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View Poll Results: Is the economy affecting your fitness purchasing?
Yes; I've stopped most or all purchasing. 99 35.48%
No, it hasn't affected my purchasing at all. 76 27.24%
It has had a slight or minimal effect on my purchasing. 90 32.26%
Other 14 5.02%
Voters: 279. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-20-08, 10:10 AM  
Karen Beckwith
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roz
I guess I have always been something of a pessimist.
Umm, well, I consider myself an optimist and I am able to be retired because my house is paid off, I pay off my credit card in full each month and I have enough cash to last me 4-5 years (i.e., I don't have to touch my stocks) while the economy will hopefully recover. I've always been pretty conservative with my money (my parents were terrible with theirs so I learned from them ) and I had a great job. So we seem to have pretty much the same financial philosophies but I consider myself an optimist and you consider yourself a pessimist. Go figure.
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Old 10-20-08, 11:47 AM  
behaha
 
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As a business historian, I realize that every boom has a bust.

I'm not surprised at the scale of this one, either. I've known for years -- actually, from data that are a lot older than me -- that house prices were overvalued. If they were not, there would have been no "affordable housing" crisis affecting the poor: prices would have been in line with what people earn. At least, that's my understanding of what "fundamentals of the economy" really means.

That doesn't help the fact that this is going to hurt a lot of people. Long-term, I'm rosy. The question is, for me, how long is that time-horizon? I've only had a retirement fund for a few years, and already it's lost a lot of its value. If I had hoped to retire soon, I'd be expecting to put that off for some time.

My spending on everything has been pretty pathetic for years. Not much has changed -- but yes, I do try to make my dollars go further. The price of fresh food means I plan my menus around what's on sale, not what I want to eat.

As for fitness, my spending has stalled there for years, as I moved more into running and away from videos. Now that I'm moving back, I'm definitely making do with what I have (which is PLENTY) rather than buy new stuff to keep motivated.
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Old 10-20-08, 07:31 PM  
Loretta S.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by behaha
As for fitness, my spending has stalled there for years, as I moved more into running and away from videos. Now that I'm moving back, I'm definitely making do with what I have (which is PLENTY) rather than buy new stuff to keep motivated.
Me too, Barb. I went back to school for a few years and this year I've been working on establishing myself in my new profession. So my fitness spending has been on hold for a long time. I'm out of the habit of buying things, which is good. I haven't been using my videos much, but now I'm making small attepmts to get back to them as the darkness of winter closes in.

Luckily, I have a long time until retirement AND on the advice of the CFO of the company I used to work for, I rolled my 401K over into bonds in 2005 when I left work for school. The bond market has stayed strong so I haven't lost any. Thank goodness I got good advice on that one. I never would have thought of that on my own.
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Old 10-20-08, 08:54 PM  
suebella
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I voted "other". I stopped buying videos, for the most part, two years ago when I took up endurance running. I've only purchased about five videos in the past couple of years, although oddly enough, I bought one today. (Slim and Limber -- thanks, Alta!)

I am a conservative investor so my finances have been affected less than some more aggressive investors. However, I made less during the boom years, so it all evens out.
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Old 10-20-08, 09:48 PM  
amyzan
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I'm saving up and waiting to see the sales on Black Friday for my next major purchase, an HDTV. I'm excited about the prospect of working out to a bigger, better screen. (This isn't just for the workout room, though.) I haven't bought many DVDs, but that's mostly because my collection has outgrown its storage space. I have bought a couple pairs of workout pants at a discount outlet--both are Nike DriFit, one was $9, the other $12! I couldn't pass that up, since these last years and years of wear, and are usually $60 each.

So, long story short, I haven't stopped buying altogether, but am definitely budget conscious.

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Old 10-26-08, 02:08 PM  
hedygs
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Originally Posted by Lexy
The economy is affecting my LIFE! We have plans to retire in another year or two and our investments are now worth 2/3rds of what they were a few months ago. Very depressing.
Lexy we are in a similar situation. It is very depressing. Luckily we have a couple more years until we retire so I hope we can recoup some of our losses.

DH had one office close so we are getting by with 1/3 of his wage.

We had purchased a vacation home four years ago with the hope to glean rental income from it. The whole resort announced they filed for bankruptcy so our unit is worth zero but we still have to, of course, pay the mortgage on this worthless property. They are auctioning it off this Thursday parcel by parcel. I'm so distressed.

I cancelled STS because I could no longer justify the purchase in light of these developments.

I'll miss it but it'll be o.k.
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Old 10-26-08, 03:25 PM  
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I put yes, although I still buy some workouts. I now only buy workouts I'm almost sure I'll like -- and I'm not buying any new gadgets or big series (other than STS which I pre-ordered).

I have a bit of job malaise, so I still feel the need to reward myself to keep myself working.
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Old 10-26-08, 03:57 PM  
Lexy
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Hedgys, I sympathize. Your vacation property is a nightmarish ulcer inducer for sure. I wish you well and hope it all turns out OK. Maybe not this year, but in a couple years. That's our hope.
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Old 10-26-08, 05:09 PM  
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I voted "other" because it hasn't so far, but will I'm sure in the coming year. I bought lots of videos this year as our (Canadian) dollar was high, but it has now dropped again and with the postal costs going up again in the new year I'll have to take a long look at what I'm proposing to buy (fortunately, I have oodles of good videos anyway). Although I'm sure I'll still buy if something really seems appealing to me. (I should quit reading all the enablers on this forum )
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Old 10-26-08, 05:14 PM  
hedygs
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lexy
Hedgys, I sympathize. Your vacation property is a nightmarish ulcer inducer for sure. I wish you well and hope it all turns out OK. Maybe not this year, but in a couple years. That's our hope.
Thanks Lexy. Sorry for my tangent. I am hoping that both our finances rebound and allow us to retire as we had hoped.
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