The President called on Congress to take action and approve a bailout bill for Wall Street banks.  Sen. John McCain has suspended his campaign in the face of the banking meltdown.  Sen. Barack Obama is multitasking saying that the future president will have to focus on solving the banking crisis while continuing to campaign with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden — home senator to some of those banks that probably own a piece or two of your paycheck even before you earn it.

I remember watching a program in CNBC not too long ago — it was a repeat played late on a Sunday evening — about the new gilded age.  Mortgage bankers were living in multi-million dollar houses.  Hedge fund managers from Sen. Chris Dodd’s home state of Connecticut were making $900 million per year.   It was the gilded age of the roaring 20s all over again. 

I don’t want to be alarmist, but I do think that we are in for some rough times ahead no matter who is in charge of the White House.  The same people who caused the problem will be in power — no matter if the Democrats or the Republicans control the presidency or the Congress.  We’ve been building to this point for years and years — every one of us who applied for a credit card or two or three, a mortgage , home equity loan, massive student loan, etc.  The banks deserve a lot of the blame as well for passing out addictive credit products that encourage people to dive into the rip tide without a life jacket.  It didn’t make sense to let people take out no income verification loans for million mortgages — I remember hearing such advertisements on my XM Radio as I was driving around in 2006.

The is to start paying off debt the hard way by not buying unnecessary things and paying more — a lot more — than the minimum payment.

Don’t finance an education that won’t make enough money to pay back the student loans.  Don’t purchase an expensive luxury car when something more practical will do.  Turn off lights that aren’t needed.  Don’t drive as much to save gas.  Stop buying as much as in the past.  Go window shopping without bringing anything home, if you must go shopping.  Use cash and cut up the credit cards.  Stay away from any financial product that seems too good to be true because there is usually some catch that you should know about contained in the terms and conditions — such as an ARM or other device designed to even the score for low introductory payments.

The blame belongs squarely on everyone — us, the government, the bankers, the rich and the greedy, and our society that always encourages massive consumption and planned obsolescence.

We’re going to be in for rough times.

The government is going to have to come up with the money for the bailout — if we don’t save the banks, we’re pretty much screwed which will pretty much screw the rest of the world.  But, money that could have gone for some other use, will end up being spent putting out the latest financial fire.  (How many more time bombs are ready to explode?)  It’s not pretty to think that at a time that the “me generation” baby boomers are getting ready to retire, there are less young people working and paying Social Security taxes than there were at the start of the program.  Add into the mix the news that salaries aren’t rising compared to inflation and it means that today’s workers are going to end up with less money available in their pockets after all is said and done.

Let’s just hope that the United States’ banking system is bought out for a bargain by the Chinese and Middle Eastern oil states.

Start preparing for some lean time.  Save up some money.  Pay off debt.  Put off purchases that don’t need to be made.  Don’t go to school for a degree that requires a backbreaking student loan — paying $150,000 for a degree might be worthwhile if you can make some serious bucks, but not everyone going out into the job market is going to make a rockstar wage, especially outside of the expensive cities where higher costs of living, expenses and taxes eat up the excess money. 

I hope everything works out for us, but don’t look to any government to help out — historically governments of all types are more geared toward helping institutions and the elites.

Do what you can to get out of debt legitimately by paying off your debts because the feds aren’t going to bail out the little guys and gals.

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