I do not know how the average joe or average jose makes ends meet today? I do not own a home, barely drive (although the car is on the auction block), do not have kids, am mindful of money, have no credit card debt, and i earn a decent wage....and still find it 'tight'...
I looked up at gas prices the other day at a Shell station I was walking by and just about fell over. the 'cheap' gas was clocking in around a three and a half bucks for a gallon of the liquefied hydrocarbon concoction.
Throw in a Dulce de Leche Frappucino and a trip to the mall and there does not seem to be enough dollars to fill the gap.
It's easy to see we are on a path towards a recession. Despite a recent good quarter for a string of companies and their earnings, when was the last time the consumer was in such a tight spot? Housing woes, a slowing economy with increasing gas prices and a massive trade deficit worsening a budget deficit. You have huge capital outlays going into an unpopular war and stiff economic competition from China and India waiting to jump off the bench and take your spot on the field. Things economically couldn't look any worse...could they?
And that's the obvious stuff. The more muted stuff such as the privatization of public assets such as the 'Indiana Toll Road' by Macquarie Infrastructure group along with the Chicago Skyway' as well as others.
Got $2.5 billion? The Chicago Midway Airport is up for sale.
Cash strapped municipalities are selling off infrastructure and private equity firms are snapping them up. They love the predictable cash flow such assets produce. Is this bad? Who knows maybe they will be regulated and things will work like clockwork, or they'll 'get Enron' on our ass...
The point is that there is so much up in the air. It's really hard to 'keep it all' together these days. To keep things sorted in your mind as you define your mid and long term goals, plan for retirement, decide what to invest in or for how long, how much money you are going to need 20 years from now....
With so much up in the air, my main long term goals include 'stay flexible', 'keep an open mind' and 'be mindful of opportunities'. With so much change on the horizon, the last thing I want to do is get stuck in a limited, one-way perspective on the world.
