumer.

[edhopper]

16. I think the stock market

will continue to ride up as they take away regulation and lower Corp taxes.
Bigger profits, for a while.
Then the excesses will lead to a major meltdown.
I hope to get out ahead of it.
I am trying to follow the economist and market analyzers who would be on top of this.

If you saw "The Big Short", I need some one like the Christian Bale guy.

Or a Robert Shiller type.

[Squinch]

17. Where is a safer environment? I'm asking seriously.

Do you mean overseas?

[boston bean]

19. completely out of the stock market, into a place where I can live forever without paying for housing

except taxes and utilities.

If I need money I can sell the place. I don't think I will actually lose money over the long run...

[Squinch]

22. Oh! I was thinking of something like that.

When do you think the disaster will hit? I'm thinking we have till about mid-spring. What do you think?

[boston bean]

23. I am so scared squinch.. if they start doing shit the day of inauguration anything could set off a

collapse...

But it will probably ride high for a while. At this point in my life, I am very risk averse... so I am thinking I will do something before he becomes president. My husband I have some meetings next week, and will be moving quickly thereafter.

[Squinch]

26. I'm pretty terrified too. We do know disaster's coming, and when it does there'll be no

social security or medicare to fall back on when I need it in a few years.

I have a physically demanding job, so I don't really have the option of keeping at it into my old age. I had thought I was on a good track and would be ready when retirement came, but now it's all up in the air, and what I have could easily be lost.

[boston bean]

29. It is frightening. I always say better to be safe.

After what we saw end of 2008 early 2009, it is to easily to lose it all in one day.

At our age. we may not have the time to fully recover and Trump adds another layer that it may be unrecoverable.

I say hunker down.. be safe... take what you have now.. and settle in for the long run.

We know that housing can go up and down.. but if something is to recover the housing market recovers sometimes quicker or same pace. So I feel comfortable investing for peace of mind that I will have a place to lay my head.

[Squinch]

30. I think this is a good idea.

[pinboy3niner]

24. I can't avoid paying rent, but some years ago I got a rent reduction

Identical units began offering for lower rent, so I made my case to the manager, who went to the owners and backed me as a model tenant. I got a $75 reduction.

After some years, I got a rent increase of $50. I figure I'm still ahead.

[Doreen]

18. I am one of the people who

do not have the finances to protect myself. I'm screwed along with millions of others.

[boston bean]

20. I am sorry doreen. Even with the little bit I have, i am extremely vulnerable as well.

[Doreen]

25. I am scared to death.

I survive month to month and saving money is not possible. I am a disabled women and I fear what the streets are going to be like to people like me.

[Squinch]

27. Oh, Doreen. I'm so sorry.

[a kennedy]

37. I'm so sorry for you as well......

[GliderGuider]

28. Same here. I'd invest in prayer, but the ROI ain't so hot

At least it doesn't cost more than I've got...

[gwheezie]

39. My family has a contingency plan

I'm in pretty stable shape but we have a couple of ideas if some of my more vulnerable family members are hit. We downsize from individual housing to families doubling up. I have a vulnerable brother & sister in law, my other brother is dependent on my parents. My daughter will be ok but if not I will go to live with her & support her family. Sister should be ok.

[Doreen]

41. It is good to have a strong family.

[Island Blue]

31. I've been thinking about putting my house on the market soon,

because I think the housing market will tank once again. Other than that, I do NOT plan to buy another car. I will continue to drive my Chevy Cavalier, purchased when Bill Clinton was president. That's all I've got.

[taught_me_patience]

32. Don't forget the market can stay irrational

Longer than you can stay solvent...

[boston bean]

33. I agree. that is why I think having a place I own outright is best.

[we can do it]

45. I agree. We are paid off.

Busted our butts getting everything paid off. Now just need to buy food, utilities, tax and insurance.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. In the words of the great sage Al Czervic

"everybody's buying? Then sell, sell, sell! What? They're all selling? Then buy, buy, buy!"

Seriously, what sorts of investments are fully Trump-proof? Well, if the shit hits the fan bad enough... maybe stock up on beef jerky and MRE's. Hazmat suits and iodine pills?

In the meantime, it's a good question. Defense stocks? Booze? Booze companies will probably flourish the next couple years, no matter what happens. I suspect a lot of people are going to need to spend the next 4 years profoundly inebriated.

[boston bean]

36. I am thinking paying off my house and always having a place to call home...

[Warren DeMontague]

40. Probably not a bad idea.

There are a lot of unknowns, and the "transition process" has been anything but reassuring.

[Auggie]

38. Bonds and short-term Treasuries

[we can do it]

46. Another good idea.

[ismnotwasm]

42. I can't do much

I work as little as possible and still keep my insurance because my husband is disabled with MS and on Disability--which I fully expect to get cut under Trump. He can drive and he can walk, but he can't work and has some shit days I have FMLA for. I have an actual pension--as rare as that is today and I'm not touching it.

[JCMach1]

43. Weirdly, Bitcoin... Just ask the people in India and China who are driving the price up right now.

easily usable and virtually untraceable apps already exist for even face to face exchange with your phone.

Bitcoin is becoming the 'new' Gold.


http://qz.com/859661/bitcoin-is-approaching-new-highs-for-the-year-because-of-indias-demonetization/

India’s cash crunch is sending one currency soaring.
Since prime minister Narendra Modi pulled Rs500 and Rs1000 notes from circulation on Nov. 8 in a bid to fight corruption and terrorism, the weekly volume of bitcoin trading in India has nearly doubled from prior levels.

[Kilgore]

44. Moved everything out of the market

And purchased some rental properties. Would not touch the market with a 20 foot stick.

Plus I could always grow potatoes in the yard.

[dixiegrrrrl]

48. I am still trying to recover from the previous meltdown

which was timed, you might have noticed, just as us boomers were ready to cash in our 401-k type retirement funds.