There’s a difference between reading about the national housing crisis in the newspaper and actually seeing one of your neighbors lose their home. That’s just what occurred two doors down from us.
Monthly Archive for May, 2009
Voters in the state of California spoke loudly and angrily last Tuesday. After years of convoluted budget fixes, exotic borrowing schemes and skirting tough issues, Californians just said “no” to another series of band-aid fiscal ballot measures that just seemed like more of the same. Voter frustration has risen to such new levels that now there is even a movement to completely rewrite the State’s constitution to prevent the politicians from operating like credit drunk consumers.
A few weeks ago I referenced the “Miracle on the Hudson” and how Captain “Sulley” Sullenberger’s Flight 1549 heroics can guide us during financial emergencies. You may recall that Sullenberger safely landed a commercial airliner on the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese and losing both engines. I was intrigued by his success enough to study a few of the attributes that led to this amazing outcome.
I’ve talked to some pretty nervous investors recently…even with this latest uptick they’re not sure if they can ever trust the stock market again. With their fears being totally understandable, I decided to research an historical worst case scenario to help them evaluate the length of time they needed to be in the market to be reasonably assured that they wouldn’t lose money.
I’ve heard it said that you can tell a lot about a person by what they do with their wallet. In our life, I would say that’s pretty accurate. A few years ago if someone went through our checkbook and debit card receipts, there is would be a pretty consistent pattern tracking what we value most highly. Repetitive expenditures after essentials are traveling to hang out with our adult “kids”, charitable stuff and keeping my wife’s horticultural degree in bloom by regular visits to the local nursery.
