I hadn’t been too worried about all the economic doom and gloom swarming the news these days until a couple of weeks ago. My husband’s job is sort of dependent on investors being able to get credit to buy businesses. If people can’t get financing, that means there won’t be any deals and he’ll be out of work.
Needless to say the number of banks going under, some of which have financed projects Wayne’s worked on in the past, alarmed me.
But yesterday I grew even more concerned.
Causes for Concern
It started when Today interviewed Jim Cramer of Mad Money fame. He said something about selling 20 percent of your stocks. Cash out and keep it on hand. I forget if it was Ann Curry or Matt Lauer who was interviewing him, but they were quite shocked by his bold statement.
Then later that night on his show, he took it a step farther and advised selling enough to get you through the next five years. Especially if you’re expecting any major expenditures, like paying for college tuition, buying a new vehicle, or retiring. He was genuinely concerned that the market is going to continue to decline and he was trying to offer suggestions to help people weather the financial storm that’s a brewin’.
All of this sort of frazzled me, but it literally hit home when Wayne informed me that thanks to all the hits the stock market’s taken recently, our retirement portfolio has lost 40 percent. Gone. Vanished. Erased just like that.
That freaked me out royal. I didn’t sleep easy at all last night.
Fearing a Depression
Yes, losing money is scary. Especially money I know won’t be easily replenished. And the real threat that Wayne might lose his job and the comfortable life we now live may have to change doesn’t sit well.
But we’ve lost money before. (Never this much, but we have done it.) He’s been laid off before. We survived. (In fact, that summer was one of the best of our lives.)
But what’s really freaking me out is I don’t know what’s coming. I don’t know how much worse it’s going to get before it gets better. I’m convinced it eventually will get better, but will it be in 2009, 2010, or are we looking at years of rocky financial roads ahead?
I don’t know, and it’s the unknown that’s most frightening.
However, afraid as I may be, I’m not going to turn tail and duck under the covers quivering. I plan to confront this fear head on. I plan to make all this benefit my marriage.
How do I plan to accomplish that?
I’m not entirely sure yet, but as they say: where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Courtney Mroch also writes in Pets and Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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