While I was perusing through NPR's business section this morning, I came across a little video. While humorous and mildly cute, I watched the story of Planet Money's "Toxie." As an experiment, Planet Money bought a toxic housing asset to, literally, "watch it die." (Yeah, they named it "Toxie," and she wears a cute little bow.) And while it's a little morbid in a dark humor type of way, watching Toxie's video and inevitable death, actually sheds a lot of light for us normal folk as to what really happened with the economic collapse a couple years ago and also what's still happening today.
So, how did "Toxie" the little toxic asset with the cute bow fare? Listen for yourself! Oh, and if you want to watch the video of the cute floofball asset (which I highly recommend), click here.
How many times did you hear this phrase this weekend?
"Happy New Year!"
Did you say it? Did family, friends or people at the store say it to you? I think I sent and received dozens of messages, emails, and texts with that exact phrase. We say "Happy New Year" so easily, but making resolutions, having dreams of a new start year after year, does that really make us happy?
Dr. Henry Cloud, a clinical psychologist, says no, but he gives several helpful hints to happiness in his interview on CNN's American Morning.
So, how does this relate to finances? We hear from many friends, clients and acquaintances about issues with their finances, especially pertaining to the economy. We empathize with what's happening now and we understand. It's hard for some of you. But we want to encourage and remind everyone it doesn't need to affect your overall happiness or outlook on life.
There are items that Dr. Cloud says that align perfectly with achieving financial peace of mind:
1. Make goals. They don't need to be lofty goals. Begin your goals at square one and work from there. For example, achieving a goal of saving 10% of all income for retirement in one year seems really hard. So, start at 5% and work from there.
2. Concentrate on what you can control. We can't control the stock market or the unemployment rate. But we can control making good spending decisions and educated choices. Doing research, asking for help and making goals can help achieve peace of mind.
We know that this new year won't be perfect. But it's nice to know that despite the cloudy days, there are decisions we can make to give us sunshine through the clouds. If you have questions about any goals you'd like to make, feel free to give us a call!
And we wish you peace and true happiness, in all aspects of your life!
1/3/11, 3:46pm edit: Dr. Cloud himself responded to our blog on his Facebook page. His words:
It is incredible how much of this material affects people's finances. Several of the practices are related to people making more money, and at the same time, not needing to make more in order to feel happy. The happy ones do better, but know that happiness does not come from material circumstances. And, many of these practices, like gratitude, for example, mitigate against stupid spending and financial problems. Take the one about comparing oneself to others. If people just would follow that one principle, they would often save a LOT of money not trying to keep up with the Jones'.
