21 June 1968,

05:00, It’s already hot.Could hardly get my breath all night. Like sleeping in a Sauna.

Cpl. Pete Bosco an I are packing to go on a 2 -3 day sweep with Hotel Co. The deal is (According to G2) the NVA have a company to regiment size detachment hiding on a peninsula not far from Phu Bai. Believed to be factions of the remains of the post Tet force.

200 lbs c-4, blasting caps, det cord, fuse , fuse lighters. Ready to go.

We immediately distribute all but 1 satchel of c-4 for each of us to the grunts. ( A common practice to enable us to transport more than we can carry. They get to keep a stick for cooking in exchange for carrying 5 more pounds.)

07:00 , its already near 100 and humidity is 90%

Within a 1/2 mile we start finding weapons caches. ( Weapons buried in the sand) This peninsula is only about 7 miles long but our progress is slowed considerably by finding so many weapons caches. We have 3 Amtrak (Amphibious Tracked transport vehicles) 2 Tanks and all the supplies are in the Amtrak. We are of course on foot.

Noon, 105 degree and climbing.

We capture a couple of Gooks (Suspected NVA). The Kit Carson Scouts (NVA deserters, retrained as scouts) and The ARVNS (Soldiers of the Republic of South Viet Nam) begin to question them. The ARVN leader become very agitated with one prisoner and pulls out his knife and proceeds to cut open the prisoner’s abdomen from side to side and pull out his internal organs while he lives and screams. The other prisoner is taken away. Unbelievable cruelty by some of the Vietnamese to their counterparts.

15:00, 121 degrees.

More weapons caches. we transfer supplies all to one Amtrak and store undestroyed enemy ordinance in the 2nd track. The 3rd Track due to mechanical problems it is limping along empty.

We capture no more enemy although 2 brief small firefights resulted in 3 NVA killed.

We reach the end of the peninsula and find no enemy force. G2 says they have either left already or are behind us. We start back to Phu Bai with a track full of supplies, a broken but able to move track and a track full of enemy weapons and explosives.

The Amtrak’s plow through a small line of small trees. The first one through, the second one starts through when KABOOM! this immense vehicle flies up into the air and flips over landing on its top. Command detonated Mine I shout to the Skipper. The Grunts immediately begin to set up a defensive perimeter as we move towards the now inverted track.
I said to Pete, they are all dead (The crew of the Amtrak)from that blast. Just then the gunner ( Amtrak have a machine gun mount on top) starts to crawl out from under the track.

Amazingly somehow he has survived the blast but he is pinned underneath. Just as we are approaching to help him out the fuel cells rupture and burst into flames. The heat an flames prevent us form getting to the track and immediately consumed the gunner and he is burned alive while we could do nothing but watch.

18:00, 110 degrees Finally cooling off.

With one track destroyed, 3 dead and scattered small arms fire we dig in for the night. Finally the small arms fire stopped around dusk. Pete and I have just cooked up a meal of c-rats and coffee cooking on c-4 in the bottom of our foxhole we sit down to rest for a moment on the edge of our foxhole and drink our coffee when KABOOM!!! The world went silent and I felt myself being thrown through the air. (Enemy Mortar) I hit the ground flat on my back and laid there semiconscious for a long moment trying to decide if I was dead or alive. I could not feel or move anything on my left side and could not tell where my left arm was. I reached over with my right arm to my left side and did not feel an arm and where my shoulder was I felt a big hole. Oh my God! MY left arm is gone! I heard Pete groan and said “Pete, are you alive?” He groaned “Yes.” Then we both started calling out. “CORPSMAN!! CORPSMAN!!”

The Corpsman came over and looked at us both laying side by side a “They are both alive” He rolled me over and my left arm flopped out from under me. “It’s stilttached.” he said.

He began to look over us to see the visible extent of our wounds. I had the remains of my left kidney and some intestine hanging out of a gaping hole in my back just below the ribcage.
I had a hole in between my ribs about halfway up my back that had torn up my left lung.A large piece if schrapnell was sticking out of the small of my back between two vertebrae. Another piece about 2″ in diameter was sticking out of the back of my skull. There were shrapnel puncture wounds all over the back, left arm, left leg left side.

One Corpsman spoke in medical terms to the other about what they were discovering. I had been in combat for most of the 6 months I had been in country so I understood enough of what they were saying to know it was not looking too good.

