Economic Blah Blah Blah
With the state of our economy right now, I think that everyone has their own thoughts, opinions and worries. Some of which are justified and should concern us. I think that the government needs to "punish" the greedy heads of these companies but we all need to examine our own lives too and not just look at the government. As history has shown bankruptcy, foreclosures, unpaid debts, credit cards and money problems have been on the rise for decades and not just in the past 8 years. At the end of each presidency there is always an economic dip. Every new candidate has their own "plan" to stimulate the economy because according to every candidate that ever runs for the highest executive office in the country, our economic status is in trouble because of the other guy.
Don't get me wrong. I think that we as a country are in trouble because of a few companies and governmental problems, but we also need to look at the way in which we conduct our lives. How many people that you know, or maybe even yourself, have 5-10 maxed credit cards, a house, 2 or more brand new cars, school loans, the biggest and the best of everything, no savings, etc.? I am not saying that I don't have school loans. I am not saying that I don't have a house. I am not saying that we don't have a credit card (singular). I am not saying that we don't have a newer car. What I am saying is that we need to look into our lives and see where we are setting ourselves up for disaster.
I thank God everyday for my wife. I know that I get into patterns when I would like to go out for dinner every night or buy a new iPod or whatever, but her unwillingness to fold to my barrage of attempts to acquire the new cool thing will for the most part keep us out of this financial mess.
A few years ago when the housing market was good, how many people do you know decided, "I need a new house"? Not that there was anything wrong with their current situation, but that they felt they deserved a new home and instead of looking at their finances realistically, they went to a bank and got a loan for a home for $150,000 when they realistically could only afford a home worth $120,000? Now, $30,000 may not seem like much, but when you break it down it comes up to $83 plus interest extra per month that they they would be spending. Depending on interest rates that could mean that they pay well over $100 extra than what they could afford. Now, I don't know about you, but that would be almost a weeks worth of groceries for me, a payment on my car, my electric bill, my heating bill, part of my medical insurance and a lot of other things. I think a lot of the problems from the housing boom also come back to the Sub-Prime Mortgage. If you are not real sure what the whole deal with the sub-prime fiasco is check it out here: Sup-Prime Lending. This in turn not only increased the foreclosure and bankruptcy issue, it exploded it when people then realized that they couldn't pay mortgages, credit card bills, health bills or their heating. We are now seeing the backlash from the banks offering ARM's and sub-prime loans to people that couldn't afford them. I think that the banks need to be punished, but if a business fails who is going to pick up the slack? That's right you and me. It is the way that any failed business is going to be saved. On a smaller scale, most retail businesses depend on the Christmas holiday shopping season to get them out of financial turmoil. Well, the banking industry does not have the Christmas holiday shopping season when they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year on foreclosed homes.
I hope that banks will also re-examine their borrowing practices. Don't provide lines of credit to a person that earns $20,000/year for $10,000 worth of available credit. That doesn't make financial sense. Trust me, I used to work with a guy that was a college student and was really excited when he got a loan for $10,000 and he made only about $15,000/year. Duh!!!!
Do I think that we are in a recession? Yes. Do I think that we are headed for another Great Depression? Maybe. Do I think that we can get through this? Absolutely!!!
I hate the fact that we are facing these economic problems. I hate the fact that I am going to have to foot the bill for other people's mess ups. I hate the fact that people aren't responsible. But what can we do about it now? We can stick together. We can make it through tough economic times. Many of our parents or grandparents lived through the Great Depression and will tell you all about it. Unfortunately my Grandma was probably too young to remember, but if you listen to the stories from the depression where did people find comfort and strength. That's right in God. We hear it all of the time, put your faith and trust in God and you will prosper. This does not mean that you will gain worldly wealth, but a wealth that far exceeds the things that will be destroyed by moths and decay. One thing that this world has shown us is that we can't rely on anyone here. The one person that we can rely on to work for us is God.
Although this whole thing is a mess, we should be thanking God that we have the things readily available that we do. We have cars to take us to work. We have a home (apartment, condo, house boat, house) to shelter us. We have beds to sleep on. We have food to eat. At least we don't have to worry about extreme poverty or an economic situation like that of Zimbabwe that the government has not enacted a 1 Million percent inflation rate.
