It seems like it has been months since my last post. There has been so much happening at so many levels, that the sense of overwhelm is almost unbearable at times. Work remains a huge time consumer and I just finished today (Sunday) all of my grading from the past 10 days. I was literally buried under the weight of it. But I only have myself to blame for scheduling assignments as I did.
Then we have the whole economy thing. I realize that we've planned well financially for our future, but as we watch our retirement accounts become eaten into by the volitility of our economy, for the first time we are having to ask ourselves what adjustment we need to make to ensure that we'll be able to take care of the basics, like send our children to college. The psychological game that our politicians have been playing haven't helped either. They've created this environment of desperation in order to convince the American public that this $700 billion dollar bail out is necessary. I've heard numerous alternative suggestions from the brightest of our private sector business people, but I haven't heard a single courageous politician offer an alternative to our leveraging our children's future. They make my stomach turn. Our senators and representatives have just committed all of us to turning over $700 billion dollars to the very people who got us into this mess. It makes me want to scream. It is a heavy psychological and financial burden that we all must carry now.
There are also family issues, that I don't care to elaborate on that are always close to the surface of my mind.
So what did we do to lighten things up around here? We went to the movies. We saw Appalousa with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, and Renee Zellweiger (sp?). It was very good and the popcorn wasn't half bad either. Today we went and saw An American Carole. It was the typical Airplane/Naked Gun kind of comedy, but it was nice for a change to have a pro-American theme in a Hollywood production. Kelsey Grammar was great as General Patton. Trace Adkins was in it too. He played the Angel of Death and at the end of the movie he even sang a song. That was a real bonus.
Time to start getting my mind in work mode again. Hopefully this week will be a little less stressed.
"There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here." ~~Cherie Carter Scott
1 comment:
Well....it's scary to watch the market gyrate, when we know we're dependent on it if we're going to be able to live decently in retirement.
One of the keys is a plan that makes you "buy low and sell high". Since 1989, I've been investing my retirement funds according (except for buying metallic gold) to Harry Browne's recommendation. Here's the most recent book describing it:
http://www.amazon.com/Fail-Safe-Investing-Lifelong-Financial-Security/dp/031226321X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224205850&sr=8-1
You balance your portfolio periodically, which means when stocks are low you're buying more, and when they're high you're taking your profits. I've slept soundly through several big drops.
It's not a recipe for hitting a jackpot in this or that, but so long as the American economy keeps chugging, you're not going to get wiped out, either.
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