Sunday Thoughts

In what might become a weekly tradition, a thought that struck my fancy today (taken from the LDS hymn "Today, While the Sun Shines":

Today, while the sun shines, work with a will;
Today all your duties with patience fulfill.
Today, while the birds sing, harbor no care;
Call life a good gift; call the world fair.

Today...work with a will;
Today...your duties fulfill.
Today...work while you may;
Prepare for tomorrow by working today.

Our paper today dolefully reported that it might be years before our consumers resume their "robust" spending, if ever they do. We might be more penny-pinching than our very notable depression-era grandparents. The economy may.never.recover unless we stop being so selfish and SPEND!

Good grief. Haven't we done that enough?

"Americans are hunkering down and saving more. For a recession-battered economy, it couldn't be happening at a worse time.

Economists call it the "paradox of thrift." What's good for individuals - spending less, saving more - is bad for the economy when everyone does it.

On Friday, the government reported Americans' savings rate, as a percentage of after-tax incomes, rose to 2.9 percent in the last three months of 2008. That's up sharply from 1.2 percent in the third quarter and less than 1 percent a year ago." (Seattle PI, 2/1/09)

If, as a nation, we had been more careful would we have had the whole "America and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Investment Day"? (Catchy title courtesy of a local radio station)

Compare that to this message from the Prophet:

"We encourage you wherever you may live in the world to prepare for adversity by looking to the condition of your finances. We urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt. . . . If you have paid your debts and have a financial reserve, even though it be small, you and your family will feel more secure and enjoy greater peace in your hearts."
—The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances, Feb. 2007, 1


Here's to a new year, a new budget, and a new outlook!