Things Look Better!

Things look better today.  Nothing’s changed, really.  Maybe the 1 Riesling Day Monday helped me just off gas all the emotional discouragement or  stress stirring around in there.  Maybe it is Suzie Orman’s book, “2009 Action Plan” that did it.

I picked this book up just after the New Year.  It was on the shelf at WalMart just yelling at me to buy it when I walked by to get a prescription filled. I succumbed to the temptation and I’m glad I did.  She does not paint a rosy picture of where things will go economically in 2009.  Her opinion is that everyone’s job is in danger, the housing market is likely going to plummet further before stabilizing, the credit crunch is disastrous and going to become more so and investments have lost value and may continue to do so. It was dismal news to read in a way.

In another way it was great news for me.  She really laid out the sad state of our economy with the foreclosures, repossessions of vehicles in the auto industry and the credit crunch.  I’m not highly informed about any of this but I found out that according to Suzie, I am doing the right stuff.  I have miraculously (certainly not by my own brilliance in these matters) done the right things and avoided many of the pitfalls I could have been trapped in.  I’m not out of the woods, but I am not in foreclosure, not in danger of my vehicle being repossessed and I have no reason to have to sell my home, as long as I continue to make the payments, which I am doing with greater and greater ease each month as I continue to live like a Spartan and pay off bills.  Even though my home is valued below what I owe on it, and that difference is expected to increase, according to Orman, somewhat during 2009, I am not in a rental and at the risk of the landlord not being able to make their payments on the house and then evicting me with only 30 days notice.  That would be disastrous!  With four kids, finding a new place would be difficult at best.  The potential for me to get back into anything livable would be slim or none and I could run the risk of having the same thing happen again. 

So, while I gripe and moan at times about the fact that I have a 30-year-old fixer, and I do mean fixer, and the fact that sometimes the routine repairs baffle me, I always come back to the place that I am grateful for this home and this roof over our heads.  If and when I am able to move into something nicer, I admit I’ll probably experience some bittersweet emotion at the prospect. I am even more grateful than ever that I am in this house and able to make my payments on time.  There are many, many people in much, much worse shape than I. 

 I’m sure that the realization that things are dire for many out there and I’m, so far, not in that place or headed there helped improve my perspective a bit.  I also think it may have been the fact that I simply got a good night’s sleep last night. Funny how fatigue can warp our perspective. Or, maybe, it was the fact that I’ve been eating healthier since the New Year and my body and mind are responding to the better fuel. Whatever it is, things looked better yesterday morning than they did the day before and they look really great today. It is Wednesday and I’m on the downward slope of the week.  Two more days and it will be the weekend and, not just any weekend, a three day weekend. 

Things look a lot better today!