So I sit as the world's finances seem to spiral out of control and wonder has any lessons been learned from it all?

My guess is probably not. But still I have the Hope that's left at the bottom of Pandora's box.

I think some where along the line we as a people got caught up in the "He with the Most Toys Wins' or "Keeping up with the Jones' “ way of life.

No one ever stopped to think, how DO the Jones' afford all that stuff? All they see is what is on the outside. No one ever stopped to wonder..do I really need all those Toys?

Everyone seems to suffer from instant gratification. They want it now and they don't care how they get it. They also really don't want to do anything to get it, or pay for it actually. It's theirs, they've worked hard for it and they deserve it.

Can people make the changes needed to help themselves out? I look at the big businesses that thought they could do whatever they wanted to us and now here they are crying because they are all realizing it is about we the people. We do have some power still. It's not all about them. Yet even these big businesses fail to take responsibility for their actions and cry because now they want a bail out...the banks got one.. why can't I? They made and continue to make bad financial decisions and we're supposed to pay for it cause they made an Oops? Why don't you scale back and start getting rid of your high paid executives and put in someone who has some fresh ideas and will do it for half the cost? That ought to save you a bundle. Why don't you take a queue from Palin in Alaska and sell off that company jet and use that money to help bail yourself out. I'm sure there are many things you could do internally to save the company instead of looking for a hand out so you can continue doing things the wrong way. It's really a bad example being set in my opinion. 

I once sat down, worked out all my numbers and got my finances together. I learned to live within my means..which for some reason made many people mad. 

My sister asked me to show her so I sat down and worked it out with her. When I told her she spent more then she made, she got angry.  She wanted to know why the credit card companies gave her all this credit if they knew how much she made. How could they let her get into this situation! She was dead serious. I was shocked. But I feel this is what is most of America's economic problem. It's not their fault they got into debt; it's someone else's.  Somewhere along the line, you have to own up to it and realize...for the most part, there's no one to blame but yourself.

Now I am by far not perfect. I still have financial issues. They're just not as bad as some peoples, not as good as other's, but I'm working on it and I keep working on it and being conscience of it all the time. It's a full time job.

How did I get my stuff together? It really is simple, but sometimes the simplest things escape you. I actually also helped a co-worker out and she was almost debt free at 24. I was glad, and wished someone had done the same for me at her age. No one explains finances to you. It's like a taboo subject to talk about.

She was like many people are; you don't answer your phone anymore and had gotten to the point where she wouldn't even go to her mailbox anymore. The bills were just too scary. 

I told her first things first. You can't fight what you don't know. So, she had to go to the mailbox and open all of her mail to see whom she owed money too. She also had to print out a free credit report to see what was on it. 

I told her to sit down and write down all of her bills and when they were due. That had always been my hang up. Due dates. Again simple, but something you never think about. 

Write down everything that's due on a calendar and do it the week before it's due. This gives you time to get it in on time.

Then you have to create your budget around this. Take what you make each pay period. Subtract at least $50 off the top in the event you should miss a day due to illness etc. This is also a nice cushion, as its money that's not "For" anything.

Now this is you working cash. Take the bills that are due each pay period and subtract them from what you make in that pay period.  What ever is left over is your gas, grocery etc money.  Again, pretty simple. Yet, it's not that easy.

She realized she was spending more then she made. She made some cut backs and slowly got her finances in order. She was lucky enough to get some decent money back on her yearly taxes and paid off a large portion of her debt. This left her with just her mortgage and normal bills to pay. 

I had recently gotten the "transforming your debt into wealth" program, which I listened to and returned. (Hey, it's a $300.00 program..) I'm not going into debt getting out of it.) Everything on it was also common sense that you don't think of.

Don't use credit cards, use cash instead. He suggested not having them at all or having one in a frozen in a metal soup can in the back of the freezer for emergencies. The soup can is so you had to wait for it to melt, so you wouldn't nuke it because Payless was having a great shoe sale and this is a great emergency. It caused you to wait for it to melt and think about the emergency a little bit longer.

He then used the cascading debt payment system. He suggested taking 10% of your salary each month and using that towards you debt. I do 10% of my weekly; the other way was not workable for me.

So, if you make $400 a week, you take $40 of it and put it towards one credit card, plus the regular monthly payment. When this card is paid off, you take the $40 and add the monthly payment to it (say $20 minimum) this gives you $60 and you start paying that on the next card in addition to it's monthly payment.

Now when that is paid off you take that total and add it to the next debt until finally, it's all paid off and then you take the whole thing and start paying your mortgage with it. In addition to your monthly mortgage payment. Now this is all principle. In this way, you should be debt free in 7 years, give or take.

The idea is, you're still spending the same amount of money you were before, you are just moving it to the next bill, so you won't miss it. It does work most of the time. Unless you have a tight budget like we do, and a butterfly flaps it's wings and it all spirals out of control and you have to play catch up.

Do you think Americans will learn to do without the things they think they need in order to keep their basics for survival? Do you think that cable and cell phones and even the Internet will go by the way side because they aren't really needed? I mean we lived for so long with out them before..(don't ask me how though) we really could do it again.