Rejoining the ranks…….

Of the landed gentry………….

Somehow it is probably fitting that the day I jump back into the debt pool, just happens to be the day the stock market drops by over 500 points.

Timing as they say is every thing. However today was an auspicious day for me-especially when you consider that just under 10 years ago, financially, I was flat on my back. Now I could buy a house and while it was a stretch to get it financed-at least I could.

Once was not always so.

They say its only a loss if you sell and the best thing for a saver to do at a time like this is not to panic. But to just hunker down and plow your way through. However its been a double whammy of sorts, since at the beginning of this month I began participating in a plan that bought shares of stock in my company. Nothing earth shaking, just a couple of shares each paycheck. I have never done any individual stock purchasing before. However I think it is important to have a stake in the future of the company-no matter how small that stake may be. I did the same thing in the Navy by buying savings bonds regularly. It was one of the few things that saved me when it was time to send the shrew packing. So the advice not to panic is probably the best.

Except the share price of my company is 10 dollars a share less than it was at the beginning of this little adventure.

I can’t help but think things are more than a little different with this particular financial collapse. I don’t agree with John McCain that the economy is fundamentally sound. I believe this the nation’s bar bill coming due. Even if markets can be stabilized this week, the market is not yet out of the woods. Worldwide credit-related losses by financial institutions “now top $500 billion, of which only $350 billion of equity has been replenished. This $150 billion gap, leveraged 14.5 times (the average gearing for the industry), translates to a $2 trillion reduction in liquidity. Hence the severe shortage of credit and predictions of worse to come“.

Furhtermore, there is another round of bad news coming on the job front, the dollar is getting weaker and gas prices shot up a dollar a gallon here in shopping mall over the weekend.  It is an old story-a nation cannot embark on a war without end based solely on its good credit. Most of the ones that did, usually hit a financial train wreck either during or after the war ends.

I’ve always believed that a balanced budget-even with war spending would have left the economy in better shape.

But we did not choose that path-so hang on to your hats.

Its going to be a sucky week.

No wonder I am depressed about being where I am, when I am . Someday I’ll have to explain all that-but for now, I’m just going to cry myself to sleep.