This week I read an online article about the government’s sequestration affect on government jobs. If you recall, our elected officials, being unable to find a way to cut government spending, chose to let a sequestration method make automatic cuts. That started on April 1, 2013. I said then, and will say again, there is plenty more to cut!
This week’s article share a government report, by the General Accounting Office (GAO), shows that only one job was lost due to the sequestration cuts that we were all told would end the world as we know it or something very close to that. Evidently, it did not.
First, I will tell you I do not believe that report. While I am unsure what was studied and how, I am aware that more than one has lost their job. However, as the report states, many cut overtime, reduced travel, furloughed staff, etc. to comply with the cuts. In some cases, contractors were let go or hours reduced. There was impact. But, how severe was it? What have we felt from the sequestration versus what we were told?
In this same time period, I have worked with many clients who have dreaded the changes that they “knew” would impact their lives. Yes, change was inevitable from the way they were currently managing their money, but something had to change. In the end, most will tell you it felt as if they now had more money. Why? They were now in control! Control had been missing and now, getting a plan down in writing showed them 1) what they were doing, 2) what they could do, and 3) what they were missing out on.
I put an earlier blog posting out about the sequester a year ago – Do You Need A Sequester. You can read it here. In that post I compared what the TINY cuts being made by the government would feel like to a typical household budget. In comparison, it would be equivalent to cutting $120 from a $4000 monthly budget.
The bigger thing to see is what those cuts do for you. The older you get the more you will begin to understand that the future is coming. Retirement is just around the corner. What are you doing to build wealth?
How would (or did) a 2-3% budget cut affect you? End of your world? Leave your answer to this blog to encourage others.