Looked

If you haven't already, DON'T DO IT. Don't look at your 401K statement(s), or any other brokerage accounts you may hold. Just don't do it. It's like a train wreck. And I expected the carnage, even as I logged in....I knew it would be bad. But OMG - it is horrific. What a week, huh? And I don't think it's over yet. I'm paralyzed with fear...and I have nothing to worry about, really. But it's as scary as anything I've ever experienced to see our future perilously close to dissolving before our eyes. I just can't get over the train wreck we all just experienced. WTF? Seriously. I don't know what else to say. Holy crap also fits. We will be working far past when we'd hoped, at this point. We are 'holding' everything - what else can we do? And I had an instinct a month ago to move absolutely everything into bonds or something. But how do you know? The decline had already started and selling at that point - at a low - seemed like a mistake. It wouldn't have been. Crap. So we sit tight, still? I don't know if it's right, but that's what we're doing. What else can we do?

And I am shocked and disappointed in the approach being taken by the McCain/Palin campaign. Their 'fringe' supporters trying to insight some kind of 'fear mentality' against Senator Obama is unforgivable. At least I give McCain credit for finally (FINALLY) trying to stop the fear faction. What an atrocity. I an stunned that people in our country feel this way. Just stunned. What have we become? It just shocks me. And scares me - that there are people in this country that will do that. I am stunned.

I didn't get an interview for the job - which I'm not surprised about. Even as I was filling out the application, I was reasonably sure it was really a long shot - but since I'm in a job that I applied for as a long shot, what did I have to lose? Oh well. It wasn't meant to be and something will come along. In the mean time, I have a good paying job close to home. I'm lucky.

We are heading into the week of our trip to Phoenix. So much to do at work - and at home. This time next week, my sister will be married - YIPPEE!! Looking forward to a fun weekend of friends, family and partying!

As the financial markets crashed around us, I made a decision.....

So, Majah, now that your financial future has crumbled all around you and you are left stunned and skeptical on the curb of life, what will you do next?

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

Possibly. I made reservations for the week of Thanksgiving - and we will see what we think as the date gets closer. We aren't mentioning it to the kids. We shouldn't spend the money. Right this minute, J. is at the tire store getting 2 new tires for B.'s car - and also heading to the phone store to replace B's phone (which fell into a toilet last night - at a friends house). We don't have the $$ to go to Disneyland - and if we indeed go, we will be breaking our rule and 'charging' the trip and paying it off over time. There's no rational reason to do that...we shouldn't. But damn it all to heck - we are so friggin' careful all the time - what does it matter? Seriously, what's a teeny, tiny bit of debt for a few months?

We probably won't go...this 'mood' I'm in will pass and I'll realize a trip to Disneyland won't fix everything. But I long for some escape. And the kids - well, B. will be 18 in January - and this might be the last chance we have as a family to visit the Magic Kingdom. The next time we go there might very well with my grand kids - something to look forward to, for sure....but it's a long way off.

We'll see. I want to go. But I also want to be rational and not use the economy's collapse as an excuse to spend money that I know I shouldn't.

And even with the collapse - even with the devastation to our retirement funds - we are still so much better off than many people. So I know I'm blessed. I really am.