It’s so funny how a mere five to ten years can dramatically change your perspective. Well, let’s add in there that a large chunk of perspective when it comes to money and how much things cost and how far a certain amount of money per year is gonna get you, has a lot to do with inflation.

What I’m talking about here is the fact that just ten short years ago I used to consider $50,000 a year a LOT of money to earn. Granted, it was a decade ago, but how has that same amount today seemed to barely keep some people afloat – even people who may just be single and not responsible for supporting a family or even a spouse.

It’s ALL inflation. When I consider how much I used to spend on groceries back then, $50k probably would have supported both myself and my husband quite comfortably. Even when we were eating out fairly often at restaurants – both sit down and fast food.

Just the fact that groceries and staples such as grain, corn and dairy and meat have gone up astronomically in the past few years makes the simple necessity of eating a lot more expensive than it used to be.

When you’re an adult, you also have a lot of obligations, or things that you feel obligated to do where you have to spend money. Buying gifts for the endless baby showers, the wedding showers and weddings, the birthdays of your friend’s kids, the holidays, the special occasions, all the various financial obligations that are of a “social” aspect as you get older are pretty high.

This is especially true if people perceive you as being financially comfortable. It’s as if different expectations are placed on you if people have this perception. Granted, it’s probably a totally self-inflicted guilt thing, but I’ve found it is true for us.

Even the simple fact that at both of our jobs, we are expected to pitch in for group gifts, add to the pot for various causes, and spend money to do social events outside of work can be financially burdensome.

Then there is the cost of energy. There’s the gas bill, the electric gill, and of course the all too pervasive gasoline for the car to get you both to and from work five days a week. If you work far from home, this can really put a dent in the annual budget quickly as well with the high oil prices.

In general, the pressure on our money is much greater these days. The cost of living is high, while the prices for our hard earned homes is at a historic low. Put the two together, and you have inflation compounded several times – that’s why that 50 G’s no longer gets you too far in this world.

Happy New Year PRC Readers! And what a year 2011 was. Sorry I’m a little late in wishing you a happy new year, but as you know, the holidays can be crazy, and you don’t exactly get to relax as the songs say and enjoy family.

Instead, you’re usually worried about shorting people presents, stressed out about the gifts you’ve racked up on your credit cards, and wondering how the heck you spent so much again. I know that sounds a bit skeptical, but Christmas has become somewhat of a stressor because of all the money.

We’ve had quite a year. We saw a lot of back and forth on economic news. We had the new worry of Europe and the Euro being debased added to the US’s growing list of ticking time bombs.

These time bombs threaten to derail a “recovery” that was never actually a recovery in the first place. Rather, the “recovery” was purely funded by the constant bailouts of the US government.

We’ve even had government threaten to shut down due to several impasses on bills that were meant to help free up money and soothe citizen’s financial burdens.

Let’s hope 2012 is better. At least we can say we have our health, and that we always have hope. And money isn’t everything…let’s always remember that

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A lot of backlash is occurring over the stores going a bit too far this past Black Friday. As you know, Black Friday got its name because the holiday season, and that shopping day after Thanksgiving in particular, are the times when stores typically get “in the black” and out of the red, since many retail stores do not really profit until the holidays.

Hard to believe, but it’s true. It’s hard for stores to keep their inventory up as well as turn a profit, so they rely heavily on the holiday shopping season to actually put them in the black.

This past black Friday kind of got out of hand though. Stores actually tried to out do one another and they opened as early as 10:00 PM on the day of Thanksgiving. Really? Is Black Friday that important that these stores are going to make their poore employees come in and work on a day when you are supposed to be with loved ones?

That, to me, is not what the holidays are about, and I fear we are all losing sight of that and only seeing the holidays as dollar signs, stress, and corporate profits. Not that corporate profits are not a good thing, we need them to get the economy going again.

