The Credit Crunch

We turned in our minivan yesterday. It was a lease, and the lease was up yesterday. For all my years of griping about it, it was a decent vehicle and served us well.
So naturally, we've spent the last week looking at family-mobiles and examining our options. Yesterday I re-read this article I've kept from Relevant Magazine that I thought was interesting. Here's an excerpt:

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From Straight Talk About Debt by Dave Ramsey:

"Taking on a car payment is one of the dumbest things people do to destroy their chances of building wealth. The car payment is most folks' largest payment except for their home mortgage, so it steals more money from their income than virtually anything else. USA Today notes that the average monthly car payment is $464 over 64 months. Most people get a car payment and keep it through their lives. As soon as a car is paid off, they get another payment because they "need" a new car. I you keep a $464 car payment throughout your life - which is "normal"-you miss the opportunity to save that money. If you invested $464 per month from age 25 to age 65, a normal working lifetime, in the average mutual fund averaging 12 percent (the 70-year stock market average), you would have $5,458,854.45 at age 65. Hope you like that car!

If you put $464 per month in a cookie jar for just 10 months, you have more than $4000 to pay cash for a car. I am not suggesting you drive a $4000 car your whole life, but that is how you start without debt. then you can save the same amount again and trade up to and $8,000 car 10 months later and up to a $12,000 car 10 months after that. In just 30 months, or two and a half years, you can drive a paid-for $12,000 car, never having made a payment, and never have to make payments again.

Taking on car payments because everyone else does it does not make it smart. Will your broke relatives and friends make fun of your junk car while you do this?? Sure they will, but that's a very good sign you are on the right track. Having been a millionaire and gone broke, I dug my way out by making a decision about looking good versus being good. Looking good is when your broke friends are impressed by what you drive, and being good is having more money than they have."
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While I don't necessarily agree with his tone, implying that acquiring wealth is the greatest goal to work towards, I DO like the idea of working towards living debt-free. It's taken me months to get over the idea of having a car with less than 20,000 miles on it. I've had this phobia or "thing" about older cars or cars with higher mileage - fretting about their dependability, expecting them to fall apart on the road as I drive them, etc. etc.
Admittedly, I'm a very short-sighted person. Yes, we'd be in debt, but we'd have a GOOD car, a RELIABLE car, and (said to myself) a PRETTY car. Yeah, guess I'm shallow like that. So here we are...looking at cars - and for the first time, I'm thinking: Maybe it WOULD be worth it to drive a crappy car for a couple of years so that we can save $400 a month.

And I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I'm okay with that.

So if you see me in town with my kids in tow in a crappy old minivan or SUV - just wave and smile and laugh if you feel like it. It's taken me a long time to get to the point that I don't care. :)

Domestic Violence

I heard on the radio the other day an advertisement for a local women's shelter. The commercial stated that somewhere in the range of 50% of women will be victims of violence from a partner at some point in their life.
I don't doubt that statistic necessarily, but I was surprised that the number was that high. Then again, I don't think I've ever known anyone who's been a victim of domestic violence. Or maybe I have, and just not been aware???

Anyway....out of curiosity's sake:

Like Pulling Teeth......

Here's a poll, you silly boobs:

Happy New Year!

I was thinking about resolutions and new year's and stuff and it got me wondering what you're yearly M.O. is when it comes to New Year's.  So here's some polls for you.  Feel free to expound in the comments if you like. :)

Feed the Pig

I heard this commercial on the radio the other day stating that last year, American's actually spent more than they made - the worst economic situation since the Great Depression. The people who ran the commercial cited this website, Feedthepig.org - which I just perused and think is a great site. It's very interactive - you can enter in the type of person you are, the things that you do that may chip away at your bank account, and it will tell you how much you can save in a year and other useful info. Check it out if you get a minute or two.
Anyway, that got me thinking about debt, savings, money in general. Depressing subject mostly (oddly, it's depressing for everyone I know - no matter their income) so I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone out there is doing in the way of savings. Did YOU spend more than you earned last year??

Here's a poll, for anonymity sake....because I know people are weird about talking about their money for some reason.

Rambling Thoughts on Last Night's Debate....

I've never had such a vested interest in politics before. As many of you know, I've never even voted, my apathy was so great. I'm not sure if it's because I'm older, or because I have kids, or because I'm just so disgusted with the morals and ethics that have been displayed for the last 8 years...but this year I'm SO INTO this election. I just think it's huge - SO huge.

Here's some thoughts I have on last night's debate, feel free to discuss, rebut, or hash out your opinions in the comments section.

I will begrudgingly say that Gov. Palin did better than I expected.....for what she did (more on that in a sec). Considering her horrible blunder(s) with the media this week (in particular that painful-to-watch interview with Katie Couric) I think there were many people cringing as to what she might say next to undercut her own campaign and further betray her lack on knowledge on key issues.

However, last night it was apparent that she was well-coached and was more prepared to speak on some of those issues. BUT, as I said before when I commented that she did well for what she did - what I meant was that what she did was, in a nutshell: Not answer questions directed at her.

She repeatedly would come back to the issues that she was comfortable speaking about (even if they were irrelevant to the question posed) and hammer home the same sound bytes again and again. I think it would've been easier for her to just have a tape recorder up there so that when her turn came up she could just press play and it would spew out her (1) energy policy expertise, (2) John McCain's tax refunds, and/or (3)any of the following words or phrases: "maverick", "Dontcha", "doggone it", "God bless America".

