10 ideas to get US finances on track

Solano Real Estate Scene: Jim Porter

Article By: Jim Porter – September 19, 2015

John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

My favorite quote from JFK says it all about what this country needs for a revival of the American dream. I believe the key to America’s success for the next few generations and what this country needs is a strong middle class.

Today, 83 percent of the nation’s wealth – equity and money – is owned by 17 percent of the population and 49 percent of the nation receives government assistance. This 49 percent of our people have little or no net worth.

The U.S. is $18 trillion overdrawn in its checking account. Even with as a bleak assessment as this, here are some things we can do for our country:

• Focus on educating our youth.
• Teach our citizens, especially our youth, financial literacy.
• Encourage Americans to purchase a home and get it paid off before retirement.
• Increase the amount the middle class can invest in individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans.
• The super-rich and the super-smart people of America need to create jobs and new industry.
• The super-rich need to follow in Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s footsteps and give back to the needy.
• Crack down on Wall Street fraud and government sloppiness. Ironically, most of Wall Street and the super-rich have made their fortunes on the backs of a strong middle class consumer in past generations.

The recent Great Recession was paid for by the middle and upper-middle class. The poor, nor the super-rich, were hardly affected by the Wall Street Ponzi scheme that was perpetrated between 2004 and 2008.

The super-rich are still rich and the poor are still poor.

Social Security disability will be insolvent next year because 11 million people are collecting it monthly and 40 percent of these people would work if they could find a job making a higher net income than $1,107 per month. This hurts the truly disabled and the American middle and upper-middle classes. This is just one example of government sloppiness.

• Reduce income taxes on the middle and upper-middle class.
• Elect honest and smart people who care about our democracy and the American dream.
• Support big and small businesses in America.

Real estate and mortgage professionals help people avoid retiring in poverty by encouraging homeownership and financial literacy. Buying a home helps the middle class retire with dignity because everyone knows that home and apartment rental rates always go up.

Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.