This article by Jim Jubak was interesting. It was reviewing a book, I plan on reading soon from the library, called “High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families” by Peter Gosselin. 

The book apparently examines why people feel less secure and more anxious about their futures.  When asked about the economy people have very little confidence.  Yet Gosselin says we’re 20-33% better off than previously, why are we all still so worried? 

Part of it is because jobs are being lost due to outsourcing.  And wealth is being spread less evenly and more people are joining the middle/lower classes with the “rich” becoming substantially richer.  But this isn’t the reason Juback suggests for our insecurity.

Rather it’s the fact our incomes can swing from great to bad in one day.  We can lose $43k earnings in a moment.  Our jobs can be downsized, outsourced, or given to the freshly minted graduate from college.

Another factor is that Jubak gives 3 examples of people who thought they were living “smartly” and doing everything right, yet still they found themselves in trouble.  A woman denied cancer treatments by her medical insurance.  Or a couple who thought their house was fully insured, turns out when they had to rebuild they only got 50% of the value.  Finally a man who wanted to sell stock in his 401k, but a mistake was made by the financial institution and he lost $150k.  These are people he says “tried to follow the rules,” and yet it didn’t work  And worse is that all of us probably know people like these three in real life.  Or we’ve been them fighting with our “insurance” companies and providers.

So how do we deal with this financial instability?  Gotta read the book I guess.  I’ll be checking it out asap.