From MSN Money.
Cliff Notes version:
1. Don't neglect your credit score.
2. Don't carry credit card debt.
3. Don't go overboard on home and/or auto debt.
4. Don't stiff your emergency fund.
5. Don't be a sucker.
To this, I add my CNN-sent response to the article "The Case for Doing Nothing":
"The case for doing nothing has always been here–we are just too stupid to see it or accept it.
We need jobs more than anything else, but BUYING jobs with federal tax dollars isn’t the way to do it. It must be a personal, individual endeavor, just like everything else in this world.
You out of work and want a job? MAKE ONE! If you still have a job, but live in constant fear of losing it, make yourself INDISPENSABLE! Can’t make your own job or make yourself indispensable? Marry someone who CAN!
Government SHOULD be doing nothing here–YOU are the one who should be doing something!
Anyone who relies on government to do anything else for them besides what’s laid out in the Constitution is an irresponsible, immature buffoon.
Uncle Sam is NOT your savior, even though you might put money in his collection plate!"
These are other ways to bail yourself out, as well as what's mentioned above.
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5 comments:
So true. An it pisses me off that I've spent my life working my ass off to build up my business and I have to pay more taxes so that some people can sit around, collect unemployment and not even bother working.
Marry someone who can?!
Great for the person without the drive to save him/herself, but not at all great for the spouse.
The person who can make a job or make themselves indispensable tend to marry people with similar drive, though not same skill sets. I can't think of a one "save yourself" person I know who would be happy married to a "wait to be saved".
Love the rest of the summary though.
I can't think of a one "save yourself" person I know who would be happy married to a "wait to be saved".
Put on your 1950's conservative hat and try again.
Being a housewife doesn't mean waiting to be saved. My grandmother had very much the "save yourself" mindset. Becoming my grandfather's wife didn't change that. What she did, raising kids, managing the house, volunteering, hosting company dinners, etc, took the same kind of "get up and go" he had at the office.
The flip "marry someone who can" just rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. I know a few women who have taken this approach, and are coloring my perceptions. They're the sort who consider John & Kate + 8, Oprah, and the Dugars to be part of regular conversation, and have never met a time-saving processed meal or electronic pacifier for the kids they haven't liked.
These few ladies are quite thrilled with Obama and his plan to save us from our economic woes, even though they have no concept of what the actual plan is, let alone the scale of the woes it's supposed to fix.
As far as I'm concerned, I was saved not by marriage, but frugal living (once I got the hang of it). In this world STILL, there are women who don their pearls, have Donna Reed hairdos and wardrobes, and participate in the cotillion, who are (and were taught) to wait until Prince Charming and High-Earning came along. They are few and far between, but they do exist.
For most of us, though, the reality of gold-plated necklaces, drip-dry hair and wardrobes, and going it alone (or mostly alone) is it.
This just means that sometimes marriage is more than just emotion--sometimes it's a business arrangement...still, just like in Victorian times. Sometimes, you get lucky and get both. Sometimes you don't even know how to correctly size up a mate, and end up with Peggy the Moocher (either gender). Truth be told, we aren't alert or aware enough any more to weed out the Peggys when we select a mate--it's all based on chemical response and emotion, and love IS blind, after all. Blind to the faults, big and small, as well as potential. We see what we want to see, and become slaves to wishes and fantasy. When we finally realize that something we want just isn't there, we divorce.
I took the Elton John route--"grow some funk of your own." Hubby's parents didn't instill any drive or initiative in him, so I did it, and am still doing it. In turn, he's instilled me with smarts above the common sense level. As a result, we both grew into what we are today--the best "opposites attract" partners anyone could ask for.
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