“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”

- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

In fact, one financial planning firm took a poll of its clients, asking them what kinds of fun things they had rediscovered while they were tightening their belts.  What they found was that many people were having MORE fun with less money, simply by being creative.

Other advisors are asking similar questions, and reporting the answers so that everybody can see what their friends and neighbors have discovered/rediscovered.  They received answers like: working jigsaw puzzles as a family, or playing board games (like Parcheesi or Scrabble) in the evening, inviting friends over to play cards, taking walks, creating a new flower garden (or, in one case, turning the entire front lawn into a flower garden of spectacular beauty), hiking in the local state park, attending a variety of free seminars, getting more involved in community meetings, having group cookouts where everybody shares the cooking or brings dishes, joining a book club–the original advisory firm now has several hundred suggestions, and counting.

Of course, the lesson is something that we somehow manage to forget from time to time: that the world is full of endless possibilities for fun and pleasure and satisfaction and beauty, and some of the most interesting cost us nothing.  In fact, the shared togetherness of many of the “rediscovered” activities makes them superior to how many people were spending their time before the market dropped.

It would be shame if we learned these important lessons and then let our rediscoveries slip away now that people are feeling a bit wealthier again.  They call these the “simple” pleasures, but there’s nothing simple about being creative and really looking at the beauty and possibilities of the world around us.  It’s possible that we can be thriftier AND enjoy life more if we use our minds and hearts and each other to bring pleasure and fun into our lives.

So, I would like to continue the flow of information and ask you, “What have you ‘rediscovered’ as a way to have fun in a more economical fashion?” Why don’t you respond in the comments section below and share your findings with our other readers?

SUMMARY: “The Great Recession is over,” according to NABE’s latest survey. “The survey found that the vast majority of business economists believe that the recession has ended but that the economic recovery is likely to be more moderate than those typically experienced following steep declines. The NABE panel upgraded the economic outlook for the next several quarters, compared with the previous survey,”said NABE President-elect Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “Following a sharp 6.4 percent (annual rate) contraction in the first quarter of this year and another 0.7 percent drop in the second quarter, NABE forecasters expect real GDP to rise at an above trend 2.9 percent rate in the second half. The more-than-three-year downturn in the housing market is very close to coming to an end, with substantial growth (from a low base) expected for next year. According to the survey, the key areas of concern involve the large increases in federal debt and unemployment rates that are expected to remain very high through next year. The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 10 percent in the first quarter of next year and edge down to 9.5 percent by the end of 2010. Inflation is expected to remain contained throughout 2010. The good news is that this deep and long recession appears to be over, and with improving credit markets, the U.S. economy can return to solid growth next year without worry about rising inflation.”

The Treasury Department’s bank investments are paying dividends. But saying they have earned $6 billion for taxpayers, as Tim Geithner did, is a stretch.

Geithner said this past weekend that taxpayers have made a small profit on their investments in banks via the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “We’ve already earned about $6 billion for the taxpayer on those investments,” Geithner said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

The claim seems to reflect regular payments banks have made since Treasury rolled out the TARP last fall.

Treasury didn’t return a request for comment, but the agency had received $6.85 billion in bank dividend and interest payments through June…

For the rest of the story…

TARP profit claim bugs skeptics – Aug. 4, 2009

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HISTORICAL stock charts seem to show that it took more than 25 years for the market to recover from the 1929 crash — a dismal statistic that has been brought to investors’ attention many times in the current downturn.

But a careful analysis of the record shows that the picture is more complex and, ultimately, far less daunting…

For the full story…

New York Times