I'm pointing out what should be obvious

This may be a no-brainer for some, but for those that it isn’t, let me point out that just because the stock market goes up, it doesn’t mean your 401K does. In fact, your 401K notwithstanding, just because the stock market goes up doesn’t mean any of your stocks will, in fact the market can go up 500 points a day and you can still lose your shirt (and pants). It all depends on what your stock does.

I know some may be rolling their eyes skyward, saying c’mon Mychal, who doesn’t know that? To which I would reply, who doesn’t know government isn’t our friend – and the answer to that question is of course – many people.

Of course none of that matters if you aren’t prepared for retirement. None of that matters if you haven’t given a thought to retirement or if you are one of the tens of millions who think retirement is some distant and nebulous point in the future. And therein lies the rub – retirement is right this minute. If you haven’t planned for your future and you are over 40 years old or older, unless you plan on winning the powerball, inventing the next “dot.com,” marrying rich, cashing in as a beneficiary on someone’s life insurance policy, or dying before you reach retirement age – you are in a word, lost. Because the lack of discipline that has brought you this far, will in all probability continue to be a significant part of your life.

Unless people change the way they think about the future and unless they instill same in their children, future America will need pauper colonies. People are spending what they don’t have without a moments thought for the future and worst yet they are teaching their children the same thing. They are teaching their children to be poorly disciplined in spending and saving, and they are teaching their children to save so they can spend juxtaposed to saving so they have a safety net.

Times are hard now, and they are going to get harder. Milk, eggs, bread, tires, highway tolls, automobile service, gas, oil, electric, and housing is going up. Home rental prices continue to increase, because more people are renting since fewer people are able to purchase homes, thanks to the Frank-Dodd-Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac-Bush-Obama mortgage nightmare.

It’s the holiday season and reports are that spending is up over last year. But what the numbers didn’t show this morning, is that personal debt is up over last year. People were lured in debt by “cash for clunkers,” which was one of the greatest con-jobs ever perpetrated by government. People are walking away from their homes, because their mortgages are more than the house is worth. Everything across the board costs more this year than it did last year, and the media is banging the drum about where to go to spend your money. Doesn’t anyone ever wonder why they aren’t telling us where to go to get the greatest return on saving our money?

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When my friends and I talk, our conversations invariably touch on finances, government, cost of goods and services, but standing in a checkout line I hear people who have little or nothing talking about where they are going to spend it for the holidays.

A person earning $1,000 net per week, has less buying power today than they had in March of this year when I was warning about the increase of fuel and oil prices. It’s up to you, but I suggest people spend carefully and I say that with a website and organization that depends on the donations of others. But I would be remiss in my understanding of lies ahead if I didn’t point out the dangers ahead. Whether or not same is heeded is kinda like it was with Obama. Many, myself included warned about him and people didn’t listen. Now many of those same people curse the day he was elected.