California feeling after shocks of market turmoil
By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee
Wall Street’s scary losing streak could put a dent in California’s fragile economic recovery.
In some ways, it already has.
The huge downturn in the stock market, punctuated by Monday’s near-record fall, is costing the state’s public pension funds billions of dollars. It’s putting a strain on tax revenues – and could throw the just-passed state budget out of whack.
The aftershocks are being felt on the street level, too. Some real estate purchases are being postponed or canceled. Financiers are wondering if they’ll be able to fund promising new tech companies.
Even businesses that are expanding are doing a double-take of sorts as they try to fathom Monday’s 634.76-point drop in the Dow Jones average, the worst sell-off in nearly three years. Monday was the first day of trading after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating.
bump….then a cliff hanger.gold looking good time to sell off.
count your worthless money.Tahoe shacks and mcmansion losing ticket.
Public pension funds should never be invested in the stock market. It’s too risky! My grandpa made a bunch of money in stocks in the 60s and 70s, but he always cautioned that it was a form of gambling. He said to only put money in stocks that you can afford to lose.
Any good financial adviser will help you figure out your risk tolerance before encouraging you to put money in the stock market. It seems to me that funds earmarked for retirement, medical care, and basic human needs have an extremely low risk tolerance and should NEVER be put into any investment where the initial funds could be lost.
Income earned on investments should be the gravy, not the roast.