Welcome to My Thoughts

As a short introduction, I'm not an economist, a financial guy, or anything other than a participating member of the USA. I'm a loyal, tax-paying, law-abiding citizen who happens to love to study business, finances, and the economy. I'm actually a periodontist, which is a dentist who specializes in the gums and bones of a person.

I decided to write this blog, more as a journal and an outlet for my thoughts on where things are going with our country and economy. Since I'm new to the world of money, I don't have decades of experience, but what I do have is a brain that can think logically and I am far enough removed from the world of economics that I don't have tunnel vision or am I being paid by Big Money to do certain things.

I feel that our world is no longer separate with regards to the rest of the world's economy. The global stock markets have definitely shown that the last couple of years. The US economy and business world is no longer the powerhouse that we once were. We are not a wealthy country by any means now, but we don't know that yet. The US is far down the list of wealthy nations, but noone is paying attention to that. It's kind of like the bully on the playground not realizing that the rest of the kids are growing up also!

Our current market turmoil is brought on by noone else but ourselves, and the way our lives have been structured over the past couple of decades. We are a nation of spenders, who borrow the money in order to spend it without any regards for paying it back. Most of us think that we can charge our lives to some foreign piece of plastic and make small payments over time. We do it with our houses, cars, vacations, food, phones, cable, clothes, and everything else. What we fail to realize is that there is a bill due sometime.

This is the thought of what we do through life, and we ignore it while we're working because we can make the payments and we don't feel it so much. The issues come when we retire, or for the younger generation, when our parents retire. This mindset is ingrained and yet the retirement income is nowhere near what is needed, so people dig a deeper hole. This then sets up a cycle that is passed on from generations with no end in sight.

Look forward to the next post: What to Do About our Economy