The Market

The financial markets are crazy.  Dramatically down one day and up the next.  It is going to take a while, and maybe another recession for everyone to stop holding their collective breaths a bit, and it's going to take time to rebuild and for the numbers to catch up to the level they were before, but remember, we have all been there before.  1929, 2009, etc. there have been 9 tumbles in all.  We will recover.  I am no way an expert on such things.  I barely can balance my own checkbook.  But I think I am rather keen on observation and I have observed that once the initial shock is over, most people don’t panic but make plans for what is coming up next. 

What has to come up next is a plan for everyone.  The plan in our household is to hold on to what we have and tighten our belt a notch or two.  Trouble is that our belt is already very tight and any tighter might cut off our circulation.  I don’t want to have to re-use toilet paper for example, and we already keep our lights so low my mother complains we are living in a cave.  We recycle what we can and that is not just putting things in the recycle bin, that’s trying to figure out ways to reuse things that we have instead of throwing them away.  It’s tough but it’s necessary.

Do you remember the commercial where two people are talking and one is somewhat complaining about the fact that the one person is so rich why don’t they buy the more expensive product?  The response was “how do you think I got so rich?”  It was really old commercial, and I don't even remember what it was for.  The point is that the last line has stuck with me for a long time.   Even though they say it takes money to make money, spending willy-nilly is not advisable in the best of circumstances, and these times are certainly not the best.  You have to hold on to what you have, spend wisely, and in time you can accumulate a lot.  I just hope the folks down in Washington do something shortly because any less confidence in the market will drive it down further.  We can’t afford it as a nation.  But it is not just us, it’s everywhere.  It’s like giant game of Dominoes. One market falls and others shortly follow, as this article points out.  The best thing we can do right now is not panic.  We are in this thing for the long haul and the techniques that have kept you going will have to keep you going a little more.  Be patient and creative and we will all get through this…again.