in my mind's zen garden

My Take On The Financial Meltdown

      Share    October 15, 2008 | Zen Musings

 

I sympathize with Onigiriman when he laments about the current financial crisis. It’s really starting to personally takes its toll on me too. As a middle-aged dude who’s got savings, some stocks, a retirement plan and some life insurance, not to mention a mortgage payment… the thought of financial doom is definitely weighing down on my family and I.

Onigiriman laments:

I wake up today and find out that Wachovia has melted down. I don’t want to get too graphic, but I swear, I thought I’d find bricks in my underpants. WTF is going on? I mean, I have a CD in Wachovia, not a big one, mind you. I am a man of modest means, but geez, do the freakin’ fat cats exemplified by those on Wall Street and in the current administration have to take this away from me, too?

Supposedly, this whole mess was started by then President Clinton, signing a piece of legislature just before the end of his 2nd term, that made it easier for low-income folks to buy a home. But, the big problem is that in the era of the two Bush terms of this decade, people ran with it… really got into some heavy debt with housing and credit cards. The housing market took a dive for the worse and people’s homes, instead of appreciating were losing their value… in many cases, to the point where the money they owed for the house was more than the house itself!

Anyway, we then witnessed the stock market take the big plunge and investment banks started tanking. I have my life insurance with AIG and they tanked!

With gasoline prices rising dramatically earlier in the year, everything from food, clothing, to basic necessities also increased. And what we have is a pretty bad economic situation for most of us.

What surprises me is that other than Onigiriman and myself, I don’t hear from other bloggers about their personal plights. This leads me to believe that they are either indifferent to the situation, are doing extremely well financially that it doesn’t really affect them, or they are worried about it but they probably don’t want to think or write about it.

I’m already living as frugally as I can. I try not to go out unless I absolutely have to. I don’t dine out much, and I’m literally watching my pennies and nickels and dimes.

This economic crisis is rough folks. I see at least 3-4 houses right now around my neighborhood that are “bank owned” and up for sale!

Posted by Randomguru | Comments (View Comments)

Tags: economic crisis, economic meltdown, Finances, financial turmoil