This is one of those posts where there is so much swirling around in my mind I feel like I don’t even know where to start.

So hang on!

There have been several items I’ve read or viewed online that have started me thinking about where we go from here in this recession depression unknown future. I’d like to share them as worthwhile reading and viewing material before I share some of my own thoughts.

Frugal Dad had a couple of interesting posts lately that got me thinking.  One was Our Journey to Debt Freedom, a celebration of he and his wife being debt free in a few weeks (with the exception of their mortgage).  His mantra is “Never again” and it is a mantra I think many people know and understand if they have been in debt and have been able to get out. I mean no disrespect to Frugal Dad and what he has accomplished.  But if only it were that easy to say “Never again.” I also thought comment #8 was an excellent one.  More on that in a minute.

He also posted a question from a reader in Corporate Security or Freelance Freedom? The woman is a freelancer and has been doing contract work for the past ten years.  She has a solid client base.  On a whim she applied for a job and got it.  However, it would involve significant changes for her family (moving, ceasing homeschooling, etc.).  She was asking what people thought she should do.  (I’ll share my thoughts on that shortly.)

Rick at Dry Creek Chronicles always has thought-provoking posts and links. A reader left a link to an interesting blog (Live. Work. Dream.) with some posts worth reading regarding Rene’s new experience of working for a very large corporation she has code-named “The Great Satan”. She and her husband are full-time, non-retired RVers and she has taken seasonal employment for the holidays.  Her thoughts on being back in the corporate world are very interesting in Am I Nuts? My Life in Corporate America Begins Sunday, Put Up, Shut Up or Get Out: Work Life in America, and I’m No Chicken.

Lastly, I viewed a PBS Frontline episode which was enlightening.  Close to Home is about how the recession has hit New York’s Upper East Side.  (If you aren’t familiar with it, that is the big money area of NYC.) The reporter spent a week getting to know the different clients who come into the salon of a woman who has been in business for herself for over 20 years.

So I’ve had all this going around in my head and wondering what is ahead.  But I’m thinking it isn’t good and it isn’t something we can even really fathom.

For example, in the PBS show… One of the men on there runs a agency to help older workers find work.  The definition of “older” is over 40.  I would have thought over 50, but over 40 is apparently the “new” “older”. So that got me thinking because I’m just a tad over 40 (literally).  If I suspend reality and rational thought for a moment and consider when I will get my Social Security, I don’t qualify for full payments until 67.  So I am 25 years away from being eligible for Social Security.  That is a long time.  I’ve been out of college for 19 years.  So according to the government, I’m not even half way through my career.

And yet if you watch the PBS thing, I’m in the demographic that would have a hard time finding anyone to hire me.  The people in the video are highly qualified, driven individuals and they can’t find a job.  In the meantime, they are burning through their unemployment (which will eventually run out) as well as their life savings.  Most of them probably don’t have a lot left in their 401k, and their houses have dropped in value.

What is going to happen to all these people over the next 25 years?

What is going to happen to me over the next 25 years?

So going back to some of the links…

I think the woman who is considering giving up her established freelance business to take a job is seriously crazy if she takes the job.  There is NO SUCH THING as corporate security.  It does not exist. Period.  She has the hardest part of her freelance business behind her.  She has ten years of building a client base, steady work, etc.  In my thinking, she would have so much to lose long-term and not nearly as much to gain by making the move.

Regarding the “Never again” being in debt. How much is “enough” to stay out of debt in this day and age?  The common advice given is to have six months of living expenses saved and a year is even better. I don’t think in today’s economy and job market that a year is even close to enough.  Look at the people in that video who have been out of work well over a year and have NO prospects.  Or instead of thinking about losing your job, consider health issues.  It doesn’t even matter if you have insurance.  You can burn through a couple of month’s worth of savings very quickly with copays, out of pockets expenses and deductibles if you have even a sort of major health issue.

And what kind of desperation is found in millions of homes across the country this evening?  What is going to change things?  What are people going to do over the next ten, twenty, thirty years?  How are people going to have to change their lifetime and lifestyle expectations?  What is going to happen in a few months when the next big wave of foreclosures starts hitting?  (Remember my post from May 2007 – Why I think this may be a bad time to buy a house – and the little chart that goes with it?  Check it out.  We’re about 34 months into it from the start of that chart.  Look what is just ahead.)

I don’t have any answers. I really can’t fathom what might be ahead.   This might come off as sounding trite and I don’t mean it to be.  But I am thankful I know Who holds the future. I’m thankful my security is not in my wisdom or skills or networking abilities. I’m thankful for a track record of walking with Christ through difficult times because I suspect there are many more ahead.