Nouveau Poor

I am still stunned. I haven’t read a paper watched the news answered an Email or written an Email for three weeks. We the Baby Boomers are to be the Nouveau Poor. This is a fact that I am resigned to. Small Business which employed the largest numbers of Boomers was targeted as a place to financially starve. When we lost it all in 2010 it was a culmination of a 30 year investment. We lost a home that we physically built when we were in our twenties and a business that we also built from the ground up to 17 employees, two stores and a small factory. All of this was accomplished by using our home as collateral for our business. In 2007 we saw business take a cut and we chose to close a store in the slower area. We kept cutting here and there and made it through 2008. OK so we say to ourselves, self this slowdown will surely get better with the stimulus money going to the banks. Money to Small Business should loosen up . This is still my favorite clip of Fearless Leader Obama.

So here we are in 2009 and January I get notified by my bank that they are canceling my line of credit. Next large credit cards were used as our new line of credit. End of February credit card companies call to say that the 7% rates had changed to 28% + because we might have a problem in the future. March is the future and down we start going.  By the time we hit July we make the decision to close store number 2 and have a factory outlet. Some of my more stupid acquaintances said well this could help in cost cutting. Both of my stores were on Main St. in two different towns and the plant was in an industrial area.  So no more drive by business. But I still thought I could keep it alive. It was in the middle of November when I had customers who could not pay that it caught up with us. We were done. Our business and home were gone. What is so sad now a few months later is I see what can be for many a frightening experience. The only consolation, the sooner it happens then you can lift the stress back out of you minute by minute decision making process and start looking around at what we can grab up as the new bottom dwellers in the economy. Lot of liberals in the Boomer group got a little more change than they wanted. Wait till the Social Security cuts and other new tax on senior’s assets. Check out the lighter side of Nouveau Poor. I went from living in a rural home with 2 acres to being in a trailer. This is the change I feared whenI heard the words transfer of wealth.