[Mrfriendly]

Originally Posted by Battlebasset

When return on CD/Treasuries was above 5%, I moved excess cash into those. When it drops, it's time to invest with the fixed income money I have made. If we go into recession, then I can pick up stocks cheaper.

Yes, I'm only 60 so I have some runway.

With our 2.8% mortgage on Villages home I think I’m good for awhile to keep putting my money into CDs/Treasuries then stocks on the upcoming BIG dip.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Wondering

Do you think you might be a bit self centered? Lower interest rates might help the younger generations get a mortgage and be given the opportunity that you had when you were their age. Maybe if you had invested better over the years you wouldn't be dependent on your savings account. Does being selfish come to mind?

My advice to young people has always been to avoid debt and to save money. I don't agree that buying a house with a large mortgage is a good idea, or that it necessarily creates wealth. I have a sizable savings account, but I am not dependent on it. I don't think that artificially lowering interest rates to below the inflation rate is a good idea. It encourages borrowing instead of saving. Also, it has nothing to do with being selfish.

[Marine1974]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

The media is downright giddy that the most recent inflation report indicates the Fed might soon be cutting interest rates. Exactly how is that good news for responsible senior citizens who have saved their hard earned money, avoided debt, and want to earn a reasonable real rate of return above inflation on their savings?

The federal reserve is not a branch of our government. Its board members are all from big banks . I truely believe the fed should not be involved in setting interest rates . Supply and demand should determine interest rates . Let banks compete for our money .

[rsmurano]

People talk about savers like they are putting their money under their mattress or at a bank savings account. You should never have a savings account because you will never make any money. You should be in the market with all your money. Create a bucket system to live on but even have your bucket that your living on invested in money market, everything else in stocks/funds.
Realistically, by the time you retire, you shouldn’t have any debt, enough $$$ to live on without any worries, and if you don’t, you didn’t plan well when you were younger and working. If you would have invested $100 a month say in ibm or in apple in your 20’s, you would have enough money to do whatever you want now. You would have over $1M in wealth. If you would have increased this amount each time you got a raise or got a better paying job, you would have much more. But people didn’t, most spent as much as they made.

As for interest rates, we all benefit, especially investors over time. The last decade before 2021 is proof of that. Interest rates drop tech stocks and small caps will surge, in time, and all the people with variable interest rates will benefit. Home prices will skyrocket because you are going to have a lot more people that now can afford the home they have always wanted so it will be a sellers market. Lately with the higher rates, it’s been a buyers market.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

People talk about savers like they are putting their money under their mattress or at a bank savings account. You should never have a savings account because you will never make any money. You should be in the market with all your money. Create a bucket system to live on but even have your bucket that your living on invested in money market, everything else in stocks/funds.
Realistically, by the time you retire, you shouldn’t have any debt, enough $$$ to live on without any worries, and if you don’t, you didn’t plan well when you were younger and working. If you would have invested $100 a month say in ibm or in apple in your 20’s, you would have enough money to do whatever you want now. You would have over $1M in wealth. If you would have increased this amount each time you got a raise or got a better paying job, you would have much more. But people didn’t, most spent as much as they made.

As for interest rates, we all benefit, especially investors over time. The last decade before 2021 is proof of that. Interest rates drop tech stocks and small caps will surge, in time, and all the people with variable interest rates will benefit. Home prices will skyrocket because you are going to have a lot more people that now can afford the home they have always wanted so it will be a sellers market. Lately with the higher rates, it’s been a buyers market.

Agree with you. The problem is people do not have to take a required class in economics and financial management. As a result too many people will lose out on being financially responsible.

[sianagers@att.net]

Originally Posted by bshuler

In July, on a new home in TV I got a 30 year rate quote of 7% from Citizens First.
Tuesday I got a rate of 5.875% on a 30 through National Bank of Kansas City (nbkc).
Loan officer claims rate cut has already been built into the market.

Can you help me find them ???

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Caymus

Without a major recession, I doubt that interest rates will drop significantly. The treasury will still need to borrow money to fund the massive budget deficit.

The budget deficit would be improved if the income brackets were adjusted back to help the middle class.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by opinionist

Raise rates, and the economy crashes.
Cut rates and the dollar crashes.
Pick your poison.

That explains why the FED must work hard to KEEP rates correct as much as possible.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Blueblaze

Mortgages were over 8% for my entire working life, until the gooberment blew up the economy giving way mortgages to people who refused to pay them back, and the whole thing came crashing down in 2008. Heck, my Grandparent's 20-year, $5,000 mortgage was over 5%! My father's 20-year $18,000 mortgage was 4% (thanks to the Nixon/Carter inflation)! My first home was 18% for a 30-year, $80K mortgage, because that's what it took to fix the Nixon/Carter inflation. And still, my savings NEVER hit 0.01% until 2008. Before 2008, the gooberment was never so cruel as to force me compete with their printing press!

There is NOTHING "normal" about a 3% mortgage or 0.01% passbook savings rate. The passbook savings rate was 4.25% for 100 years prior to 2008. NORMAL is when a bank pays you 4.25% to save your money with them, so they can loan it back out for 8%. But the gooberment's magic money machine makes your savings account a mere nuisance. The bank gets its money direct from the FED, not you.

"Normal" ended in 2008.

A 3% mortgage could be "normal" when the inflation rate is ZERO percent.

[Blueblaze]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

A 3% mortgage could be "normal" when the inflation rate is ZERO percent.

Even during the Depression, when the money was DEFLATING, mortgage interest rates never hit 3%.

Nobody in their right mind -- and certainly not a bank -- would voluntarily create a business around a 3% profit that requires a 20 year risk. You need government dumbassitude to create that level of lunacy.

What's really asinine is that right now, for the first time in human history, it is actually possible to create 0% inflation and a stable economy. All it would take would be to take the creation of money out of human hands and write a computer program that in real time matches the money supply to the growth of the GDP. We will never in our grandchildren's lifetimes see such sane management of the economy.

As long as a politician has something to gain from it, there will always be a knob on the Magic Money Machine that can be turned up to "11", just in time for the next election..

[MorTech]

I doubt they will ever allow savings rates higher than inflation...They want you to spend and risk investment (Like SPY ETF up 20% YTD). Wall Street wants zero-bound so they can have higher asset inflation. They use inflation as a way to default on debt.

[allsport]

Well said.

[Haggar]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

They still do but now it's fake.

Is it the the reporting that is fake or is it the stories they report on that are fake?

If the stories are fake do they report it as a unsubstantiated story or they do they push it as fact.

It is my belief most reporters are honest and they report or repeat what the story is.

If they report a "story" they should report along it with the facts.

Some people don't like the facts - they prefer the story.

[sianagers@att.net]

Originally Posted by bshuler

In July, on a new home in TV I got a 30 year rate quote of 7% from Citizens First.
Tuesday I got a rate of 5.875% on a 30 through National Bank of Kansas City (nbkc).
Loan officer claims rate cut has already been built into the market.

I just applied with them today!! Thank you for the referral!!!

[Normal]

A quarter point won’t do anything except create some ease and display some stability. It isn’t the end of banks paying decent interest rates and it won’t change loan markets too much.