With the passing of this week, I have seen a bad situation spiral into chaos. The market is down more than 30% since December 31, 2007 and trillions of dollars in wealth are lost. Millions of Americans are left wondering how they are going to be able to afford retirement. As I sit here and examine my personal situation, I wonder why I have kept saving into a falling market. While I have all hope and expectation of living a long healthy life, there is a part of me that cringes knowing how much of my own savings is gone and how long it will take to rebuild. I struggle every paycheck to save as much as possible, and I am left demoralized knowing that the market has lost almost double what I have put into it this year. On top of that, I am in a condo that has lost more than 12% of the value I paid for it. While I have a traditional 30-year mortgage, it will be 2012 before I have paid down the mortgage to where the principal and current market value are equal. I also had purchased a new car about 2 months before these large market losses have happened. I had been paying down my last car extra fast with the hopes of having it paid off by May of 2009, but got too eager to buy something new. The problem with this is that there is no hope of a big increase in discretionary dollars because there is (1) no market appreciation currently in either stocks or housing (2) there is no debt that is going away anytime soon and (3) my work has announced that raises and bonuses will not be impressive.
I didn't start this blog with the intention of being filled with negativity; however, the thoughts of finances have weighed heavily on me this weekend. I have decided to make a very conscious effort to focus future savings into cash to build an 8-month cash savings for a rainy day. I never really saw the need for this, but seeing how the market has changed so drastically, I can't be help but being a little pessimistic that tough times, even for my company, could be in the future, and I want to be prepared in the event of a layoff. It's a little scary to think what 2009 will bring for all of us economically. The words, "Get your house in order" come to mind, and this will be my personal mantra for 2009.
Aside from the finances above, I also have enjoyed looking at each of my family members blogs, and finally felt motivated to start my own. Very few of the family members get to see or read much about my life and it seems that for one reason or another, it's not really discussed. I am hopeful this will help shed some light into the life of W. Trevor Gillespie.
So there it is. My first blog....literally a collage of random thoughts and feelings, but then again, this is me.
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