Finances

I wanted to say something insightful about the economy and finances, but nothing insightful comes to mind.

I was thinking about it this evening. I discovered, to my surprise that I hadn't balanced our checkbooks for three months. I got out of the habit when I realized that Quicken would go out and retrieve new transactions automatically, both adding them and marking them as cleared in my checking account list. It wasn't until this evening that I wondered why so many entries had a c for Cleared rather than an R for Reconciled. Duh! So I did that, and, of course, I had at least one month where tiny things were wrong. I hate that. Finding out that two entries had the same check number -- Quicken is supposed to alert on that, and it was probably one of those what was that - oh, it went away things -- distressed me. Finding that one month had a thirty nine cent difference bothered me, too.

So when I was done cleaning that up, I thought you know, its been a while since I looked at our 401(k)s. I should do that. I figured they would be down, because of what I've heard about how the stock market's doing, but it was a shock to see that they're actually down about 11%. Works out to about a 6% drop in our total assets. It's not crippling, but still: it make me think holy hell. The first thought is we'd better not spend on any unnecessary things. And that's a funny thought, because I know that it's that sort of reaction that keeps a recession going. No one wants to be the first ones to spend money. That's where the government is supposed to step in (unless you're Ron Paul or one of his groupies), and they did, but for reasons that I don't understand, it didn't work. Oh, it did have a positive effect, but it didn't WORK work. I suspect that a lot of it was that people are scared of whats going to happen, so they have the same reaction. Better not spend on any unnecessary things. So I looked at where our money goes, and, oh, 90% of it is justifiable, things we wouldn't want to remove or even reduce. Things like books, donations to church, lunch money for the offspring. And things that you can't cut -- like tax payments. Could we trim our spending? Probably. Significantly? I tend to doubt it. Yet I'm thinking that we ought to. Even if it just means watching nickels and dimes.

I know that economics is an amazingly complex question whose results rely heavily on individual whim and whimsy. Sometimes, I think, having a successful economy is just a matter of lots of people clenching their eyes and chanting I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That's not all of it, not by a long shot, but when it comes to making an economy work, a healthy dose of belief that you can do it is necessary. Right now, a lot of people and companies don't have that. (I was going to say 'have it to a limited degree', and I thought of Yoda. There is no try. There is only do, or not do.) Some of those people and companies, it doesn't matter whether they believe or not, because they don't have resources, or access to resources, of the most minor type. These, I think, tend to be hard core Democrats (those who vote; I think that many of them say what's the point?) who need governmental assistance just to survive. But there are those who could take steps to grow their personal economy, but are afraid to because in their minds the probability of success isn't high enough. Better sit tight, they think. Some of them, it's not so much that the probability of success isn't high enough as that they think something else might happen that'll require their funds; better sit tight. These people, I think, frequently vote Democratic, but not always.

All of the people in the foregoing section have limited economic muscle. They don't tend to make jobs that employ other people. Some of them work for themselves; most work for someone else. Collectively, they're the ones who show up in the glossy ads-- smiling and happy, though they're frequently not -- doing the jobs that run America. Pumping the gas, driving the trucks, shoveling the dirt, directing the traffic. These, I think, are the people who have to get enough resources and faith that they can start moving forward again.

I have no idea how to do that. Frequently, I think that the degree'd people who run various economic organizations don't, either. They have wonderful, insightful theories - but they don't know how to get the engine moving. They just know how to tune it, make it turn direction, speed up, slow down. But from a dead stop? (Much shuffling of feet.) So if they're Democrats, they say throw money at it! throw money at it! And sometimes that works. And if they're Republicans, they say Limit government, lower taxes! Limit government, lower taxes! And sometimes that works, too.

And sometimes it doesn't. Which is when a great deal of luck or some amazingly insightful plans are needed. Like now.

As for me, I'll be watching nickels and dimes.