If you have been feeling this recent economic relationship strain, don’t worry because you are not alone.  I have been hearing about new and challenging issues from friends and family in all stages of relationships.  Here are some common challenges:

• We can’t afford to fly to visit each other anymore.
• I can’t move to a new city to be with him because I can’t find a job.
• I can’t afford to go out to the bars and pay for drinks.
• I can’t afford to take someone out to a dinner and a movie.
• We pooled our finances and it’s not enough to buy a place to live.
• We can’t afford to put on a wedding.
• We didn’t want both of us to have to work.
• I can’t afford an engagement ring.
• Now that we’re married, we don’t want to ask our parents for money.
• I lost my job and I need to just focus on myself.

All of these issues exist for many couples regardless of the economic recession.  But if you are one of the lucky few who only find yourself in these negative situations because of a fall in stock prices, my advice is:

• Patience. If your relationship is strong, then you can wait it out.  Maybe you have to pay rent or continue long distance for a couple more years than you had planned, but stay calm and remember what’s important in your life.  After you make it through these challenges, your relationship could be stronger than ever!
• Budget. There are ways to impress your date and provide for your family without spending tons of money.  Don’t push your budget because of other people.  Figure out what you can afford and live within your means.  Everyone is stretching their money right now, so don’t feel uncomfortable about holding back on things that you could have paid for a few years ago.

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

The Economy is Affecting My Relationship

Old School Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya from Real Cajun by Donald Link

I think cool, rainy, lazy Sundays call for slow-cooked and fussy meals. Warm, sunny days, of course, demand something grilled. And once Pepper Place farmers market opens here, we’ll have locally grown fresh vegetables all weekend long. (Last year I did a Summer Soup Series with a new vegetable soup each week, like minestrone and gazpacho and a fabulous smoked onion soup. I might have to revive the soup series again this summer.)

3 1/2 hours later - the finished product!

I enjoy making dinner for the family every night. Rick will sometimes take over some or all of the duties. And Truman likes to help, too. But for the most part, I enjoy the boys sitting close and coloring world flags while I chop, sauté, stuff or baste. Rick and I were both raised in homes where our parents actually cooked dinner as opposed to slapping frozen fish sticks on a baking sheet or picking up a sack full of McDonald’s. (Not that they didn’t do that from time to time.) I am still amazed at how many parents dread making dinner. To me, food is art and creating new ways to release its flavors is an expression of love. To share it with others, like love itself, makes it even more meaningful.

NPR food commentator Bonny Wolf said in a recent story that our country’s recession is making home cooking more popular again. “But it won’t be exactly like your grandma’s. There will be slightly more sophisticated twists — artisan cheese mixed in with your mashed potatoes. And things will probably be healthier — less butter, more vegetables,” she said. “This may also bring back, the trend-spotters say, the family dinner, which has been a victim of two-income families and after-school activities for the last few years.”

Looks like for once in my life I’m riding the crest of a trend!

Source: NPR
Photos, JWJourney

Post from: Blisstree

Recession Revives Family Dinner Trend

So, even though it feels unromantic, I must take note that today Perfectmatch.com announced the release of its Love & Money Assessment – it’s basically a tool to measure financial compatibility.

The tool was developed with its chief relationship expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz and helps to measure financial habits and find the perfect economic profile of a future mate.

I just took the test, and this is the results it found for me:

Love and Money Assessment Results

Play with me! Take the test at www.perfectmatch.com/lm/

Image: Sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

All You Need Is Love? Not Really.

It seems what is worse is facing said downturn alone.

Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD, says: “Too often people have difficulty communicating, usually because they don’t yet have the skills, which can definitely be learned and sustained through good times or bad.” Babits is the author of  The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple’s Guide to Renewing Your Relationships (Prometheus Books, 2009). “We’ve learned over the years that love alone isn’t enough to repair the wear and tear that occurs in relationships, solid communication rebuilds love and trust.”

