If your stocks drop a lot, does it affect your strip club spending?

13 comments

• FONDL

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  17 years ago

  Stock prices have no effect on my spending. I expect the market to be volatile, it always has been and always will be. If that bothers you invest elsewhere. I take a long-term view - the only two prices that mean anything are the day you buy and the day you sell, the rest is irrelevant. And in fact if you're at the age where you're still a net buyer, you should be happy when the market drops, you're buying for less.
• chitownlawyer

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  17 years ago

  Dropping stock prices make me more likely to spend money at a strip club, or buy a new suit, or get a steak at a nice restaurant. The decline in the market reminds me of the transience of money, and the fact that carefully-hoarded funds can disappear on the basis of an ill-considered comment by a CEO, or speculation about the health of a government official.. I tend to over-save, and market drops remind me that money exists to be enjoyed, not just saved, and that sometimes you have to live in the here and now, rather than living every day so many years in the future. I had a grandparent die in her sixth decade, a grandfather in his seventh, a grandmother in her eighth, and my last grandparent in his ninth. Who knows where I will fit in this procession? Or maybe I will beat them all to the crematorium. (I am currently mid-fifth decade)
  
  Like FONDL, I am not worried about day-to-day price drops. As a conservative, I was not particularly happy about the action the Fed took Friday morning, although it certainly had a positive effect on my finances.
  
  I look at it this way...would I rather waste my money, or spend it on strippers? If I spend $500 on a stripper, or lose $500 in the value of mutual fund shares, I am out $500 either way..but I had a hell of a lot more fund with the stripper.
• minnow

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  17 years ago

  Nope, my portfolio is spread out.I don't put all my eggs in 1 basket, ala Enron.
• ThisOldManPlayed1

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  17 years ago

  I don't let the stock market sway my decision to go clubbing or curb my spending. My stocks are for LONG term investment only. I quit buying and selling years ago and am satisfied with the number of and type of stocks I own.
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  I thought briefly about this. I enjoyed a lot of dancers. If I had to do it over again, I would rather spend it on the dancers again rather than save a little bit extra hoping the value of my investments goes up. Watching dancers is a lot more fun than looking at statistics or charts of stocks. Especially this past weekend when I got to a club early and the dancers surrounded me. Nice.
• DandyDan

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  17 years ago

  Nope, because if I want to go to the club, I'll go to the club, finances be damned. It's also not like anything I have has dropped either.
• ozymandias

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  17 years ago

  Has no impact on my spending - for me, securities are for equity growth, not income. But then, I'm relatively young (30s) and in a growth mode - older hobbyists facing retirement or fixed income might use a different calculus.
  
  A really big loss (like late 90s, post-9/11, or from the liquidity problems of the last few weeks) might certainly curb the appetite for hobbies, but again it has no real impact on my spending. If things ever get to a point where value is falling with no prospect of recovery, THEN I'd be worried, though there'd be bigger problems in the world than stocks at that point lol.
  
  O.
• DougS

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  17 years ago

  No, it doesn't matter one bit to me. Actually, my entertainment fund is fully financed by my bonus checks. Business has been VERY good the last few years - in fact last year, the bonus was 37%! This year, it's expected to be even better. Gotta like that (I'm sure my girls do!)
• trojangreg

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  17 years ago

  Can't let something like a bad week in the stock market curb my club spending. Over the long run a well managed diversified portfolio should get over these short term bumps in the road. Heck I am looking forward to taking some of my money out when I retire and spend more in the clubs.
• FONDL

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  17 years ago

  If the market really tanked and stayed down for an extended period, I'd probably get a part-time job, not cut spending. I think the odds of that happening are about the same as the odds of my dropping dead of a heart attack. I don't worry about either. Nothing is permanent. Life is meant to be lived.
• AbbieNormal

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  17 years ago

  No. All my holdings are long term, for retirement. Clubbing comes out of salary.
• chandler

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  17 years ago

  Everybody here says no, but collectively I think there's little doubt that it can have an effect at some point. I know when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000-2001, clubs in some regions took a major hit. There were other factors at work, too, but the sharp loss of paper wealth among a large number of big spenders had an impact. Of course, nothing comparable has happened this time, so far.
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  Apparently with the current market, my stocks didn't drop that much. Everything is almost back to the way it was when I jumped in. I'm starting to think I could be a good market timer if I wait a bit longer to jump in or out and wait for the crowd to come around to my way of thinking. However dollar cost averaging is the easy way to come out ahead instead of trying to time the market. Still, there is that lure of playing the stock market like it's a game.