A Few Words That Should be Said
Looking back a few of my recent articles makes me feel I have drifted a bit toward the money making side of things without offering enough advice on keeping and growing what we already have. After all, that is one of the primary ways strangers come to this site … one of my most popular search phrases connects with several articles about making money online when you have no money.
Well I just read this article and it does seem to me that some of my fellow retirees, seniors and near seniors are doing their best to insure they will need that advice … they are steadily taking what wealth they have and reducing it, for many spurious reasons. If you want to stay financially viable in this world, it is up to you to get you act together. It isn’t the responsibility of any political candidate, any government agency or any insurance company … it is up to you.
Looking at the US news from a distance it would seem to a stranger that the entire country is suffering a complete financial breakdown. A number of greedy people made mortgages they had no ability to pay, banking on the advice of a number of greedy people who advised them to "go ahead and do it", based on the speculation that the houses would continue their inflationary price spiral based solely on hype rather than any supportable measures of real estate value. Good for them, IMO. Such greedy folk deserve exactly what they got.
Fortunately, these are only a tiny percentage of the ‘real’ people in America … so the ’sub-prime’ bubble burst will pass, just as a dozen such storms of sound and fury have passed in my lifetime. Moral? Leverage is for people who move rocks with a crowbar. You should follow the principles you were taught at your mother’s knee and keep your spending within your means. No one deserves "money for nothing" and if you chase it, and fail to catch the brass ring, it serves you right.
I was prompted to write this article by a piece from Yahoo my dear wife forwarded to me a day or so ago. If I had hair, some of these revelations would have curled it for me:
The headline pretty much sums things up … (the full article is worth a read)
Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for everyday expenses
The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses …
- Folks, this is wrong! dead wrong. It’s a dumb thing for a teenager to do, it’s even dumber for a 45 yo or older to be doing. This is like playing high stakes poker when you don’t know the game. Get rid of the expenses, first, especially if the"expense" itself is a debt repayment. Restructure, beg off, even default but don’t borrow money to chase a 3rd deuce" in the river when your opponent has already shown trip aces. It’s bad juju. You have a $700 car payment on a gas hog that is costing you a couple hundred a month to keep filled up? Then if there is no other way, turn the damn thing in and free up $1,000 or more per month to pay for real needs. An SUV is not an American Constitutional right, nor is it a necessity. Cut your losses.
… One-third of survey participants said they stopped putting money into their 401(k) or retirement account and 14 percent said they had cut back on their medications…
- Now this paragraph falls under the category of dumb to dumber. It’s one thing to have made a mistake in the past and bought too much home or too much automobile, but the years are slipping by. Soon, before you realize it, you won’t have the option to earn, and/or you’ll be ill with something that costs a fortune to pay for. Cut down on your ridiculous cable bill … you know, over the air TV is actually free? Lose the $100 plus per month cell phone package. By your kids $12 Wal*Mart sneakers and tell them to suck it up and help the family … but to ‘cut back’ by cheating yourself on your retirement fund or medications which your doctor says you need? Come on, you are smart enough to find and read this web page, you are smarter than 33 and 1/3% of the people in this survey. Pay yourself first, you absolutely can if you decide you must.
… "We have patients coming in fewer times," said registered nurse Tucky Franz of Salisbury, Md. "They’ll cut back because of the copay."…
- This bothers me more than any of the other items. Your health is the single most important thing you can spend money on. US health care costs are shocking and the health care system in the US is broken. But for the sake of Christ himself, what on earth can you gain by foregoing the copay of the expensive insurance coverage you already have in order to save, say, 10% of the cost of a procedure which you obviously need. If there is one expense you should not be cutting back on, it’s your health … if you really want to save money at all costs, get rid of the health insurance itself (note, I think that would be dumb), but to put off going to the doctor because of the tiny copay? Stupid. If you have a need, stop reading this very minute, make an appointment and follow up on what your doctor advises you to do. It makes good sense, and it makes good cents, prevention is certainly cheaper.
… The majority of baby boomers said they were finding it more difficult to pay for essentials and utilities, and six in 10 said they had cut back on eating out and entertainment….
- This is the most heartwarming part of the article. At least there are still a few of my generation and those slightly younger who still have a brain. You know, I love to eat out and I love many other forms of entertainment. But foregoing them to stay out of debt is hardly a hardship. It may be a momentary disappointment, but if you have lived 45 years or more, haven’t you made it though disappointment and even tragedy in your life already? You are a much stronger person than you give yourself credit for. Think of the rewards of not owing more money, not being deeper in debt and passing up those seats on the 50 yard line won’t feel nearly so bad.
OK, enough preaching. Living debt free is where it is at. If you’re reading this and thinking, "Yes, but, if I only had a way to make just a little more money, yo clean up debts and empower myself", then good, you’re the reader I want to come back.
I’ve already presented many ideas and I’ll write more … just don’t go any deeper in debt while you wait for your ship to come in, and you might want to subscribe to read all my columns in your RSS feed reader or. Subscribe to Retired Pay World by Email
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