Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

In case you’re in your late teens, 20′s or 30′s, now would be the perfect time to start saving for your retirement.  I’ll never forget my teacher in high school telling me the same thing and oh how I wish I would of listened.  While I feel fortunate to be debt free, I just wish we already had more money put away for our retirement.   All I keep hearing in my head is my teacher way back then saying things like more than likely by the time you retire social security will be no longer and if just happens to still be there, who knows what your social security benefits will be like.  The best thing you can do for yourself is to start your retirement fund as soon as you can.  The earlier you start the better.  Thankfully I’m still in my 30′s and our goal right now would be to be able to start our Roth IRA so  we will be able to breath later on.

Do you ever sit back and wonder things? That’s what I do sometimes and I will try to google the answer, but sometimes I just cxan’t find the answer. One of the things I can’t help but wonder is it seems like I keep seeing more and more people either walking, riding bikes, or jogging. So my question is, with the economy still not doing good, do people tend to get healthier by not eating as much and going out enjoying mother nature (exercising) instead of spending money on fat burning pills?   Or do people not care about the price of pills, just as long as they are loosing weight?

It’s been about a year when Paul and I last checked our credit report so I’m thinking we are due to check it again.   I keep thinking we should invest in buying some identity theft protection,  but I’m not sure who would be the best to go with.  I know a lot of radio hosts will say go with lifelock and how they are the leader in identity theft and honestly I just about was going to when I heard Dave Ramsey talk about them and that put a screeching halt.  Then after reading some more everything these identity theft protection places do are things you can it yourself.   So I guess for now we will just keep saving our money and every year pull our credit reports to make sure there isn’t anything funny going on.   Oh yeah.. if you do pull your free credit checks, don’t do them all at once.. since you can get one report each year from each of the three major credit reporting companies — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax do one every four months.  That’s what I would like to start doing and will just make sure I write down on the calender when & who I ran the credit report with.

I’m amazed at the number of adults my age that are going back to college right now.  Of course I think the reason why is because of so many people have been are will be getting laid off so they are looking at changing their careers to something that is a little more stable, even though at this point, I have no clue what that might be.

Here in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area they have been talking about how the medical field is the field you want to get into. My sister-in-law is a RN and I can honestly tell you that even the medical field is having a slow time right now as she has been called off for the day quite a few times.

When people are strapped for cash, doing elective surgeries are the last thing on their minds. Or if it’s between paying a hospital bill or paying their mortgage, a majority of the time people will pay their mortgage. When the hospitals don’t get paid, then they have to cut some place and cutting the amount of their staff is one place they can save some money.

Are you one that is going back to school? If so, are you looking at changing your career? If so, to what?

It seems like businesses everywhere are having a harder time right now with our economy the way it is.   Businesses are trying to do anything to get more business coming there way.  While some places (like our Chinese restaurant) are doing cash only to avoid the credit card fees the credit card companies give them, other places are now doing what’s called check by phone.  I can see something like that being handy for my previous employer.  Instead of waiting for a check to come in the mail, the customers can pay it over the phone and with the software they have they can write the check and then make the deposit that day.   In a way it would be a win-win for both companies… the one who owes the money would save money by not having to write and mail the check, while the company that is receiving the money gets their money a lot sooner.  So a win-win!

What have you noticed companies doing to try and drum up more business or get more income coming in?

I know most of us want to lose weight not just we will look and feel better, but did you know that you can actually save money as well?   If you don’t believe me, just ask your insurance agent and ask them who gets better life insurance rates.    People who are at the healthy weight or over weight.  When we signed up for life insurance I’ll never forget our agent told us then that if we lost weight and I got back down to 130 lbs (that’s what I was in High School!) that our rates would drop!  I’ll never forget that so in case you do have a life insurance policy and you did end up losing weight and are at where you are suppose to be… call your insurance agent as you should end up saving some money on your life insurance policy!

I’ve heard on the news how people on social security won’t be getting a cost of living increase this year. For some people that might be ok, but for some of the elderly that are on it and are living pay check to pay check this is going to be hard for them. Per the news it’s because consumer prices fell this past year and that there is deflation. I just find that hard to believe. Everywhere I look the price of everything is still going up. Plus with all this money Obama is throwing around (that we don’t have so they have to print a lot more off ) means that inflation will be going UP! So instead of letting our seniors get a little ahead of the game so when the inflation does rise they will be ok, they would rather them just wait and be in trouble down the road so they can “depend” on the government for more. (I swear the Government loves the feeling of people depending on them)

Before long I’m sure these same seniors will hear that the cost of their Medicare supplement will be going up, gas is on it’s way back up (at least in Michigan it is) and if that Cap & Trade passes like our Government wants the price of EVERYTHING will skyrocket.   If that is the case.. will they give these seniors a cost of living adjustment at that point?  Or do they have to wait another year?

There are some things I think are a waste of money like having full coverage on a car that’s paid off and is worth less than what’s sitting in your bank account or thinking you need to always keep up with the Jones’.  

But there are two different kinds of insurances I would never go without.  Health & Life!    If  Paul lost his job and we needed to buy our own health insurance I would make sure we would at least have Major Medical.   Doctor visits we could always pay out of pocket, but if one of us got hospitalized for one reason our another.. that could end up breaking us.

Then there is life insurance.   That is another insurance I would never dare go without since we now have kids.  It was one thing when I was single, but now I need to make sure that my kids will be taken care of financially if by chance something would happen to Paul or myself.   Even though we would of went with who Dave Ramsey recommended, I was kind of glad we got a life insurance lead from a friend for someone that is local and also represented the same company Dave recommended as that’s who we went with.  Even though it’s only $400-$500 a year for both of us, it will be worth it in the long run if we ever have to use it.

It seems like every year a family from my Michigan Mom’s group seems to be moving away.  I think it started off with my friend Erin moving to Colorado and from then on someone has decided to move due to Michigan’s economy and not being able to find a job here.   It just stinks having to say good-bye to people I know. 

There have been times we have thought of leaving here too, but the only thing keeping us here is our family.  After talking.. neither one of us could move away from them as we enjoy living 1/2 mile away from Paul’s folks and only 15-20 minutes away from mine.   The one reason why I wouldn’t mind moving would be because then I would be forced to decutter. 

What I should do is put it in my head that we are moving and then go buy moving boxes and sort by putting the stuff I know I wouldn’t want to move with me in some of the boxes and then just drop them off at Love Inc. (Like a goodwill) Of course my luck Love Inc. would be open and I would do a little shopping while I’m there and would be coming home with bags full of stuff. But bags are smaller than boxes right? ~grin~

Have you ever had it where you really would like to go out and buy something, but you know in your heart that it’s not the right time to do it?  That’s where we are standing right now.  Since getting the house paid off we feel like “rewarding” ourselves by looking at buying a new truck since they have 0% financing. 

I would give anything to be able to have a crew cab.  For me it’s so hard to get the kids in back (extended) part of our truck as I can’t reach in easy to buckle the car seats, but is it worth $700 for that luxury?

Even though it sounds like a great deal 0%, I know what we NEED to do.  First above anything else we really need to get our emergency nest saved back up.  (We had spent that to pay off the house)  Once we have that saved up and are putting money into a roth IRA for retirement, at that point I think it would be safe for us to start looking at trucks.  (Hopefully our current truck will last that long)

It’s kinda funny how you can think one way, but once you actually start writing it down for the world to see you realize what you really need to do.  (Here I had felt like going truck shopping before I wrote this!)