Comments on: Chicken Little and Kooks Who Don’t Know What They’re Talking About

By: ChrisV

ChrisV — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:25:43 +0000

Are you kidding me with that budget? There is no where in a major city where a bar tab costs $20 a person, its more like $20 per person PER HOUR. And minimum food costs EVEN IN MEXICO are $35 a person, in the US its more like $50-60. The largest way to cut costs is your guest list. Fixed cost like DJ, Photographer, cakes can be left out or arranged with friends but the guest list which means invites/thank you notes, dinners, drinks, favors, etc is what costs the most. I am actually writing a book on budget weddings now and have done a ton of research. Just wanted to let you know for when you plan your wedding!

By: Jim Starzyk

Jim Starzyk — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:58:09 +0000

Ramit,
I am a new reader (just discovered the blog yesterday!), but I have been voraciously reading posts. I just read this, and while I don’t know how often you check comments, particularly dated posts, I’m curious about your thinking regarding this issue given the events of the past two weeks. Maybe a revisitation post? Keep up the great work!

!Jim

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:25:50 +0000

Ramit – this is a case that Chicken Little was pretty much right on in her conclusions, although she didn’t know why.

Course of action? There’s two, really: Real money (gold, silver) and cheap assets (value stocks by traditional or nontraditional, aka magic formula, measures, and in a couple of years time real estate that has significant cash flow, after prices have returned to levels that can be sustained by income and/or rents).

And while some of what she was spouting was nonsense, a lot of it makes sense. You would do well to read a lot more about the real causes of our current crisis, fractional reserve banking and central banking.

You may think I don’t know what I’m talking about, but consider downloading and reading through this entire book:

Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles

If you can read it all of the way through and still believe any form of mainstream monetary theory (Keynesian, Monetarist, whatever), I’d be very surprised. This is the most comprehensive work on monetary theory I’ve ever seen, although it is of course steeped in Austrian economic thought.

Good luck beginning to dig to the bottom of this issue.

By: History says: START BUYING (slowly) | Investment Playground.NET

History says: START BUYING (slowly) | Investment Playground.NET — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:17:45 +0000

[...] this bear market unravel itself. It’s happened nine times before since 1956. Turn off the TV Chicken Little – we’re not done investing quite [...]

By: Vijay Bhatter

Vijay Bhatter — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:31:53 +0000

I completely agree with Deepak Shenoy!

By: Deepak Shenoy

Deepak Shenoy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:53:12 +0000

Turns out Chicken Little was right, wasn’t she?

This is one time you have to sit back and think to yourself – why should you assume the stock market only goes up? There was a 8 year period, between 74 and 82 – when the stockmarket crashed and recovered just about back to its initial value (1000). 8 years of nothingness. 8 years when “doing nothing” was actually the best thing to do.

There was a clue in what the lady said: Invest in commodities. Not anyone can do that you say? There are exchange traded funds that buy gold and all sorts of things. To have kept your money safe or grown it you could’ve bought that stuff. But you threw away her argument as being “too negative”.

She did provide some indicators – real estate would fall (did), liar loans and bank failures would be a huge concern (are), commodity prices would rise much higher than normal (have) etc. You could’ve shorted the financial and real estate sectors then, or bought the commodities. Predictions of doom can actually lead to profits in the long term if you agreed with the analysis. But if you don’t bother and say that “investing in stocks is the only answer”, then no one can help.

There is probably a fine line between Chicken Little and a Realist. I think you’d do good to admit Ms. Little was right.

By: I Will Teach You To Be Rich » Links: Cheapest Family in the Nation, Chicken Little, Beer in Zimbabwe

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:20:53 +0000

[...] where he refuses to give specific predictions.Also, (I call this a Kooky Alert), notice how Chicken Little people who predict doom and gloom always argue for the gold [...]

By: Cameron Schaefer

Cameron Schaefer — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:10:09 +0000

There are always a million reasons not to invest in the stock market, but at the end of the day you have to a make a decision that makes sense for YOU. Put your effort into the things you can control, budgeting, saving, maxing out your IRA and leave the things you can’t control up to the talking heads on CNBC. Thanks Ramit for being a clear voice in the midst of a bunch of circus clowns.

By: walter Kennedy

walter Kennedy — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:18:26 +0000

Your comments to the women are so perfect – It’s very refreshing. People blather on about doom etc. and go on for years doing nothing. Your advice is to the point.Keep this up !

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:43:52 +0000

Ramit – look at what has happened to the dollar since your original post, and tell us why the dollar won’t continue to decline in value versus the euro, yen and pound. Then tell us how all your advice about saving and investing in dollars does not have to be tempered with protection against the dollar’s decline to protect the purchasing power of your money.
A falling dollar is good for nominal stock prices, nominal asset prices and (eventually) even nominal real estate prices. But it is very bad for cash held in dollars, dollar-denominated notes and bonds, or mortgages. And it doesn’t help pay real prices when the time comes, as nominal prices of lattes and electronics will rise to offset the drop in dollar.
At the very core of your advice is controlling, saving and investing dollars–how can you give good advice without an outlook on what the dollar will be worth in the future?