Category: Life

I just received an interesting email that pointed me to a thought-provoking thread on The Daily Beast. I’m not sure if this was sent from a real live person, or electronically generated, but in any event, thanks Anna!

The thread on The Daily Beast is riddled with stories from people who are feeling the economic squeeze. Most of the stories are heart-wrenching – like how husband’s have come home in the middle of the day, unexpectedly, because they were laid off, or of how bills are due and there’s simply no money to pay them.

I feel so bad for those that are feeling the crunch right now. It’s always extremely tough to deal with unexpected changes like that to begin with, but when the economy goes belly up, it’s even worse.

But that’s all the more reason we need to start living within our means and start differentiating between our needs and wants.

I think people, in general, want way too much.

This bit from The Accidental Housewife really caught my attention:

The generations who survived the Great Depression were tough. They were resilient; they did not expect the government to bail them out of the hell that fell upon them…They boarded up their farms and loaded up their jalopies and headed out to find work. They did not stand around wringing their hands crying about what they didn’t have anymore they went out and worked. They were doers and savers and they made it.

My step-grandmother used to reuse her foil. She would smooth it out, wipe it off, fold it up and use it again and again until it eventually fell apart. My best friend’s grandmother would make a single chicken last through a week’s worth of meals. Each meal being different but made from that single chicken. They were resourceful. More important they MADE IT….

I am ashamed of my fellow baby boomers. I am ashamed that we have turned into such an entitled generation. I am ashamed that we have to have someone else make our morning coffee and we are too good or too busy to prepare our own dinner. That we feel entitled to drive vehicles that use more fuel in one week than a whole village in a third world country uses in a year.

So what do you say fellow boomers? Can we do it? Can we tighten our belts, knuckle down and use that knowledge that our forefathers and mothers gave us? Can we cook our own meals, repair our own roofs, make ourselves pay our own bills and not rely on the government to bail us out? I think we can. We just have to want to do it.

I hope I don’t sound heartless when I say this, but I have to agree with The Accidental Housewife. I don’t believe the majority of us have any real experience with trimming the fat off of our budgets.

I grew up in a traditional family. My father worked (his butt off), and my mother stayed home and took care of us. We were poor – we were DIRT poor. In fact, my mom has told me stories about how they only had $50.00, FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH AFTER BILLS, to spend on clothes and food.

And yet, somehow, we managed. We haunted thrift stores, garage sales, we bought day-old bread, I wore gently-used clothes and my sister wore all of my old clothes.

My mom sewed a lot of our clothes. We ate at home 99.9% of the time. In fact, I can’t remember EVER eating out when I was a kid.

My dad drove a motorcycle (in all kinds of weather) to save on gas. When I turned 16 and wanted a job, I had to find something close enough to walk and/or ride my bike to. And I did. I walked to work for about a year, through all sorts of weather (sounds cliche, but it’s true) until I saved up enough money to pay cash for a used car.

When I moved out of the house, my parents DRILLED the importance of saving money into my brain and not buying stuff I couldn’t afford or really needed (I certainly remember those needs versus wants lectures), and prioritizing my expenses – pay the rent first. Then the utilities. Then the car payment. Budget for food and gas and IF there was any left over, that was my play money.

There was never any left over.

I lived from paycheck to paycheck and yet, I never really felt “poor.” I had everything I needed. I never had a desire to drive a fancy car, or wear designer clothes, yaddayaddayadda. Oh sure, I WANTED those things, and was quite jealous of those that had it, but when it came right down to it, I couldn’t bring myself to buy them because the bottom line? I didn’t NEED them.

When I got married, times were lean, but not terribly tough. I was lucky enough to marry a man just as frugal with money as I was. We paid our bills and had enough to put into a savings account. Again, we didn’t blow our money on unnecessary junk.

And then we had kids. And our financial situation was a whole different monster. We had medical bills, diapers, formula, clothes, a mortgage, car payments, property taxes and every other expense that came with being a responsible adult. I quit my job because it just didn’t make sense to us to virtually hand over my paycheck to a daycare center. And we thought it was best for the children, too.

We’ve scrimped, saved and clawed our way to a debt-free existence today. We live in a 30+ old house. We don’t have a fancy decor, but rather, a comfortable one. Sure, we see our friends and families with these gorgeous multi-level houses and we’re jealous. But we also know the struggles they go through to maintain those house payments and all the money they spend on “stuff” and we’re no longer envious – we’d rather have a nest egg to fall back on during tough times.