They carried Pete and I into an Amtrak and called for medivac. The medevac chopper crew said they could not come in in the dark while we were under fire. We could not give them illumination to land without exposing our position. Just then an Air Force medevac chopper who was in the area answered the call for 2 priority one medevacs. He said he would attempt it if they could talk him down to the ground. He flew in without illumination at night and picked Pete and I up and had us in Phu Bai 1st medical battalion in 20 minuets.

When we arrived they took us both into emergency surgery. I was slipping in and out of consciousness and I remember the Doctors saying “His veins have collapsed, do a cut down in the groin.” While I was awake and unmedicated they took a knife and cut my artery open and fed a blood tube in, that is the last thing remember until the next day sometime.

That was to be the last day in combat in my very brief Marine Corps career.

When I awoke the next day I was in an Intensive care ward with Pete in the bed next to me.

He was alive and his wounds and mine were similar. Neither of us had lost any limbs but both of us were experiencing paralysis in parts of our body. Both had lung damage, Mine resulted in the removal of the left lung and left kidney. He had not lost any organs. We both were very happy to be alive

The Battalion Commander and staff came in later to award us our Purple Hearts and to tell us we were going home.

I spent a year in the hospital. a couple of month in Yakutska Naval Hospital in Japan, a couple of months in the Wright -Patterson Air force Hospital In Dayton Ohio. I got to go home for 2 weeks and spent the whole time in bed. the remainder of the year I spent in Philadelphia Naval Hospital until I was Medically retired, 17 June 1969.

I was married on 21 June 1969. The Happiest day of my life.

I am a combat wounded survivor.

And that is the rest of the story!

O, Canada!

What a week, Stock market looks like a yo yo this week. We got sea sick just watching. Fed keeps sticking their nose into private enterprise (Something they are very good at). Each time they fool around the stock market goes wild.This week they messed with banking, oil, technology, the Auto industry and one of their favorites is the airlines industry.

In case you haven’t picked up on it we are in favor of federal hands off where business is concerned. We think the American consumer will sort it all out given time.
When Uncle Sam starts messing with business it is always a disaster.

Enough about depressing financial stuff, now on with the trip.

Went to Canada week before last and was not surprised to find the American dollar not in a favorable position.

Western Canadians blame all the worlds woes on the US. Is that a surprise to any one?

Had a great time walking in one of the largest glaciers in the world in shorts and crocks. LOL. Our first time in the Canadian Rockies was quite a treat as we have never been that high since Viet Nam.

We loved the scenery and were especially in awe of the color of the Glacial water in the rivers and lakes. If you have not seen it it is a deep turquoise blue. The powdered rock from beneath the glacier suspends in the water and dispelled all the color spectrum except this unusual but spectacular blue.

The AKGORICLE was not present with his glacier cooler trying to save the glacier from global warming though and I was, as you might imagine very disappointed.

The Canadian Rockies in Banff National park are unspeakably beautiful.
We were about 4400 ft above sea level at the Hotel and 10,000 to 12,000 ft above sea level at various times in the Mountains.

I saw Elk in the wild for the first time. They were so used to people in the national parks we could walk up to within 50 feet of them and they paid little attention to us

The Banff Springs Hotel is spectacular and incredibly expensive. We stayed in the section of the hotel reserved for mere millionares and below.(Rooms only $475 per night.) The good rooms were up to $5000 per night.

8 of us had a 3 hour 5 course dinner for a mere $1400.00.

I had buffalo steak, 3 medallions the size of silver dollars for $55.

Parking our rental car was $34 per night. We ate most of our meals at McDonalds after that dinner.

We swam in the same pool that the Royal family has used (Not the Obamas)

We also swam in volcanic mountain mineral hot springs 105 degrees and they have to cool it from around 150.

As we returned to the good old US form our trip the Canadian Customs people were busy doing body cavity searches on the two of us 60 year old Caucasians tourists while Abdul and Mohammad and friends went right through without question.

Another week in the kingdom of the Vast Right Wing Conspirators at the Money Matters staff headquarters.

God wants that you should have life and have it more abundantly.

We are keeping our eye out for the true freedoms purchased at such a cost by our awesome fighting men and women so you and I have equal opportunity to prosper and profit.

God intended that you and I have available at our disposal “Exceedingly abundantly above all you can think or ask.

Ask and seek and knock and you shall find.

Until next week.

Happy trails to you until we meet again.

