Another Rant

What a surprise, the first post I make in over a year is a rant!!

Who is to blame for the "economic crisis" we are currently in? Everyone thinks they have the answer. I use the quotations because there is a strong part of me that feels that this "crisis" is nothing more than people needing to get their heads out of their asses and realize how to manage their money.

Having spent May of 2006 until May of 2007 voluntarily unemployed, I was lucky enough to get the task of managing my family's finances from only one income...and a teacher's income at that! I always found myself to be somewhat frugal, but I was required to take it to new levels during that time.

The funny thing during all of this though, is that we were able to pay every single bill we had, on time and in full. To make this happen, some things happened. I clipped coupons. I went shopping on double coupon day. I didn't buy the pretty flat-screen HDTV that I had been drooling over since they came somewhat near my price range. We didn't go out to dinner as much (though Anna gets most of the credit for that!). We took options off our cell phones. We switched telephone servers. We used the credit cards less. We turned the heat down and the A/C up. We held off on home improvements that we really wanted to do.

We did things the right way. We lived within our means. By the way, did I mention that we BOUGHT A NEW CAR during that year also?!?

I remember Melissa asking me how people afford to live in the houses that they do. I told her that they are up to their eyeballs in debt in order to do it. Now many of those houses are on the market because the owners were unable to fulfill their obligation to re-pay their debt. Not that we are debt-free by any means (Thanks UW-Madison!), but I think that I have our things pretty well in order.

We realized that we had a certain means that we had to live within, and we did it. I finally got the TV, but it waited until I went back to work (and we got our tax refund). We got the work done on our house (THANKS ROY!!), but it was this year instead of last. We bought the car, but it meant that even more things had to be forfeited in order to do this.

I do realize that there are people out there who were doing things the right way, but still found themselves on the wrong side of their debt, but those people seem to be few and far between.

I was taught that home ownership was something that had to be earned. I was taught that home-ownership was a responsibility, not a right. Melissa and I lived in a less-than-stellar apartment complex for a couple years after we were married in order to save up for a, wait, DOWN PAYMENT!!!

I really think that many of our problems would have been solved if everyone would have just took step back and re-examined their financial situation. When you make $10.00 an hour, there is no way you are going to be able to pay a 4-digit mortgage every month unless all your ducks are in a row. But then again that is why they came up with "Interest-Only Loans". BARF!

That's all for now. I am sure I will be back the next time I hear Barack Obama's voice!!