05:30
Faizan
"Personal stimulus plan" you say?
As I wrote the title which had been impressed upon me earlier today during a political speech, I recognized that some may interpret this much differently. So.. if that is you.. get your mind out of the gutter and read on! We are talking dollars and cents (sense) here!
I don't know about you, but I can't seem to find many friends or family members who are better off today than they were a few short years ago. It seems as though there have always been those that are doing "better" and those that are doing "worse" but, these days, it just seems to me that most are on the downward side of that self assessment. What about you?
Personally speaking, my family and I certainly have taken our lumps along with the best of them during the past several years. Sagging real estate values, job uncertainty, rising costs on all fronts and a "worse-than-advertised" economy can lead even an optimist like me to a touch of despair! We can go ahead and inject the usual tags like "money doesn't buy happiness" and "our treasures don't lie in things but in relationships" but, at the end of the day, hope and a positive outlook don't pay the electric bill. Sometimes, tough times just stink.
So, my game plan has been to build my own stimulus plan for the future. To put together my own "economic rescue plan" as it were to make sure that I am not waiting on someone else to determine my ability to prevail over some tough times. With that in mind, I offer the following key ideas to help us write our own roadmap to success:
1) Simplify - Ten years ago, the big house and fancy cars seemed like a good idea. In fact, they almost seemed necessary as progress was defined by measured movements forward or upward through the "gotta have it" checklist. Lately, I have learned that a smaller house would be easier to take care of and would afford me more time with my family - I am not much on lawnwork anyway. And my "old" car seems to get me from A to B just fine and I don't even blink if I happen to get a ding on the door at the mall. All in all, simplification fits pretty comfortably on a spirit that is worn-out with stress.
2) Self-Sufficiency - Too bad. The days of the big 401k and the never-ending pension plan seem like a distant memory. What we thought was solid, was not and what we thought would be there to support us... may not be at all. By self-sufficiency, I am not suggesting bomb-shelters and barrels of diesel and baked beans in the basement (not that there's anything wrong with that). I am talking a new level of care and responsibility founded on a paradigm shift of expectation. What if we lived our lives expecting that we would have to start from scratch again someday? What if we expected things not to work out with our stock portfolios or mutual funds? What if we expected a financial strain (or drain) down the road? I am not promoting pessimism - in fact, let's work on keeping a hopeful and optimistic view on the future as we go. But, perhaps, we have been guilty of almost arrogance when it comes to thinking about the road ahead. Perhaps, a little dose of "sky is falling" would help us be better prepared for when it does.
As I wrote the title which had been impressed upon me earlier today during a political speech, I recognized that some may interpret this much differently. So.. if that is you.. get your mind out of the gutter and read on! We are talking dollars and cents (sense) here!
I don't know about you, but I can't seem to find many friends or family members who are better off today than they were a few short years ago. It seems as though there have always been those that are doing "better" and those that are doing "worse" but, these days, it just seems to me that most are on the downward side of that self assessment. What about you?
Personally speaking, my family and I certainly have taken our lumps along with the best of them during the past several years. Sagging real estate values, job uncertainty, rising costs on all fronts and a "worse-than-advertised" economy can lead even an optimist like me to a touch of despair! We can go ahead and inject the usual tags like "money doesn't buy happiness" and "our treasures don't lie in things but in relationships" but, at the end of the day, hope and a positive outlook don't pay the electric bill. Sometimes, tough times just stink.
So, my game plan has been to build my own stimulus plan for the future. To put together my own "economic rescue plan" as it were to make sure that I am not waiting on someone else to determine my ability to prevail over some tough times. With that in mind, I offer the following key ideas to help us write our own roadmap to success:
1) Simplify - Ten years ago, the big house and fancy cars seemed like a good idea. In fact, they almost seemed necessary as progress was defined by measured movements forward or upward through the "gotta have it" checklist. Lately, I have learned that a smaller house would be easier to take care of and would afford me more time with my family - I am not much on lawnwork anyway. And my "old" car seems to get me from A to B just fine and I don't even blink if I happen to get a ding on the door at the mall. All in all, simplification fits pretty comfortably on a spirit that is worn-out with stress.
2) Self-Sufficiency - Too bad. The days of the big 401k and the never-ending pension plan seem like a distant memory. What we thought was solid, was not and what we thought would be there to support us... may not be at all. By self-sufficiency, I am not suggesting bomb-shelters and barrels of diesel and baked beans in the basement (not that there's anything wrong with that). I am talking a new level of care and responsibility founded on a paradigm shift of expectation. What if we lived our lives expecting that we would have to start from scratch again someday? What if we expected things not to work out with our stock portfolios or mutual funds? What if we expected a financial strain (or drain) down the road? I am not promoting pessimism - in fact, let's work on keeping a hopeful and optimistic view on the future as we go. But, perhaps, we have been guilty of almost arrogance when it comes to thinking about the road ahead. Perhaps, a little dose of "sky is falling" would help us be better prepared for when it does.
Posted in: business