“Doug’s Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

http://dkirk@forwardfinancialgroup.com

Amazing!

Just a few days away from the highest gas prices in history and already we are declaring “The worst is over.” say some Fox News financial analysts.

Who do they think they are kidding?

The market wen up on Thursday almost 200 points.

See that’s proof the good times are back, right?

Whoops! We forgot to tell you the market went down 450 points combined for the rest of the week.

I work all day every day with peoples finances and companies finances. Some of the people I work with are quite affluent. I see the best and worst and everything in between and I make it my business to keep track of what is going on both Nationally and Internationally financially.

I am not a Profit sent by God to foretell the future but we are being fed a line of c**p!

It has always been in the best interest of the stock market and business to project an image of prosperity even when one does not exist. Loosing consumer confidence has always been a major no no in the financial and business community. But when we (The consumer) have are head so far up our butt that we cannot see the forest for the trees it spells big trouble.

The business and financial industry have always made a killing when the consumer is ill informed or just ignorant.

Today the consumer is IGNORANT!

“If you know the truth the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

People do what makes them feel good at the moment, with no consideration to the consequences.

The Mortgage crisis is mostly the fault of the feels good mindset.

People are shooting themselves in the head financially and saying ” No one told me that the gun was loaded.”

It’s time for the American consumer to stop trying to buy the US out of hock!
It is not your responsibility to attempt single handed to raise the GNP (Gross National Product) numbers.

Stop using debt!

A client argued with me the other day that if all Americans stopped using debt the economy would collapse. I asked him when he was appointed savior of the economy?
Why is it his responsibility to buy everything he can get his hands on and destroy his own family in the process?

Think people!

Who is going to bail you out? Is the congress going to vote to bail you out financially?

You and I have to be responsible for ourselves.

For the most part those who are truly prosperous have no debt.

Those who are duped into believing we can prosper on debt walk a fatal line. I see them daily. I see the pain and devastation and bankruptcy and families torn apart by debt. I see sickness and depression and loss of self esteem. Emotional disorders, suicide, total destruction from the debt mentality.

Most who read these warnings will nod your head in agreement as I did for many years and change nothing!

MY hope is to cause just one to heed these warnings and take affirmative steps to change the direction of there lives forever. To those who would be bold and say I will not continue to be the status quo I say.
Start a structured plan of attack. You cannot do it yourself! If you were a financial expert you might pull off some real change but we need help. Get with a no fee faith based debt elimination strategist and let them help you.

You and I will accomplish much more if there is some accountability. Even the most prosperous of my clients will say I could not have accomplished all that I have done without a structured plan and a “Money Coach.”

Get a Money Coach today and start moving from mediocrity to true freedom. You will not regret it.

See you next week.

Doug’s Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

http://dkirk@forwardfinancialgroup.com

I joined the Marine Corps in 1967 right after high school. I was in Nam by December. My combat experience and how I dealt with it probably was not much different than many others.

I was only in Nam a couple of days when a South Vietnamese soldier tripped a booby trap and was killed. The first time I had ever seen someone die.He was not dismembered and there was little blood and the experience seemed eerily surreal.

I was a Combat Engineer and a demolitions expert and mines and booby traps were my specialty. I felt as though if I had been where this man was I could have prevented his death.

A couple of days later we were mine sweeping a dirt road between a place called An Hoa and a fire-base called An Loc when we found that a large hole(50 feet in diameter) had been blown in the middle of this road. Loose dirt was everywhere and the V.C.(Viet Cong) had a bad habit of doing this and planting mines in the loose dirt because they were harder to detect. We had the infantrymen set up a defensive perimeter and we ( My partner and I ) began to probe for mines. Laying on our stomach to reduce our profile to explosions we would carefully push our bayonet’s into the loose soil, feeling for solid resistance while being gentile enough to avoid setting off any mines.
My partner(Clyde Dillenberg) and I were carefully and systematically clearing path through this area when the lieutenant walked by me upright. I thought; what is he doing, to myself. He knelt down just a few feet in front of me and began to probe. I looked up just as he pressed his bayonet into the ground and BOOM. The explosion knocked me backwards and I landed on my back about 25 feet back into the crater . As I looked up I saw the LT’s body flying through the air above me. He must have been at leas 20 ft high. He landed about 15 or 20 feet further up the road from where the explosion took place.
Pieces of his flesh and bone and blood were all over me.

