Anti-Business Politics in Action?

I'm hardly a fan of the socialist leanings of the current administration, but when I hear from clients, friends and associates about how President Obama's policies are anti-business I need to question their emotions versus the facts.

A look at the chart below, taken from the 2012 Bespoke Report, shows a very different picture than I would expect from an anti-business President.  Obviously three years is far too short a time period to infer success or failure of any policy, and I personally don't agree with much of what's being done in Washington with abuses of the Constitution such as nationalized health care.  But it's hard to argue that the Obama Administration has been bad for business, at least as measured by stock market performance.





Assessing Obama's anti-business agenda as measured by unemployment also shows a different picture.  Unemployment has also stopped skyrocketing and begun to decrease since Obama took office in January 2009, as noted by this chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Again, I'm not personally a proponent of the current administration, and my message is not that we should re-elect President Obama because he's been good for business.  On the contrary, I think that these metrics would have reflected similar improvements had John McCain won the last election -- and perhaps they'd be even better.

However, to say that this administration has been bad for business doesn't hold water, at least thus far.

My message is this:  don't believe everything you hear simply because it supports your ideas or attitudes -- think critically and independently about important issues.

Having faith in the stock market

Here's one of many reasons I have been slacking on my Roth IRA savings: I lost my faith in the stock market. I had spent all the time exactly a year ago researching different stocks and mutual funds to invest in and actually started finding some stuff perfect for me and my investment risk level. But I lost momentum, you can probably guess why!

there's no way you get that kind of return anymore...

So anyways, I have been feeling guilty about not saving regularly in my Roth IRA for a while now, but I invest because I felt conflicted.  All the news this past year about the unstable stock market was NOT encouraging. But then something, well someone changed my mind. I learned from a CPA that when it comes to your retirement account, you're looking for long term growth not the day to day fluctuations. So you invest regularly in order to average out the fluctuations. Instead of investing $1000 once a year when you think the timing is perfect, you invest $100 a month and if some are during bad times, others will be at good times so things eventually even out. So to cut things short, I decided to start an automatic payment plan to my Roth IRA. Finally, I am surmounting the courage to invest regularly!

2 financial tips for when you're unemployed

So I've taken a little bit of a hiatus over the past two months, if you haven't noticed... It turns out being unemployed a. does not mean you're less busy and b. does not motivate financial housekeeping...and how am I supposed to talk about money and finance, when I am ignoring my own finances?

Loosing sight of your financial status

It's almost impossible to budget when you don't have any income, because keeping track of all your expenses is DEPRESSING!  It's interesting because before I was employed, I didn't understand why people who are unemployed don't budget since it's so important to manage your money, especially when you don't have much. But now I get it! When you know you don't have any coming in (I didn't even get unemployment benefits) you know you're going to either be draining savings or amounting debt. So why count it?

Well I can tell you why. Ultimately you will be better off knowing what's going on. The more disciplined you are, the better off you will be once you do start taking care of the finances...and we all know that at one point you will need to manage it.

similar to what my bank account looked like!

I must say I am happy I at least checked into my bank account to make sure I was above water and to keep an eye on the ever increasing credit card bill. Even though I stopped checking into my mint.com account and making sure I was staying within budget, I didn't constantly feel guilty since I had half an eye on it. Plus, now that I have a job I feel very ready to get back into it! I am excited to re-allocate my budget to fit my new income, and to start allocating money to my savings.

Small Steps
I did do something positive in terms of my finances over the holidays.  Since I couldn't save or budget or plan for retirement (my favorite thing to do! check out last years blog posts), I planned to save in the future.  I decided to start an automatic payment plan for my Roth IRA. But, here's the key: I scheduled the start date for one month in advance.

I didn't actually do anything to fix my finances at that moment, but I did something for my future and that felt just as good. Even if you're not sure about whether you will have the money next month I would recommend doing this, because you can always reschedule the start date. This will keep retirement planning on your mind at least once a month and will help you feel like you're doing something about your financial mess, even if it's not a lot.