photo credit: Brett Jordan
…especially when it has to do with your financial future, and your security. I was talking with a best friend about a month ago; we have been friends forever, and we talk a couple of times of year. I am very blessed because he is someone that I can talk to about anything. Our phone conversation was rather depressing; we are both happy with our families and are comfortable in our jobs, but there is this overwhelming sense of unease. We don’t live beyond our means, but there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, either. What happened to us? Why are we on this unending treadmill of bullshit with no end? And I’m the lucky one who pulled out of the stock market before the housing bubble burst, so at least I have a few options on the table.
And now there’s all this debt ceiling crap. And I watch as my good friends foreclose on their house because it was worth 50% of what they paid for it; they needed to move home to be closer to family and tried to short-sale the house, but the bank wanted more even though the sellers were willing to pay cash on the adjusted asking price. I wonder about my father-in-law, who passed away after working a tedious boring job as a forklift operator to put food on the table for his son; he was miserable before he died because he was constantly worried about money despite working 30 years in a union and saving for retirement.
I decided to become more educated about economics, beyond getting out of debt and saving religiously in a 401k using paper fiat currency that probably won’t be worth much except for toilet paper by the time I can touch it. I would recommend that you do the same.
I can’t make decisions for you, but I can share my journey. We’re in the process of an awakening of sorts; we have come to the decision that we need to become as self-sufficient as possible. We’re not moving into a fortress in the middle of nowhere, but we are trying hard to make the most of what we have and finding other individuals who are thinking along the same lines. I no longer think that saving money is the best method of obtaining a happy future, but rather it involves becoming an informed citizen and taking peaceful actions towards achieving independence.
Back when I started this blog at the end of 2007, I wanted to write about finance and chose a favorite song for a domain name. Little did I know that the “change” part would become so relevant!