But the message of Christmas is getting lost. I went to some stores that had their decorations up as early as November 1st, the day after Halloween. Many of them already had the holiday music going too. It’s a bit much, and Christmas is my favorite holiday.

But even a die hard Christmas lover such as myself gets burnt out on the holiday season when they’ve heard almost two straight months of Christmas music and seen decor allover the place, trust me!

Let’s remember the holiday spirit. When you get in line and start to get crabby about the whole thing and think it’s just a commercial holiday, remember the reason for the holiday season. Even if you don’t believe in the particular reason for the holiday, the whole season has become a symbol of peace, love and giving to those that are less fortunate.

So go out and donate to shelters, give to the guys and gals that are ringing the bells for the Salvation Army, and try to really do things for your fellow man. Of course, these are things we should do all year long, but this is the time when we think most about those who need us the most.

Getting a loan from our 401k recently became a more attractive option to us as a couple, whereas before, when the economy wasn’t as in question and there seemed to be no end to the stock run up, it was completely out of the question.

It was out of the question because I never wanted to pull my money out of an account where it was making interest simply to get some fast cash.

When you take a loan out of your 401k, depending on who your 401k retirement account vendor is, it may be a really great deal and a great alternative to getting a loan out of a bank which charges more interest.

However, you are also losing out on that much money being able to earn interest the entire time it is out of your account, until of course you repay it. You also pay a small loan fee and perhaps some other type of fee, but often times it is a much better deal than what any bank or credit card can offer.

For example, we were able to get a $5,000 loan out of one of our 401k accounts with only paying about $150 TOTAL in fees and origination fees. That is much better than any other deal.

Not only that, but the minimal interest we were paying on the loan was actually being repayed by us, to us. So, instead of paying a bank the interest, we pay ourselves back the principle and interest of the loan. It’s not much interest, but it’s almost like a forced savings of interest for you.

Right now, we decided it was the right time to do this because our money is not making much interest any way. We made the controversial decision to take it out of stocks and keep it mostly in a cash type account that earns very little interst.

Now, if the economy was doing better and our money was actually generating a decent return, that would be a different story. We would essentially be putting ourselves behind a year on $5,000 earning interest.

You obviously don’t want to do this if you are making good money on your stocks. We decided that if things keep on continuing to be volatile in the market over the next few years, we may actually take out a loan to get our deck put on the house, which is something we have been putting off a while due to expensive financing options – and we do not want to take out a line of credit on our home.

It seems like there are quite a few things going on today that make it the perfect storm for those of us that are in the working class, like me. I’ve worked for the same large corporation for over a decade now, and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have such a great job with great benefits when so many others are really struggling right now.

What I’m really concerned about is that salaries seem to be completely stagnant for a lot of people. It seems that companies are using the economy as an excuse to stop giving good raises. It’s almost like they know they’ve got us by the cajones.

The more concerning part is that CEO pay has skyrocketed. I’m glad people are staging protests on Wall Street. It’s a little sickening that corporate profits are record, CEO’s pay is record, and yet the people who make this country so great – the consumers and the working class – are suffering.

Economists have forecasted that the wages paid today won’t catch up to being good again until about another decade passes. That’s not acceptable. I feel almost like the world has stalled and people are having a very hard time getting to the next level in their lives and their professions because of it.

And it’s not like the costs of food or necessities has gone down – it’s actually also at record levels. So the things we need – gas, food and staples – have gone up, while our salaries have stayed stagnant. That’s not a good combination, and it certainly isn’t going to spur consumers into spending sprees.

Housing is the only thing that has become more affordable, but who really cares about that when people can’t even afford homes, or get approved for loans as easily as they once were able to? It’s to no avail basically!

Now, what I am glad about is that we got our home when we did. We would have never gotten the loan we did for the house I now love if it were today that we were trying to buy. It’s not that we didn’t have the income – it’s that a large part of it is through business, not a salaried job, which banks get antsy about when you don’t have an actual W-2.

