Do you want to help the economy? Here’s what won’t work.
According t
o a recent AP article, all the government’s spending hasn’t done anything to create jobs, help the economy, or reduce unemployment. On behalf of the taxpayers, our government has spent more than $21 billion on transportation projects in the last 10 months with the hope that the spending would create jobs and stimulate the economy as part of the much larger $787 billion stimulus bill. An analysis has shown the spending has had very little impact on unemployment. And now, because it isn’t working, our brilliant members of Congress (from both parties) are calling for $75 billion in more spending on transportation-related projects! This is pretty typical of our government – when things go bad, spend more money. When spending more money doesn’t work, spend some more. When will the government figure out that continuing more spending and adding to the inefficiencies isn’t the solution?
You know, our personal lives are really no different. Too many of us are in a bad situation where we are spending too much and borrowing to get by.? So what’s our answer? All too often we try to fix the situation by spending even more money. The bottom line is this: You can’t dig your way out of a hole! That just gets you deeper into the hole. Borrowing money (credit cards, loans, payday advances) to fix your financial situation only gets you deeper in debt. If you want to fix your financial situation, you need to increase your income or decrease your spending. Most of the time you need to do both. Don’t wait for the government to create a job for you or give you more money. At the rate they keep spending, they’ll need to take more money from you in the form of taxes, just so they can keep spending more money to get the same bad results.
The last time I checked, organisms who rely on the efforts of others for their well-being are called parasites. Don’t rely on someone else. The only person responsible for improving your situation is you. Take charge of your life and commit to accomplishing something worthwhile. Go out and nail the interview to get a new job or second job. Make sacrifices in your life to reduce your spending so you can eliminate your debt. Turn off the tv, get off the couch and do something that adds value to your life. You’ll be glad you did!
Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach dedicated to teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence). Start enjoying L.I.F.E. at www.financialexcellence.net