If I can close with one thing, I would ask that we please stick together and ask God to give the leaders of our country strength and courage and to put the American people first when making this landmark decision. If history shows us anything, when we stick together as a nation we can fight through anything.
Don't get me wrong. I think that we as a country are in trouble because of a few companies and governmental problems, but we also need to look at the way in which we conduct our lives. How many people that you know, or maybe even yourself, have 5-10 maxed credit cards, a house, 2 or more brand new cars, school loans, the biggest and the best of everything, no savings, etc.? I am not saying that I don't have school loans. I am not saying that I don't have a house. I am not saying that we don't have a credit card (singular). I am not saying that we don't have a newer car. What I am saying is that we need to look into our lives and see where we are setting ourselves up for disaster.
I thank God everyday for my wife. I know that I get into patterns when I would like to go out for dinner every night or buy a new iPod or whatever, but her unwillingness to fold to my barrage of attempts to acquire the new cool thing will for the most part keep us out of this financial mess.
A few years ago when the housing market was good, how many people do you know decided, "I need a new house"? Not that there was anything wrong with their current situation, but that they felt they deserved a new home and instead of looking at their finances realistically, they went to a bank and got a loan for a home for $150,000 when they realistically could only afford a home worth $120,000? Now, $30,000 may not seem like much, but when you break it down it comes up to $83 plus interest extra per month that they they would be spending. Depending on interest rates that could mean that they pay well over $100 extra than what they could afford. Now, I don't know about you, but that would be almost a weeks worth of groceries for me, a payment on my car, my electric bill, my heating bill, part of my medical insurance and a lot of other things. I think a lot of the problems from the housing boom also come back to the Sub-Prime Mortgage. If you are not real sure what the whole deal with the sub-prime fiasco is check it out here: Sup-Prime Lending. This in turn not only increased the foreclosure and bankruptcy issue, it exploded it when people then realized that they couldn't pay mortgages, credit card bills, health bills or their heating. We are now seeing the backlash from the banks offering ARM's and sub-prime loans to people that couldn't afford them. I think that the banks need to be punished, but if a business fails who is going to pick up the slack? That's right you and me. It is the way that any failed business is going to be saved. On a smaller scale, most retail businesses depend on the Christmas holiday shopping season to get them out of financial turmoil. Well, the banking industry does not have the Christmas holiday shopping season when they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year on foreclosed homes.
I hope that banks will also re-examine their borrowing practices. Don't provide lines of credit to a person that earns $20,000/year for $10,000 worth of available credit. That doesn't make financial sense. Trust me, I used to work with a guy that was a college student and was really excited when he got a loan for $10,000 and he made only about $15,000/year. Duh!!!!
Do I think that we are in a recession? Yes. Do I think that we are headed for another Great Depression? Maybe. Do I think that we can get through this? Absolutely!!!
I hate the fact that we are facing these economic problems. I hate the fact that I am going to have to foot the bill for other people's mess ups. I hate the fact that people aren't responsible. But what can we do about it now? We can stick together. We can make it through tough economic times. Many of our parents or grandparents lived through the Great Depression and will tell you all about it. Unfortunately my Grandma was probably too young to remember, but if you listen to the stories from the depression where did people find comfort and strength. That's right in God. We hear it all of the time, put your faith and trust in God and you will prosper. This does not mean that you will gain worldly wealth, but a wealth that far exceeds the things that will be destroyed by moths and decay. One thing that this world has shown us is that we can't rely on anyone here. The one person that we can rely on to work for us is God.
Although this whole thing is a mess, we should be thanking God that we have the things readily available that we do. We have cars to take us to work. We have a home (apartment, condo, house boat, house) to shelter us. We have beds to sleep on. We have food to eat. At least we don't have to worry about extreme poverty or an economic situation like that of Zimbabwe that the government has not enacted a 1 Million percent inflation rate.
If I can close with one thing, I would ask that we please stick together and ask God to give the leaders of our country strength and courage and to put the American people first when making this landmark decision. If history shows us anything, when we stick together as a nation we can fight through anything.
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