Like now.

So, I’m saying we’re no strangers to tightening our belts. And we could easily, and would very willingly, do it again, if necessary. I have NO QUALMS, at all, to get rid of our satellite subscription, cell phones, Starbucks, eating lunches out with my husband. I already cook nearly every night, but I could do it every night. I could go back to clipping coupons and I could certainly get a part-time job while the kids are in school and/or work nights.

I did it for seven years so we could pay some debts off. I could certainly do it again.

My point is, we have options. We all have options, we just have to be willing to get rid of the non-essential “stuff” in our lives. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable and inconvenienced and we have to be willing to roll our sleeves up and WORK OUR BUTTS OFF.

Because sometimes? That’s what it takes to survive.

Is it fair? No. But life is not fair. So you’re not driving a fancy car like your neighbor. So what? Your beat up car gets you where you need to go. Be thankful you have transportation – that’s more than a lot of people have.

It’s not really going to matter who is in the White House for the next fours years – given our current situation, times are going to be tough on a lot of people regardless. It’s time to stop whining and feeling sorry for ourselves and teach our children the difference between needs and wants and the fine art of simply surviving.

I saw this video on Pensieve’s blog today and thought I’d pass it along. It’s a classic.

I love how Theo tries to convince Dr. Huxtable that it’s okay to be “regular folks.” That we can’t all be as successful as him, all in order to get out of working to his full potential in school.

Pfft. That spiel sounds so familiar I could have written this script myself. GD has given me that speech before and that’s exactly what it was – an excuse to be lazy and not even try. GD is the sort of boy that if he thinks it’s too hard, he either won’t try very hard or he’ll give up before giving himself a chance to try. That irritates me to death because when it comes to achieving a high score or a special rank on one of his video games, he NEVER gives up until he reaches that goal.

Hello?! *knockknock* Real life is more important! How do you teach a teenage boy that lesson?

I also love Theo’s cocky confidence. Again, this sounds familiar. MK is almost arrogant in his confidence. Case in point:

His grades have been dropping in English, Social Studies and Algebra. Social Studies is because he wasn’t being thorough enough on his answers. He’s been working on over killing every assignment and test he’s been turning in. English is tough because he can’t stand his teacher. LOATHES her. He had her in sixth grade and, well, I’ve met the woman, she really isn’t very … personable. So, I understand where he’s coming from on that front. However, life is full of people you don’t like and will have to put up with so, deal with it.

Algebra though … MK is just like his dad – math comes easily to him. And he’s never really had any trouble in math. And he’s not really having trouble now – at least, according to MK. But his grades? Hhmm, they’re telling me a different story.

Last night, right before he went to bed, I asked him if he had allowed his father to look over his Algebra homework – just to make sure he was on the right track.

He ASSURED me it wasn’t necessary. In fact, he snarled and said something about it was only subtracting negatives, or something like that.

But I insisted. What could it hurt? I asked him. This way, we’ll all know he’s doing the problems right.

So he showed him.

And he had gotten nearly every single one of them wrong.

Oops. His confidence sagged. And when the husband went over his homework with him, it became apparent that MK? Didn’t know as much as he thought he did. His confidence downright deflated.

He was pretty depressed after that episode. I didn’t really lecture him, but I did talk to him about even though confidence was important, it was also possible to be TOO confident, even cocky, when it came to learning. His arrogance was in fact, preventing him from making sure he was doing his work correctly.

Which he was not.

I know MK. And that boy will pout for a few days due to the blow to his ego, and then he will snap out of it and work harder on making sure his work is correct.

I suppose it’s my fault. I’ve always told the boys they were smart and could do anything they wanted to do, if they were determined, and patient, enough to see it through. But I suppose I might have gone a bit too far with MK because his confidence actually ended up getting in his way.

Those humility pills? Can be hard to swallow sometimes, don’t you think?

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to turn this blog into a political forum, but don’t you find all of these misquotes and incorrect assumptions, from both parties, just fascinating? If checking Factcheck.org teaches you anything it should be this – politicians like to twist, turn, stretch, distort and exaggerate the truth all in order to make themselves look good – NO ONE is being completely straight with you – remember that.