Which brings me to my next "issue" with Palin: I think she's just too "folksy" to be our country's next Vice President. My "northerner" is coming in here, and I don't mean to sound belittling or demeaning, but there is a very real stereotype against people who speak "folksy" (i.e. that they are of lesser intelligence). Is it true? Not necessarily....quite obviously, Sarah Palin is an intelligent woman, but who the heck gets on national television in a freaking VP DEBATE and uses words like, "doggone it"?? Seriously??
So many people comment that they like her because she's "real" or she's just an average soccer mom....but I say #$%&%*!! WHAT?!
I don't WANT an average soccer mom with access to our nuclear codes. I don't WANT a soccer mom who has to cram in the days leading up to the VP Debate in order to be remotely prepared. I don't WANT a soccer mom to have a good chance at becoming the President of the United States.

I also felt like she was John McCain in a suit with boobs and square glasses. Random stories and quips about her family, tangents on subjects that didn't pertain to the questions...all intended to give warm fuzzies and endear her to the heart of the American people - a smart political move I suppose - but I don't want to hear about how you have teachers in your family, and gay/lesbian friends, I want to hear what you've DONE and what JM has DONE and what you plan to do. Skip the stories and the rambling - gimme the facts.
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I like Joe Biden. His answers were (I felt) gracious, to the point, and so filled with facts that they were difficult to refute. I like that his foreign policy knowledge is SO vast - especially during a time when the U.S. has some major credibility to rebuild with Allies and the world in general. I like that he has many, many years of actual experience in the Senate and knows the bills and laws and amendments that it seemed Gov Palin only had a skimming knowledge of.
I heard on CNN last night that people would zone out and get glassy-eyed when Biden would start talking about bills and things that he had and had not voted for, but I found those to be informative because I don't know about them.
And therein lies the problem with the average American - we don't know (to a large extent) what bill they're talking about, or what that means when they say "so and so voted to increase your taxes" We just gasp and say, "WHAT?! HE voted to INCREASE our taxes?! Well, I'M not voting for him!!" and then you find out the whole story is that he really voted to increase the taxes of the wealthy.....or something similar.
So when Biden refutes Palin's claims and says, "the bill your talking about is this........ and John McCain voted the exact same way" - I feel like I'm getting educated and seeing behind all the propaganda and sound bytes.

Palin's talking points last night seemed like lots of fluff with no substance. I like details. I think it's great that you want to end the war in Iraq and have a plan for withdrawal, but what are the details? When? How?
When all you say is empty words like, "give the money back to the middle class", "keep government where it belongs", "create more jobs", "clean energy", blah, blah, blah...but you don't have any specific plans/examples/history of actually making those changes, you're a big giant Republican soundbyte and nothing more.

Okay....I've gone on enough. I've got a lot more to say on this, but I ended up writing a lot more than I intended. I'm totally up for comments/discussion, so bring it on. Dan-o, I know you're itching to lob a gigantor comment at me, so bring it on.

Oh, and go here to write to your Congressional Representative and tell them what you think about the Bailout.

Oh, and here's some polls, for fun:

Tap, Tap, Tap......Is This Thing On?

Got some ideas about politics and religion rolling around in my head this morning...
and while I know that the blogging world/comments/discussion has been S-L-O-W around here lately (looking pointedly at all of you) maybe I could stir up some discussion....

Politics first:

How strange that Senator McCain says the fundamentals of our economy are strong on the 6th worst Day of Wall Street History.

A $600 billion dollar bankruptcy?
A bankruptcy ten times the size of the Enron collapse....the biggest drop in the S&P and Dow Since 9/11.....the collapse of two of the largest wall street firms.

What was really bananas during the Great Depression was the run on the banks, where people pulled their money out like crazy and the banks had nothing left to lend.
The difference now is people in the U.S. have no money in the bank to withdraw, it's all tied up in debt on houses that are drastically decreasing in value, IF they can even get them to sell. So then what? The banks begin closing? When banks close, there's no money to lend.
So more money is printed in an effort to float the economy, the dollar is inflated...there's more OF it, but it's worth nothing.

In the case of a 21st Century depression, we will be floating in money but it will not buy very much because it will have little relative value. It will be very tough on people with fixed incomes.

What's this all mean? I don't know - don't ask me. I'm just observing. Don't think that I'm all tied up in the financial market or stocks, banking, etc. etc.....I just find this all very interesting. What do you think?

Thought on this? Anyone anyone? Buehler? Buehler?


I'll do a poll for the lurking fence-riders who don't want to comment, but if you want to discuss in the comments section, feel free....or, PLEASE DO - because I'm interested to hear what the people smarter than me (which is most of you) have to say about this.

Any Truth To This, Do Ya Think?

For all of you who are interested in politics, or lovers of the McCain/Palin duo....do you think THIS article has any truth to it??

Personal Disclaimer: I think that whether the article is true or not doesn't really matter....(except that IF it was true it would make her rather dishonest and of questionable ethics). In regards to her abilities as a leader and potential skills in leading the country though, it doesn't make a difference for the most part. I just wanted to see if you'd heard of it and thought it had any truth to it. End disclaimer.