Everyone said that he must have seen something because he suddenly walked purposefully directly to the spot where he knelt down and started probing.

I immediately began probing again to clear path to him so we could get him medical attention. When we had secured an area safe for the medical corpsman to come up to him the sight we found could only be described as unthinkable. Here was a man I knew with one leg ripped off taking with it the hip exposing his intestines. The other leg was blown off above the ankle and shredded flesh hung in ribbons from the exposed bone to the knee. The arm he was probing with was gone to just below the shoulder again exposing the bone from above the elbow to the armpit. The other arm was blown off rather cleanly around mid forearm.

We found him face down and rolled him over to expose the most horrifying sight I have ever experienced. His forehead and cheeks had gaping holes in them and both eyes were gone,the rest of his face was in tact. The rest of his torso was mostly in tact.Immediately assuming he was dead I informed the Doc(Medical corpsman) that there was no need to hurry because he was dead. Just then he (the LT.) groaned.

It was chilling. Then he began to talk. I was both horrified and saddened to think this man was still alive in the condition he was in. The doc called in a medical evacuation and we cleared the rest of the area of mines so a chopper could land and pick up the LT.
There was little we could do but watch and listen to this hunk of mutilated flesh talk asking for help. He could neither see or hear us talking to him but he kept calling out to us to help him. I began to wish for his death so he would stop talking.

We picked him up by the limb fragments and put him on stretcher and loaded him on the helicopter.

He died 3 days later. I was 19. New years day.1968.

There were to be many other days and many other horrors for the next 6 months.

I chose to share this experience as a part of my journey back from 40 years of healing. I was mortally wounded that day but not by mortars, mines or bullets. My wounds started that day and continued to become more and more severe over the next 6 months. I was wounded by enemy mortar fire in late June and medically evacuated ultimately back home and Medically retired.

From the time I was evacuated until more than 10 years later the severity of the mental wounds began to show up in increasingly more bazaar and violent ways.

In 1979 I found the true beginnings of healing from my mental prison. My wife and I had always made it our practice to attend Church regularly but it had little effect on my mental state until one summer morning when I met some folks who were involved in the same business we were in and they began to talk about their faith in ways I had never heard.
They talked of being “Born Again” and of a intimate personal relationship with Jesus. As they spoke I realized that I had been desiring a deeper faith and felt drawn to the Jesus they spoke of. They prayed with me and I invited Jesus into every area of my life. Healing emotionally began immediately. Although dramatic changes began that day the changes took several months to reach a level where I knew I was truly free.

I still have some spells where I get emotional and uncomfortable when spending a lot of time thinking about those months In Viet Nam. The hate, bitterness and anger are long gone. The violent incidents, long gone as well, the headaches loss of reality, also gone.

I have functioned as a whole man for many years. Although my physical scars remain and somewhat limit my mobility I am free indeed.

My hope is that by sharing this bit of my life here with my family at VAJoe that maybe one of you will find some healing as I have.

A difficult journey starts with one step. Start today.

If you have questions about any of these experiences you may post a response or email me at

dkirk@forwardfinancialgroup.com

Back to the regular Doug’s Money Matters next week

If you still have not cashed out of the market you are probably singing that song. Thank God It’s Friday!
What a week! Well I have been overwhelmed with people wanting advice on what to do with the money the had in the Market (What is left of it).
Let me share some of our recommendations with you.

1. Establish an emergency cash reserve of at least $3000.00 (This needs to be liquid).
This way if something breaks (Car, Hot water heater etc.) You will not be forced into using debt.

2. PAY OFF DEBT! All the debt you can. If the economy were to collapse your 401k would be useless. If you own what you possess you start out 10 floors above everyone else when recovery begins. and you will have assets of intrinsic value with which to bargain for your needs.

3. Store up basic provisions. If things continue to skyrocket in price and you have food stored up you will not go hungry. You do not get a second chance if I’m right.

4. Find ways to save and invest in things of intrinsic value. Gold ,Silver, etc.
those things will always have value even when our Dollar is worthless.

This is not some far out fringe extremist survivalist strategy but the prudent plan of wise men throughout History.

This is a blog and you are welcome to ignore it completely if you wish. But should you ignore it and these things take place please don’t bother to come calling. There will not be enough for everyone. I am laying up provisions for my family and a few others but they are all moving purposefully towards this goal.

I will be speaking ,as I do almost every weekend in a Church. The people there will get a step by step plan to reach and exceed these goals.

