Is anybody here as afraid as I am?

[hsm6kids]

No I don't have twins ( always wanted twins though )
I have a 3 mth, old and a one and a half year old.

 

[Mackay]

Well, yesterday was bad. Today I am a little calmer. I think that Sundays are harder cause I can't take the ACTIONS that I am thinking about. I just feel like I gotta keep moving. When stores are closed or banks closed or people unavailable it gets me upset.

My husband retired from a really stressful job last February, thinking that we had enough to plan for a future. I still work. He's up in Mackay right now putting a roof on a garage that he's been building all summer. The plan was the garage and studio up stairs was to be part one of our building project on our 8 acres. Part two, the house we would build after our house in the city sold. Now all this is looking kinda dismal. House may not sell, mortage not get paid. Land project put on perpetual hold.

Still, I move forward in my mind with the project. I am planning the garden already and have purchased Heirloom seed. I am collecting compost materials here to haul up there as the trailer goes up and down frequently. Lots of leaves bundled in this city. Not much leaves in that small mountain town.

I perhaps read too much on the alternative financial forums. There is some pretty scary stuff there. This week it made me worry that the bond and T bill market may be heading for jeopardy. We have most of our investments there. This is a lifetime of work saved up so our kids would not have to support us. Most of our savings is in my husbands 401k, which is in low risk investment, bonds etc. I have one bond that I purchased in June that today I am going to go and cash. I will take a small hit on cashing early. I think I have pretty much decided to purchase silver dollars.

I am now worrying about the reliability of my own job. Im a nurse and all our patients are subsidized by medicare. The cuts have been pretty rough this year. We have had to cut staff. The hospitals that usually send us patients are holding on to them and doing this speciality work themselves so our admissions are down. Administration reports that we have been not making a profit for about 4 months due to low census and payment cuts in medicare. Now I do the work of two nurses and it is affecting our quality of care, which is sad. If more medicare cuts happen I just don't know if our facility will make it.

Whats the worse about this is my husband is way up there and I'm down here all summer and into this financial crisis. He has no internet and our phone communications are difficult to due reception problems and the newspapers there just aren't very good so Im having to sift through all this media and news stuff and try to figure things out on my own and then try to relay into to him. It took him a few weeks to really grasp how big it is, he didn't really till he came home for a few days and tuned in.

My biggest concern with the media is that I don't think that they report the real truth. when it is happening .. and you start to see that when you go to alternative news sites. I've been on forums where this financial crisis was predicted about 2 years ago, caused by just the reasons we are being told now... yet we don't get a peep from the mainstream media until we are actually falling off the cliff. So I've probably spent too much time in the past thinking the alternative media is nuts or into conspiracy theory or commies or whatever.

I just can't imagine what it would be like to have a family of young children and I thank god I am past this phase. My boys are 23 and 20, in college and still living at home. They work too. Yet I worry for them. You never stop worrying about your kids but they are strong and can fend for themselves. If a severe recession occurs I think their jobs will go down as they work in a fancy car wash that caters to high end folks. The last thing people do when things get bad is pay for their cars to get washed! They see a slowing down already.

I am praying for all these families with children. Its hard enough when things are "good".

The thing that amazes me is I am not hearing people talk. Its like folks are silent in my neighborhood. Not at work. Not around the neighborhood. Are people paralized? Many of my neighbors are Mormon. Perhaps they do all their talking at church.

 

[FarmerChick]

hsm6kids

wow your situation....I am so sorry....I wish you the best of luck in the hard times. no job is so scary and horrible! Your attitude is wonderful.

If you leave the forum cause of the internet, then as soon as you are able, get back here! You will be missed definitely, but I know you will return as soon as you can........so many having hard times! Chin up and hang in there and my fingers are crossed for alot of luck for you!

 

[FarmerChick]

Mackay

I am not saying bury your head in the sand, but don't go looking for too many "doom and gloom" forums and such to read. They will scare the bee-geebies out of you. I avoid too much scary stuff. If I see too much my mind races.

