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Even though it's too late in the evening to be starting this (can't seem to get online before the fibrofog sets in), I'd like to make some comments about the national financial situation as a spokesperson for the (lower) middle class. I figure the folks making over $250,000 a year probably have professional financial planners working for them, and the folks at or below the poverty line have problems too serious for me to address with any authority, so I'll just focus on what I know. Michael Moore has done a good job coming up with ideas for Congress, but also think that it is (past) time for "Main Street" people to be looking at their personal economic situations as well.

I wish I could get away with mis-managing millions of dollars, get bailed out by the government, and be free to mis-manage even more money, which appears to be what will happen on Wall Street. But the only money I'm in charge of is my own, and if I screw up, it's my own ass on the line. That being said, I think for most middle class people, given the current economic situation, to panic is futile.

Yes, I have read all the articles and have heard all the freaking out going on. But having multiple chronic ailments have taught me that no matter how dire things seem, the best thing to do is breathe and do the best you can with whatever you have to work with. I am confident that the majority of the middle class will survive this crisis intact if we have been and continue to behave responsibly.

First of all, just because you CAN borrow more than you can afford doesn't mean you SHOULD. If you are buying a house, unless you know for a fact that you will be getting significant raises every year, don't fall for the adjustable rate mortgage with a low starting rate. If a fixed rate makes the payment too high for you to qualify, either you need to buy less house or save up money for a bigger down payment.

Do you really have to lease a pretty new car? How about saving up for awhile and buying a nice used one so you won't have to deal with monthly payments? Or, if reasonable in your situation, using public transportation, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles or just plain walking?

Credit cards: I know that some people advocate not having them at all. I don't, mainly because I do things like discovering at the cash register that I am again sans checkbook, and I like to pay for gas at the pump instead of hiking into the gas station and standing in line to pay. But I do believe that except for emergencies, if you can't pay your balance in full each month, you're putting too much on the card.

I personally believe in keeping my checking and savings accounts in a hometown credit union rather than a giant conglomerate bank. My money is still insured by FDIC, and I can participate in decisions affecting the credit union if I so choose. And I doubt very much that it will ever require a government bailout.

The stock thing I admit is scary. But most people, unless they are a hair's breadth from retirement and have every penny in company stock that has gone belly up, are going to get by. If you have a truly diverse portfolio and have an amount of risk appropriate to your age (younger people can risk more, older people less), yeah, you'll lose some, but you won't lose it all, and people my age have plenty of time to make up for any losses before retirement (if they are able to work).

For example, Dan's 401(k) has a moderate amount of risk but is still diverse. He has no money in employer stock, and he has 30 more years to make up any loss in funds. There isn't much money in the account because he has only been eligible for it for a year (previous employer funds got converted into an IRA) and we can't spare very much for contributions, but something is better than nothing, and he should still have something no matter how much of a beating his stocks take.

My personal situation is a little different. Because I had to go on disability, I could no longer have a 401(k), but I was allowed to roll what little I had amassed into an IRA. I am not subject to the 10 percent penalty for early withdrawal, but I am trying to not cash out unless I have an expensive medical crisis.

Also because I am unable to work, Dan got a life insurance policy. That way, in the unlikely event he should meet his maker sometime in the next 30 years, I won't necessarily lose the roof over my head. Dan has disability insurance too, albeit with a more reputable company that the one I had.

I'm not saying we're perfect. To be honest, I don't know if we should have qualified for our mortgage with me being unable to work, and our payments are a bit higher than the recommended 25 percent of our monthly income, but we do have a fixed rate and no mortgage insurance requirement because we made a 20 percent down payment. If we can just dig in and keep a tight rein on our spending, we can still probably survive, even if just barely.

One thing that we and most other middle class people need to do is not be seduced by shiny new frivolous toys. If we have what we truly need, we should try to make do with that. It totally pissed me off that Bush's response to 9/11 was to tell the American people to go out and spend money!

I know far too many people who got seduced by materialism. They bought a nice house, but instead of being content with that, they would turn around after a few years and use their equity on a bigger house with a higher mortgage payment, even if their income had not grown to cover the payments, and would continue this process as long as a lender would accept them. By getting a new 30 year mortgage every time, they also ensured that they would also not actually own the house until they were quite old (if the mortgage didn't outlive them).

Honestly, there is no shame in driving a Saturn instead of a Lexus, in using a land line instead of a fancy cell that does everything but tap dance, in actually saving up for things instead of borrowing now when you might not be able to pay later. We need, to the extent possible, to save our own butts, because Washington's gonna be in too much debt bailing out the wealthy financial execs to do anything for us. Don't be any more of a victim than you have to.

Well, I was planning on saying something really eloquent in this post, but all my fuzzy brain would let me produce was a semi-meaningless rant. I hope something in here was useful or at least interesting.

Let yourself not be led into temptation.