Successful people don’t make a good victim group that the political class can exploit.
What are we (wife and I) doing?
1 – Getting debt free. We’ve whittled our debt almost down to car loans and mortgage. See Dave Ramsey for how.
2 – Living below our means. That means being patient and saving money for what we need and want. It also means recognizing the difference between needs and wants.
3 – Next year we will start growing chickens. Wife wants fresh eggs. After that probably goats for milk. We already had a good garden this year, which reduced our need to buy produce from the grocery store. (We moved into our current house last year.)
4 – Getting and staying healthy.
5 – We will be doing everything we can to minimize our tax liability. This is getting harder since the company my wife works for is just to successful, and her team is exceeding their goals (big bonuses.) We’re not going to stop our careers based on Washington, but we might seek other forms of compensation.
6 – Speak your mind. We’ve got free speech, we need to use it. Also donating to those causes or groups who are effective advocates for you is a good idea. Though a part of me feels that if we took all the money wrapped up in political campaigns, lobbying, and political issue advocacy groups (NRA, etc.) it could be put to better use actually helping people.
Right now, our retirement plan is to be debt free and as self-sufficient as possible. An Obama/Pelosi/Reid governing triumvirate may change our investing decisions, but not our overall plan.
