WAR Everywhere ….

Glenn and Elsie are a retired couple who lived, rented and moved out from San Francisco. Two traditional people who worked hard and believed and practiced religiously the old fashion lifestyle of hard work, frugality and regularly savings for 35 years was their biggest accomplishment. They placed all their money in money market accounts. The banks never thought to give them better advice or education on smart savings.

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They lived the war which they said was declared by Alan Greenspan on the Saving Community.

They see war in the gas pump

Road rage now is not about impatience in the high way or about a driver cutting on another. War now is at the gas pump. They are fighting the war with their feet. The walk to their church to hear mass everyday. 25 minutes each way.

The rage is on the continued squeezed on consumers ravaged pocketbook by the insanely profitable oil companies;

The rage is on the continued downward squeeze on the ordinary lifestyle of ordinary people hit the most by the war on the gas pump.

The rage is on the policies of this government that still has its balls at the grip of the oil producing countries;

They see war in the grocery stores where food prices are rising like helium balloons

They see war in their saving accounts:

They painstaking saved through their hard working years no matter what:

They suffered during the tech boom and housing bomb when Alan Greenspan in his infinite wisdom had kept the interest low. They thought they would finally get a break when the man finally retired. They thought they would finally see a little up tick in their savings account after he was gone. No such luck.

They see war in the Bank:

The bank that enjoyed investing the money of the savings of these people while the small guy stood beside the bank. Now that the banks proved they were not smart as the public thought they were, they get another punched from Alan’s Predecessor who decides to bail the banks by printing more money – sending yet again the value of the savings of these people further down in the dog house.

They see war in the banks and mortgage industry.

An industry that took care more of their commissions than in explaining to them the possibility of them not being the pay for their refinanced house come 36 months later should any important factor in their financial landscape should shift like the stock market should tank or their savings depleted or should one income earner gets downsized.

They see war incorporate America whose pursuit of greater bottom line by more productivity cost them their jobs and issued force retirements:

More responsibilities for the same or lesser pay or through more unemployment in the mainland so more employment could be sent to foreign land. This couple can and still wanted to work but they were seen as too costly in their health care cost.

 

With all the above, I see myself having to craft more and better strategies in our continued argument that it pays to save regularly. SAVING is one big component in our curriculum. We have dozens of lesson plans,activities, games and contests in this area:

I am sure we will not have parents argue against us in our message of creating and reinforcing healthy financial habits like SAVING. But are prepared to deal with open discussion regarding the merits and demerit of time on SAVING. We will discuss condidly with children parents :

TIME AS AN ASSET IN SAVING;

TIME AS ON THE SIDE THE SAVERS;

TIME AS AN EXPONENTIAL FACTOR IN SAVING;

OPPORTUNITY COST OF EVERY SAVING STRATEGY;

Because of our encounters of older folks who saw their savings value dwindled dramatically because of inflation that they did not prepare for, We are adjusting some of our Lesson Plans on SAVINGS to integrate and put equal emphasis on e the discussion on pros and cons of traditional savings, Inflations and Risk Management.

For me I see the worst war in IGNORANCE; The best weapon is ENLIGHTENMENT or Education - Continuous Education, Education from the Institute or University of Life. This blog and the site that it is a part of is only a small DOT in the huge online Learning Space. It is a safe place for everyone to share their thoughts including venting at our economic situations.

It is often said:

“Little knowledge is dangerous”

“Ignorance is costly”

“We may not afford the rising cost of school tuition fees;

But can we afford the greater cost of ignorance?”

See the next post on: “Of Ignorance and The Real Estate Bubble”