I saw a great bumper sticker on my way home from the airport the other day. It read simply:
Debt is normal. Be weird.
Later, I found out that nugget has been promoted by Dave Ramsey, whose financial advice has appeared in print, on TV and via his syndicated radio show — and has drawn a considerable amount of criticism and backlash as well.
Controversy aside, I love that sentiment. For too long, we've been living under this warped sense of entitlement whose mantra seems to be, “I deserve the good stuff, no matter the cost — or my ability to pay.” If that's normal, we could use a lot more abnormality.
And now that we're finally starting to see it, it comes with the sobering realization that people are saving more simply because they can't afford to spend. A recession has a disturbing way of making people way more frugal.
If there's a silver lining, it might be this: “When prosperity returns,” reports Time's Nancy Gibbs, “61 percent (of Americans) predict they'll continue to spend less than they did before.”
That's a good thing, considering our own overspending contibuted (at least in some small part) to this downturn.
If people have used this recession as an opportunity to become more financially literate, that bodes well for their financial futures — and that of the nation itself.
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