I'm also in oil and gas country... literally there are oil pumpjacks in our neighborhood, and a couple fracking rigs just north of us. FI's dad owns a trucking company that caters specifically to oil and gas companies up in Wyoming, so it's not good for him either. Over half our friends are in that industry as well. So, while saving a few bucks at the pump is nice (I commute 40 miles a day so I like low gas prices as much as the next person), I'd rather pay a bit more to make sure our friends jobs and FFIL's company is safe.
So far one friend has been laid off.... he's married with 3 kids and his wife stays at home.... thankfully his company gave him a very generous severance package that pays him through the end of the year, but who knows when he'll find another equivalent job. Another friend had his company close up their Colorado office altogether so now he's having to commute to Houston almost weekly... his company won't move him but they won't lay him off either. He's also got a stay at home wife and 2 kids.
I'm not super surprised by the drop. With China's drop in the news all week, it was bound to go down. Their economy is slowing down a bit, plus people are pretty uptight about their demand for commodities going forward. Some of their biggest suppliers are already in tough financial times and if China's demand slows, they'll be in even bigger trouble.
The world is so interconnected these days, a country like China having trouble is going to have major ripple effects.
Without really having a firm grasp on whether the Chinese government can weather this out and/or how they plan to handle it, I imagine the uncertainty will = volatility, at least for a while.
I don't mind the downturns - our portfolio is diversified and we have time on our side. In fact, we'll probably try and invest a bit more to take advantage of the drops. As we get older, we'll move to a more conservative approach to protect our investments from these downturns - but for now, we'll take advantage of buying low!
Whenever something happens, FH comes home and asks me, "So, guess how much money we lost today." I was pretty right on this time even I don't follow the market and was just guessing out of the clear blue sky. He only asks me when the number is over 3K.
Re: Stock market crash
If you don't live someplace where the local economy is dependent on oil prices, then yeah, that's a good thing.
--------the one time I don't do a preemptive box, of course the box doesn't work-------
It sucks for Alaska. Our legislature already had to make cuts in the state budget last session. Everyone expects it to only get worse.
The world is so interconnected these days, a country like China having trouble is going to have major ripple effects.
Without really having a firm grasp on whether the Chinese government can weather this out and/or how they plan to handle it, I imagine the uncertainty will = volatility, at least for a while.