Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

did someone from the Big 12 highjack this link?

http://www.huskers.com/

Vile corrupt Corporate Assholes & slappie Congressmen on the take cheap have put comfortable retirement out of reach for many and I don't think I'm popping off.Conglomerations are running things,I weep for the future,Hope against hope I'm wrong

my small corporation has a 401K match
congress had encouraged me to save with deferred taxes
If I decide to spend everything w/o worrying about retirement, it's on me

the approaching financial storm is sobering-considering the cascading implications.  it makes a person wonder how exactly it will play out- and none of the concepts are good.  i don't care which side of the aisle a person sits on or what their convictions are- just as soon as somebody comes for something they have only legal 'rights' or only some sort of moral claim to, it's gonna get nasty fast.  

it's quietened down quite a bit in the last couple years, but there was a time when reasonable and respectable people were 'preppers'- prepping for what was up for grabs, but.... some sense of impending doom seemed to be driving it.  there are persisting tales still about ultra-rich having plans and elaborate facilities and not all of it is BS.... i guess some of that could be pawned off as boredom or too much money not enough mental engagement (or like my grandmother used to say 'idle hands.....')... the entire concept of it all creates a funky tickle and thought process "what do these people know i don't?"... 

but all that aside...... ^it's just feeding my paranoia and propensity to flirt with conspiracies...... 

it is good to know how to live without convenience's we have.  grow/raise food- have an established barter/logistical system where you play a role and enjoy a benefit.. if for nothing else, just for the self-reliance aspect.  it's good to have a strong community nearby to pitch in and help, and that you can help... sorta, like...... way back when.  

and that is what i'm getting at... the more we rely on central structure (including monetary) the more we make ourselves vulnerable to it's whims and those in a position to exploit it.  being self-sufficient is hard- a full time+ job, but people are healthier, happier, and not nearly bound by the things that are tearing us up.  this technology thing and the route we're taking is going to doom us if it hasn't already.  i mean, we rely on grain grown half the country away instead of down the road, cattle same... transporting it in, and an actually pretty fragile logistical system reliant on a handful of companies/entities to make it work... and why? convenience that is killing us in the form of obesity and an entire army of middlemen who manipulate wares to get precisely (if they're worth a damn) what we're willing to pay and not a dime more or a nickel less?  or.. working as middlemen in some organization to the point we lose all our time with family to pay for the conveniences? (which is just another form of discovering the precise amount we're willing to settle for to have that convenience)... 

apologies.... end rant... this condition is fascinating, though.. we've done it to ourselves.  short of another real war, there is no way it will correct itself, and the implications of that is harsh on this country no matter how it goes. 

i read something some time ago that placed all of this into a perspective that was terrifying- and presented how the author supposed it would all 'go down'.   in the author's opinion, it didn't really matter what you had saved- a hundred dollars was as unlikely as five dollars to buy you a gallon of milk, for instance.  The author was also suggesting that the 'cut off' was 2017- and if you hadn't reached a point of 'affluent' (just shy of wealthy) it was an impossibility without some sort of windfall.   

these figures are not accurate, but used for speaking terms (i'm dragging this out of a foggy memory)-

he suggested $10T USD was in existence, of which $5T was held by foreign entities- leaving $5T in US custody, and of which fully half of that was held by institutions- leaving 1/4 of the US cash in existence in circulation, or $2.5T... the issue as he presented is that American's have a buying power of nearing $60T due mostly to plastic they're sitting on (unsecured) every day- and that there is nothing backing it but notes- piles and piles of notes (not notes as in cash, but promissory notes instead).... and, we blow past the circulating currency number monthly in spending, making the entire 'house of cards' nothing but smoke and mirrors.  If it were a business traded in/on the market, nobody in their right mind would touch it, but it's not a business traded in/on the market- it is the market. 

we live in a strange world propped up on intangibles.  it doesn't make any sense when you think about it... i mean, it's pretty clear how we got here and can be documented... but it is bereft of logic at various turns.  

The past 2 years I've contributed the max allowed to my 401k ($18k I believe) and even before that I still contributed at least 6-10% of each payhpayc pre-tax to my 401k for years so I've already got a decent retirement fund going for a 34 year old. That plus Railroad Retirement which we pay into instead of Social Security (and is a hell of a lot better than Social Security) hopefully means I'll be set when I can retire at age 60.

As my dad, who himself saved the max allowed to his 401k for many many years prior to his retirement, warned me: the only thing worse than being old is being old and poor.

you couldn't pay me to go back to St. Croix. ....and that isn't just because i'm not allowed there anymore, either, but because the place is a dump and prime for various grades and natures of calamity...

for one, there is not a drop of fresh water on that island.  they rely on cisterns and imports.  I guess an investment of a desalination pump could work, but then you're relying (and i mean relying) on that thing- and likely need to post guards on it.  

Crime is off the charts.... i could tell stories about that place that are unsettling.  the only hospitable place is the eastern edge between Udall and Teagues Bay, where most expats live.  Christiansted is just plain dangerous.  the banditry all over the island is just plain dangerous.  the police are about as corrupt as you can imagine. 

i do like some cruzan rum, though. 

I hope this house of cards lasts another few decades of course but am dubious about a longer term future.  At some point, some crisis will lead to folks no longer trusting "money" and that will be a collapse of epic proportions and one government will not be able to stem.  But it could be 50 years out.

my grandfather and father used to talk the same way, apparently it was 50 years out for them
As I used to tell my Father, If we need to go through another GREATER depression if correct the markets and the economy and wipe out debt, then it will happen.
At that time it will be good if you can grow your own food and fend for yourselves as Drew says.
I'll keep my fingers crossed