Turns out April is “Financial Literacy Month” and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling is weighing in by releasing the initial results of their third annual Financial Literacy survey. As this is currently a hot topic nationally, Congress will be briefed with the full report later this month. They will hear, among other alarming statistics, that fully 41% of respondents gave themselves a grade of either “C, D or F” when it comes to understanding money and/or making good money decisions. We are definitely not making the Dean’s List here.
Archive for the 'Economy' Category
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Seems like a repeat question that keeps coming up in my financial wellness sessions is, “what was different about the Great Depression than what we are experiencing now?” How about for a start…communication and data!
On January 27th, 1927, two years before the US economy fell off a cliff, inventor Philo T. Farnsworth applied for a patent that is now considered the official birth date of the television. Because this medium was still in its infancy in 1929, radio and newspapers were the only tools with the ability to reach the masses. But as we know, all of these mediums are only good for moving information one way.
This week the government announced a new plan to rid the financial system of so-called “toxic assets”, a general term for assets that have exposed their holders to large losses. It is these assets that have paralyzed both the credit markets and the investor community from moving forward because, to date, no one has been able to determine the extent of their poisonous reach. So to restore some semblance of confidence, the government is proposing to build an entity to capture, hold and somehow try to sell these blemished instruments.
They are telling us that, after months of horrendous news, hints of a return to economic stability created sustained euphoria during last week’s market run-up. The word sustained is used loosely here…it means more than one day. Some large and previously battered financial companies, namely Citibank, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase reported that were profitable during the first two months of the year. And, investors all over the globe, who are still licking their wounds after being pummeled by the same market that ruthlessly hacked their personal wealth, now want to quickly make up their losses by getting back on the same airplane that essentially crashed in stormy weather.
These days as I slog through my daily Wall Street Journal, by the time I get to the lone cartoon buried somewhere in the back of the paper, I feel like I have been mauled by dozens of bears. What’s scary is that I am now almost numb to the pain because the daily mauling has been going on for well over a year. The Wall Street whispers of, “stay the course” and “invest for the long term” are ingrained in my thinking but it’s hard not to feel that what is going on now is different than the downturns of the past.
In all my years of being hanging around with professionals that consider themselves to be financial experts, I’ve never found anyone who could provide a logical explanation for how and why markets move in one direction or another? But it seems that either a general climate of confidence or fear are certainly leading indicators.
For example, it is interesting that the markets pay close attention to a concept that is anything but logical or analytical. It’s called “consumer confidence.” Webster’s dictionary tells us that confidence is “a state of confident hopefulness that events will be favorable.”
We all have a pretty good idea about what it means to be physically and mentally well. While we may not be perfect physical specimens, aside from the typical periodic aches and pains, everything is working reasonably well and we are able to handle even the unpredictable events that each day brings. For some, being financially well could mean doing lunch with Warren Buffet on the Learjet next week. For the rest of us Financial Wellness could very simply mean…that we are prepared. And when you think about it, most personal money diseases occur because, for whatever reason, we are not.
