And your prediction is?

[Snydley]

As long as there are credit cards and people can make only the minimum payment each month nothing will change.

[rennigade]

My prediction is...this thread is a repost.

[Scallywag]

How old were they when the dot com thing happened? Do you have any idea if they changed their investing strategy after that? Many people who got burned by that or by the 2008 crash stayed out of stocks for years after that, some scared off for good. That isn't the right lesson to take away from that but it is what a lot of people "learned" from the experience.

Yound adults, mid-20s. Still spending like they are paper millionaires.

[bjl584]

We live in a world filled with people who have short-term memories.
If laws and regulations allow it, then people are going to go back to their old habits.
Probably not right away, but given enough time things will revert back to how they used to be.

[Gailete]

My mom is 90 so was born in 1930 if my math is right. Not only was she a child of the Depression, but she was also in a huge family (15 kids!) and with only grandpa that worked. Mom was frugal all her life and even though things are much better for her now, those lessons were never unlearned. We all grew up very thrifty and frugal as with 5 kids and a dad who abandoned us when I 6-8 (sometime in there), He sent the occasional support checks. The last time I saw him when I was 17 he told me how he faithfully sent my mom a check every month just like he was supposed to. Well, I know by the way we lived and the worry my mom went through that she was lucky to get a check every couple of months. I checked how much those checks should have been worth in today's dollars and we are talking around $4000/month. Mother's getting that sort of money in, don't give their oldest daughter a bottle of deodorant as their one and only birthday gift when she turned 12. She literally couldn't afford anything else. But we survived. A good thing I grew up poor as that is how I have had to live most of my adult life. But for the last 18 years, even though money has been tight to the point that Abe is screaming, we have put almost $60K in retirement funds and our stocks. We don't eat caviar, lobster, and Prime rib daily, but I did spring for pick up Red Lobster last week and ended up with 5 meals for me out of it and I don't know how many for my husband. My son also shared the beginning meal and took leftovers home and in general, we were eating for about the same price as McD. I have bought small Prime Ribs at the store while on sale since it is just the two of us, we could stretch that out to 2-3 meals. Yet another meal that costs what it does to go to McDs! . It is a fallacy for people to think that they can't afford better food or meat if they are making 1-2 McD's or BK, KFC stops a week. If you look for sales you can do it, especially if you learn to cook from scratch.

I have been having tremendously good sales and have run out of just about all of our best selling patterns so I surmise that sales would be even better if we hadn't run out of some things. I do have an order coming and I sure hope that the sales continue. I know I bought something online from CVS the other day and it is more convenient than driving there only I couldn't use my best Bucks online, but I got 'free' shipping, and what I needed. I suspect that many will continue to be shopping online for those essentials and non-essentials. With my last printer, I bought my ink for it through CVS and so that was easier than running to the store as it is getting harder and harder for me to shop while on my feet and so far CVS doesn't have electric wheelchairs. Some things it is just easier to buy online and have it delivered to your house. One of the reasons that I have an Amazon Prime account, is so I don't have to think about the cost of shipping plus I get a free Kindle book every month. It is one thing to browse your favorite departments, but who really takes great joy in browsing the toilet paper aisle or cleaning product aisle, and if you know your favorite treat, you can order it as well. So, I think perhaps people might rethink their shopping methods.

I think our country is going to go through a monumental change of some type when this is finished, but I have no clue as to what.

[scfr]

Everyone will react differently to this crisis because everyone's situation is different. The 1987 stock market crash definitely impacted me. Even though I didn't have any money invested in "the market" the thought that we might be heading in to another Great Depression was terrifying. I had just recently graduated college and had zero safety net. Moving "back home" wasn't an option. I had to rely on myself. That experience definitely colored the decisions I made going forward. I still can remember how it felt. I know that not all members of my peer group reacted in the same way (that's an understatement).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It is definitely easier and way cheaper to feed a family or even yourself at home. EVEN Alcohol. I mean yeah sure a 24 pack of beer that I buy is costing me $30 but at a $1 a bottle that's way less than going out and spending $10 on the same bottle out before. I'm not sure it's wrong to do it, if you want to and can afford it, do it. But it really is a lot cheaper to drink in your driveway as you watch your kids ride bikes with the neighbors than going to the bar down the street. I wonder if my neighbors will realize that and stop going to the pub? I ask because before this we would occasionally join them, but they went at least 1-2x/week to drink 2-3 beers each at $8-10/pop and I wonder if they realized how much they were spending? I certainly did and why it was a rare treat for us just because it was expensive. And yes we could afford it then. But the question was did we want to? And personally now I am not sure I want to.

[disneysteve]

It is definitely easier and way cheaper to feed a family or even yourself at home. EVEN Alcohol.

I wonder if my neighbors will realize that and stop going to the pub? I ask because before this we would occasionally join them, but they went at least 1-2x/week to drink 2-3 beers each at $8-10/pop and I wonder if they realized how much they were spending? I certainly did and why it was a rare treat for us just because it was expensive. And yes we could afford it then. But the question was did we want to? And personally now I am not sure I want to.

Especially alcohol! We can buy a really good bottle of bourbon for $50 or we can go to a bar and spend $40 (with tax and tip) for two cocktails made with the same bourbon. Is it worth it? Absolutely not.

Just yesterday, someone offered to buy us lunch at work. As I was looking at the menu to place our order, I was struck by how expensive even a basic sandwich is. Pretty much everything was at least $7.99 and that's just for the sandwich. If you want an appetizer or fries or a drink, that's even more. Getting out for less than $14 or so is hard. And if you're eating in, then there's another 20% for the tip.

Our spending is down a lot - by like a few thousand - largely because we haven't been eating out nearly as much. I'll definitely think a bit harder about doing it going forward, at least for a while.