Cigary

Life is cyclical at best. No guarantees when you come into this world and there is only one guarantee when you leave,,,you come into this world with nothing you leave the same way. While you are here you should be preparing for eventualities that this life hands out. If you are a spiritual person who believes in a higher power then your faith sustains you. If you don't believe in a higher power then you are on your own to get thru this life as best you can with no hope of anything except what this life has to offer.

My wife and I are retired and slowly built and provided for our retirement days and didn't lead the extravegant lifestyle that a lot of people do. We lived without the "new" things that everyone else had to have,,,boats, big houses, new bigscreen TV's, big cars, jewelry,etc. Our parents taught us to live without over indulging in "things" and it worked for us. I tried to teach my kids the same thing but each generation has it's own hurdles and my kids are saving like crazy because they don't want to have to go thru what other generations are going thru,,credit crisis, foreclosures, loss of their jobs, etc.

I read the other posts here and it makes me sad that good people suffer,,,sometimes things are not their fault and bad things happen to good people. Tightening our belts, though not easy is sometimes the best thing to do in hard times and shows character to do the hard things. When was the last time you learned a lesson the easy way? Hard lessons toughen us and make us experience those times for the future.

Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. This isn't the first time we have all faced economic hardships and it certainly won't be the last. Remember to provide for the future and not live for the day. Good luck to us all.