Hard Times

Any time my bank account is bigger than my retirement account I think about the financial gurus who said that the stock market is a good investment. It's true that stocks historically have been one of the only ways to get a better return than a bank CD, but what they don't tell you is that you can lose 25% of your savings in a single week. This past week has been a wake up call for a lot of people who trusted the financial advice of experts. Now we find out that the whole global financial system may be corrupted beyond repair.

It's too late for the average Joe, who has the "proper mix" of stocks in their retirement plan. We will have to ride it out and hope that they restore some level of stability in the system. The old saying goes: "you haven't really lost anything until you sell". But, I know that's only partially true, because I've been around long enough to have owned stocks that have gone to zero. I only hope that most of us can continue to stay employed and are able to pay our food and utility bills if we run into some serious hard times.