by golbguru on November 16, 2008
I bet this whole financial mess has made everyone of you open your eyes and question your wants, question your income, question your money management (or the lack of it), question your expenses, question your investment strategies, question your job security, question your $10-per-workday lunches, question your credit card statements, question your insurance coverages ….. sort of made you question your attitude towards money.
For those of you who still have your jobs, I bet you feel fortunate (and generally crib less about being less paid, etc.) - and I bet you are putting in extra efforts to make sure that someone higher up notices your hard work before you get into the to-be-laid-off list.
It has made people question their governments, and governments question their respective policies.
On my part, I have convinced at least half a dozen young people (close friends and relatives) to open their minds about saving more and/or investing in the stock market (on the argument that it’s a good time to buy stocks, develop good money saving habits, etc.). It’s a happy feeling (almost a proud feeling) when these guys and gals discuss interest rates, stocks, ETFs, and portfolio diversification over lunches and other casual meetings.
Of course there is much suffering and stress, but hopefully most of us will come out of it with several lessons for life. Hopefully, adversity will bring out the best of our efficiency and adaptability.
As it is, we have to read/hear bad news everyday … just thought I should throw in a pinch of positive out there.
by golbguru on November 1, 2008
When you are poor you would like someone to share your financial burdens; you want to someone to give you some tax relief; you want someone to give your kids financial assistance to get through college; you want someone to bail you out of the financial crisis; it seems logical for you that the “rich” are taxed more - you call that graduated tax; you consider it fair that there are incentives/affirmative-action for the economically and socially challenged; the growing disparity between the quality of life in the rich and the poor bothers you; the concept of “free market” doesn’t always work in your interest; you find it surprising that CEOs are paid several million dollars a year while you can barely make your ends meet; you generally don’t like that the fact that health insurance is controlled by for-profit companies; and you want the government to have some control over banks/firms who handle your retirement money; you generally envy the “capitalists”.
When you are rich you want to enjoy all your wealth by yourselves; you think “poor” people are “poor” because they aren’t working hard enough to get “rich”; you think it’s unfair that you are taxed at a higher rate than the “poor” - you call that “spreading the wealth”; for you “charity” is only a means of reducing your taxable income - you generally don’t believe that “wealth should be spread around” so the concept of “charity” doesn’t really appeal to you; you are a staunch supporter of “free market” (but you still want the government to bail you out of financial mess - I don’t know what’s up with that); you recoil in horror because some plumber who earns more than $250,000 a year will pay about $3500 more per year in taxes; you think it’s draconian to limit profits or pay of any company or individual; you don’t care about the fact that health insurance is offered by for-profit companies - because you can basically afford anything they charge; you want minimum government involvement in anything that you are associated with financially; you believe that lack of government control leads to a “self-correcting” market; you generally hate the “socialist”.
The world isn’t black and white.