These brief seminars are called Financial Freedom seminars. They are taught weekly in Churches and civic groups Nationwide.

Keep in mind my military family and friends, you must change how you are doing what you are doing if you want your life and future to change for the better.

Insanity is doing the SAME THING and expecting DIFFERENT RESULTS!
If you continue what you are doing or do more of it you will harvest MORE of the SAME results.

Politicians cannot save you. 401k’s cannot save you. Your smarts cannot save you. (If they could you would already be doing far better than you are now) YOU MUST have a plan to get free.

There is hope for all who seek it. But be cautious. There are also those who would have what you have saved, by force or influence.

My job is to be a watchman on the wall. calling out a warning.

Who will heed???

You can be free but you must act now. Freedom is why we served and freedom is what we sacrificed for, but few in this land possess it.

Do you want some freedom? Freedom from employers who control your life? Freedom from want? Freedom to enjoy your life? Freedom to help others? Freedom brings peace and rest, in your body , mind and your spirit.

My prayer for you this day and every day is that you will find true peace and freedom.

” Let Freedom Ring”.

See ya in 2 weeks, Going to Banff Canada for some of that freedom. ( Can you say FISH ON!)

Fixing the money thing!

We have tackled many topics regarding your personal finances, however it’s time we tackled the pending financial disaster in America.

Today the stock market fell once again. Sound familiar?

Remember 2000 to 2003?

The stock market has fallen more than 2000 points since the first of the year, Is this just another minor market correction?

Why are the cost of goods going up at an alarming rate? Why are there so many forclosures on new homes? Why with so little unemployment are we seeing the kind of economic indicators we saw during the Carter administration? Should I be alarmed? What can I do to protect myself from a financial disaster if one should occur.

Doug intends to tackle these issues in this blog.

Lets look at some of the factors that have contributed to the unsettling times we are facing.

High national debt,the highest in history. High personal debt, also the highest in history. The blog host shows stastistics on his website that are alarming regarding personal debt and national debt.

Someone has to pay the piper.

Home forclosures are at a national record. In my sons 4 year old new home subdivision 1 out of every 5 houses is abandoned, in forclosure or severely behind on their payments.

Why?

Builders, bankers, realtors and their lobbies influenced the Government to modify lending rules several years ago to keep the housing boom going. The lenders were able to get people approved for loans that 2 0r 3 years earlier they would not have approved.

Buyers with considerable credit challenges were approved and the builders and realtors were thrilled. They could now get people in homes that they would not have qualified for before.

The problem comes in that the buyers were already in excessive debt and we just added hundreds of thousands to the burden. When you buy a new home the real estate taxes are based on the LAND only the first tax year.The second year the payment including taxes and insurance went up considerably. The third year,the loans were not fixed interest and the interest went up and so did the payment.

Buyers who were struggling to make the payment initially now were unable to make them at all.Thus forclosures! In many new home subdivisions people are just walking away from the home in the middle if the night.

The housing and mortgage industries are in a panic.The stock market is affected and so on and so forth.

Oh what tangled webs we weave in an effort to deceive!

THE STOCK MARKET

In 1960 only 2% of Americans owned stocks.

Then came the Mutual fund!

Today most Americans have Mutual funds through employer retirement plans like 401k’s, 403b’s, 457’s, IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s.

What does that mean?

The stock market is vastly overinflated.

Before mutual funds, the only people who owned stocks were people of means who were able to pay someone to watch, move, buy and sell on their behalf continuously.

Today the American people have been lied to by the brokers and agents who sell these mutual funds at big commissions and continued (Trail commissions ) even when the market goes down!

When the experts sell the mutual fund, owners are told to buy because the market is so good. When the market is low and the experts know what and when to buy the mutual fund brokers say again, buy now because the funds are a good value.

In other words, no matter what is happening they are giving you the exact same advice.

Sound a bit suspicious to you?

When in 2000 -2003 the market began it’s largest loss in history. The advice was exactly the same. It will come back, don’t worry!

Well, they were right! The market did come back. Over all, the average holder of mutual funds and stocks had vertually NO GAIN for 7 years!

How often can you afford those kind of setbacks?

Now, with the largest one week loss in the history of the stock market earlier this year and continued losses for thr first 6 months what do you suppose the advice of the mutual fund dealer is? Same old, Same old!

