The Grumpstump

I’m getting really tired of opening the paper (well… online news ) and seeing Blah,Blah,Blah RECESSION plastered all over the business section.  Is the economy slowing down? Sure, I’ll buy that.

Is there trouble in the housing market due to some lending issues and liquidity concerns? You bet.

Is housing going to bounce back in 2008? I don’t know, but I doubt it will fall a whole lot more unlike this guy from Yale.

Are Exports supposed to continue growing at significant amounts? Yep.

Is Corporate America very healthy right now in terms of earnings? Outside of the financials, absolutely.

When People say the ‘R’ word, I say 3 right back at them “Buy…Buy…Buy..” JP Morgan, Citibank, WaMu, et al. have been clobbered in the last month or two for setting aside money to pay for loans that haven’t even gone bad yet. Does anyone honestly expect any of these banking behmoths to go out of business?

Of course not, we know that they will be trading stocks, making loans, insuring, and managing wealth long after you or I are gone. So, when their assets are the cheapest they’ve been in a decade, why not jump in?

 Here’s a New Years Resolution: Less ‘R’, more ‘BBB’

-JD

A new year is almost upon us. It’s time to set some goals.

I’m getting married next year along with about 4 or 5 of my friends (not all at once, separate weddings ) and obviously have some financial goals associated with that. As I refine those over the weekend, I’ll be sure and let you all know those.

However, I’m more concerned about a goal for the Grumpstump. I’ve been very active with some of my other online endeavors lately,  and have felt a touch directionless on what to write about here.

What do you all think? more News? more Personal Finances? more basic investing education? More Stock Picks? more emerging web 2.0 financial companies? what do you enjoy reading about at the ‘Stump the most?

I’m very happy to announce that I wiped out one of those evil Credit Cards yesterday. I sent off almost 5 grand to the lovely old American Express. I’m already feeling a little extra bounce today and it’s awesome!

How’d we get that much CC debt in the first place? A variety of ways, none of them particularly smart. However, since we (My fiancee and I) began budgeting together in July or so with Mvelopes and Mint, we’ve been slowly and steadily turning the ship around.

After this month, we should be right at about half way at getting rid of our little plastic friends. We would love to finish up by the wedding, but those wedding things are expensive.

When budgeting the numbers, the wedding is going to cost the two of us between 5,000 and 9,000 bucks. Most of that is just on travel and bridal party gifts. If that sounds obscene, remember that we are in Texas, the preacher lives in DC, my family is in Kansas, and her family (and the wedding) are in Hilton Head, SC.

Since a lot of this debt we have now came from not paying attention when we were flying all over the country to see each other in 2006, I really want to actually pay attention and plan for it this time.

With the Holidays and a hugely busy few weeks at work coming up, it may be difficult to get my Net Worth Update posted. However, I’ve vowed to become more regular tracking it next year so hopefully you will stick around and watch as I stalk down the next debt for the kill and slowly work on taking over the world..

-JD