Askew and Awry

From My Perspective - - -

One of the wiser Financial Consultants in the country is Dave Ramsey. Following are his remarks and ideas about the current State of the Economy in the United States. Consider some of his observations regarding the economy and the bailout debate by the U.S. Congress - - -

“Over the past month, we’ve witnessed the largest bankruptcy in history, the stock market dropping like a rock, and the talking heads on TV freaking out that the world is coming to an end. I’m here to tell you the truth—we’re going to make it. We’re going to be fine. Take a chill pill. This month I’ve compiled some of the most-asked questions I’ve gotten recently from you:

“Are we okay, Dave?

“Definitely. Remember Enron and WorldCom in the recent years? We survived that. But much worse than all this was the financial crisis of the ‘80s – S&L collapse and 1,000 bank failures in 2 years. We’re nowhere near this type of thing; that was probably 50 to 100 times worse than all of this.

“What does all of this come back to?

“Greedy banks financing homes to broke people. It all seemed to work okay in their minds when the economy was booming, but when the economy slowed a little bit broke people quit paying on their sub-prime mortgages…No wonder they went out of business. Stupid decisions.

“Is there anything we can do to fix this bailout mess?

“YES! Here's a quick summary: Companies that had billions in sub-prime loans were feeling the effects of their stupid decision to make those loans in the first place, and practically gave them away for pennies on the dollar. But since no one wants these loans, and they've had to mark them down to market value, it has frozen the market. If we temporarily change the rule that forces companies to do that, that will free the market up. This is an absolutely huge deal, and it involves everyone getting in touch with their congress person before we spend hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't need to!

“Will the collapse of businesses and banks affect me?

“No, not unless you work there. Thousands of stock brokers on Wall Street have lost their jobs in the past few weeks, but that happens in other industries across the country in good and bad times. This time it just happened in NYC where all the national news media is so they made a big deal of it.

“If I have 401(k) money in a Merrill Lynch or AIG trading account, should I move the money elsewhere?

“No. Your money isn’t with them; your 401(k) money is in the stocks. These big companies are just managers (unless you directly own stock in their company). Look at it this way—if I owned 6 rental properties and hired a management company that eventually failed, I would still own the properties; I just wouldn’t have a manager.

“Should I sell my US stocks to buy gold and foreign stocks?

“Absolutely not! Why would you think foreign stocks are any better than US stocks?”

Consider these things with me - - - and remember that our trust and confidence is never to be in temporal things – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19 through 34 is still viable and to be embraced and applied by each of us. So do not be unduly anxious but continue to “Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (what you need to eat, drink, wear) will be added to you!” That’s God’s commitment to us and the true bottom line is He can be trusted because He has never failed – and never will. A closing remark by Dave Ramsey states: “Remain calm, America. We’re in a slow time, but just pay your bills and you’re going to be fine.” We should add: Keep looking to the Author and Finisher of your faith - - - He alone will see you through each and every crisis.