Violence has erupted in Greece over austerity measures taken by the government, or I should say proposed, to ease their budget crisis.  Greek debt has hit 125% of Gross Domestic Product and that is way, way too much to sustain.  Naturally, when you give people benefits that they never paid for and then you take them away, they are going to be angry.  That is what the term "entitlement" means when it comes to a government program.  And if you think the Greeks are being unreasonable, imagine what the public riots would look like if we cut our biggest entitlement, Social Security and Medicare.  Why, seniors would take to the streets!  Though I have to admit, that is a little funny to think about, but I digress.

The point is that we are soon going to be exactly where Greece is - only worse.  Based upon President Obama's budget projections for the next decade, we will be at 200% of GDP at the end of that time.  And you can take it from me, that milestone will come a lot sooner than that, as those government projections include rosy scenarios for tax revenue and growth that are unlikely to come true.  Plus, they assume the Congress will control spending in the future.

Yeah, right.  They have always been good about that in the past.

This is why with your own money you have to take the long view.  Things may look a little better for now, but this is fueled by printing up paper money to cover up the damage.  This will lead, as I say over and over again, to inflation - as sure as God made little green apples. That means paying off debt now is not necessarily a good thing as inflation is the friend of a debtor. Inflation makes your debt seem like less in real dollars all the time.  Of course that means having a good job and saving lots of cash.  I am here to help you with that, as always.