personal finance | BEST PRACTICES
Learning from the Crisis keithGEE
Keith Gee is division director of the March of Dimes, Space Coast Division.
It’s the Lasting Lessons that Count
Recently, on a trip to Orlando for business I noticed as I entered downtown that nearly every tall building reaching up to the sky was a bank.
“Wow, I must be in the wrong industry,” I
thought to myself. Well after thinking about it for a few minutes I realized that the banking industry has been through a very turbulent time recently and that our lives are interconnected to it in a way that makes me nervous about the future if the banking industry doesn’t stabilize. I know we have all felt the tough times over
the past several years as our economy ebbs and flows (recently more flowing than ebbing)! Certainly the banks have had to adjust their business models quite extensively to react to the changes in our economy. As lending has tightened and banks required that we, as consum- ers, re-evaluate our borrowing habits, I couldn’t help but wonder if this could not have a positive long-term outcome on all of us.
What’s the Lesson? Did we actually learn anything over the past
few years? The lesson here is that when we want to make a significant purchase (like a car or a house) we actually have to save up for it (you know the way our parents had to). This may seem like a difficult concept for some to grasp. I know this means that it may take us longer to acquire our material possessions and this will definitely not fall into line with our “self-entitled” mentality that has become part of our society. Have lending practices led to better savings
practices? I certainly hope so. I heard a report on National Public Radio the other day. It stated that household debt was down in 2010 so far. Wow, I thought, “we did learn something over the past few years.” Can this trend continue? Can we actually make this whole recession have a positive outcome on our lives? The answer is yes, it has to be.
Never Forget Of course we also have a habit of short-term
memory, so have we learned our lessons to make our lives better or have we just adjusted our spending habits for the short-term to get by until things get back to “normal”? The effects of poor borrowing habits have had a huge impact on our global economy, as we have all realized. When I attend church, the pastor talks about
tithing, or the setting aside of 10 percent of your income to give to the church. I think this pattern is a great idea. Not only does this practice support our community and ties our church into our society, but it sets a pattern of setting aside money and leads to good savings practices in general.
It Works in Theory; It Works Better
in Practice Now we have to learn how to transfer practices
like this into our everyday lives. Certainly there are many great lessons to be learned in church to make our society better, but the act of setting aside money into a savings account for those big ticket items is one that will dramatically affect the quality of our lives as well as our community. A society that has not learned how to save will waste money borrow- ing from those who have and will not be prepared for those unexpected challenges that we all must face from time to time. My parents taught me at a very young age to save
money. I’ve had a savings account since my earliest memory. These lessons I will take with me for the rest of my life. My goal in life is to retire at some point. I want to be able to sit back and relax, and enjoy life. The only way someone can do that is to have some savings set aside so that we do not become dependent on others to take care of us financially.u
spacecoastbusiness.com 0CTOBER2010[81
By taking this financial crisis and learning some positive lessons from it we will SAVE MONEY and LIVE
BETTER LIVES.
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