Financial Awareness Continually Empowers: by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley
I have been traveling for three weeks and during that time I have been blessed to have not seen much television. The political process as well as the economy has continued despite my lack of attentiveness. I didn't have to hear or see every aspect of the news to survive. Just because I was not paying attention to the news didn't mean that the economy was going to crash. I think the whole world would be better off if they didn't pay attention to the news and feed on their fears.
I was taught many years ago by Rita Davenport that what you think about you bring about. We have to get our minds off of what the irresponsible major news media is reporting and take care of ourselves. The worst thing we can do is allow their panic to cause us alarm. Their prophecy will become real if we feed on their terror. They have been reporting for months that things were getting bad. Do they have a hidden agenda or are they just creating news.
We have all heard the term if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. For years I have been thinking this about the housing market. The prices of homes were escalating and normal people were being sucked into mortgages that they did not understand or could afford after reading the fine print. All they really understood was the monthly payment amount. As their payments started to rise because interest rates were increasing on their variable rate mortgages; they became more unable to pay their monthly mortgage. Then add to their problem was the cost of gas. When they finally decide that they cannot afford that mortgage, the value of their home has dropped. Now they owe more on their home than it is worth. With more and more people trying to sell their home along with the number of homes that were built on speculation thinking that someone was going to buy them and with the homes that have been foreclosed on by mortgage institutions; the market is flooded. This is a fact of economics; supply and demand.
When the supply is up the price goes down. Think about it this way. During the summer the price of tomatoes is low. There are plenty to be found. When the supply goes down the price goes up. The winter months arrive, tomatoes are hard to find and they usually cost a whole lot more and don't taste as well as our summertime tomatoes. This has happened to our housing market.
Everyone wants to make hay while the sun is shining. We all have the dream of home ownership. Our economy is fueled by this dream. People make money on lending money, selling houses, building houses, supplying building materials and landscaping. The people that make the money on this process also employee people to help them build houses and process loans. These people also pay for mortgages and services. Local governments are funded by the taxes that we pay on those homes. This also gives people jobs.
I don't have the answers to how to fix this terrible problem but we can turn off the televisions and quit listening to the doom and gloom. I feel that what the major media is doing is akin to financial terrorism. Don't feed on fear! We have the ability to look on the bright side of things. We are smart and we can FACE our Finances. Financial Awareness Continually Empowers! We may not be able to do anything about Wall Street but we can do something about our home. I just wish our federal government would start living within its budget. They would be setting a good example for all of us.
We can make our homes an inviting place to spend time with family and friends. We can plan and cook meals at home and we can get rid of our clutter so that we don't have to think about having a bigger home. We can do what we can with what we have now and not dwell on the uncertainty. So today I want you to write down five things that you are thankful for! What you think about you will bring about!
For more help getting rid of your CHAOS; check out her website and join her free life coaching at www.FlyLady.net , listen to her channel http://www.blogtalkradio.com/channels/flylady show or read her books, Sink Reflections published by Bantam and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Fireside. Copyright 2008 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.
