Are you feeling it?
2 years ago, I never paid attention to my 401K. I did not watch the NYSE. I could have cared less about CNBC, stocks, bonds. I never even really liked math or economics.
Now - I'm a CNBC junkie. I check Moody's to see whose debt has been downgraded. I read Krugman, Roubini, and email a close family member (who was on the front line of a major investment bank until early 2008) stories every day asking for economic interpretation.
My anxiety really began with a conversation with my grandmother back in the 80's. We were studying the Great Depression and the sociological effects in one of my college Sociology classes. I asked my grandmother, who lived through the Depression, about the effects on our family and her perspective.
She said, "You have to remember that in the 1930's, much of the U.S. population lived on self-sufficient farms. Unless you were hit by the Dust Bowl, you were still able to eat - even if you had to sew your own clothes and buy shoes once a year. Neighbors worked together and shared what little they had." The time in which my grandmother described was also a time of "extended families." In fact, all my relatives lived within 10 miles of each other.
