G*D we have some good posters here.

I'M NOT WORTHY!!!!!


hahahaha

do you really think that SS would be bankrupt if Congress was not stealing it blind... remember the "lock box"?

That's not just an issue with SS. All sorts of funds supposedly earmarked for certain things wind up being raided. (I'm still wondering where all the tobacco settlement $$ went.)

"The market", IMO, is an unreliable way to save for retirement. Might as well bet at the track, or head to a casino. There are no guarantees. Didn't we just see that? "The market" took a giant swirly flush, and those who did what they were supposed to do (" provide for themselves") lost a lot of money through no fault of their own.

All SS earning statements now have a little * that says maybe you'll get this much, maybe you won't. That's unacceptable, IMO.

Chaos.. not to beat the horse to death... but I retired at the age of 53, when Worldcom (MCI) went crooked and i would not make the "adjustments" they wanted.. When I say retired, that means.. I QUIT. I do part time photography for fun, but my retirement fund was strictly the market.. yup, it goes up, and it goes down.. and my funds go like wise.. but over ANY period of gyrations, I always came out ahead. I have had the same financial adviser for over 20 years, and he has done a marvelous job for me. My only major setback, market wise, had nothing to do with the market, but with the failure of MCI?Worldcom... that left me with 16,000 shares of paper worth .08 cents each. I have found the market to be a very viable source of both income and investment for over 25 years... and even with the current turmoil, I consistently make as much on the market as I with drawl for my monthly living alotments... over a 12 moth period. that means that the funds go up and down, but as an average over 12 - 16 months, I have been consistently breaking even. I am an civil engineer/photographer, I would not want my financial guy building my projects or taking my images, and i don't want to think that I can work the market better than the guy trained for it. REMEMBER.. this is a adviser, NOT a broker.

Bobs- what % of your funds were in WCM when it went sh*thouse, if you don't mind my asking?

Here is a true story: My husbands grandmother had a shelf full of shoe boxes. ( There were about 12-14 shoe boxes. Everyone assumed inside the boxes were shoes. When she passed away and my FIL was going through her things deciding who to give what he told me I could go through the shoes and take what I wanted or dispose of them how I wanted to. (I love shoes and right now have over 100 pair... I know I'm nuts) I opened each box and inside each box were envelopes with dates, amounts and either + or - in front of each amount. Inside the envelopes were $20.00 bills. The money totaled up to be over $275,000. Since this woman and her husband were cattle farmers all their lives and outside of her part time job as a cook at a local restaurant , my father-in-law figured she has to of saved this money for years and years. She didn't trust banks and her husband never borrowed money from any bank his entire life. They hardly spend any money either the entire time I knew them and I remember the curtians she had over the windows were plastic ones and the rugs she had on the floor were braided and she made these from bread wrappers. She was 97 when she died and her husband was 99. So I have been thinking about putting what little money I have in my Charles Schwab account and putting it in glass jars and burying them in the barn because I am getting where I don't trust banks/investment companies either.

Oh, one more thing... I didn't keep the money either.

well, there is still a question- what did you do with it?

LOL.. I gave it to my father-in-law who ended up splitting it with his 4 sons (I am married to his oldest son)

Macro, when I left MCI in Jan 1999, I sold over a two year period a little more than 2/3rds of my remaining stock. Most of the stock I sold was stock that I purchased through the employee stock purchase program, where you could by at the lowest price in the past 30 days. the balance was stock options.. I sold basically everything that was legal to sell, the rest was options that had not yet vested. My brother ran into a problem with credit cards and I had to margin $60,000 to bail him out... Worldcom went under while that debt was still not retired, and a bunch of the options had not yet vested.. It bothered me, but unlike so many others, I never figured that paper into my retirement amount.. it only counted as money when it was vested or sold. I had, maybe 60,000 shares all together, most of which I bought early on when stock was .78 cents to $5 a share.. and options that I got as a Sr. Program Manager, I sold at $96 - $100 a share in 1999. The 16,000 shares, well.. it is like Vegas, you win some, and you lose some!

My photography pays for the plane and the horse (a rescue horse that still can not be ridden), and of course, you remember who I work for, so the fun quotient is off the scale. She actually called me on the anniversary of Linda's passing, just to talk if I wanted to... is that just to cool!!

you have some good friends, Bob- and it sounds as if you have earned their love and trust. you are a fortunate man in many ways. i am sure you know it.

