One Picture of Personal Economic Health Held in Front of Me

Right about now, economic health means:

• no credit card debt over two months old—this is supposed to be my clever way of saying ‘no vulgar debt’
• upwards of U.S. $5000 cash (liquid) sitting outside of retirement accounts earning interest
• a gnawing feeling of boredom, loneliness and angst, facing interminable W2 labor, wondering about how much is this fiat money is going to be worth in 15 years

By my father’s standards (in his prime, during the late 1970s, early 80’s) my picture of economic health looks like a crayon drawing with a strange, doomsday science fiction theme. My little crayon scrawl here seems just beyond my grasp. I listen to a podcast like “TDI Podcast 194: The Fed’s Mischief with G. Edward Griffin” and start to feel that some puppet master in a 19^th century robber baron costume is deliberately moving what is just beyond my grasp—like a carrot dangling in front of a donkey. Let me drop some specifics:

• I held an Advanta credit card with an extremely high credit limit and sub-10% interest rate.
• I used to have WaMu “free” checking accounts. Here’s some news: “Banks also are continuing to add fees to checking accounts, a trend that began last year. Next month, for example, customers of the former Washington Mutual will see their free checking accounts replaced by fee-based accounts from J.P. Morgan Chase, which bought WaMu in 2008. Customers can avoid the fees if they meet certain criteria such as maintaining balances.”
• I used to have low healthcare costs but now I’m a contractor again (as a direct consequence of state budget cuts)… My healthcare costs are now extremely expensive. I have an extra dental plan that I’m not even sure exists—what I am saying that I have not yet tried it with my dentist so I am not sure my trusted dental care provider will recognize it. To give you an idea just how crazy this is: my ZIP code took me from DeltaDental.com to DeltaDentalIns.com—to DentalForEveryone.com.
• I used to have a large vehicle maintenance cycle because employment was found close to my residence. Now I have a very tight cycle that always threatens high expenses like getting new brakes sooner rather than later.
• I used to be pretty much left alone. But as my relatives and friends age they are getting a bit more honest with themselves. The psychological demands of relating to other people (family and friends) also suffering these harder times are much higher—especially during traditionally depressing winter months.

So here are a few, personal doomsday scenarios:

• I will remain underemployed/underfunded, constantly in some form of debt servitude, until I become incapacitated by natural causes or some pathetic accident.
• I will get out of debt and grow a significant cash reserve but it won’t really matter because I will be too old (or in some other way incapacitated) to enjoy the emptiness with a whole body.
• I will save enough money for myself (and my youngest most defenseless child) but not enough for another adult. This could reveal some serious social problems unless I change my social demographic.
• The Earth will be hit by an asteroid just when things start turning around for me…

Oh yeah: here are some fragments of significant success, beyond the sincere optimism at the beginning of this article:

• The opportunity is available to me to turn my fiat money into durable, useful equipment for cultured sustainable living in a post-imperial barter economy.
• The opportunity is available to me to save pieces of precious metal for my children in an effort to defend them against a world without “real” money.
• My old age appears as a wonderful blessing. My transforming person does not become a financial/material burden to anyone. J’ah jireh!

Related Links

• “Why So Many Rich People Don’t Feel Very Rich”
• “Drama in Real Life: When Emergencies Pile Up”
• “How Brothas and Sistas can Start Working in a Collective Fashion in 2011”
• “MySpace Cuts 47 Percent Of Its Workforce”
• “Why Are Taxpayers Subsidizing Facebook, and the Next Bubble?”
• “Black Unemployment 86% Higher Than Whites: Leads All Major Groups – December Jobs Report : Black Economic Development”
• “The 4-Fund Portfolio—Episode #36 | The Way to Build Wealth”
• “The 4-Fund Portfolio: Allocation Guidelines | The Way to Build Wealth”
• “Stocks Are King. But Bonds Can Be Tasty Too! | The Way to Build Wealth”
• “Total Bond Market Index Funds / The Way to Build Wealth”
• “What’s a Credit Score? An Intro to Credit Reports and Credit Scores”
• “Studying Economic Behavior in Unusual Places”

rasx()