National Debt Made Easy

I had a conversation with a friend last night who is way ahead of me in his tax planning. He has already reviewed the 2009 instructions and called me to let me know of some additional deductions and credits he thought my family might be eligible for this year. He was right on one and I'll have to do some reading to determine at least one other. I appreciated the call even if it did give me a vague sense of being "behind". I have to keep reminding myself that he has an earned doctorate in statistics and therefore might be more interested in numbers, financially based or not.

He called while I was reviewing our family budget (on GNUCash) from 2009. Just doing some basic things like cleaning up the backlog of entries from the end of the year when I took a couple of weeks off, insuring all the relevant entries are tagged for tax status and looking at cash flows to adjust some budget accounts for 2010. Standard stuff.

In the midst of all the year-in-review type activity though, its natural (necessary even) to determine if you're better or worse off, monetarily speaking, at the end of the year than at the start. The next natural progression of thought is for the new year, for your family and the country as a whole. As I followed that progression a number of thoughts came to mind on socialism, constitutionality and debt. Which reminded me of an article by the Heritage Foundation that I read before my vacation and intended to write about them. So yes, everything up to this point has been an introduction while getting to the real point.

No matter how much planning you do in providing for your family and keeping out of debt, the government apparently has other ideas.

The Heritage Foundation article on The Debt Limit discusses the raising of the national debt limit (slipped in for an initial vote on Christmas Eve, after the Heritage article was written). In a short one page article, they state what that really means for the country and individuals in clear terms. They then present four brief suggestions on how to take real action against the debt.

It's not the most in depth or comprehensive article on national debt, but one that makes it easy to have a real understanding on some key points. Which is exactly the goal. It can provide some new thinking and discussion points even for those who normally turn away from financial discussions, preferring the easier path of trusting career politicians.

So as you set your personal budget for 2010, just remember that you're not the only one spending the money you've earned or creating debt that you'll have to repay.