“Black Wednesday” will be a date our children will study in their American History, economics and social studies classes. I hope and pray they are not going to be paying for the fall out of this crisis! If not handled correctly, hell, if even handled the only ways possible, may still put the burden of paying for this mess on our kids! I have two grown children. My daughter is in grad school and studying to get her Master’s in Library Science. ( A career she will shine in and love every day she goes to work!) My son is in his second year at Humboldt and studying stage craft. ( A career he has grown up around and so it is second nature to him!) My kids are hardworking and honest people. My daughter is looking for a job now. She is going to have enough of a challenge to land a job, especially when you consider so many Americans will be working well past retirement age just to make ends meet. She will be competing with many other people to get a job and once she gets it, she will be taxed to make reparations for the mistakes made by Washington and supporting mistakes for an economy she had nothing to do with!
Americans have spoken! We don’t want this bill! We don’t want to bail out Wall Street! We could see these mistakes coming right at us! C’mon, I knew many folks who didn’t have the money to qualify for a home and yet they were given a “mortgage deal” to assure every person gets his or her own home! Did they stop there? NO!  Some went on went on to buy boats, take vacations, and live the life of a credit card millionaire. Now all the money is due. They call it a balloon payment because balloons POP!
My husband and I negotiated a fixed first and a modest adjustable 2nd so we had somewhere to draw from if there was an emergency. By the way, my husband and I DO NOT consider vacations, Christmas, or gifts an emergency! We don’t live beyond our means. As the person who sends the bills out and manages the home, I have noticed a tremendous difference in the amount I am paying for groceries, gas and energy! Those of you who know me or read my blogs, are aware that I am savvy with a buck! I am thinking if someone like me with a sensible home loan, minimal credit card balance, and good health insurance is having financial struggles, I can only imagine the hardship that someone with a balloon house payment, huge credit card balances and no insurance must be going through just to put food in the table and gas in the car!
Meanwhile, Golden Parachutes are still being given out on Wall Street as recently as last Friday with a 13.5 million dollar retirement and bonus package for an exec at WaMu who worked there, (GET THIS!…) 3 weeks!!!
Now we are asked to bail out Wall Street and Joe Blow who lived life large while people like me were good stewards with our money and people like my mom, now a widow, whose husband worked two jobs and invested money to make sure she would have a good quality of life when he passed on! Americans are pissed. Government websites have been crashing with the amount of emails Americans are sending to thier Congress people.
I am an avid reader of Dave Ramsey and listener of his radio show and down load his talk show. He makes sense to me! His philosophy is like he says, Grandma’s advice except he keeps his teeth in! He believes in cash on the barrel and sensible home loans. He is on the Fox news channel and is telling us of a sensible plan to get us out of this crisis. I encourage you to visit his website and read the plan for yourself. I agree something has to be done and Dave’s plan which, includes revisiting the mortgage negotiations to help people stay in their homes and get back on their feet. [ http://www.daveramsey.com ]
….It’s going to be a bumpy night!