Why are we not suprised? They don’t want to give up those hefty commissions.

The stock market is more volatile than ever in it’s history and we predict a much longer and much larger loss than in 2000 -2003 over the next several years.

Can you afford it again?

What then should we do?

Lets start by using some of the common sense that our Government, Realtors, Builders , Bankers and Investment brokers seemed to have left on the Table of the BIG COMMISSION!

Start by developing an aggressive strategy to pay off all consumer debt!

First, make sure you have at least $2,000.00 in the savings accounts for immediate emergencies.

Then attack the debts one at a time starting with the highest intrest rate and going down.

Don’t add a little to each debt. Take all the extra money you can free up monthly and attack them one at a time!

Stop paying into retirement plans and eliminate consumer debt first.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom due to the employers contribution.

Don’t let greed destroy you! Pay off the debt!!!

If a major economic downturn, recession or worse happens you will be on top and not at the bottom!

The choice is yours!

You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above
You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above happens you will be destroyed financially.

Or you can do something different.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Are you willing to bet we are wrong?

Doug’s Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

What in the heck is going on here?

Are you watching the stock market? The Mortgage crisis? The oil situation?

We are free falling into the worst economic period since the great depression.

Think not? Consider this.

The Wall Street Journal says fuel prices could go to between $8.00 and $12.00 by years end. The Housing market that everyone thought would begin to rebound by mid summer is now predicted to continue to tumble for several more years. The world economic scene has NEVER been so vulnerable.

Iran vs Israel? Can you say WWIII? China owns everything of any value in the US and what they don’t own they are negotiating for right now.

Individual Debt is 10 times higher than just 5 years ago.

When we started in financial services 15 1/2 years ago 88% of disposable income of the average American family was dedicated to personal debt. today 135% is dedicated to debt.

How is that possible? We spend far more than we earn on average by using debt to pay for food gas utilities clothing perishable goods.

Where does that leave us?

IMPENDING DISASTER!

We coach thousands of families yearly who are average income earners with a home, 2 kids, 2 cars, both Mom and; Dad work, they feel like they are getting along alright until we do a reflective budget.

SHOCK & AWE!

They are upside down by hundreds even thousands of dollars per month.
How is it that they don’t know? They stretch the check by carrying more and more debt each month. The sad news is that if they don’t submit to some serious changes in the money management they will loose the house, go bankrupt, divorce. 78% of the families who go through this scenario divorce within 3 years.

What impact is this having on the stock market? Check your mutual funds since January.

Conservative speculators say we will see a much greater loss of value in the market this time than in 2000-2003 and it will last far longer.

What can we do? What should we do first?

STOP THE BLEEDING!!!

Do what ever you have to do to get back to better than break even and then have an aggressive strategy to eliminate debt.

STOP the contribution to the 401k, retirement plan etc, temporarily and pay down debt. That flies in the face of everything we have been taught but we must get free from the slavery created by debt.

More later.

Doug Kirk  served in the United States Marine Corps from 1967-1969 Served in Viet Nam 23Dec 1967 to 21June 1968. As a Combat Engineer, attached to Fox Company 2nd. Battalion 5th Marne Regiment 1st Division. served in the Battle of Hue City. and other operations.

Wounded 21June 1968 Medically Retired 17 June 1969.

Worked as a General Contractor in Central Ohio until 1992.

Studied Architecture and Business at Franklin University.

Currently Chief Operations Officer, National Conference Speaker, Personal development and Training coordinator.

Forward Financial Group has been working with Corporations, Small Businesses and Families for 20 Years; teaching, developing and assisting large Businesses small businesses and families in very unique financial systems and development.

No one does all that we can do!

We have National and International Teaching and Training Programs to assist our clients large

 and small to maximize the financial recorces and “Find lost Money”.

Doug Enjoys helping people win in life,especially his Military Brothers and; Sisters and there families! 

We look forward to helping all Joe’s find answers, gain knowlege and practice sucessful financial principals.

In other words “Fixing The Money Thing”.

“Semper Fidelis”

Our friends at VA Mortgage Center.com (who helped us with Charity for Charities and have a nice milblog in their own right) released a video today outlining some of the benefits of the VA Home Loan Program. You can watch it on YouTube here - VA Loan Video.

With the ‘housing crisis’ we are currently living through, it’s most important for qualifying Veterans and Active-Duty members to be aware of their options. Don’t forget to look into what the VA program might be able to do for you upon purchasing or even refinancing a home.

