Broke-Ass Student

With the financial global crisis unwinding in epic proportions, I’ve been generally sitting things out and quietly observing. However I fear the worst is far from over as this monster unravels in ripples, and unfortunately feel we are nowhere near the eye of the storm yet.  And as is key with any crisis, what’s imperative to survival is keeping a cool head and not resorting to blind panic.

A financial trend has emerged over the past few decades that always troubled me. Well-intentioned investors, such as you and I, may have entrusted their money to strangers or invested in things they simply didn’t understand. When pensions disappeared and were replaced with 401(k)s, it even became mandatory at some jobs for people to invest their retirement savings into certain financial instruments.

I’ve always preferred to personally handle my own finances, but I certainly understand that many people simply don’t feel comfortable doing so. However, this could turn into a recipe for disaster if a well-intentioned investor (who is trying to save and do the right thing) trusts an advisor or financial institution who decides to use that money for their own greedy purposes.

I’m infuriated with this bailout because many honest, hardworking Americans (and their children, grandchildren, and grandchildren’s children) are now being forced to suffer for what is quite simply the corruption, greed and carelessness of Wall Street. Predatory lending led to the subprime mortgage crisis and the blame can certainly be spread to both the consumer and the lender in this situation, but it’s this enormously dangerous Derivatives bubble exploding that is literally ungluing the entire financial sector at the seams right now.

Derivatives are, quite simply, gambling. Wall Street was gambling with insane amounts of money through Derivatives – so much, in fact, the gross domestic product of every country in the world combined wouldn’t be able to cover the full amount of poisonous Derivatives floating out there! So how is  such a grossly huge amount even possible?

Because people were gambling with money they didn’t even have.

I’m also wondering if we’re witnessing the unraveling of another global bubble – that of living underneath the largest debt-based global fiat currency experiment in the history of the planet for over sixty years. By nature, debt-based fiat currencies are unsustainable so the very foundation of our monetary system is in need of a severly radical overhaul.

Right now my plan is to continue focusing on paying down debt since my belief has always been “debtor is servant to the lender”. My other focus is on the simple things which fortunately cost little to no money. This includes family, friends, laughter, stress release, exercise, expanding my knowledge with books from the library, learning how to grow my own food, as well as mastering other useful skills.

Because when it comes down to the nitty gritty of it all -  even if the financial world disintegrates to oblivion and I’m left penniless and completely impoverished – in essence, these simple things will still remain the true riches in my life.

=^..^=

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