Posted on 06/08/2009 6:52:11 AM PDT by PeterL
I retired in late 2006 with a conservative financial plan in place that would last through the lives of my wife and myself and still leave a little something for the kids. My financial planner and I choose an appropriate asset allocation model and we needed only 5% returns to be in good shape. My wife and I planned on working or volunteering, but we could do things because we wanted to and not because we had to. After many years in corporate America, this was a great place to be.
I am still in a little bit of shock over everything that has happened in the financial markets over the past year. On one hand, events unfolded in the blink of an eye and on the other, it was a death by a thousand cuts. My retirement plans were solid and in place and now they are gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Dead. They will not be revived and I am left with the shock, disbelief, despair and anger of trying to figure out what to do next.
Who is to blame for all this because I would like to introduce them to their worst fears and nightmares? Not really, but they should suffer. I played by the rules. I put my money in secure investments. I didn’t gamble on housing or any of the other get rich schemes out there. Perhaps I was too willing to accept the advice of financial planners with all of their asset allocation models and long term investing theories. History always repeats itself, the market runs in cycles, you cannot time the market and so in the end you buy and hold knowing that which comes down will eventually rise even higher…but I don’t think so this time. The mess we are in right now feels very different. No one is talking about rebounding to past highs. All of the talk is can we avoid the dire straits of a total system collapse.
There is probably much blame to go around. For years, while I was still a part of corporate America I was incensed at the salaries, bonuses, perks and power being given to our CEO and to all CEOs. In the good old USA our CEO’s average 450 times the salary of the average worker. The next highest country averaged 22 times the average worker. Not too hard to see that something was terribly wrong, but times were booming, money being made, stock prices climbing so who cared. Of course now we find out that most of these profits were just shell games and the people who could manipulate their way to huge paydays. The foxes raided the hen houses and they have all gotten away.
I need to get back to work. I need to make money comparable to what I used to, but it won’t be easy. My age and experience work against me not for me. The job market is terrible and we just hit 23 straight months of net jobs lost. There is no end in sight, but still, I conduct my daily job searches and try to stay positive and pray I do not lose everything I have worked so hard to acquire.
I am an optimistic person, but it is clear to me that all of the rules have changed. I have no confidence in the economic stimulus plans, although I am a supporter of this President. I do not see how we can buy our way out of this mess. It is like we are trying to pay off the judge in order to avoid going to jail, but the judge is a harsh judge who does not accept bribes. Something tells me that we must accept our sentence and learn from all this. I don’t claim to know what our lesson or lessons might be, but I feel certain that our lives need to change and our desires need to change. “He who dies with the most toys wins” was a funny bumper sticker, but it is funny no more. I think it is time to end this era of greed and selfishness and over consumption. It is time to focus on needs and not wants, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think about how our actions affect the other guy, and not just that it is good for me.
There are so many of us in this predicament. It is as if we are stranded on an island and there is no one coming to our rescue. Certainly not the government! Perhaps therein lays our opportunities. Those of us with first hand experience on how the old rules no longer apply can begin to create the new rules. We find strength as we look to each other for strength. Our unique bond expanding into a feeling the connection between us…and this connection feels good and right…and we begin to desire this connection…and nurture this connection…and begin to realize what our world could look like if we took care of each other instead of taking care of our self. Why not put this into action? It has been talked about often but never implemented. What do we have to lose?
How does high CEO pay make life tougher for this guy? Did they steal the money from him?
Good search. It is now clear that this guy is simply pimping his own collectivist propoganda.
Shhhhh! Mustn't be logical.
Unless he invested with Madoff or had all his money invested in one company that went under you are right that with a little bit of belt tightening or a part time job he should be ok.
But what is the drama in saying that you had to cancel your round the world cruise to stay home and paint the garage?
SO you support Jar Jar Binks?
Again, there is a big difference between big business (and I am talking about BIG business) and small companies (like the small company I run)
If you don’t believe that big business is just as bad as big government (both become inefficient machines with many unmotivated workers leaching and sucking from it) you clearly do not understand the market
What conservatives have to realize is we are pro market, not pro big business
Pal, it may be time to question your credentials as a conservative if you are unwilling to question outdated dogma.
I am a small business owner. I pay my taxes, my taxes for my employees and half of their SSI along with their health insurance plans.
Meanwhile big business (see Microsoft and their influence on the H1-B program) uses its size to manipulate the market and prevent small business owners from reaching the prosperity they have.
Big business, just like big government, is inefficient (see GM) bloated (see GM again) and no longer provides a net gain to Americans (see the outsourcing trend the last decade)
The engine of economic growth in this country is small businesses who hope to reach the status of the big guys. The problem is, the big guys in corporate America are in bed with the scum suckers in Washington DC (See Hank Paulson, Robert Reich, Rahm Emanuel) and are able to influence the government to make it that much harder for small business to succeed (you know, by making us pay absurd taxes while big companies get to off shore American jobs)
Conservatives need to realize the difference between a market economy and a corporate economy. And sometimes being pro-market means being anti-big business
although I am a supporter of this President
I was incensed at the salaries, bonuses, perks and power being given to our CEO and to all CEOs.
and begin to realize what our world could look like if we took care of each other instead of taking care of our self.
Not buying it...What say the kitties?
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
zot
Petey sez: “It is time to focus on needs and not wants, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think about how our actions affect the other guy, and not just that it is good for me.”
Marx said: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”
Looks like Petey dressed it up a bit.
Kittehs alwayz nose!
Not smart posting personal info on your homepage unless you’re well armed and are willing and able to use them.
Fire in the hole!
Heck, that's good advice, even if you don't post personal stuff on your homepage! :-)
First off, I'm glad to hear you're a business owner, but I hope you hear the folly in your constructed argument. Assuming that big business (really, whatever that is) is the problem, I would presume you would be for some sort of (my word here) draconian regulations or taxation structure to ensure their demise or to somehow restrain or even constrict their growth. I don't know what sort of mechanism you'd suggest, but it sure sounds like it would need to be governmental in nature. On one hand, you say you're pro-market, but if you truly are, then you'd have to come to the conclusion that market forces would be the answer to inefficiencies and bloated corporation. The lean, efficient competitor, via the market, would thrive as an efficient, competitive alternative to the (insert large corporation name here).
As is common, many people cite Microsoft or GM as examples of unfair players in the US (and global) marketplace. But there are literally thousands of examples of corporations that could be perceived as 'big business' yet are pristine examples of how our competitive, free market economy provides for entrepreneurship and prosperity for worker and executive (read: owners) alike.
I ask again, how would someone propose to promote small or mid-size business but restrict or eliminate big business?
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