3 posts tagged “economy”

And so does this recession. I don't have a job anymore, I'm having a heck of  time finding a job. I've had one interview and received an email a week later stating they were sorry but they couldn't hire me at this time. So I'm still jobless. I'm still without an apartment of my own. I'm still living with my friends, who can ill afford to have me here without a job, but are still allowing me here because frankly, after being best friends for 20 years, they just won't turn me out on the street.

I'm not whining because I can't buy all the latest car accessories, because I don't have a car. I'm whining because I can barely afford the storage unit for my stuff. I can barely afford to help with the cat food bill, the cat litter bill, and the dog food for my dog. I'm ticked off because I'm seeing news stories about how people in another country are suffering because their family here can't send them money, but they don't do news stories about how people right here in OUR country are suffering because they don't have jobs anymore.

It seems to me like the news media like to pretend that everything here is all right, but that other countries are just getting screwed over. It's OUR economy that's turned to crap and it's OUR fault these people in other countries don't have the money they need. Wow. Great. It's OUR fault this is happening, but guess what, it apparently isn't happening to people here. *sigh* Unfortunately it is, I just wish our news media would actually act like it does instead of trying to elicit sympathy from myself and others for people in another country when we need to be working on fixing our country and getting our own people back to work.

In this economy, we hear a lot about things like debt consolidation. But you have to be so careful when you're dealing with that kind of thing. You have to know where your debt consolidation is coming from. If you don't believe me, then read this story carefully - it's a true story. It happened to one of my friend's and her husband.

My friend and her husband obtained a debt consolidation loan through one of the umpteen services that showed up at the beginning of this century. They had about $650 a month automatically debited from their checking account, which was then broken down by the company and filtered out to the various bills on the consolidation loan. This worked beautifully until about 2003. Then the whole thing went to pot.

Friend's husband is in the military. He went overseas and she went home to Iowa. While in Iowa, she noticed her monthly amount of money was bigger, but attributed it to hazard and seperation pay for her hubby being overseas, and so did her hubby. They couldn't have been more wrong. You see, they asked me to check the mail at their house in Texas. So I did. And I started noticing statements coming from credit cards I knew were in that consolidation. I kept telling friend that she was getting that stuff, but friend didn't listen. Then I finally opened one of them and read it to her. That's when she found out.

The feds had shut down the debt consolidation service she had used. None of those bills were getting paid anymore. In fact, the service hadn't even been able to inform customers they'd been shut down. Friend found out when she went to the website and there was a message there about it. They ended up in bankruptcy because they just couldn't pull themselves back up.

So please, if you go the debt consolidation route, make sure you know where your loan is coming from.

You know, pretty soon, there's gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be looking for the cheapest things possible, from the cheapest gas price in town to the best life insurance quote. Why? Because in case you haven't noticed, the economy is going into the toilet. Everyone's doing whatever they can to get buy, even if it means having to switch to a cheaper insurance plan or buying everything possible in generic brands so they can save a buck or two. I'm making the most money I've ever made, and you know what? I am, without a doubt, probably more broke than I've ever been in my life. I kid you not. There's an old hip-hop/R&B song about "more money more problems" and let me tell you, it is so true!

I swear, money is coming to be the only thing you ever hear about anymore. The government is trying to stimulate the economy by handing tax payers a couple hundred bucks. Yay. A couple hundred more bucks to make payments on stuff I can't afford to make payments on any other time. Hmph.