Marriage…When Your Spending Plans Don’t Agree
The expression is opposites attract, and this is very much the case when it comes to spending plans in a marriage. If you are a careful spender than being married to someone who is a spender can be trying and challenging especially in difficult economic times. Whether your spouse is a person who spends to get a good feeling from it, or they overspend due to carelessness, the results are still the same, leaving you with too much debt and little savings to pay it down with.
If you attempt to solve this problem using the lecture method, then you may just drive your spouse to spend more, thus resulting in more problems.
A more effective strategy to combat this problem is to keep track of household expenses. Accountability for household expenses may be just enough to show your spouse the areas that need work, without really saying anything.
If this doesn’t work? Then the time has come to get separate bank accounts. And if your spouse’s spending is causing extreme stress on your household finances, then you may have to consider stronger measures.
Finally, you might consider lightening up a little. Marriage is one of life’s great blessings. If you think the occasional iToy is expensive, wait until you see how much a divorce costs.
Finances Getting You Down…It Could Be Worse
These days finances are on the minds of most American’s and probably a lot of our international counterparts as well. We are all thinking, how will we make it, will we be able to make ends meet, or are we going to be facing unemployment over the coming years? Well, I know personally many a day, I will wish that I had more, as I am sure is where a lot of people are at. Wishing that you were one of the wealthiest people in the world, so you just didn’t have to give money another thought…Am I Right?
More money may not be the answer as a recent trend around the globe is showing wealthy businessmen committing suicide due to the tough financial times. Personally, I think it is very sad that so many men are defining themselves in such a way that without money they are completely useless to their families and to society in general. Sure we all know that men tend to identify with being the bread winner and that is there primary role in most families, however isn’t it sad that these big wig executives are leaving behind wives and children without even so much as a second thought about. Perhaps they only seem to have it all, but I can assure you that these children would have been better off to have a father in their lives, even if they had to live a meager lifestyle. Someone to show them that when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and not check out.
I quite honestly am glad that I don’t have so much money that to be penniless would devastate me or cause me to kill myself. I have my family and that is where my priorities lie. Let’s focus on all that we do have in this life and not just the money, after all it is really just green paper…isn’t it?
Frugal Is The Way To Be
Everyone understands that finances are tight and therefore many people are cutting back. This does not necessarily mean to not buy presents for people but to be wise in what you buy. Don’t overspend and try to keep gift giving simple.
In the past, I have always overextended for Christmas, coming out of the day in a hole and then spending most of January trying to get out of it. I really thought that was normal, but this year, I stuck to a budget, and I can honestly say that I feel better going into Christmas than ever before. I know that I still have a dime left and that I will be in good financial shape in the New Year.
People tend to over spend at Christmas, so that they can give to others, however, I can honestly say that I would not want a gift from anyone who was putting themselves in a hole to come up with a present for me. I would much prefer a card or some cookies instead. That would make me happier, and I am sure that no one on your list wants you to go into hock, just to present a cool present to them at the holidays.
Do yourself a favor, limit the gift giving to simple things, and what you will find is that you will enjoy the holidays much more than you ever have before. I know I will.
Finances Making You A Bit Uneasy?
Everyone is thinking and talking about finances lately and the stress of it all is really getting to some people. Maybe you think that it isn’t effecting you, but I would tell you that it is probably effecting you more than you think. Take this scenario:
You hop online to check your bank account, just like you do on a regular basis, but the screen says sorry we are experiencing technical difficulties, and you can’t check to see if your direct deposit is in your account. So you try this over and over again, but still it doesn’t work. Still trying to find out if your deposit has come in, you now try to call the bank’s 1-800 number, and when you call you receive a recording that says “sorry this service is not available at this time”. So you shoot up to the local ATM machine to check your balance, and it is Temporarily Out of Service. Now let me ask you a question, do you think “wow, there computers must be on the fritz” or do you think to yourself “I wonder if my bank went out of business”? Well, I have encountered computer glitches on several occasions, but when this scenario happened to me last week, I started to think that maybe my bank had gone under and my money was gone. Unfortunately, with all the hype and focus on the state of the economy, you can’t help but keep these worries in the back of your mind. Even when you think that they aren’t seeping in, they probably are. One way to keep things in check is to read your news instead of getting it over the airwaves. Although, they can still put a spin on it, it is a little less traumatizing to read it in print then to listen to it. Then if you read something and you are unclear about what was said you can go back and reread it. When you hear it, it is in a fleeting moment and then it is gone, sometimes leaving you unsure as to what you just heard. Also, tone and inflection can play a big role in how you interpret what is being said, and in the paper they are less likely to influence you in this way.
Don’t feel alone, we are all feeling the heat. Try to do things to keep yourself calm and realize that either way we will make it through this difficult time, as have many who have come before us, we will persevere.
FDIC Will It Take Care Of You?
