Invisible money could last forever I guess…

Politically and economically, I am a pretty conservative person. I don’t believe the government should do it for you. I don’t believe in a (ballooning) tax and spend model. Yes, I believe that Uncle Sam should oversee certain things like international security, assuring an infrastructure is in place and maintained country wide…stuff like makes sense. I do believe a smaller government whenever possible is better…telling you how you should spend or not spend your money or whether you can legally buy a can of soda or not isn’t junk I agree with. Now, before I touch off a political firestorm here, let me just express that I know these are much more complex issues than just saying “spend money on this or cut spending on that” is not likely ever going to be a real process, nor should it…remember the democracy part? Ok, let’s keep it simple, I’m conservative and that’s, that.

Having said that, doesn’t it seem like with all brainpower we have in this great country that we could come up with a simple and fair way to collect and and then spend federal resources in a fiscally responsible way? I mean, 3rd grade math would indicate that you need to collect $10.00 before you can spend $10.00 (forgetting credit and leverage for a minute) and if you only collect $8.00, then you can only spend that much? Credit is a valuable tool and works in many areas of the financial world but I don’t think it has a place in a budget, whether that be a federal budget or the budget of a homeowner’s association or whatever. I know, national defense, seniors, there are a lot of “hot buttons” here because they are all really important budget items but there still should be a way to pay for all of these things without mortgaging the future of our country. How much everyone pays should be fair and equitable from top to bottom, whatever that means, but equally as important, in my opinion, is that it should be clear, easy, simple, predictable, all those magical terms.

Does anyone really think that a deficit (a negative budget) is acceptable, even for one year?

Charting the course…sort of.

In the few days that I’ve been at this I’ve already covered much of the textbook stuff. You know, I want to do this, I wish I did that…likes and dislikes. Some of that is productive and some is fun but certainly not life changing by any means. We can revisit some of that stuff along the way but only in small doses.

Before we get too far into this process I think it might be good idea to chart the course just a little bit. Now, I’m not saying just point the ship at the horizon and sail in a straight line forever…not much sense in that at all. At the same time, hop-skipping all over the place isn’t a great way to go either so I would like to offer a little navigation here. Granted, I do have a fair amount of ground to cover but I want things to flow a little bit at least.

As you might have gleaned from the name of this blog, there could be three distinct areas of focus and you would be correct. The “then” portion is obviously the past. There are a few stories that I’d like to share from the past, some fun, some not so fun. We all have a past and as much as we all might think that ours is the most interesting of all, it’s not. One fact still remains though, sometimes reflecting on the past may then allow you to better focus on the here and now more effectively. In my case, it might be worth a shot so we’re gonna complain a little, joke a little, then close the book on it. The “now” part is just as obvious and that may include any number of ideas and stories of the present. A little tip here, at present I am kinda of at a crossroads but we’ll get into that soon enough. Lastly, the “tomorrow” part. Ah yes, the future, the journey I’ve hinted about. Well, that’s coming…

So, yeah, I’m going to jump around a bit but this is the general direction of things. Enough of that, let’s get to it.

Things I will never do…

I will never forget the the 9/11 disaster.
I will never encourage my children to do the wrong thing.
I will never admit to an overweight person that they are overweight.
I will never experiment with drugs.
I will never tell the priest at our church how I really feel.
I will never be ungrateful again for what I have.
I will never smoke cigarettes.
I will never stop missing my father.

I’m going through a process here so bare with me.

More of this to follow…

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