Goodbye $5.00 Coffee...and Hello....

Goodbye $5 coffee.So long, gourmet supermarket food, $3,000 handbags and McMansions. Adios, expensive shows and gambling tables in Las Vegas. Downsizing Starbucks, Whole Foods, Big-time Las Vegas Hotels, and Toll Brothers home builders.

Hello to the new frugality. Dinner at McDonalds (and coffee too). The new American reality, that seems to have some 'legs' to it. Job losses, job cuts, hours gone, upside down housing, cars that are way too expensive, electric bills that are out of sight, and the new reality of it all: we are going to definitely pay higher taxes just to keep government running. In Phoenix a tax on ALL food items, for example.

Checked your mortgage payment notice lately? How about that escrow account. Up at least $5.00 per month. Cable TV? Up at least $5.00 per month. Electric? Up at least $5.00 per month. That cheap chicken at .99cents per pound? Gone! Credit card interest rates? And they 'sneak it in on you'. Just add it to your bill. You get the picture.

Just these few additions add up to probably about $60.00+ per month on things you already use.

And don't bet the ranch on stocks either from Starbucks, MGM, Whole Foods, or Toll Brothers. Those stocks are about at their peak. In the $20. range, and will stay that way for a long time to come.

The fact is that everyone is squeezing the consumer, when the consumer can't be squeezed any longer. Something has got to give, if it already hasn't.

Personally, the only 'bill' I have is the house mortgage, and that is difficult to take, since the home is worth less then the mortgage. If I could rid myself of the home, and buy a Class "A" RV, I could forgo all of this. I could cancel all my credit cards, move away from social networking, and finding new clients and opportunities, and just drive off into the sunset. Nay. I'd have to pay for overpriced gasoline, overpriced repairs and overpriced insurance. And I would be forced to visit my mother-in-law.

Have a good one!