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There’s a new way for us to figure out how stressed we are feeling. The Associated Press has developed an interactive online map that calculates stress level county by county across the country. The map takes figures like unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates to measure the impact of the recession on local economies, coming up with one cumulative “stress index” percentage for each county. Understandably, the stress numbers have been steadily climbing in the past year or two.

I guess we should be happy we don’t live in Imperial County, in southern California. The stress index there is a whopping 33.37%, fueled primarily by their 30 percent unemployment rate. In fact, across much of California, and Michigan as well, the color-coded counties indicate high stress levels.

Here in Naperville, we find that folks in DuPage and Will counties are feeling the financial strain lots more than they were two years ago. Whereas the stress index percentages for October 2007 were between five and seven and a half percent then, now we find ourselves at 11.65% (DuPage) and 15.01% (Will). Again, much of that rise is due to unemployment rates, which are more than double what they were in 2007. Even if you’ve never been laid off, the current indicators probably have you hoping that you’ve made wise Naperville financial planning moves in preparing for a downturn.

Too many of us live paycheck to paycheck, stretching our last dollar to purchase the maximum home we can afford or the nicest car with the highest payments we can afford. That leaves us in major trouble at the first sign of a change in our financial resources. Many of us had forgotten to structure our Naperville asset management to include saving for a rainy day. Now that the rainy days are here, they’ve brought a wake-up call along with them.

Of course, everything is personal. This is true whether you find you can be objective about crime and punishment until you personally become a victim, or whether you can be calm and sensible about the economy until you personally get that pink slip. It’s times like these when careful Naperville asset management becomes most important. Let’s hope that we can reverse those stress index trends, and that as a community, a county, and a country we can utilize these scary times to make us financially wiser.

Naperville Asset Management is the stress free answer to the current economic recession. Naperville Financial Planning prepares you in case of job loss or unforeseen hardships.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-finance-articles/naperville-asset-management-in-stressful-times-1264433.html

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September 24th, 2009 | Category: Personal Finance | Comments Off
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