Our nation was founded on values twinning personal initiative withmutual co-operation. From the Plymouth Colony to Andrew Jackson’sReforms, to the Homestead Act to the New Deal, Americans have knownthat we all are better off when we recognize basic standards of socialjustice. But thanks to globalism, dog-eat-dog economics has resulted inoffshoring, outsourcing, the destruction of unions, and the gutting ofthe US economy. We advocate economic nationalism, which places theeconomy at the service of the nation; we believe that the welfare ofour people should supercede all other things, including the ability ofmultinational corporations to exploit or ignore our people forunbridled profits. Source
by Joe Kirkpatrick
“The paid off mortgage is replacing the new BMW as the status symbol in America” – Dave Ramsey.
When I look around at the spending habits of most Americans, I am some times tempted to just scream “Stop this insanity!”
I had some renters this past year in one of my houses that were reallygood people. They both had jobs that probably paid $35K to $40K a year,and they kept the house I rented to them close to spotless. However,they had car payments on two late model cars, and as in most familiestoday, he was paying child support for a son he had in his firstmarriage.
Their rent check was late almost every month, and then the company sheworked for closed due to the economy, their finances went down hillfrom there. I worked with them on reducing the rent to help get themby, but then his company shut down and they were forced to move in withrelatives in another state. They both had cell phones, 2 flat screenLCD TV’s, 2 late model cars, and they dressed nicely. The only thingwrong is they were living with no savings, which essentially left themtwo or three paydays away from being destitute.This is not just a low or middle classproblem. Pick up your local paper on any given day and look at theforeclosure notices. Very few are for houses in lower incomeneighborhoods, a lot are in middle and upper middle income areas, butthen quite a few are in what are considered to be in upper incomeareas. A lot of times we would not think people from these differentgroups would have anything in common, yet they do share one glaringtrait: They spent more money than they make.
Most families of four can save $400 a monthby eating cheap meals at home instead of eating out. Leave off theexpensive steaks and use turkey and various Hamburger Helper type mixesto help stretch your budget. You can further lower your grocery bill bylearning how to use coupons effectively. Two local women teach”couponing classes” at local churches.
Also, their website, funandfrugal.com,offers a lot of great money saving information, as well as localcoupons. Sell or let one of the cars go back, and you just savedanother $400 – $500 a month.
Buy a $1000 clunker with cheap liability insurance, and after the first month, with no car payment and eating cheap, you now have $900 more take home income than you did before. Do not blow it – use that extra $900 to pay on your bills. The next step is a big one: Cut up all of your credit cards.
If you are not behind on your bills but are just barely making it, use that extra money to pay down the credit card you owe the least amount on. Make minimum payments on the others until it is paid off. Then, attack the one with the next highest balance in the same manner.
Warning: If you are already in a bad situation and are using your credit cards to “help,” you are only making the inevitable that much worse.
Even if you are not in a financial mess and are still living the lifestyle of the “rich and famous,” I ask you this: If you were to lose your job today, how long could you keep up your present lifestyle?
If the answer is not six months or more, you too need to start cutting back – in our present economy, nobody’s job is 100 percent safe.
You can probably name dozens of people who drive a BMW, Cadillac, Lexus, or other luxury cars. You can probably name dozens of people who live in a big fancy house. But I leave you with the following question: How many people can you name who own their house debt free?