Bob

What did you think of Bernie? He'll be in the cooler for a few more years...

Bob
We have another poster on one of the boards and she got caught up with the problems there, but I don't now anything about what affects it had on her...

WWIIwarrior.. What I think of Bernie are in mild terms not printable on this forum. He got 25 years, I wish he could do another in addition just for stupidity! His partner in crime (CFO Sullivan) is the B^&%$#&* that just got out.. early release because he turned on Bernie as a states witness.. and he was the major architect. A lot of people got hurt.. most had more faith in a company that I did. People forget.. companies are not people, you can not have a relationship with a company.. me, when the time was right, I cashed out.. most did not.

What branch of the service were you in (an assumption.. WWIIwarrior), I was Navy... in Vietnam.. I am just a kid!

Macro.. yes, I have many friends, I have a great job.. but you sir, have a family, and i have my memories. BTW, I met Kristi in September, she is the spokesperson for the Swine Flu effort. She was in Dallas for a medical conference. I got a hold of her and we had dinner.. I thought of you and your wife...

Quite a story, it is a shame they did not enjoy while they were alive.. it brings to mind the plastic seat covers everyone put on the car seats back in the 50's & 60's.. they did not enjoy the seats (the plastic was hot & sticky), but the people they sold the car to after 3 - 4 years had new seats to enjoy! I do not plan on leaving ANYTHING in my will, I am going to spend it before I go!

On the other hand, you should have at least taken a "finders fee"!

Bob

I was in the US Marines in WW2, and want to thank you for your service in the Navy during some real bad times in Nam...
Your so right in regards to Bernie, and I did hear that Sullivan was let go and thank you for telling me how he was let go free...
We worked with the Electronics in your MCI Towers, and will talk about it later...

I was in the Seabee, Fleet Marine Expeditionary forces.. Semper Fi... Served in country for 28 months with the 1st Marines and the 3rd Marines while attached to Mobile Construction Battalion 4. Thank you for your service.. I am Jewish, and WWII was a must win for me on several levels... I would not do well speaking German. I hit many of the Islands in the Pacific while in the service, Pelilu, Ponape, Palau, Iwo, Battan, Guam, Tarawa, Siapan, the Philippines as well as Japan itself... On Pelilu and Ponape I destroyed over 7,000 pounds of Japanese munitions that were still there in 1968, along with a Japanese soldier who thought the war was still on!

One of my best friends and co-volunteer at the Frontiers of Flight Museum is Maj. General Richard Mulberry, USMC retired. He flew SBD Dauntless Dive Bombers in WWII, F4U Corsair Fighters in Korea, and commanded a MAW at Red Beach, Vietnam. He is coming on 90 years old, and I still have a problem keeping up with him. He is ALL MARINE! I made him a very good friend when I researched the web and found images on his squadron, wingman and rear gunner. His pictures of them had suffered the ravages of time, and unlike you, he is not computer literate. Richard is in the top image, the short guy second from the right. This collage was 20 x 30 inches, and is now framed in his library/office.

BTW.. I was a Civil Engineer with MCI from 1980 - 1987.. and built almost all the towers on the east coast. Maybe you installed some old Collins radio.. ??

awwwwwwwww! well, we are big Kristi fans. always liked her attitude. she seemed like one of the more grounded skaters.

Bob

Yes, the See Bees are great friends of ours since we still work close together, and it sure looks like we can carry on a very long conversation, talking about the See Bees, the islands in the Pacific along with our experiences with MCI... Will have to keep it down for awhile...
Have you attended any of your reunions for the 1st and 3rd. Marines? The reason I asked, was invited to their reunion in 2005 in Louisville and met a bunch of the folks there, especially since the person that was running the reunion had invited me to it... I think they ae holding one next year and will give my friend a call to find out where it will be held...
In regards to MCI, we worked on the communication equipment for the Repeater and 3 way Repeater stations, and I was the Supervisor for Burroughs Corp. nad had to send my folks out to various deserted areas of the Country...
We do have a few Marines that were in their late 80's and early 90's and still driving and working... Will convese more later...

Bob, Enjoy your time on the board and Semper Fi my friend

Nope, never attended a reunion.. not much for that... maybe some day... back to politics.. semper Fi..

Macro turn next