Gen Plus says recession is in the mind of the beholder.

• If I have a job and a house and can pay my bills…no recession.
• If I have lost my job, lost or in the process of losing my house and cannot pay my bills…recession.

I couldn’t disagree more. There are always people around who live beyond their means, or unemployed, and the economy can be roaring.

One can have job, house and pay the bills and still feel the impact of a recession. When the Dow tanks like it has so far this year, I get the “Dow Doldrums.” I haven’t saved enough to retire. But to get further away from the goal this past year sucks. Because of medical bills, we were unable to save enough to fund our Roth IRA’s for 2008. So we had the double whammy this year: what I have saved shrunk and we were unable to invest more.

We didn’t take a vacation this year.

If I had it to do over again, we would not purchased a new car (early in 2007.)

I’m hearing the same from others:

I just found a new blog buddy that has lived apart from her husband for three years because they can’t sell their house. Another blog buddy said retirement for him was wishful thinking.

Meeting the bill payments doesn’t mean I’m not already feeling like the recession started six months ago. (Which I think will be the case. Economists don’t declare recessions until we are well into one. I think they will conclude the recession started in June 2007.)

Gen Plus also asked:

• What do you WANT to spend your money on in 2008?

Vacation, nicer gifts, retirement

• What do you NEED to spend money on in 2998

Aside from unforeseen health problems, nothing out of the ordinary

• What will you NOT spend your money on in 2008?

If we want it and can afford it, or we need it and can afford it, we will have it. If the question is, where will we cut back from 2007? We won’t.

OK, enough of that. Got to get back to peeling M & M’s for my Saturday night at the movies.