I can't believe how stupid I have been

[10-Ring]

I have made a conscious decision not to keep large sums of money in a bank account since my bank account was once erroneously garnished the day after pay day.  I got the money back but it took 3 weeks and I literally had $6 in cash on me when it happened.  If it was not for my wife, who was then just my girlfriend I would have been in real trouble.  They hit me for several thousands of dollars and there was nothing that I could do but wait until due process was followed and the money was put back into my account.  In the meantime there were several documents that I had to spend my time procuring in order to get my money back.  It was after this event that I no longer felt that my money was safe in a bank.  I still keep money in the bank but just enough to cover bills and whatnot, my savings does not go in the bank.

 

Having always been a tinkerer of sorts I like to buy old motorcycles, cars, and trucks when the right deal presents itself and try to earn a little profit on them after fixing them up.  I know that is unconventional as a savings plan but it really makes our money go a lot farther than it would even sitting in a good mutual fund (is there such a thing anymore?) that is getting 12%.  We also buy things that we hope will hold value well and be of great value should the American dollar no longer be worth anything.  So basically things that we would value greatly if all the stores were closed tomorrow. 

 

I'd rather be sitting on an estate of what most people would call junk if the SHTF than a really nice IRA.  Learned that from my grandfather.  His stuff looked like junk at first but once you were working on something at his place and needed a part for dang near anything you could find it in one of his barns.  That's a lot more valuable to me than a bank account that once was worth a lot.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I guess you could claim the a lot of the public is willfully ignorant.  The same cannot be said of their elected leaders.  I used the term willfully ignorant because it should be blatantly obvious that you can't keep spending more than you have without realizing that one day the bill is going to come due.

 

I will be the first to admit that I do not comprehend all of the complexities of government finance.  In fact, I know very few people that do.  However, I do understand that individuals, businesses, and governments that borrow and spend money are expected to pay it back.  The more debt one acquires, the greater the difficulty in paying it back.  As a separate issue, I also understand that the overall OTC derivative exposure being close to $700 trillion, and having some banks leveraged at almost 50:1 is a problem.  The slightest ripple could cause a systemic crash.

 

One of the things I find interesting about the whole scenario is that Cyprus has a debt to GDP ratio of around 75%.  Our country is around 107%.  In about 4 years, we will be around 130 - 140%.  Interesting times await us in the near future.

 

I guess I am just a little old fashioned in my way of thinking.  I was taught to live within in your means, keep an emergency fund, and if you must borrow, that you should never borrow more than what you can pay back even if the worst case scenario should happen.  Perhaps if more people returned to those values we would be lot better off, and we would not sabotage our kid's opportunity of future prosperity.

Greece and the rest of Europe are symptoms of the welfare state that have been brewing for decades and they haven't

gotten used to the effects of having the cow's tit dry up. That's what happens when you get something for nothing for

a long time. You forget what value is. I wouldn't say they are stupid. They just took the shot of morphine and liked it. They

want more, and it takes more each shot to have the desired effect.

 

We are headed on the same course and it is sooner than most people realize. You have to be a real dumbass to like

the idea of an Obamaphone. It took a lot of dumb educational and societal experiments to get us there. Common Core

education requirements and programs like it, which are in effect now, will put the icing on the cake for our youth if we let

it continue. Agenda 21 will herd us like cows into the inner city to keep us in the planned cities like one big Sim City

experiment. Progressivism will be our demise. Just a step away from totalitarianism.

 

Wait and see, or do something about it before it is truly too late. I sure hope more of us wake up and act.

 

Mav, you haven't been stupid, at all. Find a way to hang on to it, though.

Edited March 29, 2013 by 6.8 AR