en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 26 May 2013 08:39:47 GMT 15 By MARIA COTARELO
Today, I was getting my car. Dec. 25, 2008, the day I finally turned 18. On a regular basis, I’d daydream about my car. Listening to the music I liked, picking up my friends and going to the beach, not having to ask anyone for rides. But my freedom was crushed, and my hopes for independence went with it. My dad had lost his job because his company was going bankrupt and was only keeping the oldest employees. He was only 38 and had already joined a long list of unemployed Americans. As his income disappeared, so did the money he sent to my mom every month. That meant that either my mom or I couldn’t get new cars at the end of the year, and that I’d have to work for twice as many hours than I had planned in order to pay for my dad’s car share, which was now permanently lost. It also meant that my mom would have to get a second job to pay the bills, working weekends and possibly nights. In the month of November alone, the U.S. unemployment rate rose from 298,000 to 4.7 million people and the numbers keep rising. Over this time, the number of "involuntary part-time" workers, those who work part time for economic reasons, rose to 7.3 million people. I had never kept track of my spending before, but when I started to, I discovered that over the course of just one weekend, I’d spend around $70 eating out, going shopping and on other small purchases. By the end of the week, I would spend a large amount of money and wouldn’t realize it. I never thought that this situation would hit so close to home but no one is immune to this deadly virus that is now our economy. I find myself exhausted from going to school and working all day, and I seem to get farther and farther away from my blue Volkswagen dream. There is no certain solution to this problem, nothing specific we can change to make it go away. But, little things today can have effects on your wallet tomorrow. Even though you may not have to worry about money now, you might have to in the future. Next time you go to the mall, try spending $20 and not $80 or shop only at discount and thrift stores. Try carpooling to school and save on gas money. Or try this: At the beginning of each week, take out $20 from your bank account and take only the cash every time you leave the house, leaving your credit card at home. I never expected my dad to lose his job or for my mom to need to work two jobs to pay the bills, but I am expecting a change. A change not only in my spending habits and economic situation, but in my attitude to help my parents and my situation. ]]> Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:43:54 GMT