Getting out of bed today takes a lot of fortitude. The world is in pretty grim turmoil. Many of us middle classers are just plain worried about our future. The very rich can spare a million or two of loss, but for the average middle class citizen losing thousands of dollars tends to cramp the lifestyle. We all want to stay healthy, pay our bills and keep on spending those dollars to enjoy our lives. It is said that boomers are the biggest spenders. However, looking around at the younger set with arms full of electronics and designer clothes I tend to doubt this.



The newspapers, magazines and on line articles about the economy, saving money and retirement are filled with advice.

As boomers we are in one of three scenarios:

1. Working and thinking about retirement in the distant future

2. Working and planning on retiring in the close future

3. Newly retired as we get our first social security check

If the government can write a check for seven hundred billion dollars certain seven hundred is okay to spend. Wrong! Our money is slipping away very fast. The grocery store bill has started to climb rapidly. Gas prices are still extremely high. There was some joyful dancing in the street as they fell a bit…but we are still paying lots of dollars to fill up the family roadster. People are losing jobs, pensions, savings and more..

So many will bail out of their sub prime loans and be given a reprieve for refinancing…Sounds pretty nifty. However, if this sub-prime loan is owned by a family out of work, what is going to save them? We Americans do well with temporary fixes, and also are good at not worrying about things until tomorrow. Are these baby boomers, I think not!!!!

We are all aware that this crisis is not an over night happening. Freddie and Fannie had a little talk and decided to lighten up the burden for the hard working public. These hard working folks were given a chance to purchase a 300,000 home when all they can afford is a home for 150,000…It was not

important that all they could handle was the payment for the 150,000 house. Why not magnanimously give a family a chance to live in a gorgeous home, and improve status in life, and throw in a little cash for some showy extras? However if these home owners put this particular money away for a rainy day to make the mortgage payment on a bad month, things might be a little different today.

If one of these honest and upstanding citizens decided a new car would be cool, maybe a swimming pool for the kids, a well deserved trip or

perhaps some fancy golf clubs why deny yourself? Those dollars are just burning through those shallow pockets at the speed of light.

Perhaps you had questionable credit but had a pretty good job and you had this opportunity to move up to your dream house. Would you have really had concern about the future economy of our country? The reality is that the American public had no idea of the damage that was brewing.

With a little hope and luck the credit market will revive itself and people will make their mortgage payments, start purchasing stock and head back to the stores so these stores can continue in business.

Celebration is in order as we have been given another day to survive. However if the soup kitchens once again are open I will market my budget soup for boomers and make a killing.