I listen to financial advice for people, investment advice etc. Inflation, retirement, what you should do etc. but none of that seems to even apply to people who are living from paycheck to paycheck.

If the economy collapses, will it hit the rich or the poor first? Or will the poor even notice?

Gas is up, food is up, rent is up. Wages are not going up.

if it hits welfare then yes

if not..well the poor are often used to living substandard so they may not notice

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Agreed!

Folks living paycheck to paycheck are not going to fair very well when the paychecks stop.

I read somewhere recently that the top 1% saw their wealth in 2010 increase at a rate that surpasses any recorded since records began being kept.

Never has the old lament that 'The Rich get richer, the poor get poorer" ever been more literally true.

-Kerry O.

Hi, I used to work as an Investment Banker in the UK and I can tell you where you are going wrong to start with. Your first paragraph -

You couldn't be more wrong, all the above absolutely applies to those in your situation. You just need to remember that if money is tight Its just on a much smaller scale. $10 a month saved or invested might just pay one of those bills one day or if you need emergency work to your home etc if you found yourself below the breadline due to unemployment, illness etc.

In terms of who it will affect the most, depends n your point of view. The rich will lose more in terms of value but the lower end in terms of percentage.

In the UK the only people shielded by the markets are those on support. They will always be accounted for in budgets and state reforms. Its not just the cash they are given each week/month its the benefits as a total including reduced rent on government owned properties, free prescriptions, dental, healthcare costs etc.

The person worst hit is the average joe who works 9-5 and takes home an average wage. Its them that get hit hard and thats why when the financial state of any country is good and money is flowing that is the time to invest, use tax allowances etc to safe guard yourself through rougher times.

Unfortunately though this is where the banks and im sorry to say Investment bankers got it wrong and leveraged to much in this period to try and inflate market returns, mainly with money guaranteed by the government if it was lost, and therefore yet again passed onto the tax payer.

In terms of your paycheck not going up, there is a very good reason for that.
For example say you work in a supermarket, with 40 other staff. The cost of gas is up so distribution cost is high, electricity is up so running shop cost is up, people or poorer so not spending as much so revenue is down and so on. The managers/directors do a forecast and by not putting up the wages lets them keep all the staff on. By raising your monthly wage by $100 = 40 x$100 = An extra $4000 a month of net cash that just isnt available. If they did it 3 months later 25% of the staff would be made redundant and your hours would rise to accommodate the shortage and in essence lower your hourly wage back to what it was. Times are hard, they will get harder but will also get better probably 3-5years.

Just saying i read it somewhere isnt really a reliable source of information.

Thanks David1979T,

Okay so you would advise that a person try to save at least a little or perhaps $10.00 a month. (Or as "The Richest Man in Babylon" book suggests, 10% of your income.)

How important is it to pay off credit cards?

What can a poor man invest in? (Gold and silver being too expensive perhaps.)

Should people stock up on goods for hard times ahead? Food? Water?

How risky is the stock markets when the dollar is in such a shaky state?

How safe are banks, and government bonds?

EAT THE RICH

There's always Google if one wants to find the statistics. If you pay me to do the research, I'll be glad to supply you with reliable statistics.

With corporate profits up and unemployment still stuck close to 10%, it's pretty clear that many of us are being asked to do more work for the same or less money. American productivity is at an all-time high, yet wages are stagnant, and every year we are asked to pay more for health insurance, food and gas. Someone's reaping the benefit of that.

And it's not the bottom 99%, is it?

Don't take my word for it, Google up what Warren Buffet has to say about it.


-Kerry O.

Those percentages for unemployment are wrong. They only count people who are collecting unemployment compensation. They are not counting people who aren't.

I had a homeless guy walk into my McDonald's today and all he could afford was a senior coffee ($0.48)

So when I got off shift, I got him 3 cookies.

They notice.

When economy sucks, they notice.

Wealthier people are less giving of their change, not as apt to do nice things like getting them $1's worth of something off the $1 menu at restaurants, shyte like that.


They notice. Trust me.

I saw more people on the Star of Hope program during Christmas this year than before.

It affects us all.

I think it's the wealthy people that don't notice as much. I mean, do you see Oprah not giving away enormous amounts of crap during her holiday programs, just because it's her favorite?

Do you see Obama tightening the proverbial belt and NOT golfing on the weekend?

Do you see Britney Spear's pinching pennies and waiting for the {"second-run" theater to show the latest movies for $2?

Yeah... When THEY start counting change in line at McDonald's, then you know the economy is FAR worse than we realized.

... or people who aren't doing even that.

Like pre-teens in orphanages, politicians, and people in the coma wards in the hospitals. Or aspiring comedians on Internet dating sites. Some argue that these latter can be considered free game for sports-hunters, since we don't have souls.

"They don't have rich? let them eat their words."

My very good friend Paul, who is no longer on speaking terms with me, but he is my master and supervisor, said once, "they should set up counselling for the poor to teach them how to deal with their hunger."

]

Love, that is the UK. Here, the poor and middle class get FUKKED. Free dental? BALONEY
Free Medical? In your DREAMS
Free ANYTHING? Only for the rich.

Sounds like a real piece of work.

I agree, when it come to healthcare, dental etc America has some of the best institutions in the world......if you can afford it.

Here in the UK, our NHS (national Health Service) is free for all, i say free its government funded via taxation. But there for all to use when needed.

With regards to the original poster, where to invest. God knows its so hit and miss even plonking it in the bank seems risky these days. Personally with small investments each month I would look at a straight forward Unit trust or OEIC investment, invested into corporate or government bonds. BUT thats still most likely to end up down down down even with decent fund managers. Not joking now when I say put it in a jar in the cupboard and you cant lose.

If you have credit cards there is no point doing any investments at all. You may well get a small return annually but nothing in comparison to the APR you are being charged on the cards. If you have extra each month then pay it off them. If you pay off $1000 over the year on a 20% apr card you have actually saved $200 plus compounded interest. You would never get that from an investment of that $1000 these days. Plus you have that $1000 buffer in case of an emergency with easy access.

I feel for you though, its the same here. Everyone is brassic lint!

The bottom 99% and the poor are not the same thing. Also I am not saying its not out there written somewhere. Hell now you wrote it so I can say I read that somewhere. Still that does not make it a reliable source of information.

That was kind of you.