Stepping Over a Dollar To Get To A Dime
By Nancy Muldoon
The only people who will successfully survive this recession are the ones who have smart money management skills. I am not suggesting that the only people left standing are those who are accountants and financial planners.
Americans need to understand now more than ever, that we as a nation need to get back to basics. In order to ride out the wave of the recession you have to be smart about what you spend your money on. You should not buy what you do not need. It sounds like a no brainer but many Americans are unable to differentiate between wants and needs.
I firmly believe that many of the foreclosures that we have heard about in the news wasn’t because homeowners couldn’t afford their mortgages, it was because they had a television in every room, with cable of course, phones in almost every room with various features like three way calling, caller I.D., multiple cars in the garage. As a nation we have gorged ourselves with things we don’t need as if everyday were Thanksgiving and now we all paying for it.
I am one of the few Americans that do not have cable television. I do not have cable television because I do not need it.
Americans have become addicted to watching television; it is the number one drug in America. Even the prison population in this country has become quite complacent because of Correctional Facilities offering inmates a television upon their arrival.
I do not own a cell phone, I have no idea how to text message. I don’t need to know. From what I have heard, texting is quite expensive and yet, people seem to text as if it were free.
American’s could be much smarter at the grocery store; I see families with carts filled with processed food and not much in the way of fruits or vegetables. I don’t buy into the argument that poor people can’t eat more healthily. Sugar is another addiction in this country, that drug being pushed every Saturday morning on, not coincidentally, television.
Americans frequently criticize the way our government mismanages our money, and as one U.S. Postal worker humorously told me that management loves to step over a dollar to get to a dime. Yes, indeed, stepping over a dollar to get to a dime. We need to change that. The time is now.