FDIC insurance is what our banks supposedly have to cover our money in case the bank that you have your money in goes under. This insurance used to cover up to $100,000 per account and has recently been extended to cover up to $250,000 per account and if your money is in a non-interest bearing account, all the money that you have in an account is supposedly covered according to the new FDIC rules effective until December 2009. Investment and finance expert Suze Orman has been on TV of late for commercials regarding the new FDIC online evaluator, that allows you to check and make sure that your money is insured. My real question to all is, if this system were to crash, would our government really be able to cover all of the money that every single person in the US has in the bank? And the answer in my opinion is NO WAY! Take a moment and think about the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In that movie, when people got wind of the bank’s problems they all ran to the bank to withdraw all their money at once and very quickly they knew they were in trouble. How do you think that our government would handle such a crisis? Do you think that they could just explain to people that their money was invested in their neighbor’s homes and farms? I think not. So is it a good idea to keep all your money in the banking system? I suggest not. I am not saying to withdraw every penny, however, it may be a more advisable to begin to save some cash on hand, just in case. I mean with the stock market so iffy, and the potential that banks and real estate could crash and no credit available, isn’t it possible that you could be left without a dime. I think it is not only possible, but perhaps likely. In any case, it is not meant to scare people, but to take note of where your money is and who has the control over it. It is actually ironic that we are allowing the Federal Government full control over our personal finances, especially since they seem to be such prudent financial wizards, don’t you think?
Why Is The Green Paper So Important To Us?
Finances are on everyone’s mind these days, from the rich to the poor, we are all concerned about the financial standing of our country and of our families, but when did this green paper become so important.
With financial times being difficult more and more people will turn to crime, drugs, alcohol. More and more people will go to counseling and get divorced and my question is still why? Have we become a society so driven by the dollar that without it we will just crumble? The answer to that is very simply yes.
While some of us are just worrying about how we are going to make ends meet and pay for the essentials to sustain our families, some of us are actually in a worse financial situation. The rich will feel this financial crunch too, because unlike the poor in this country, who realize that we will just have to generate more income to survive, the rich, who have based their existences primarily on the stock market, the real estate market, and credit cards and loans, will probably be hit even harder than the poor. The lifestyle changes that they will need to undergo to survive this rocky road, will be a much bigger adjustment for them. They will have to give up living on credit and will have to find ways of generating an income through the necessity avenues in this country. They will have to find ways to invest money now in businesses that will be able to survive the financial rough patch, and that could be difficult for many wealthy people.
If you are worried about the financial future of your family, then take action now to sustain your family, we can live without a lot of what we have, we just need to begin to realize the difference between true necessity items and luxury items.
George W. Bush – Friend Or Foe?
Thinking about finances, brings to mind only one person and that person is George W. Bush. Even if you think he did right thing taking us into war, which was more of a business decision then an act to protect our country, you still have to look at the way he is running this country and ask yourself if he hasn’t created most of the economic problems we are currently facing. Sure he would tell you that it was the terrorists that are trying to us in, and in fact NEED to be stopped, but really what has this war accomplished? In essence, it has created US control of middle eastern oil supplies, which has exactly benefited us how? At least when the Iraqi’s were controlling the oil the price was more reasonable, now that we control it the price is going up and up. The more financial decisions and large corporate bail outs this man makes the more it is costing you and I. Maybe not today, but in the future. You can’t just stop companies and the stock market from crashing by printing up money with no backing to make the numbers look good. That is what is happening here, and in the long run with each move this man makes, dollars come shooting from our pockets. It is a little bit frightening to me that he is driving us further and further into a depression in this country and either doesn’t know it, or doesn’t care. It is my belief that it is the latter. In any case, as a whole, this country needs to put it’s foot down on this man hard. About two yeara ago there was some talk about impeachment, what ever happened to that thought. I know that we are only about 4 months away from a new president, but that still gives him a lot of time to do some major damage. Are we really going to wait for him to completely sink us, just waiting for the new president to step up and fix everything. Even if we pick the right guy, it will take a long time to undo the wrath of George W. We are voting for a human being not a miracle worker.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition – House In Foreclosure
Honestly, when I first heard that a family who had a home built for them by the popular TV show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, was having their house foreclosed on I honestly thought, wow what a waste. I mean you get a customized home built for you for free, and then you wind up having this home foreclosed on. Well, I heard an interview with the husband and wife who are living in the home and it changed my mind. They did have a beautiful home built for them, when they received the home, they were also given a $100,000 home maintenance fund but they did still have to pay the mortgage, which was the equivalent of what they were paying before the makeover and the taxes, which stayed the same for the first few years and then went up. This couple said that the home itself was costing them $6000 per month to keep up, and in addition to that they have a large family which also included some children with special needs, they didn’t really get into the special needs of each child. In any case, these people said that in addition to almost losing their home and being in financial ruin which is difficult enough, that they were receiving hate mail and threatening letters from viewers of the show who were angered to hear that they might be losing the home the show gave them. Honestly, I learned some things about home ownership in watching this show. I didn’t realize that there is something called a homestead protection, which says that if you own a home the only person who can sell that home out from under you is the mortgage company, however, once you take out a home equity loan, even if it is just for a very small amount, then they can come and sell your home out from under you if you don’t pay back the loan. For instance let’s say you borrow $10,000 dollars off your home, but your home is worth $500,000 if you don’t pay that loan, then that company can come and sell that home right out from under you to get back their $10,000. I didn’t really realize that it worked like that. In any case, these people did borrow money off their Extreme Makeover home, but it was really to put their kids in a rehab program and to start a new business. They didn’t just go out and blow the money and lose the home as some reports might make you think. This just goes to show that anyone can have their finances spiral out of control, it just takes a few mistakes and you can very easily find yourself in a hole without a shovel.