by Karen Brannon, Farmers Insurance and Financial Services

That’s right ladies, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee! I don’t mean the $3.50 coffee shop kind, I mean the kind you brew at home and drink sitting at the kitchen table with family and friends.

As soon as the economy started chugging to a standstill a year ago I noticed that when bad things happen in peoples lives it requires a conversation with their insurance agent. What I’ve learned from watching this insurance barometer is that the economy is affecting all the people that live in Central Oregon. I can’t think of a single family I know that hasn’t been affected by the collapse of the real estate market and the construction trades, or by low sales due to the loss of discretionary income in the area, or by loss of investment income because their savings are worth less. Yet, no one is talking about it!

I have been thinking about why this is for the last few weeks. Young adults are facing a difficult economy for the first time and I suspect they are overwhelmed by it. Even though people in my age group have experienced this before, there is a veil of fear and shame and we feel somehow responsible for what’s happening to us. So we trudge forward, working hard, and hoping it will get better soon without facing it head on. The reality is that a crystal ball is not an effective tool to predict the future, and most of us did nothing to bring this on ourselves, and we need to give ourselves a break.

Instead of worrying about how we got here, it’s time we accept that we are here. Like everyone else, this has been difficult for me to accept and talk about openly. So here I am, coming out from behind my façade and admitting openly that there are frequently months where my family makes less then we spend. While my business continues to have modest growth, my family has gone from two incomes to one this year because my husband is a contractor. We are making some really hard budgetary decisions and I am tired of feeling ashamed of it.

Instead of ignoring the economy and hoping it will get better, it’s time to use our collective knowledge to come up with creative ideas to get through this together. We should start asking each other how we are cutting our grocery budgets, getting the kids school clothes, and managing medical expenses without health insurance. I believe that our collective innovation will get us through this, the same way it has for generations, but it will happen sooner if we all share our best practices. So next time you and your friends get together, do it over your kitchen or conference room table and brew a cup of coffee for them, the kind that comes with great conversation, encouragement, and a few helpful ideas, give me a call I’d love to join the conversation. The best part is that it doesn’t cost $3.50!

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