Tales From Another Planet

I worry too much about money. My husband and I make a reasonable amount, and we do a good job budgeting and saving. We are set to pay the last of his $40,000 in student loan debt within the next 12 months, hopefully. Paying off that amount in about 3 years is an incredible feat when he makes a slightly above average wage, and I make well below average. But I worry about the future. What if we never make more than we do now? Would I be able to financially stay at home and raise the kids like I want to? Would I have to take a part-time job or go back to work? What if he loses his job? This culture of the 2-income household has screwed up the way I wanted things to be. Even as little as 30-40 years ago, most men were the primary wage earners. Companies didn't randomly hire and fire people like they do now, because they knew that families were relying on their paychecks. Now, with 40% of children born to unmarried parents and a 50% divorce rate, pretty much everyone has to work. ...

I am shocked and dismayed to find that the ill-planned attempt to divert the disaster of the AIG bonuses has gone so far. First of all, who of us would have refused the original "bail-out" money. It was free. Obama said it would help free up credit. Of course the banks would take it. He did not put any stipulations or decrees before they took the money. Now, Obama is trying to MAKE the banks fail. He is saying to all of the CEOs whose banks are NOT failing that they cannot make any extra money for their good work. My husband works for PNC , which has done pretty well. They didn't make bad mortgages, they used the bail out money to provide credit to people in need. Now, their CEO is going to have to pay the government back his well-earned bonus? If I were him, I would quit and move to the Bahama's like the AIG CEOs . There is no incentive for him to work hard right now. He should take a well-deserved vacation. Unfortunately, this poorly planned tax is only goi...

I am of the opinion that we should let houses go into foreclosure. The banks made some bad decisions, the people purchasing the houses cannot afford them. We need to let the market system work. Am I being harsh on those people who will be without homes? Maybe so. I think our society needs to change, though. We don't need 6,000 square feet of home for every two person family out there. There are so many people who could easily open up their homes to displaced families. The average home has pretty much doubled in size since earlier this century. Do we really think that a starter home needs to be at least 2,000 square feet? Maybe this is what brought the whole crisis on to begin with. I drive through older neighborhoods many times. These homes are now on the "poor" side of our town. They are four bedroom, 2 and 3 story mansions with gorgeous architecture. They have been abandoned or turned into apartments for several families. Do we naively think that the same thing won...

We all know that there are cycles and circles when it comes to economics. There are good times and bad times and everything in between. Right now, we are obviously in one of the bad times. This particular economic downturn has been made somewhat worse by ineptitudes of government. And out plan is for the government to bail us out? While the $700+ billion dollar plan might only stimulate about $200 million dollars worth of economy, we do need something to jump start the economy. Theoretically, if every company started hiring people again, our economy would work itself out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, even companies that are not losing money are so fearful of a potential loss, that they are trimming budgets. When they cut jobs, those newly unemployed people start cutting back, and then the companies they aren't buying from cut even more jobs. We need to all work as hard as we can to be productive members of society. We need to find some way to earn money, even if unemploy...

I know that I am a freak of nature. Our church is doing a sermon series on the financial crisis. When our pastor was talking about financial responsibility he mentioned three common pitfalls we should all avoid. When he asked everyone who had ever fallen into one of those pitfalls to raise their hand, I was about the only one who struggled to think of some reason to raise my hand. Am I perfect financially? No. But I do follow some basic principles and guidelines that I have been taught since I was a child. Also, as I tell my husband, I am freakishly frugal. Fortunately for me, frugality has become somewhat fashionable. I saved almost all of my birthday checks and babysitting money throughout childhood. I saved a good portion of my summer job money, and had a summer job since I turned 15. Did I splurge? A few times, but only for the really important things. I used a portion of money for a trip to visit a friend in Germany (I spent less than $700 including the plane ticket, train tic...