I just read the most fascinating, if not short, article on the skyrocketing productivity that most companies are getting out of their employees these days.

The problem for the employees that are giving the companies all this extra productivity is that, while they are working ten times harder than they were before the recession hit, they are not getting paid more comensurate to the amount of work they are doing.

This can definitely drag on morale, and I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes before. Companies are demanding more of the employees they have, rather than hiring new ones.

Or they are reorganizing into different structures, and giving more work to those that are in the existing groups so that they don’t have to rehire for different positions.

This is all well and good for corporate profits, but many employees are really feeling the heat, and some are starting to crack under the pressure this leads to.

A short survey asked whether people feel like they are working harder than ever. Over 83% when I last checked responded yes to this question, with only about 9 percent answering no, and about 7 percent or so answering that they don’t have a job right now.

This is pretty startling news, especially when we keep hearing murmurs that we may be in for another double dip recession, and that even more people may be losing their jobs. That’s a wake up call for all of us.

Now, what can you do if you work for a company that has heaped even more demands on you? Well, for one, you can make sure you get exercise every day. Exercise is the great antidote to stress, and I myself don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have this outlet for my nervous energy that has built up during the day from my stressors.

You can also make sure that you put things in perspective, and tell your boss if your workload is truly interfering with your quality of work or even your quality of life. A good boss will listen and try to at least ease the burden on you a bit.

Their hands may be tied when it comes to certain things, but at least you can make it known that the additional work has potentially interfered with your ability to create a solid work product. That way, they at least knew that you were struggling if your work ever comes under scrutiny.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of all the fear mongering and “sky is falling” stuff that’s going on in the media in the midst of all the economic ups and downs we’ve had over the past few years. One day, the sky looks clear, and some experts are saying that we’ve gone through the worst.

The next, the major news outlets run stories about the next impending bubble, or what’s gonig to happen when we go through the next major fiasco. Not only are these stories alarming, but they’re also confusing and contradictory, because half the time, one majorly horrible outlook is refuted by another with exactly the opposite outlook the very next day or week.

What we need to do when we are constantly confronted by news outlets giving us conflicting stories and points of view is turn blinders to most of it, and make our own educated assumptions and deductions, based on what we know of the media and the current economic outlook.

I’m not saying to not stay informed. Quite the contrary, I’m saying to stay informed, but to ignore the plethora of opinions that are out there, and based on your time on this eart and the economic trends you’ve seen, and even your own friends and family’s stories about how the economy has affected their life, draw your own conclusions.

This is healthy, because it helps you to stay abreast of what’s happening more, and to actually educate yourself and start thinking critically about your own instincts and knowledge on the subject. If we think for ourselves and try to ignore all the naysaying and negative opinions, it’s just going to keep our own state of mind healthier and more positive.

Sure, a healthy dose of pessimism is ok once in a while, but when you let yourself succumb to news stories that may have a hidden agenda (Foxnews is a prime example of this), then you become just what they want – a robot that will think and act like them.

So, make sure you educate yourself on finances – most importantly your own. And make sure you are comfortable with how you handle your own money. Don’t buy into this stuff where they are constantly telling you to not invest and sell everything, that’s just plain silly!

Well, it seems that just as we all breathe a sigh of relief (especially those of us who own businesses which are largely reliant on consumer spending, but then again, what business isn’t) and think that Americans are loosening their purse strings, we get jumpy again about the economy.

Then, people start to reel in their checkbooks again and go into buckle down mode, making us wonder when this never ending see-saw of economic downturn and sunny days on the horizon is going to finally change – for good. I was reminded again of how fragile our state of finances is this past weekend when I went to a convention with my husband in Pittsburgh PA.

He said that it was one of the worst turnouts he’d ever seen. Not only was attendance low (you have to pay to get in), but the donations for the charity auction were down, and spending was down across the board at the convention in general. I also saw a similar trend in my customer’s spending habits around that same time, leading me to wonder, when are we really gonna see the light of day for good?

