Monday, March 09, 2009

Interesting map - where are the bank failures and foreclosures

My mother sent me a link to a map of bank failures and foreclosures by states.

I am afraid we are going to be in hard times for the next couple years.


----------
Technorati tags: ,

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's going to be difficult for many but I do think homeschoolers are generally one income families and we might find things tough a bit faster than most.

Henry Cate said...

I'm not sure.

There is a myth that two income families are better off financially. But the reality is the second income only adds a fraction of the second income. There are higher taxes. There are many increase expenses due to more clothes, eating out more often, child care and so on.

One of the interesting findings in the study that led to The Millionaire Next Door was that over 98% of the really rich families in America had the classic one parent worked and one stayed home. The authors speculated on a couple reasons why this happened. One was it allowed each parent to play a role. Typically the husband was out playing offense, trying to earn a lot of money, while the wife was home playing defense, making sure they kept a lot of the money. By being able to focus on one role each parent could become really good at that role.

I think a big part of surviving hard times is character. I think most homeschoolers have dealt with some tough times, and a recession or depression is merely another tough time.

NerdMom said...

I think something else that insulates 1 income homes is the fact that if things really get tough the non-working parent could pick up something part time. Then it really a difference. Also, traditionally 1-income tend to be a little better with the dollar to begin with.

Henry Cate said...

NerdMom you make a great point. I had never thought about that before.