My Final Post

Loyal readers, you have likely noticed that I have been away from the Living Financially Aware blog for some time. I had to focus on preparing to launch my new financial planning practice, Couples Financial Planning & Coaching, LLC. That took considerable time and did not allow me to blog here.

During that time, I also decided that I will no longer be posting on the LFA blog. There are a variety of reasons, most importantly because I want to keep things simple. I will be blogging (although likely less frequently) on my business website. Having one blog helps maintain simplicity. I encourage you to join me at www.couplesfinancialplanning.com to continue the discussion.

I do not intend to remove the content on this blog. Working on this was an important journey for me. It brought me back to financial planning after some very dark experiences. It allowed me to reconnect with the financial planning community and make many new friends. It has been wonderful.

Thank you for reading the Living Financially Aware blog. I hope to see you on my new site.

-Nathan-

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND (It's Your Duty)

Even in the best of times is our economy well-designed? There is an oft-cited statistic about the percentage of our economy that is driven by consumer spending. The percentage is a staggering 70%. I find myself wondering, is this the way to design any economy? Does it make sense for our economic prosperity to be almost entirely predicated on our ability and willingness to spend?


It seems to me that saving is a certain losing proposition in this type of economy, despite its unquestioned importance. We need to spend in order for our economy to prosper so that our savings can compound. But how do we save when we need to be spending? In fact, I can't count the number of times I've heard an expert make a comment to the effect of "get out and spend!" since our current economic malaise began. That might be great advice for our collective economy, but horrible advice for an individual.


I don't have any answers, just questions today. (As if I ever have answers!) How do we find balance? Does it require a social agreement that growth has to be muted so that we have the ability to save for our future selves?