If you spent it, its gone, if you saved it, its half gone!

Its true that for those of us who were good at saving for most of our lives we are feeling a bit cheated lately, watching our SEPPs and our IRAs diminish through no fault of our own. We put the money in our accounts and watched them grow and felt comfortable and secure thinking about retirement. Then BAM! The economy went sour and so did our savings. Not Fair!

Add to all that my recent divorce after which my net worth was suddenly only half of what it was one day before the final decree and whoa.....panic city!

So here I sit, as do so many others, with less money saved than I had last year. I can't sell property because no one is buying. Jobs are few and far between, and at 62, I really don't want a job anyway. Everything except fresh air is getting more expensive. Taxes, insurance, and health care, oh my! Thinking about it makes my head hurt.

Exactly what are we supposed to be doing about it, about our futures, about our nows?

Complaining hasn't helped, because Lord knows we've tried that. What else is there to do? And when will "things" turn around? How long before the economy is healthy again? How long do we have to hang on? One year? Two? five?

I'm thinking I will just ignore the whole economy debacle and go on as if everything is fine. I'll pretend. Easy to say as long as one has some sort of income, which I do. (Rental property investments and a little social security check.) It's enough. I won't be going to Europe to live in a Tuscan villa, but its enough to take a long road trip. I may have to bypass the Hilton for the Holiday Inn Express and set my tent up occasionally, preferably on a grassy site overlooking a quiet wise old river, but I'll manage. In fact, I expect to do better than just manage, I expect to have a lot of fun!

I expect to live well on less, to have enough to be happy. To live a little more simply, but to do the things that I really really want to do. No pie in the sky, but maybe a scoop of chocolate raspberry ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery.

I hope to get better at this way of thinking and living. Do they teach a course on this at the adult education center? Is attitude really 90% and circumstance 10%? I hope so.