Reflections of the “Great Depression”

March 8th, 2009 | by Lynn | Tags: BabyBoomer, Generations and Age Groups, Great Depression, History, Mint.com, people, Social Security, Twentieth Century

There is no doubt about it, today most everyone is feeling the pinch of the economy.

Rather than analyze what got us here…(that kind of happens along the path of discovery for each one of us…), let’s look for ways to ease the burden and hopefully gain some insight. A lesson is never learned during the easy times. I am sure we all want to make sure that this never happens again!

We are lucky that we can turn back to our elder generations. Most of our parents are Baby Boomers. They were able to reap the prosperity of their parents wisdom. It was their parents generation who had to struggle through hard times. I think if any of us get the chance, we should be picking the brains of this generation before we no longer have them to talk to. Many are gone now. Many kept journals or chronicles of their daily activites. What may have seemed mundane to us in their daily lives now can be a gold mine of information that can be applied here and there in our present day lives.

Some of us will change our lifestyles for however long we need to cut back. Others (like myself and hubby) will make this a new mind set. We don’t want to be blindsided in the future AND we are going to use this experience to help teach our grandchildren. We have decided that one of our gifts–or legacies to them– will be to live simply, not extravagantly. We have enough examples of living beyond our means in our children’s society today. We aren’t going to follow the “Jones’ lifestyle”, so we’ll lead by example. Maybe we can reinforce something in their parents world as well…

This is a great reminder that we should never forget our roots.

I routinely stumble along a site that has great ideas from the past. Here is an article on Mint.com that gives food for thought. A good look at simplifying our lives can never hurt.