25 Ingenious Ways to Spend Your Time in the Current Financial Crisis

by Investing School on December 2, 2008

With the stock market at multi-year lows, perhaps the alternatives below are worth considering!

  1. Buy a mattress – No, not to store your money.  You are going to lose it anyway so why not get something that you can enjoy for 1/3 of your life!
  2. Throw your TV out the window – Who wants to watch CNBC nowadays?
  3. Turn on parental control – Switch it on and block the financial websites (see point #2).
  4. Brag to your friends about the money you saved by putting it in safe investments (and get beat up).
  5. Compare your returns with Warren Buffett and realized that you lost less money than he did this year.
  6. Study and apply for the CFA exam with the added confidence that you are just as smart as those guys
  7. Hide under the mattress – The extra one now that you bought a new one
  8. Sell your stocks now that they’ve already declined.  At least you are as smart as most other people (including institutional investors)
  9. Buy a new TV because you broke the old one following point #2 (this almost qualifies as an analogy of our stock buying behavior)
  10. Watch CNBC (for the same reason we listen to Joel Osteen every Sunday) Trick question: is this more contradicting or your financial planner’s advice?
  11. Buy a Bull (hey, we got to find the dang thing somewhere)
  12. Get a safe – Not for your money silly, it’s for your gun (just in case)
  13. Celebrate (for reaching all kinds of negative investment return milestones)
  14. Join a golf country club membership.  That’s where people as smart as you hang out.
  15. Short stocks now (with your luck, it might help all of us who are long)
  16. Buy all the bears, so there is no more on the market (okay, this one is a bit cheesy)
  17. Send me all your money (it’s really going down hill)
  18. Buy a GM truck so other taxpayers (I really only care about me) don’t have to bail them out.
  19. If you don’t want to, perhaps a Buick is better?  Hey, Tiger Woods has one. (never mind, readers tell me he got it only because it’s free.  I wonder if I will get it for free if my knee is broken)
  20. While you are at it, get a Ford Focus and PT Cruiser too (note that your maintenance bill will be high.  Not that this is a problem because Congress believes spending money is good for the country)
  21. Buy a house instead of stocks (no this is a serious one.  I’m actually thinking about this because if I’m going to lose money either way, at least I can live in my house)
  22. Learn to Cook (to make up for pissing your family off by pretending you know about investing and subsequently losing half your family’s wealth in a few months)
  23. Spend some time and research if there’s a Nordstrom for retail stocks (seriously, check out its return policy)
  24. Subscribe to the site’s feed to actually learn about investing (don’t worry about your boss finding out and getting pissed.  He’s pissed anyway because he’s got a golf country club membership)
  25. Buy an investment book now that you realize you knew nothing about investing (actually, wait till I write one, then buy mine.  In the meantime, come back to this site every day.  There’s something else I’d like you to do when you visit, but my advertisers won’t allow me to mention it)

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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Sandy Morris December 2, 2008 at 12:07 pm

You know I was pulled in… what a smile maker this post is. My problem is I am addicted to CNBC and all the financials. But the 26th way should be for “we the people” to find leaders that really know what they are talking about.

It never ceases to amaze this baby boomer how stupid the “people in the know” think we really are. Do you think it is time to take back America yet?

Reply

MoneyNing December 2, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Sandy: Don’t worry because I’m addicted as well 🙂 It doesn’t help my returns at all though!

I have no idea what those leaders are thinking these days. Hopefully we don’t screw it up like how Japan screwed up their economy for decades.

Reply

Chris December 2, 2008 at 5:12 pm

David,
This was a great post!! I have not read any of your stuff before but will now be a follower. Keep up the good work.
Chris

Reply

MoneyNing December 2, 2008 at 5:19 pm

Chris: Thanks for the vote of confidence and I look forward seeing you around!

Reply

Joseph @ Debit versus Credit December 3, 2008 at 7:18 am

David,

You know I almost bought a mattress, but decided against it. Who knew that a nice mattress could cost so much money? My wife and I decided we’d rather not spend our entire Christmas fund on a mattress for ourselves, so we’ve pushed back the purchase until we can save up for one.

Good post!

Reply

MoneyNing December 3, 2008 at 9:35 am

Joseph: Mattresses are definitely very expensive but depending on what you have currently, it could be worth the money. I’d say seriously research online to make sure there are good reviews though since like you said, it’s a big purchase.

Reply

JB December 3, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Love the irony of the poll on the side:

What Will The Dow Jones Industrial Average Bottom At?

< 8500 (6%)
< 8000 (8%)
< 7500 (33%)
< 7000 (23%)
Less Than That! (29%)

Perhaps part of our problem as a country is that 29% of the respondents think there actually is something lower than “less than 7000”.

Reply

sarmed December 3, 2008 at 5:19 pm

Wow! great to see you again. I will be the regular follower from your end. Your Bolg post has so much to learn!. Thanks

Reply

unfonryUndura January 21, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Using internet is simple as hell. But I can tell y ou right now, it can be very hard, if you are the first time user.
So, first thing I suggest – open the Explorer, and type in the address you like.
You’ll get there really fast, it depends on your connection speed.
Good luck.

Reply

valgas December 15, 2009 at 6:49 am

Good joke 🙂 How can you make a slow horse fast? Stop feeding him!!
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