It’s amazing that we can believe anything they say at all. Isn’t it sad that we’ve been reduced to vote for the lesser of two evils? I know that 98% of all political campaigns are like this, but now, right now, it’s more important than ever, with our economy on the edge of a cliff, flailing it’s arms in a desperate attempt to find its balance once again, to get an administration in there that will champion the people.

Is that even possible?

Did you watch the Vice Presidential debate last night? I wasn’t going to – I honestly wasn’t. But the husband turned it on and the voices lured me in. I think both candidates did very well. I disagreed with Biden on everything but what we should do in Iraq and Afganistan – I definitely think we need to issue a timeline and give the people a chance to govern their own countries for a change. I don’t know what channel you watched the debates on, but we watched it on a channel that kept track of the audience’s reaction and it was really interesting to see how it would fluctuate over the candidates’ spiel on different issues.

Here is a summary of the debate from Factcheck.org:

Biden and Palin debated, and both mangled some facts.

* Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to “pre-surge” levels. Levels are gradually coming down but current plans would have levels higher than pre-surge numbers through early next year, at least.

* Biden incorrectly said “John McCain voted the exact same way” as Obama on a controversial troop funding bill. The two were actually on opposite sides.

* Palin repeated a false claim that Obama once voted in favor of higher taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 a year. He did not. The budget bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000 a year.

* Biden wrongly claimed that McCain “voted the exact same way” as Obama on the budget bill that contained an increase on singles making as little as $42,000 a year. McCain voted against it. Biden was referring to an amendment that didn’t address taxes at that income level.

* Palin claimed McCain’s health care plan would be “budget neutral,” costing the government nothing. Independent budget experts estimate McCain’s plan would cost tens of billions each year, though details are too fuzzy to allow for exact estimates.

* Biden wrongly claimed that McCain had said “he wouldn’t even sit down” with the president of Spain. Actually, McCain didn’t reject a meeting, but simply refused to commit himself one way or the other during an interview.

* Palin wrongly claimed that “millions of small businesses” would see tax increases under Obama’s tax proposals. At most, several hundred thousand business owners would see increases.

For full details on these misstatements, and on additional factual disputes and dubious claims, please read on to the Analysis section.

All I know is … given the fact that no one in the political arena ever really tells us the truth, how can we possibly entertain the fact that we need MORE government in our lives? That just seems so counter-productive to me.

Oh, and a quick sidenote: I LOVED what Palin said about the media: “I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter, even, of the mainstream media kind of telling viewers what they’ve just heard. I’d rather be able to just speak to the American people like we just did”.

Amen. Wouldn’t that be refreshing great? If the media would just report the facts and keep their snotty, biased opinions to themselves? The media just steams my broccoli.

In conclusion, here are some of my favorite quotes from their closing statements:

Palin: I’ve been there. I know what the hurts are. I know what the challenges are. And, thank God, I know what the joys are, too, of living in America. We are so blessed. And I’ve always been proud to be an American.

Biden: You know, in the neighborhood I grew up in, it was all about dignity and respect. A neighborhood like most of you grew up in. And in that neighborhood, it was filled with women and men, mothers and fathers who taught their children if they believed in themselves, if they were honest, if they worked hard, if they loved their country, they could accomplish anything. We believed it, and we did.

If they only practiced what they preached – think what a better country we’d live in!

The political arena is heating up and there are more and more rumors and TV ads being released out into a gullible public. Please take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt and keep your emotions out of it – weed through the rhetoric and learn where the candidates REALLY stand so that when it comes time to vote, you vote for the best candidate.

Which, I’m sorry to say, is neither candidate for me at this point. Though I would still rather have a Republican president than a Democratic one for the simple reason we need to get government out of lives – look what happens when government people/programs rule our lives – a collapsed economy.

I won’t pretend I understand half of what is being discussed right now, but I ran across this tidbit about our economic crisis on Factcheck.org and thought I would pass it along.

The Real Deal

So who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn’t fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn’t do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of “layered irresponsibility … with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role.” Here’s a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:

* The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.

* Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.

* Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.

* Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.

* The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.

* Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.

* Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.

* Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.

* The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.

* An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.

* Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult.

–by Joe Miller and Brooks Jackson

You can view Factcheck’s sources here.

Stay focused folks. You’re being lied to and the government (both parties!) will do everything in their power to make you hand over more and more of your hard-earned money. When are we going to put our foot down and say ENOUGH?!