The Economy, The Stock Market, & Your Personal Finances

rjb wrote :



never even looked at that thread - know about as much about NFL (or CFL - shame on me !) as about visiting MARS !!!
thanks for the tip - will visit NFL and MARS !
hbg

There is a picture of my building that ehBeth posted. I am too stupid to move it here or anywhere else.

Ww received our new telephone book today for Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. Each year for about the last five I have done a "book review."
Phone books were already on the endangered species list. With many individuals switching from landlines to cell phones, the white pages (residential) have become less useful. This year's book went from 190 to 187 pages despite a 5% increase in population.
The yellow pages (business listings and ads) have also been shrinking. This year was especially dramatic, going from 763 to 672 pages. That is a 12% decline.
The deadline for reserving space was, as I recall, late June, before the economy really hit Main Street hard. I expect that next year's book will see the yellow pages shrink again as ads get even smaller or some businesses close down.
I reduced the sizes of my 3 ads, in part because of the realization that despite our hours being listed, we get 3 or calls a day asking for our hours.
Finally, back in the back of the white pages, the Zyromski family continues to be the last listing.

rjb wrote :



perhaps this belongs on the joke page .. maybe someone will get a laugh out of it during these "interesting " times .. if not , i apologize !

my dad just loved to tell this joke - much to my mother's dismay and her raised eyebrows .

someone by the name of "zuendloch" (that's the german name for the hole in the old guns where you light the fuse) asked for a new name so that his name would move to the front pages of the phonebook .
he told the registrar to just choose a name - he didn't care as long as it started with A . he is now being listed as "a**s hole" (which is much the same in german) in the phonebook - much to his satisfaction .

we just howled at my dad repeating that joke for the umpteenth time - and kept asking him again
hbg

just reading it , i had to laugh loudly to myself - i should have something better to do , but ... ...

For the economy, as much as for ourselves, we will buy two DTV converter boxes and three HDTV television sets. Oh, and we'll not redeem any stocks or bonds from our 401ks even though we have lost hundreds of thousands already (on paper that is).

the canadian stock market has beeen recovering a bit over the last few days - not a "dead cat" bounce , i hope .
the canadian dollar is up a bit against the U.S. dollar - good for importers - bad for exporters .
the canadian $ is also up against the Euro - meaning less german pension for us (after conversion) .
we bought a new car in august - planning on a nice weekend in toronto end of january - haven't decided on any kind of vacation yet .
we should spend to move the economy along , but should save to keep our own finances in order - a bit of a dilemma .
hbg