I know I can't control worldwide economics, but I know I can do the safest for my family. Watch your money. Safest investments you can if that makes you feel OK. Then be careful with your home expenses etc. and control WHAT YOU can. It is the best we all can do.

We can't run the world, but we can micro-manage our own world. Sometimes seeing too much info on hard times, financial or else....can upset us. But we need to see some but we must keep the smile in our lives and not take the joy out of our every day existence. Balance is what I try to maintain.....hope some of that helps.

 

[MorelCabin]

Mackay,
Your fears and your insights are alot the same as mine:>) I don't believe the news coverage of all this is very accurate either, and I do look into alternative news sights alot. What you have to keep in mind is that allot of it is speculation. No one knows for sure what will happen. I do believe however that the governments all have something up their sleeves and we're not going to like it much. It's probably going to hurt for a while, but we will get through it. The ones that won't are the ones that are still not seeing it for what it is. The ones who are going to wait for someone else to come in and save them. We have time to prepare, yes, there is still time...maybe not alot, but if you work hard you will be fine:>)
I am more worried about chaos than anything else at this point.When people realize the enormity of it all I think they are going to panic, and many will have nothing to stand on except a big pile of debt. I believe the poor will be the best off...they alread know how to spend a very little amount of money wisely.

I too have a diificult time believing that no one is talking about it...I think many are of the believe that if you don't say it, it won't happen:>)

 

[enjoy the ride]

hsm6kids and Mackay are going through some persoanl changes that would be scary in good times so right now must seem even worse.
But those doom and gloomers on various websites have said the same basic things for years and years- that there is a horiible time coming but that they, who know more than everyone around them, will survive due to having a ton of ammo on the top of their mountain (or in the hand dug hole in the basement,etc.) They keep saying the same things in good times and bad- eventually there will be problems of some kind and which there is much " I told you so" going on - however it's like the broken clock that is right twice a day.
Or the guy who predicts earthquakes most days of the month in California- every once in awhile his continuous "predicting" actually coincides with a real earthquake, the media interviews him constantly for a few days, things get back to normal and it's all forgotten.
Wise people do what is reasonble to prepare for the inevitable but don't forget that life is there to be lived.

Hang in there both of you- you sound like you have a plan to keep things afloat til times are better.

hsm6kids- don't forget that most public libraries have internet- we all would like to hear from you.

 

[poppycat]

My best advice is to stop watching CNN (or whatever news you watch) and take everything you read online with a grain of salt. The media gives us a way out of whack perception of reality. Their job is to whip people into a frenzy. Yes grocery prices are up, but fuel costs(today at least) are down. My gas savings this week alone were $30.

Not to say that people aren't going to have to tighten their belts. They probably will. But you can choose your attitude. You can either run around like the sky is falling or you can greet each day as a challenge to be met with the resources you are blessed with.

And trust me, I am not saying this lightly. My DH has been out of work for nearly a year and losing our house is becoming a real possibility for us. But I know we will be Ok.. I just know it.

 

[enjoy the ride]

poppycat- that is bad news- I hope that things turn around for you before that happens.
Of all the stuff that is going on, the fact that so many people are in danger of losing their house is the one that makes me most angry.
I really wanted Congress to help those people not send money to investment firms- I wrote emails daily to my Congressman but it was like spitting into the wind.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

poppycat, I understand how you feel. My DH has been without a job for 3 years now. This next April will be four years. The first year was the hardest, as we were doing everything we could to hold on to our home. The only thing we had going for us was the home was almost paid for.

We managed, we survived, and we have been blessed. It can be done, but it is not easy!

I will keep all of you that are facing changes in my prayers and I wish only the best for you!

 

[FarmerChick]

And trust me, I am not saying this lightly. My DH has been out of work for nearly a year and losing our house is becoming a real possibility for us. But I know we will be Ok.. I just know it.

***Poppycat...you are definitely in my prayers for a better time coming! I know you will be fine, you got a great attitude and are strong!

I just feel for you. Any one of us can be in that predictament in a minute. With Tony being on layoff the scare is there!

But we must smile right? We are blessed!