The year is already almost over

February 11th, wow this year is gone. I will be 50 before I know it, especially at this pace.

My job continues to annoy me. I love what I could be potentially doing, but hate what it means I must do now. Although I have booked myself up on a bunch of trips throughout this entire year. I will probably end up with nearly this entire year tax free.

Speaking of taxes I still cannot do mine due to errors at both my investors office and the Army. They will likely continue to screw it up. My financial service lost nearly half of my IRA contributions this past year. After a few colorful conversations with me, they found my money. But now I must wait on all the proper documentation.

I guess I am just irritable, all I can do is bitch……

Hard times ahead

Economy, its a word crossing more and more people’s minds daily. I think it should. I have spent a few hours with my financial advisor over the past two weeks and he has nothing good to say except look at the past for a preview of whats to come. Although I will tell him that we have never been this bad off before. I will tell you that Americans have gotten far to comfortable with being spoon fed. No-one wants to have any hardship at any time during their lives. Everyone wants to be refunded for the cup of coffee they dumped in the floor.  They don’t wanna work or earn anything. Now we are going to pay and pay dearly for our stupidity.

I had a long discussion with some of my peers and superiors today. Economy, ofcourse was the topic of discussion and what the conversation turned to, surprised me. So American style banking is currently collapsing. What would you do if your debit and credit cards were temporarily disabled, let’s say for 60 days. Could you survive? If so, what preparations could you take care of now to make things easier during a period of transition?

How about never allowing your gas tank to drop below half a tank over the next few months or a year; half is the new empty. How about a few extra cans of food in the kitchen. I would say just a couple days worthof food until you can afford to wait the hours in line to get more money. You can survive a really long time on a few cans of food. The US Military has spent a lot of money teaching me how to survive off very little. Believe me, if it comes down to it, it doesn’t take much. And last on my list of staples you should think of, pull out some extra cash from your emergency fund (you have one right??). I would say, two months worth of survival cash, gas and food. Keep it in your fire box at home for the next year, it’s not like it’s going to earn any interest anyway.

What do you think will happen in this country if the economy totally fails? I know. It will involve me and a whole bunch of my buddies in body armor. We will be fighting a whole new war…….. against you.

So I have focused myself on change and preparation for hard times. I have saved and invested a good sum of my money over the past decade and I would like to know that it has brought with it some peace of mind……  ????? I do not want to be caught with my pants down.

The State of the United States Army

Now my very beautiful friend brought up a few vaild points that I would like to comment on now.

I will begin with the overall state of the military which trickles its way down into every facet of military life. People are in awe at how much money it has cost to mobilize and fight this war. I, however am not surprised. We, the military are still recovering from the 1990’s where cutbacks took place in every spectrum of the military. For example, the most talented men in my field I ever met, even to this day, were removed from military service well before their 20 year goal due to cutbacks. Military medical facilities remained unchanged from the 1960 and 70s. Soldiers living conditions were generally below the standard of the average american prison. There was no money. For the first two years of my military service i lived in buildings that had been condemed 5 times before. Each time the Army had no choice but to pry down the boarded doors and move Soldiers in. I was taken care of in a hospital that was built in the 1940’s. Our equipment was generaly unchanged from the vietnam era equipment. The perfect example is HMMWVs and armor. Do you not think that we hadn’t thought of Armoring our vehicles long before this war was ever envisioned. We simply did not have the money to do it. Had you brought it up to the powers that be it would’ve just been shot down. It wasn’t necessary. Another good example, this the first war that soldiers have actual body armor, not just flack vests. The technology has been in military hands for decades. It just simply could not be done. The president Bush era military is no smarter then the military of old, we just have the money now. I am happy to hear that Americans are up in arms about the state of the military healthcare. I have already seen the outcome of that cry for change right here on the post I work on. Almost the entire base has been re-built. We have new barracks, a new hospital, new hangers, a new dental clinic, just to name a few and all of these repaced facilities that where generally built either during or before Vietnam. So you see, the state of our force cannot be blamed on the current administration, but only on those before it. Congress decides everything for the military and we have all seen how truely jacked up the congressional system is. It takes forever to get anything done. The best example of that is the federal budget. It is supposed to be approved and in use on October 1st of every year. Fact of the matter is we usually get temporary funds from the Congress to keep us operating while they debate until Febuary. It is a matter of fact, not opinion, when I say this, the United States Military wants war. We will want more when this conflict ends. We see things from an entirely different view then the average American. We talk about this exact fact in my office on a weekly basis.  “As soon as this war ends, it’s back to the poor house for the United States Army.”

Now I will not defend the current Government on their decisions, its not my place. I think it is unfair that it all falls on one man, when he doesn’t really get to make decisions as one man. I think people fail to realize that the economy really didn’t start to fail until after the congress was taken over by the democratic party…. But that is neither here or nor there. If you are one of those people who are under the impression that one man (or woman) can make that large of a difference in this huge committee we call a nation then i think you should relook how you view our current system. I hope I could give you a small slice from my view of things. I will give you one last thought. This last paragraph probably made most of you guys think that I will vote republican. I will tell you who will be marked on my ballot right now, “none of the above”