Economic Crisis or Economic Turning Point?

[li-teacher]

 The past few days there has been a lot of talk about "economic crisis" "financial bailout" and many other situations that very well could insue panic and frenzy throughout. Why are we approaching this situation with such a negative attitude? Everything I listen to is doom, doom, doom! The law of attraction states that our thoughts become things. If we continue to stress the negative attitude to this situation, more negative experiences are going to occur. Why not use terms like "economice turning point" or "financial assistance"?
Read more @ http://healourlives.blogspot.com

[Audrey]

Doom and gloom are top sellers. So the media uses those words to attract viewers. If the media said "economic turning point" people might not tune in

[emsplace]

IMHO - the reality of the state our economy is pretty gloomy. HOWEVER! I think we can turn it around with some honesty.
If you can't afford a big house, stay in your small one and make the best of it like our parents and their parents did.
If you can't afford to pay your credit cards off monthly or every couple months - stop using them!
Get to work if you can - I don't care if ya wanna. If you need the MULAH - get up and find a job. $10/hr is better than ZERO... espcially if you are a SAHM who's kids are gone all day.
This is a time to test our fortitude. This is a time to do what we have to do, sacrifice, cut back, etc...

I am not a huge fan of bailing out everyone because no one ever bailed me out. But If we can turn it around... if we can stop the madness... it could be a positive. I'm just not convinced.

Em

[Nancy]

After what I have seen and heard the last couple of weeks since the "bailout" I am not convinced. 

We'll make it through all right...we just have to make changes in our lifestyles like our parents and grandparents, and not let it happen again.  We need to let our voices be heard loud and clear to those in political office...if you want your job, stop screwing around with OUR money.

[emsplace]

Honestly, I said this ten or so years ago to a friend...
If we are not all careful with our $$ we will all be living together in communal neighborhoods...

Not that it would be a bad thing. We need to turn to our inner strength. Resist buying the newest gadgets... resist buying the latest of   Buy recycled clothing, make fresh jam... barter with a friend. Tell her you will make the bread to go with her jam and swap - like a co-op.

People spent way above their means. Some bought houses they couldn't afford. Some have outrageous CC debt (like us).  We absolutely did a lot of it to ourselves.

I'm not talking about folks on fixed incomes or in retirement years. I'm talking about the folks who WANT IT ALL but can't afford it.  And we need to stop.  I'm talking about people on welfare who buy a dyson vaccum becuase it is the greatest -- then can't figure out how to feed their children. STupidity!

The bailout will not work. It is going to get worse before it gets better. The best thing to do is stockpile food/important things while you can (I know it sounds stupid)... but it is time for us all to live like we are poor. For me, it is not a big stretch!   We are on a total spending freeze here at the Davis house. My birthday is Saturday... I'm making a cake. Marque will cook dinner and clean for me... and give me time alone. And that will be a great day. Christopher's party is paid for (the next week).  I buy sales stuff throughout the year, so I have a couple things. My dad sent $$ for a Lego Set. And at his party, people are bringing canned/dry food for our local food bank.

I'm babbling... but what I mean to say is simple. Live simply. Stop buying temporarily. Live on a tight budget... you'll see... it gets easier.  You will have time to read, plant a garden, etc...
Be creative...

[Nancy]

You will also learn to appreciate what you have more!

[emsplace]

Amen... You sure will.
AND learning to appreciate with/be happy with what we have is HALF the battle.
If you don't like me because I buy my work slacks at JC Penney's or Target instead of Nordstroms - your loss. I no longer feel like I have to keep up with anyone...
except my son - hee hee...

And I tell you I wouldn't go back for the world.
em

[Nancy]

Good for you Em, it is a lesson I learned long ago..and I am one happy lady!  I have everything I could want, and 2/3 of it is not material things.

[Candid Carrie]

I am wondering how everyone that posted last October in this section is feeling today ... I was optimistic. 

Since that time my husband who has been a carpenter for twenty five years has been laid off indefinitely and my ex-husband is $40K behind in child support. 

I am having a tough time remaining chipper. 

Anyone else bottoming out? 

[Cammie51396]

I wasn't here last October, but life has definitely changed in the last few months (and it was more than just having a baby).  My husband left a really bad job that he had for two and a half years this last July, because we were supposed to be moving to the SF bay area where he was starting graduate school (the job was at  was as a "Facility Manager" working 72 hour shifts with troubled teen boys, but the company he was working for was really corrupt and the damage to our car by the boys had added up to about four thousand dollars).  We really had no idea how hard it would be in the months to come to find another job.

