Wow, it feels like it was just yesterday that Y2K was the talk of the town on Wall Street, in Washington, D.C., Silicon Valley and in every small town in America. Now, the country is talking about the economy, China, the wealth gap, homelessness, social medicine, politics, Amazon, Google, Twitter, Facebook, CNN and Fox News. 2040 will be here before we know it and the 70 million American baby boomers are concerned about Social Security and Medicare because 50 percent of our seniors have no government pension, IRAs or 401(k)s. The 70 million millennials are hoping for the American Dream to be there for them in 2040. The country is as divided as it has ever been at a time when we all need to work as a team more than ever. In 2000, the total amount of national debt was $5.7 trillion and in 2020 will hit $24 trillion. In the year 2000, we had a surplus of $200 billion and in 2020 we will have a deficit more than $1 trillion. GDP was $10 trillion in 2000 and in 2020 is expected to be $21 trillion. GDP is the total economic output each year. The U.S. GDP is 69 percent personal consumption, 18 percent business investment, 17 percent government spending and a negative 5 percent net exports. Our debt has more than quadrupled while the size of our economy has only doubled over the past 20 years. China only owns $1 trillion worth of the $24 trillion worth of our national debt while most of the debt is owed to the Social Security Trust Fund, American and foreign bond investors and almost all retirement plans. The interest-only payment on a $24 trillion mortgage is only about $50 billion per month because thank goodness, interest rates are very low. LOL. For my blue-collar friends and middle-class readers who are trying to achieve financial security and independence at retirement, the lesson here is that debt management and maximizing retirement investment is key and quite simple. When retirement comes, an American must have much more income every month than monthly outgo and owning a home protects us from housing cost inflation. Buy a house and spend less than you make every month so you can maximize your investments in income-producing assets.