People that hang on the every word of each media outlet and shouting head pundit on the cable networks are doing themselves more harm than good. Â I’ve seen this play out over and over again where people will go and sell all their stocks and switch to bonds or cash whenever the media starts drumming up some drama over a war, political impasse or otherwise. Â We’re seeing the media hype now with the government shutdown and the spate of silly updates on negotiations making headlines on all the major networks. Â This was echoed over at Weakonomics where we can laugh at how if if there’s no news, the media just creates it. Â I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw (like I predicted) that the stock market was actually UP on the first day of the government shutdown when no compromise was struck. Â Is this the world trying to tell us something? (we’re better off without much of our government “services”, spending and waste?). Â I also couldn’t help but laugh about the notion that all these furloughed workers aren’t suffering a paycheck at all, but simply taking an extended paid vacation if certain politicians get their wishes. Â Kinda defeats the purpose of a “shutdown”, no? Â Regardless, none of this really matters. Â In the end, the Republicans will cave, everyone will get back to work and the US will continue spending well in excess of its revenues and we’ll be right back to borrowing over a Trillion dollars a year more than we have. Â That’s how we roll.
With that in mind, here are some additional links for your consideration:
- I always enjoy Len’s posts; here’s a short one on why Not ALL Debt is a 4 letter word.
- In the event you are furloughed, here’s RB40’s advice on how to survive the furlough.
- I see this a lot more often than I would have thought – Krantcents: helping parents manage their finances.
- Always enjoy the commentary and comments at Burning Platform – here, he highlights that liberals can’t do math.
Here’s some advice I wrote elsewhere offsite:
- Is the 4 percent withdrawal rate for retirement a safe assumption?
- Multi-generational living – worth the savings?
- Have stocks become too risky?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the links, I am in good company.
A lot of time is wasted watching the media, which is also often misinformed no matter which channel you listen to. I can’t count how many shutdown articles I’ve read.
We’ve long since stopped following our media in my country. We just plan our lives/money according to our needs and ideas, not waste time with them