As the economy got worse we decided to stay where we were until he got a job and then we would go wherever the job was.  He applied to every ad we saw and after about forty applications he had five interviews (the fact that he commutes to San Francisco on weekends for class really hurt his chances I think).  At one interview at a restaurant there were over fifty other applicants when he showed up. 

After four months without a job he was finally hired to work nights, part time at a local chain store stocking stores.  I could not have imagined a year ago how happy I would be to when he got the job. 

While twenty hours a week is still a struggle and there are no promising job options at this point, a lot of my friends from college have had an even worse time.  My two best friends (one is an accountant and the other was in marketing for a silicone valley company) have both been laid off as has one of there fiances (he was a computer programmer).  My husbands family runs a construction company and they haven't had a job in months. 

I am curious to see what other people think and if people are optimistic that things will be turning around soon.  I go back and forth.  I believe it will get better eventually.  I just hope eventually isn't in five or ten years...

[Nancy]

Carrie, I am so sorry for you.  It is hard to be optimistic when your world seems like it is falling apart.  Nothing I could say would make you feel better, I know.  I have been where you are and it is not fun.

Cammie...I was here last October, and maybe it is because I don't have small children to worry about.  My husband is retired and we do worry about him losing health care and pension with all that is happening at the auto industries, but we still feel optimistic.  We lived through the 70's when jobs were very hard to find and he was laid off every six months.  It takes time to heal a country from an economic turn down, all I can say is once it does turn around, and it will, remember what put us in this spot and don't let it happen again. 

[give-and-receive]

I agree with EM. People need to work, I don't care what it is that they do for work, but find something.

Live on a budget, cut up those credit cards if you can't pay them each month. Credit cards feel like a safety net, but if you don't have a way to come up with the money to pay them, you are only making hard times harder! If you get rid of them you will find a way to make ends meet a different way....I know this, because I did it. And it wasn't easy to do at all.

Sitting on our butt's won't help anyone in any way.

Whining about it won't get us anywhere either. The law of attraction is true. Having said that, it's never easy to stay positive in a bad situation, especially when you know full-well that there is not going to be a quick fix. But, stay positive we must!

We all have "boot-straps" (so to speak) and we have to grab onto them and pull ourselves up. Dig in, hit the streets, look for work anywhere you can. The job might not be glamorous, but what do you want...fame or food?

I know I come off as harsh...but hard work and perseverance feels much better in the end than a handout.

This recession isn't going to last forever (I'm ever-the-optimist), hopefully all of us will have come thru it and look back on all the things we learned.

I might not be very popular after this post. My sentiments are in no way meant to diminish anyone's hardships or feelings, I have to give myself pep talks every day, but I just refuse to let the crap get me down.

Carrie, I'm very sorry for the situation you are in. 40K that's terrible. I have been there. I went 18 years receiving a little more than $100 child support, I was soooo pissed, but there was nothing I could do. You just made me appreciate that 100 dollars each month.

Things will get better... I can say that because I truly believe it.

[Mom2ConnorRyan]

I agree with you Give and recieve.

[Cammie51396]

I definitely hope my post didn't come across as whiny.  I was saying what we basically all know: that times are tough and that a lot of people have lost their jobs.  I don't buy at this point that anyone can get a job, right now, because I know people that are applying to job after job after job and while I'm sure something will eventually come up, I'm not sure how soon it will be. 

As I said in my post: my husband applied for about forty jobs before he got one, working nights.  We were thrilled. 

My husband and I have lived in a one bedroom cabin (10 by 10 foot) with no running water for the last two and a half years, so that we wouldn't go into debt.  We did buy a car that gets good gas mileage for his 500 mile weekly commute to graduate school.  I grow a lot of our food in spring and summer and make a lot of my daughters clothes (if my husband would wear more knits, he would have more clothes too, although knitting a 2XL sweater would be time consuming).  Yet I've also found myself in health and human services arguing to get my daughter on Medi-Cal because we can't afford to pay for health insurance or health care (believe me I tried, but when her first round of vaccines were equal to two weeks of paychecks for our family I found myself waiting to leave a message for a social worker).

I love where we are and I love our cabin, although I also look forward to the time when my husband finishes up, gets his PhD and starts applying to work at Universities.  When I think ahead I think we'll probably be looking back on this time fondly someday... 

There's a lot of frustration right now because of the economy and the situation our country is in...but I think it's best directed at the CEOs that are still trying to give themselves millions in bonuses after running there companies into the ground. 

[give-and-receive]

Oh Cammie, you didn't sound whinny, no one here has.

I have heard plenty of people complain though, not here, and they don't even try to help themselves. I get frustrated with that.

I knew I sounded harsh and I don't intend to be.

My words were not directed at anyone here they were just my thoughts on the state of things.