A friend of mine at my day job were talking about the whole situation later on. I shared with her my experience at the convention, and she shared with me that a freelance friend of hers that sold artwork was experiencing a terrible drop in sales over the last year as well.

So it seems that pretty much everyone involved in the sale of any non-essential consumer good is suffering right now, and has been on and off for a few years. My husband and I are still very careful with our money. I actually feel guilty, and I mean really guilty when I spend any discretionary income now!

Even when we were in PA for the weekend, I really needed some work pants and shirts. I’d been needing them for a while. I was actually taking some of my pants to the seemstress just to prolong their life.

But I finally broke down and bought a few pairs since there is no tax on clothing in PA ( a good draw for shoppping, and undoubtedly a boon for their local economy). Even though I got a terrific deal on these pants, better than anything I could have gotten at home, I felt so GUILTY when I got home.

It’s just the frame of mind I’ve come to frequently be in since the recession began in 2008. I guess I understand why so many people are still holding back.

Well, if there’s anything good to be said about the American mentality on shopping, spending, and enjoying their hard earned money, it’s that this mentality has turned the US into the biggest capitalist society on earth. Essentially, consumerism has made America the land of opportunity.

That, and it’s enabling sense toward small business and minimally interfering government (some would argue that of course, but believe me, we have it a whole lot better than a lot of other governements!)

One thing that we’ve seen happen since the housing market collapse and the subsequent jobless claims, high unempoyment, and implosion of old fashioned spending, is a thriftiness emerge that was very un-American, but very much needed for at least a few years to help people realize how easy it was to lose it all.

What is really interesting is that there have been a sea of changes in the past year alone, before unemployment really even started to get any better and be on a sustainable path. Americans now are actually carrying credit card balances again. That’s a big change from just a little while ago when people were paying down their debt every month if they could.

Not only that, but more and more people are also spending more of their disposable income instead of saving it. Just two years ago, saving was at a record high.

Saving was at a record high not only at a civilian level, but also at a corporate level, with many companies and individuals saving for the next big recession to come along. It was paranoia at its highest, and little did we know we were just pushing ourselves deeper into a recession by curbing spending.

There are reports and a general sense that people are getting tired of being thrifty and frugal with their money. They have been good for a long time, and they are now ready to spend! What does this mean?

I’m hoping that it means more jobs, and the spurring of local and federal economies, that’s what!

I was stunned when I learned how much, per gallon, you can actually be paying toward taxes, instead of the actual gas itself. It’s particularly disgusting to read how much people in places like California, which currently has the biggest budget crisis of all, have to pay in gasoline taxes.

People in California currently pay around 66 cents PER GALLON in taxes. That means that most of their dollar per gallon is going toward the taxes and not that actual gasoline they are putting in their car.

And people rip on the oil companies, when really they should be blaming the state they live in for the ridiculously high taxes they are paying.

I was talking about how much I love my Giant Eagle fuel perks points that I get when I buy groceries at their store. There are also some excellent gas reward credit cards that can give you some serious incentives for filling up your tank at the pump, and less guilt about doing so and spending fifty bucks a pop or more, since you are getting some sort of return on your money.

While California pays sixty six cents per gallon in taxes on their gas, there are many other states that pay less. But they are still quite expensive. This all adds into the total overall price that you pay at the pump, and many times accounts for the major differences in state’s gas prices.

But also at work are the expenses that it takes to transport the gasoline to certain areas. For instance, an island location, or a remote location which does not have it’s own gas and refineries, will be much more expensive to buy gasoline because it costs so much more to get it there.

I remember going to a few exotic locations, and thinking how outrageous their gas prices were. When you have a hard to get to location, combined with high gas taxes, then you can just about forget it, you’re going to be paying about $5 a gallon just to get around in your car.

It seems obscene, and it certainly is!