Financial Storms

DOLLAR$ and $EN$E, August 2009, by Brian Bogaert

Weathering Financial
STORMS
Is it inevitable to be broke
when the economy is bad?

How is the summer so far, girls? I hope you have made the most of your time off and I’m sure a lot of you are getting excited to go back to school and see your friends again (shame there has to be classes and homework – wouldn’t school be FUN without all that?!)

For some of you, summer has been a time to get a job and make some money. Maybe you’re saving up for College or University or maybe you just need some cash to pay for stuff during the year. Good for you for taking some action for your future! And, I’m sure, you found out that working for a living can be hard.

Hate your JOB or love your WORK?
What if there was an alternative? Have you ever heard people talk about making money ‘doing what you love’ rather than ‘having a job’? Some of you may be fortunate enough to have someone in your life that does just that. They get up and go ‘to work’ every day doing something that they love! Unfortunately, many people are not in that situation and they get up every day to go to a job they really don’t care for. In fact, a lot of people hate their job… but they do it because they have to ‘pay the bills’ and support their family.

The Economic Storm
In case you have been under a rock or asleep for the past year, you should know that we are in what is called an ‘economic downturn’ or a ‘recession’ to be technical. I’m sure you have heard this on the news or from your parents. What this basically means is that the economy was going really, really well for a long time but now it’s not. A lot of people have lost their jobs. While the world’s economy was growing and growing, most people thought that the good times would just keep happening. But for the last couple of years the world’s economy has been shrinking (like a lot of people’s bank accounts). The thing is, when good times are going on, people tend to do a lot more spending than saving because they assume things will always be that good. They over-spend on things like houses and cars, they choose risky investments without researching how good they really are, and they don’t put much money in their savings… after all the good times will just keep coming right?!

As we know all too well, the good times didn’t just keep coming. Things changed. People lost a lot of money in their investments, many have lost their homes or cars because they couldn’t make the payments, some older people have had to delay their retirements because they don’t have enough money to live off of. Can you imagine working for 30 or 40 years at some job where the dream of retirement was the only thing that kept you going – and then you discover one day you have to keep working because you don’t have enough money? Ugh! What a TOTAL disaster.

Did You Bring Your Jacket?
So why am I telling you all this? I believe it is important for you gals to start to realize now, while you still have lots of time before you have to fully support yourself financially, to learn some really critical lessons about money.

Here’s an example: Have you ever headed out to the beach or out somewhere with your friends for the day in your shorts and t-shirt because it looked warm and sunny out, only to discover after a short time that sure enough, it got cold or started to rain? You came home shivering or wet and your parents said "I told you to bring a jacket," or "you should have brought your umbrella!!" For a lot of people having financial struggles right now it’s the same type of thing. They assumed the economy was going to stay warm and sunny and they didn’t bother to plan ahead… and unfortunately they feel about their bank accounts like do about a cold, rainy day. I feel bad for these people because many of them didn’t even know that they had a choice. It didn’t have to turn out this way.

It Doesn't Have to Be That Way For You
The good news for you by learning this now is that, despite all this bad economy, there are other people out there right now who are NOT in trouble. In fact, some are doing very well. For some of them it’s because they saved all their money and were very frugal (look that word up if you don’t know it). Maybe they didn’t have fun or didn't spend any money, but now that things are tough in the economy, their accounts are in good shape. That is definitely one way to get wealthy, but it makes for a kind of boring life, wouldn’t you say? Sure, they are fine when things aren’t going well but they don’t really get to enjoy life when things are going great (that’s like staying home from the beach when it’s sunny because you’re worried that it COULD rain later on – not much fun). I’m not suggesting you be like that. I’m suggesting you learn to get the most out of life AND still being in good shape in case the economic ‘weather’ doesn’t go so well again in the future.

That brings me to the other people who are doing just fine financially right now, who really enjoyed themselves when things were good, and made a LOT of money so that even now while times are tough they are STILL enjoying the luxuries of life. How are they doing that during this very heavy and scary economic downturn (cue scary music)?!

Stay tuned for the continuation of this article next issue. But until then, have fun, don’t forget to take your jacket when you go out, and think about:

Money Tip #11
By planning ahead, YOU get to make your own current and future economy, which could be like a warm sunny day or a cold, rainy, wet one!

~ Brian

Girls Can Do Anything Magazine

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