Lilred's Rant of the Week- The American Public

[Duffy]

I live with my wife and three children in a small house in an average neighborhood in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, just north of Akron.

We first moved to Ohio from Pennsylvania after my wife finished her MS degree, and I enrolled in graduate school myself. We moved into a small townhouse until I finished my MA. I got a good job right away, and we bought our small house, all before the kids came. We moved into the house twelve years ago, and we had our first child three years later. While we were paying off our debts, building our savings, driving junk cars and putting things aside for our returement, our friends were buying huge houses, big SUVs, spending money like water, etc. Many of them are paying some hefty prices now, and not just monetary. Our job situations have improved (and now I work for the state of Ohio and have state retirement benefits), we have been able to upgrade our vehicles, we will probably buy a new house in a better area someday, we have only the mortgage payment as a standing monthly debt (and we pay extra against principal), montlhly utilities and related stuff, and one credit card that we pay off very month, no balance. We put aside a lot for our retirement every month, and we still have about 30 years to go. And our future is looking very good. Nobody else among our friends can say the same thing now. Granted, things may come up, and changes may be imposed, but we believe we can weather the storms because we planned and sacrificed early. And we still deprive ourselves of many of the things that we would like to have, so that we won't have to sacrifice later. And we're actually comfortable and happy!

It just seems to be a matter of personal responsibility and sound decision-making.