Practical Ideas to Restructure Your Life

The American economy hit debris in the road years ago. Instead of pulling over and taking care of the problems before they became a crisis, our leaders ignored the problems. Government overspending, ignoring $56 trillion of unfunded liabilities, funding over-expenditures with money borrowed from foreigners, not addressing crumbling infrastructure, not creating a cohesive energy policy, and over-reaching in empire building were the fuel that led to our economy bursting into flames before our very eyes. President Obama and his minions in Congress scream and take your hard earned money and redistribute it to the fools who created the tragedy.

The American people are at a crossroads. It’s our lives, not the governments. The country is headed on a path toward government running everything in our lives. Now is the time to stand tall. Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, and Nancy Pelosi cannot make us spend money we don’t have. We can force the painful restructuring of our economy on our politician leaders. They can stimulate, print, and urge you to spend, but we don’t have to listen. We can throw them out of office in 2012. If the new set of clueless morons doesn’t do what is right, we can throw them out too. We must heed the warning of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”

With the help of famed financial blogger Rob Mulligan, I’ve pulled together a list of practical ideas to restructure your life:

• Bring your lunch to work - savings of $1,000 to $2,000 per year.

• Stop buying things.

• Keep your appliances until they stop working.

• Realize that it isn’t a competition with your neighbor to die with the most stuff.

• Mow your own lawn. Better yet, if you have kids, make them do it.

• Learn to embrace dandelions and crabgrass. Who cares?

• Wash your car in the driveway. Better yet, if you have kids, make them do it.

• Buy your next car and drive it for 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first.

• Buy a car that gets at least 30 mpg, as $200 a barrel oil is a certainty in the next decade.

• Tell your kids they are lucky to have whatever you give them.

• When you walk into a room and the CNBC is on TV, switch immediately to When Animals Attack.

• Don’t answer the phone — it’s someone asking for something.

• Don’t throw out your old sneakers — you can use them to cut the lawn.

• Turn the heat down to 60 degrees at night.

• Go to the poor man’s Disney World, Wildwood, N.J. and save $4,000 for a weeks vacation.

• Eat out once per month rather than three times a week and you’ll magically save $3,000 to $4,000 per year.

• Contribute into your 401k until it hurts. Picture yourself handing out yellow smiley stickers at the age of 80 in a Wal-Mart as motivation.

• Buy some gold, just in case.

• Plant a vegetable garden, just in case.

• Instead of spending $40 at the movies, go for a hike in a National Park like Valley Forge.

• Have a catch with your son.

• Understand the motivation of anyone who is telling you anything. Most people have an angle.

And by the way,

• When the guy in the Mercedes or BMW in front of you is wearing their hat sideways, your taxes are probably making their car loan payment.

• When you see that same guy pushing a cart with a 52 inch HDTV out of Best Buy, your taxes are probably making the payment to Capital One.