Having enough...and sharing what you have

Wow, what a depressing time. Amazing what two weeks can do.

These days, everywhere I turn, I’m reminded of the sinking economy and the financial stresses that people are feeling. It’s made me very aware that at this exact moment in time, we should be most thankful that Bryan and I both have jobs with good salaries and we’re able to support our family. While we won’t give up on our Cape dream, in these crazy times, who knows if we’ll make it in 18 months. But in times like these, it does refocus you on what’s most important. The changes we’ve been making in spending over the past few months are really helping us brace for the impact of all of this financial strain. We’re all healthy and have more than enough in our lives to live very happily. I hope the situation makes everyone reprioritize and realize how lucky we are and how we can reach out to lend a hand to those who aren’t.

In the past week, I’ve seen 3 people I know, teachers, working a second job to make ends meet. This absolutely breaks my heart as I know that they all have families that I’m sure they’d much rather be home with. They aren’t working a second job jus for the fun of it. And to top it all off, their primary jobs are teachers – a most noble career. One that has much more of an impact on our society and future than anything I’ll do in my career. Suddenly, the second home does seem as important. But I also want to say that dreaming, or having a goal, doesn’t make you a bad or greedy person. Attainment of our goal will bring joy and happiness to us, but we fully intend to share that joy and happiness. We want as many as possible to benefit from our success, and hopefully we’ll have the chance to share it.

I suppose it’s because I work in the financial industry that there is so much daily swirl in my mind about the economy. I mean it is everywhere right now, but I’m talking about it constantly being on my mind. Not an hour goes by that I don’t overhear someone talking about what the market is doing. Last week I found myself literally sitting at my desk, refreshing my screen to see the Dow go down, down, down. Before this I paid little to no attention to the Dow and couldn’t tell you if it was up, down or sideways. I’m learning a lot and it has been interesting.

So despite a rebound for a day, or a week (wouldn’t that be nice), the outlook for the near future is not great. I’m no economist, just going with what I’m hearing from the smart people around me.

Everyone wants to know these days – what does this mean to me? Here’s what it means to us…not just financially, but from a lifestyle/family priorities standpoint.

• There’s one upside to not having a lot of investments – not as much to lose. Yes, we’ve seen our 401ks tank, but being that those are long-term investments, we’re not touching them and assuming we’ll rebound eventually.
• Continue to eliminate unnecessary spending.
• Maintain a cash nest egg. We’re contemplating temporarily slowing down our 401k contributions to keep more in savings for the time being, should one of us lose a job, or worse, both of us.
• Be really practical this Christmas. We always start out sticking to our budget when it comes to gifts for the boys, but once we wrap it all and try it out under the tree, we decide its not enough and hit the stores again. No going back this year! We can all do with a little less.
• Get more involved with those who need our help. It’s really hard to find a down side to volunteering your time, but there are countless upsides. More time spent volunteering = less time spent spending money. More time spent volunteering = more lives touched in ways that our jobs don’t allow us to do.

I think that this holiday season will be a great time to talk to the boys about a lot of things – thankfulness, sharing and caring for those less fortunate, doing more with less, volunteerism, and getting creative. I feel as though I’ve been summoned – called into action – to protect my family during this time and do our part in the community around us. We’ll keep sharing and hopefully God will keep filling our basket.