How Much Do I Have to Pay?

I have been retired for over two years. When I retired I planned on living off of Social Security, a small pension, and dividends- capital gains from investments. The dividends and capital gains have virtually dried up. My discretionary income is gone. All the money goes for month to month expenses such as food, heat and medical expense.

My wife and I have invested in this country by owning stocks, mutual funds and a 401K. These investments have dropped over fifty percent. How low will they go? Our home valuation has dropped about thirty percent. Our assets are disappearing right in front of our eyes and we feel helpless while it is happening. This is getting very disturbing.

The stock market has dropped twenty percent since inauguration day. It appears that investors are not very happy with the government programs that have been instituted. Until the market begins to like or understand what the government is dishing out I am going to pay for it. Someone needs to instill some confidence in the market. If the government thinks that the only people in the stock market are rich, they are flat wrong.

I am not a rich person. I am just a person who has worked hard for forty-five years and want to enjoy the fruits of my labor. All my life I was conservative on how I spent the money so I could enjoy my senior years. I never expected anything for free or felt I was entitled to anything. Now I am beginning to think that philosophy was wrong. Maybe I should have overbought and maxed out the credit cards and enjoyed it while I could. It appears that the government is going to reward bad credit behavior.

What do I hear from the government? Our elected officials just passed a stimulus bill that was over a thousand pages long and they did not even read it. Our elected officials are working on an omnibus bill that has close to two thousand earmarks. Our president states that he will sign it because it is last year's business. What happened to the campaign promise of "no earmarks"? The president wants a seventy-five billion dollar bill to help pay for mortgages that are past due. I had a mortgage for thirty years and never did I expect to see help from the government.

I am getting angry and scared. I am not buying anything because I just don't know how bad it is going to get. This in itself is forcing me to pay more because of this fear. How much am I going to have to pay? Anger is starting to set in.