So, I must ask…in this age of great economic uncertainty…how is the recession hurting (or helping?) your love life?

Image: Sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

Recession Doesn’t Ruin The Rise of Love

I took a major action step to Save Myself. It wasn’t easy, there were a few fights and one angry letter to Suze Orman over my using $50, of our already very tight budget, to Save My Self by opening a TD Ameritrade Account.

Rewind: Suze Orman had a Save Yourself Plan in her book Women & Money. Women who signed up for a TD Ameritrade Investment Account before March 2008 and automatically save $50 a month for one year will be given a free $100.

So far I’ve saved $100. But, I don’t know what to do with it. The market is tanking and it’s giving me ambivalent feelings about my ability to make a decision. I’m afraid of making “the wrong one.”

Our investment decision are always surface and ambivalent to begin with.

Did you see Suze rip that couple a new one on Oprah? Do you know how this investment did over the last 10 years? Do you know how much you’re spending on servicing this mutual fund? And a whole bunch of other questions I didn’t really follow. Then don’t tell me you have a good mutual fund because you don’t even know what kind of mutual fund you have! she scolded.

The pressure is causing paralysis of indecision. Have you ever looked at a prospectus?

Prior to my husband working at a chicken company I would have thought chicken was as sound an investment as you could get – everybody eats chicken. (except those with an inexplicable love affair with the soy bean). But even that stock is tanking because of . . . wait for it . . . oil.

The seemingly innocuous development of ethanol – with 1/3 of the United States corn crop – is driving up the price of chicken feed and it’s causing unprecedented worldwide food inflation.

Do you have a crystal ball that explains the safe investment which will quickly grow? Can I borrow it?

(P.S. Stockpile chicken.)

Post from: Blisstree

Saving Self/Tanking Market

Post from: Blisstree

Recession Arguments on B5media

If you focus on the dire straits of marketing professionals then Houston, we have a problem.

But if your concern is with the consumer, otherwise known as the American People, then this recession looks more like a return to financial sanity.

Wasn’t this whole housing – slash – credit problem created by wanton spending with no foresight into the consequences of such behavior? Welcome, back to Planet Earth!

Was I the only one watching houses sky rocket over the last few years with jaw dropped wondering how an average family could afford to buy one and have the luxury of eating?

Was I alone in watching people buy houses they couldn’t come close to being able to afford and wondering, why is the bank loaning them so much money when they know they can’t pay it back?

 I see all the price of homes come back down to earth with a sigh of relief thinking, thank you God, maybe I’ll be able to live somewhere decent.

When I read that it looks like people will stop financing a car every other year I think Thank Goodness consumers have come to their senses and realized a car shouldn’t be going in and out of fashion between 2007 and 2008! That trend really had me worried.

When I hear about retailers not showing growth, I breath a sigh of relief that consumers have started to realize that all those credit cards have to be paid back – with interest to credit card companies that have become much like loan sharks.

When I read that President Bush and congress have resolved to send us all “free” money with a stimulus package designed to keep us spending I think , What the hell is wrong with you? Isn’t that how we got in this mess in the first place? Telling us to pacify ourselves with spend, spend, spend retail therapy? What kind of economic policy is that?

Haven’t we learned that just because we’ve found more and more ways to spend money that isn’t ours doesn’t meant that we should? This kind of spending should not be confused with a sound economy.

Consumer spending shouldn’t be our barometer for whether our economy is strong or not – not when most of what consumers are spending is borrowed at extremely high interest rates! Hello!

When I hear recession I’m thinking – finally, people are starting to listen to the likes of Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, and others (like myself) who have called for a halt to the kind of foolish borrowing and spending that’s marked the last few years with a kind of financial delirium.

This recession in that light – is the best thing that’s happened to consumers in a long time. 

In other words, It’s about time everyone started listening to me!  

Post from: Blisstree

Recession or Sanity?