Welcome to the Generational Dynamics Forum!

[mark]

Hi,

I'm Mark, a 59 year old mechanical engineer who has worked in electric power plants since 1972, and that's what I still do.

That would make me a boomer.

My dad was (is) the youngest of 12 children, he was born in 1925, and his parents were born who knows when?

I always was taught to be frugal until about 1990, when an apparent mid-life crisis led me to marry a woman 12 years my junior (i.e. an X-er.)

Since then, we have spent way beyond what I was used to but not enough to satisfy her.

Now we are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Eve said "eat the apple", and Adam ate.

I guess it is Adam's fault.

Oh, well......

[ainsleyclare]

Hi everyone,
New here- I'm a 37-year old woman with three children (7, 2, and 2..that's right, twins!). I have a PhD and I work full time- so does my husband. We have "boarder" who is really part of the family by now- she is 25 and has a 4 year old. She works part time and looks after my daughter and her son after school, and gets dinner ready every day-in exchange for room & board.
I've been researching for a while, trying to understand what is really going on in these financially uncertain times, and think this site is the best answer I've found. My entire goal is to figure out how to survive and keep my family intact thru what I expect to be some very difficult years.
My family has essentially no consumer debt- we pay our balances every month. Our home is worth quite a lot more than we paid for it in 2001- but it really doesn't matter since we plan to live here until our kids are out of highschool. We have credit card debt because we re-finanaced at an 80-20 several years ago, then moved the 20% to credit cards offering 4% fixed interest. We are paying it down that way faster than we could otherwise. We also have a property that we bought almost a year ago by cashing out my mutual funds (how glad am I that I did that!) and putting 25% down. The mortgage on the property is within our budget, but it does put a strain on us.
I think we are in a better position than most to weather the coming financial storm, but I still worry. A lot. I have 401K money that has probably tanked, but I'm not counting on that for retirement (or on Social Security! Ha! I have no choice but to pay into it- but I'm not expecting anything in return).
My biggest worry is my children. I want them to have a good life, and to have security, but not to take anything for granted. I fear that their lives are going to change in ways I can't predict. I want to know everything I can to make good decisions that will protect my children.
I'm glad I found this group.

[seeker]

I'm another who has stumbled upon this site. I really appreciate the insightful information which John explains so well.

[RochFireball]

I am a 56 year old engineer turned nurse (my engineering work has left the USA 4x and I have been laid off 4x).
I have always been very interested in economics, but have found few people who could talk intelligently about it or I could ask questions to.
I have read a lot of your writings and they all "make sense to me". I look forward to reading more and being able to ask some questions!

[Semo]

Heya, everybody!

I'm Semo, and I discovered this site thanks to both John and Witchiepoo, both of whom I know from another forum covering similar topics. I currently work in the entertainment industry, although I was soldier once upon a time in a military far, far away. I am interested more in the interaction between culture and Generational Theory (which I usually just refer to as "The Theory") than I am in politics. I also use the term "13er" and "13th Generation" instead of "Xer" and "Generation X" because I'm an ornery 13er (1975 birth cohort).

[jwfid]

Hi everyone,

I learned of this site through a post at rge monitor back in September and ever since then I've reading about what Nouriel Noubini and John Xeraxis (I hope I spelled that right) and the rest of you have to say about the mess we're in (that's an understatement if I ever wrote one).

My bio is very similar to Mark's. I've been working in power plants since 1989 and married a generation X'er 3 years ago who was 13 years younger. I think I'm a boomer who ended up growing up along side generation X'ers because I was born to silent generation parents, but was born in 1964. I too was taught to be frugal and so saved and stayed out of debt unlike many of contemporaries. I was lucky to have sold most of my investments before the crash last October. After the previous bear market earlier this decade, I learned that the "buy and hold" strategy isn't always the best advice. I do remember the 70's too.

I've studied stock market history and have recently started reading "The Great Crash 1929" by John Galbraith. A very good read. I must say there are many parallels between now and back then, but the most obvious to me is that the credit bubble that broke us was in real estate and derivatives (based on real estate) rather than buying stocks on margin. In our case, we saw the bank failures begin before the stock market investors began to comprehend what was going on (and they still don't fully comprehend it).

Keep up the great posts as they are very informative, even though some of them may be a little out of my league. I think I understand the big picture here, but some of the details escape my understanding.

Thanks John, I sure wish I learned of your site earlier, but then I'd probably have said that you were a crack pot up until 1 and a half years ago. I guess that's Generational Dynamics for you. Good job.

Joe

[John]

Sunay - I moved your posting to the "Inflation, deflation, gold and
currencies" thread, where it's more relevant.

http://generationaldynamics.com/forum/v ... 1479#p1479

[StilesBC]

Never formally introduced myself, so now that I've found this thread, I will.

My name is Matt, I'm 26 yrs old from Vancouver, Canada. I guess that puts me somewhere between an Xer and a Millenial. I can identify with both, as my parents are quite a bit older than most. I have also learned a lot from my Grandfather who grew up in Winnipeg during the depression (Central Canada was probably hardest hit in the 30's.) So I don't consider myself as a part of any generation, although I definately see the differences between my groups of friends from high school and those in their 30s. I also enjoy socializing with my dad's friends who are all in their late 60s.

I have been making a living for the last few years as a speculator, profiting from other's irrational greed. I also operate a blog, futronomics.blogspot.com, where I cover economic and geopolitical issues. My articles are republished elsewhere, including stockhouse.com. Writing is a good way for me to learn, which is why I do it. I have long had journalistic aspirations. Perhaps I will revisit them. I travel a lot. I've visited 20 countries and lived for over 3 months in at least 5 - Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Mexico. I am moving to Germany again at the end of this week for an undetermined amount of time.

I can't remember when I stumbled upon John's site, but I read The Fourth Turning a couple of years ago, and it was a new perspective that changed my life. I was always a skeptic, and to this day I contest nearly anything that is considered to be 'common knowledge'. Generational Theory was something that helped it all make sense. So I am thankful to John for his work on this site. I hope I can contribute.

I welcome all readers to check out my site. Knowledge is power.

Cheers,
Matt Stiles

[Matt1989]

John, do you know GD has a Facebook group?

[John]

John, do you know GD has a Facebook group?

No, I did not know that.

John