As I sit here and read news story after news story about how bad our economy is and why we should impeach our President, and why no one knows what they're doing, I wonder a few things. What makes the writer think they are the only one who knows everything and everyone is stupid? Could it be the writer is the one who should look in the mirror and ask questions of that face?

Our economy is on life support right now, but good things are going on because of the low economic reports. For instance, this is the best time to buy a house! But you won't read it or hear it on the mainstream news media. If home prices are down, and mortgage rates are still extremely low, why would this be a bad time to buy a home? For those of us in touch with reality, it's a wonderful time to buy anything real estate that isn't leaning, and that might work too!

So here's my point: If you've been sitting on the fence waiting for the perfect opportunity to buy something, you're there right now. Go get it fast! And here's another important thing: If you haven't owned a home in three years or more, or, if you have never owned a home, you could get a $7500 tax credit if you buy a home in this calendar year. Quit listening to the doom and gloom “nay sayers” and their stupid agenda, and go do yourself a favor.

Keep this I mind: You are in charge of your own personal finances. We make financial decisions according to the information we have available to us. Sometimes that information isn’t always the most accurate, and we make unwise decisions because of it. There’s no one to blame here, it’s just the way it is. Unfortunately, we don’t realize those unwise decisions until years later when we’re hitting our forties and wake up because the coffee smell has permeated our brains. Then you realize that you can blame no one but yourself for ending up broke. And believe me, this experience is no fun.

So how do we keep ourselves from ending up broke in our forties? Start doing things right in our younger years. Develop more than one income source, and make sure that if the income from your job goes away, you could still handle things until your income is coming in a gain. How do we do this? By saving our money before we need it. It’s very simple really. We should have at least one month’s income available to us today. Keep it in some type of interest bearing account that we can get to when we need it right now. We also need an account equal to about one year’s salary, so that when our salary does go away, because we got sick, injured, or lost our job entirely. And here’s the part I like about this losing the job thingy: Now you have enough in the bank to go find the job you want, not the one you have to settle for because you need the money. You can make a good situation out of a bad one and land on your feet because you handled your finances with wise, sound, good decisions processes that set you up for success.

Not a bad way to live your life actually. Expect the unexpected. Plan for it and be ready when it comes. Then when the economy goes south on us, you don’t have to participate.

Wishing you the best,

Ed