Im not sure England is the dominant nation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Immigration_to_the_United_States

There are periods where the Brits do have numbers...

stop teasing danzig. 

"Between 1850 and 1930, about 5 million Germans emigrated to the United States with a peak in the years between 1881 and 1885, when a million Germans left Germany and settled mostly in the Midwest. Between 1820 and 1930, 3.5 million British and 4.5 million Irish entered America. Before the 1840s most Irish immigrants were Irish or Scots-Irish Presbyterians."

aww come on, just one more post....

What about all teh niggers?

yeah, they win several periods.

Update.

First thing - I have been mulling over the thought of paying off the first of my two mortgages on the condo soon. (I have one for $75K and the one I am thinking of paying off is $23k). I had the thought in the very back of my head for a while, but Nick really got me thinking about it some more. 

Positives:

• instant $23k equity in my condo (on top of the ~$17k I already have in it) bringing it up to about $40k in equity.
• $250 less a month that I will have to pay on the mortgage

Negatives:

• My savings would be completely wiped out.
• Potential to have less tax reductions at the end of the year, due to not paying interest on that loan any more.

I need to sit down with myself one night, and actually do some number crunching to find out exactly how much I will save, the exact tax consequences, how quickly I could get a savings account back up, etc.

These past two months have not been good with regards to monthly outflow. Starting last month the firm decided not to pay for parking anymore due to the economic situation. So that is $120/month I now have to pay to park downtown. I just received a statement from Wells Fargo and they are upping my monthly mortgage payment with them, $60/month, due to projected property taxes owed at the end of the year. (Wells Fargo is my $75k loan - CitiMortgage is my $23k). Just Monday, I received a quote for my Esurance 6-month policy. Rapists. I have been paying $631 every 6 months, and now they want me to pay $950 every 6 months, which equates to about a $60/month increase. I called them last night to find out what the deal is, and they said it is nothing I did -- this is some sort of Esurance Texas "blanket" rise in insurance costs. So within the past two months, my monthly bills have gone up $240/month. Blah.

In better news, my 401K now is up 16% YTD, and so I am recouping some losses, albeit slowly. I should have about $33K in it, but currently stand abount $24k.

My stocks were down nearly 45% about the same time (February) and now I am only down 7% (this is total from when I bought the stocks - not based on a particular time period). I have $1500 I am waiting to throw into some more stocks, but haven't read about anything worth a shit lately. Already own GE and Bank of America, so don't want any more banking/finance related companies. Apple and Visa are my shining portfolio stars right now.

Anyway, I guess I am still figuring things out. More, like gliding along with occasional spurts of activity, than actively investing in my future.

I have the potential for so much more; I just need motivation.

You get a tax deduction for interest on a non-investment loan over there ? I now understand why America is fucked.

I have the potential for so much more; I just need motivation.

Lamest excuse ever.  Anyone could do near anything with motivation, everyone has potential.

You get a tax deduction for interest on a non-investment loan over there ? I now understand why America is fucked.

Dude we are SOOOO fucked. We pay 46 cents for a liter of gasoline, we pay 15 cents for a banana, we get a $500 deduction for each child, we get deductions for interest paid on mortgages and car loans...

...and still we complain.

if people ate more bananas and less lard it'd be a start

You get a tax deduction for interest on a non-investment loan over there ? I now understand why America is fucked.

Dude we are SOOOO fucked. We pay 46 cents for a liter of gasoline, we pay 15 cents for a banana, we get a $500 deduction for each child, we get deductions for interest paid on mortgages and car loans...

...and still we complain.

See, that's why its pointless to point out just how good youse have it.

Mind you, we aint got it so bad here either. So I dont bitch. How can you bitch that its a bad day when you've never had a bad one?

How can you bitch that its a bad day when you've never had a good one?

That makes a lot of sense.  I rarely bitch about bad days, I thought all days WERE bad days.

If I dont bitch now, I might have one of them bad days your talking about in the future.

Except me. I'd think the ball was a Sherrin.

You get a tax deduction for interest on a non-investment loan over there ? I now understand why America is fucked.

People in the US think their home is an investment. 

And somewhere along the way, the idea of a home as a their "savings" took grip too. 

The home you live in is a liability, not an investment.

The property you derive income from, may or may not be an investment.

I cant get my head around the deduction at all.

Dose the USA give deductions for loans to buy shares and other tradtional investments ?

No we actually have to PAY tax on most investment returns.

The first thing we have to do is get away from the idea that a home is an investment. A home is a place to live and they are expensive to purchase and maintain. But necessary to our self worth and security.

The second thing we have to do is look at how the rest of the world lives and realize that all the other bubbles are about to burst, starting with energy. And get used to it.

The third thing we have to do is stop wasting money on foreign soil. North Korea doesn't have a chance in hell of defeating South Korea as things stand today, so why are we still pumping money into a machine that is proven and doesn't need us anymore? And that's only one example.

And I'll end this post here before I get wound up and type all night.

First things first Zoomie. Take a deep breath... and calm down...

Now, get your keys, and drive down the street for a bottle of liquor. After that you can have a proper tirade.

Dude, it's me. I haven't gone a moment without at least a half 750 of Makers in the house this year. I'm fine.

I'm pretty thankful that my industry has taken a relatively small hit compared to so many others in this economy.

Compulsive gambling tends to ride these things out


I'm stunned that I'm still employed - financial IT systems? I should be on the street right now. Hence I'm pouring all my income into high-yield low-med income housing until I get the boot. Assuming this is like any other downturn then I'll eventually make some money out of it, but at present its just a survival tactic.

Compulsive gambling tends to ride these things out

and most liquor stores.

Yep. I mean, we've been affected, of course. But not nearly as much as other wastes of people's money. Gambling, booze, and smokes tend to be the last things people give up.

My company hasn't really been hit yet.  We were lucky that the management was pretty smart and didn't hop on the condo money and stuck to other more stable markets.  I've heard tale of companies that were heavily into the condo/retail market having lay-offs, at least on the architectural side.  Hopefully there's enough work to ride it out for a while longer, until the "green economy" stimulus dollars start coming our way.

I'm looking at taking a part-time job anyway, to pay off debt more rapidly.  Plus, pending passing a physical I should start my EMT training courses soon.  And I put together a three year plan to move back to Idaho (or Washington/Oregon).  Three years to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, if things break the way I hope they do.

Yep. I mean, we've been affected, of course. But not nearly as much as other wastes of people's money. Gambling, booze, and smokes tend to be the last things people give up.

You would of been hit by the US rule change in offshore online gambling/banking a few years back ? or was that just casino sites ?

It was all of us. And we were, but not drastically. Where there's a will there's a way.

And by "a will" you mean money/greed. Which I dont condem at all.

I'm in an interesting situ here, Stock acquisition is harder so I put my prices up but demand has increased (slightly) so I slow sell, im up on same time last year but just due to the margin increase...and Australia doesnt need to painc right now, fucking media made my demo paranoid, I feel we are begining to hurt ourselves by holding back on purchases. This of course is happening after the gov has handed out 000's of $ directly to my demo.   (used clothing btw).

I'm flat out.

And even if I do get the arse, I'm gonna walk with a handsome amount of money anyways.

That means an extended world tour!