WESTWOOD, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) - From investors to everyday homeowners, all eyes are on the markets after fears of China's economic slowdown shaking stocks around the world.
“We knew it was going to come, but it came fast and furious. Severity always makes it feel worse in story. I think we still have a lot of problems but I don’t think the world is coming to an end. It’s nice to see a market factor ‘yeah, we have some issues’ and ‘yeah they’re not going to be fatal,” an economic expert said.
At Poli Mortgage Group in Canton, homeowners have many questions. Experts say the first thing is that now is actually a good time to mortgage a home.
“With the rates down you get to buy a lot more for your money than you would with rates up,” Chip Poli said.
While the sell-off has created a painful plunge, it's also made home ownership a financial safe haven.
“It's certainly having a positive effect on rates because really what's happening is the investors are running to quality, or to safety and the bond market is considered a safe haven,” Poli said.
But what about that hard-earned cash contributed towards retirement?
“If you look at your 401k statement you're going to notice it's gone down in value quite a bit, it could be down as much as 10 or 15 percent,” Barry Armstrong, a Registered Representative of Securities America, said. “That's discouraging to a lot of savers because they say ‘boy they're taking money out of my pay and it's going down in value.’”
But Armstrong says it can actually be a golden opportunity.
“In the long term it's actually a really good thing because you're buying shares at a lower cost,” he said.
So while it looks shaky short term, slow and steady wins the retirement race.
“If you're not going to retire for another five or 10 years you should be increasing the amount that goes into your 401k plan,” Armstrong said.
Cox Media Group
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