{"id":927,"date":"2012-01-13T09:45:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T14:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?p=927"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:38:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:38:58","slug":"are-you-kidding-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/are-you-kidding-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Kidding Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently read an article on wire.com that really had me excited from the title. \u00a0Like most Americans, and people around the world, our ears (in this case eyes) perk up when we see that the economic conditions might be improving. \u00a0So, you can imagine my interest when I saw the the first part of the title, &#8220;<strong>Another Positive Indicator:<\/strong>, but as I finished scanning the article my heart sank &#8211;<strong>Another Positive Indicator: More Consumer Debt<\/strong>. \u00a0Seriously, more consumer debt is a positive thing?<\/p>\n<p>According to the article, Americans increased their borrowing by $20.4 BILLION in November 2011. \u00a0Along with the story, I heard someone interviewed on radio say that either people are feeling more optimistic about their jobs or that they have very short memories. \u00a0I vote for the later.<\/p>\n<p>Why would we, collectively, increase our borrowing more? \u00a0I think it is part of the Thanksgiving Day Syndrome where people feel that they have a little more room and then gorge themselves with more. \u00a0Instead of turkey and pie, in this case it is debt. \u00a0They have lost the feeling of the pain from the last episode and now they can take on more.<\/p>\n<p>Do you remember the definition of the word &#8220;insanity&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>One of my clients recently shared with me that in all their years of marriage, this past Christmas was their very first debt-free one. \u00a0They indicated how all the gifts were purchased and paid for well before the holiday. \u00a0And while they escaped the mad rush and stress of the holiday spending, now they are stress-free knowing that there are no credit card bills on the way to their mailbox.<\/p>\n<p>Why do we go and spend more than we have? \u00a0One example to all of us may be our government. \u00a0This morning I read that our president is requesting $1.2 TRILLION be added to the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n<p>I guess some of us will never learn&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently read an article on wire.com that really had me excited from the title. \u00a0Like most Americans, and people around the world, our ears (in this case eyes) perk up when we see that the economic conditions might be improving. \u00a0So, you can imagine my interest when I saw the the first part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debt","category-personal","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Are You Kidding Me? 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