Freddie Maye, Fannie Mac, Bulls, Bears Oh My!

It's Josh now, we're alternating who writes to this and I'm not quite sure how to change the "author" so anyway here I go. I started the day with very little insight into the market activity of Friday, I consider myself fairly business/finance knowledgeable but I was in the dark. As I always do I opened up foxnews.com when I came into the office and read over the headlines, it didn't look good. I read about the credit downgrade for America, the anticipated "sell off" that was to begin at market open and the general panic that seemed to ooze from most of the articles I skimmed. I found that depending on how I wanted to feel I could find articles that alleviated my fears citing the ebb and flow of the market, articles that maximized my uncertainty and made me want to dump all my savings into silver and even articles that made me think there was a man in China angry at me having taken out a home loan four years ago. Then it happened, the market opened and the Dow Jones price dropped, 100 points, 200 points, 225 points... it was slowing but we weren't out of the woods. By 10AM I had eaten both my lunch sandwich and snack apple, my nerves had gotten the best of me I guess. By 12PM I had nearly forgotten about the market, I was doing my job but then the spare minute crept up on me. Three hundred points had been lost, 350, 378, 412....I started researching Friday's performance. How much did we loose Friday? Did they anticipate this? Friday was part of the top ten largest point drops in the history of the Dow Jones, where would today be. I became consumed by the dropping numbers, like watching you favorite team loose the game from the blow of the first whistle, you don't know the final score but you know you'll lose. I read about the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation in 1922 and 23, I read about silver prices and the best way to buy it, I read about the credit downgrade of America and what it meant to the US family. Where were we going? what was I going to do? I watched the price drop and rise, drop and rise comparing it to historical figures until finally I watched the final countdown of the market closing as if it was New Years Eve all over again. I was obsessed and as I called people who could care less to tell them what I'd witnesses I realized it doesn't matter to me. Yes in the global scheme of things it does, yes my interest rates and 401k will be affected, yes my clients will spend less but my little boy wasn't any less excited about his first day of school. My wife wasn't any less rested from her nap and my youngest boy wasn't any less interested in me holding him or eating when he wants to and sleeping when he wants to. Some may cringe at the saying "ignorance is bliss" but it is true, I pushed my son on his playground swing today and enjoyed the fresh air in our back yard and thought with God watching over me, my family surrounding me and a gun to fill my freezer(but maybe not aim to do the same) I'll be fine. For that I thank you big Guy.