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It seems that hardly a week goes by without we American’s reading or hearing the astronomical figures describing our national debt. Most of us can’t begin to relate to numbers in the trillions, they simply don’t compute in our brains. It seems far removed from the finite we are used to dealing with on a daily basis. We know that our indebtedness is large….very large. but we have nothing to compare it with so it remains a vague notion at best for most of us. That is how it has been for me every time I’ve read the newspapers or heard on the television about this horrific figure. That is until today. This morning I learned the results of a study done by USA Today which put our nations debt into terms we can identify with and it is frightening indeed. If the U.S. debt could be divided equally among every family in the country, each family would owe well over a half million dollars! That is staggering. Most families will only make 2-3 times that amount in their entire lifetimes and some won’t make even close to $500,000. Ever.

That makes the seriousness of our current financial situation pretty clear. It is dire. There are many opinions as to how we got into this quagmire and not so many as to how we get out of it. It is going to be a long, arduous road for everyone that much seem clear.

On an individual basis there isn’t much we can do about the national debt (other than to keep paying those never ending taxes.) However, this current national crisis has been an eye opener which may prove to be the catalyst for some much needed improvements in our own personal financial stewardships. To view on such a large scale the inevitable consequences of unrestrained borrowing and spending should cause us to reevaluate the decisions we each make concerning our own finances. Hopefully that can be a bright spot that emerges from the dark cloud looming over each of us. Perhaps we can make more decisions based on fact and circumstance rather than on emotional appeal and greed. While none of us knows how our current government fiasco will play out, we personally are in charge of our own financial situations and should strive to modify our behavior to be in line with that reality. To do less would make us as irresponsible and reckless as our own government has been.