The global financial crisis, brewing for a while, really started to show its effects in the middle of 2008. Around the world stock markets have fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been bought out, and governments even in the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems.

With wages stagnating and certain unavoidable costs (such as health care) increasing, people were looking for new sources of revenue to maintain their standard of living. New sources of credit gave them the means to do just that. They were, in effect, an efficient way to postpone the pain. Of course, we could have bit the bullet, thrown away those tempting credit-card offers, and cut back on our purchasing. There are early signs that may be happening at last. On Wednesday 10/7/08, the Federal Reserve reported that consumer borrowing fell in August at an annual rate of 3.7 percent - the first time total borrowing had fallen since January 1988.

There are dozens of things that can be done that will be explored in future editions of this eNewsletter. But the most important is to shift values. The notion that it is acceptable to play the debt game and imagine that decisions made today will have no consequences for the future must be rejected.

Read this month's issue of FNB's Financial Focus, "Financial 911"to learn more.