And heck, everyone loves a good time-waster video (especially if you are bored at work). Might as well learn a few things in the process. Give it a look and come on back to VA Joe!

 Fixing the money thing!

We have tackled many topics regarding your personal finances, however it’s time we tackled the pending financial disaster in America.

Today the stock market fell once again. Sound familiar?

Remember 2000 to 2003?

The stock market has fallen more than 1000 points in the last month, most of that in one week. Is this just another minor market correction?

Why are the cost of goods going up at an alarming rate? Why are there so many forclosures on new homes? Why with so little unemployment are we seeing the kind of economic indicators we saw during the Carter administration? Should I be alarmed? What can I do to protect myself from a financial disaster if one should occur.

Joe intends to tackle these issues in this blog.

Lets look at some of the factors that have contributed to the unsettling times we are facing.

High national debt,the highest in history. High personal debt, also the highest in history. The blog host shows stastistics on his website that are alarming regarding personal debt and national debt.

Someone has to pay the piper.

Home forclosures are at a national record. In my sons 4 year old new home subdivision 1 out of every 5 houses is abandoned,  in forclosure or severely behind on their payments.

Why?

Builders, bankers, realtors and their lobbies influenced the Government to modify lending rules several years ago to keep the housing boom going. The lenders were able to get people approved for loans that 2 0r 3 years earlier they would not have approved.

Buyers with considerable credit challenges were approved and the builders and realtors were thrilled. They could now get people in homes that they would not have qualified  for before.

The problem comes in that the buyers were already in excessive debt and we just added hundreds of thousands to the burden. When you buy a new home the real estate taxes are based on the LAND only the first tax year.The second year the payment including taxes and insurance went up considerably. The third year,the loans were not fixed interest and the interest went up and so did the payment.

Buyers who were struggling to make the payment initially now were unable to make them at all.Thus forclosures! In many new home subdivisions people are just walking away from the home in the middle if the night.

The housing and mortgage industries are in a panic.The stock market is affected and so on and so forth.

Oh what tangled webs we weave in an effort to deceive!

 

 THE STOCK MARKET

In 1960 only 2% of Americans owned stocks.

Then came the Mutual fund!

Today most Americans have Mutual funds through employer retirement plans like 401k’s, 403b’s, 457’s, IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s.

What does that mean?

The stock market is vastly overinflated.

 Before mutual funds, the only people who owned stocks were people of means who were able to pay someone to watch, move, buy and sell on their behalf continuously.

Today the American people have been lied to by the brokers and agents who sell these mutual funds at big commissions and continued (Trail commissions ) even when the market goes down!

When the experts sell the mutual fund, owners are told to buy because the market is so good. When the market is low and the experts know what and when to buy the mutual fund brokers say again, buy now because the funds are a good value.

In other words, no matter what is happening they are giving you the exact same advice.

Sound a bit suspicious to you?

When in 2000 -2003 the market began it’s largest loss in history. The advice was exactly the same. It will come back, don’t worry!

Well, they were right! The market did come back.  Over all, the average holder of mutual funds and stocks had vertually NO GAIN for 7 years!

How often can you afford those kind of setbacks?

Now, with the largest one week loss in the history of the stock market earlier this month what do you suppose the advice of the mutual fund dealer is? Same old, Same old!

Why are we not suprised? They don’t want to give up those hefty commissions.

The stock market is more volatile than ever in it’s history and we predict a much longer and much larger loss than in 2000 -2003 over the next several years.

Can you afford it again?

What then should we do?

Lets start by using some of the common sense that our Government, Realtors, Builders , Bankers and Investment brokers seemed to have left on the Table of the BIG COMMISSION!

Start by developing an aggressive strategy to pay off all consumer debt!

First, make sure you have at least $2,000.00 in the savings accounts for immediate emergencies.

Then attack the debts one at a time starting with the highest intrest rate and going down.

Don’t add a little to each debt. Take all the extra money you can free up monthly and attack them one at a time!

Stop paying into retirement plans and eliminate consumer debt first.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom due to the employers contribution.

Don’t let greed destroy you! Pay off the debt!!!

If a major economic downturn, recession or worse happens you will be on top and not at the bottom!

The choice is yours!

 

You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above happens you will be destroyed financially.

Or you can do something different.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Are you willing to bet we are wrong?

 

Joe Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Joe Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.