The next six months could be the most conflicted period that most of us have ever lived through, so, I'm suggesting that we enter it open-eyed, cautious, and conservative in managing our money and financial affairs.

Uncertainty breeds stress, and there is much uncertainty, which is being exacerbated by those who exploit social and political issues. Those who can profit by destabilizing society are busily doing so. Extremists are antagonizing and dividing as many Americans as they can in as many ways as they can.

Let's peek at some of the issues that should make us exercise great care and wisdom during the next several months.

The top-heavy stock market is always one of the indicators we use to judge the economy. The problem with it--other than its protracted top-heaviness--is that since Congress gave the Fed power to regulate the economy, markets (all of them) have become centrally managed. Markets no longer have price discovery minds of their own. It's exasperating to me when analysts say the market wants to do this or that, because market prices are basically whatever the government wants. Markets are now addicted to low rates and to force-fed highs from injections by the Fed and the Treasury's Equalization Stabilization Fund. Their aim is to stimulate speculation, which I think is to be avoided by us Moms and Pops...especially since the Fed may feel in December that "It's now or never" for another rate increase.

"Trillion" has become an indispensable word in the government's vocabulary, but it's such a huge number that the mind yawns and goes to sleep before it can count that high. The only way I can make sense of if is to address "trillion" by establishing comparisons with familiar references. We know a million is a thousand thousand. A billion is a thousand million. But a trillion is a million millions. In terms of time, a million seconds started ticking twelve days ago. A billion seconds will expire in 31.7 years. Every accomplishment of civilization has happened in the past 3500 years, but it will be 31,710 years before a trillion seconds tick away.

The IMF yesterday announced that global debt is a staggering $152 TRILLION. I'll be honest. I can't imagine ONE trillion, much less 152. Who can? But the world has bought that much stuff on credit. And, we know what happens when folks can't pay for the stuff they buy. Debtors no longer go to prison, but they can still be prisoners of debt.

$152 trillion is twice as much money as global economies generate in a year's time. If all the money generated by all the nations was devoted to paying off global debt, we'd still have $76 Trillion unpaid. That kind of debt stifles the economic activity that would pay off the debt. It discourages economic activity.It strangles the credit cycle--the goose that lays the economic eggs. Debt feeds off whatever true wealth remains...like a serpent devouring itself. Debt is ruled by the universal law of Cause and Effect, excessive out-go inevitably results in painfully restricted in-come, which we call a Depression. Depressions are corrective, and exist until balanced causes produce balanced effects.

On top of debilitating debt, we may face years of political uncertainty, infighting, and struggle in Washington's halls of power. Both of our mainstream political parties are in shambles--ripped apart by their link to the status quo. Both major parties are fractured and weak. They have lost identity, lost touch with America, lost their energy, and have probably lost their veto power over minor party formation. We might expect the Green and Libertarian parties--along with parties yet unformed--to stir Washington's Power Pot for years to come...and that would mean uncertainty and unpredictability.

How can Deutsche Bank (DB) not continue its downward spiral (and downward pull on other banks) as more revelations surface like the recent one telling how the Fed bailed out Deutsche Bank five times from 2008-11, dumping more dollars into that German "black hole" than into US banks. And it's still so toxic that there aren't enough trees to make enough paper for enough $100 dollar FRNs to make it whole again. And we hear that IF global bank assets were marked according to actual market value, Deutsche Bank wouldn't be the only insolvent bank in Europe...or the world. It seems old-fashioned horse sense to keep cash in a safer, handier place than a bank which can claim your money to redeem its greed-based poor judgment. 

Reason and Experience must assume that as long as the Big Bankers are Big Bankers they will manufacture paper and electronic currencies. This means that the manufacture of currencies (printing currency isn't manufacturing and it isn't money) will be destructive of their value or purchasing power, leading to eventual and inescapable hyper-inflation.

In ancient times wise rulers instituted periodic nullification of consumer debt when growing numbers of economic losers (who had nothing more to lose) might gang up to nullify the ruler. Whether our modern ruler-bankers have enough sense to declare a Debt Cancellation Holiday or not remains to be seen, but history testifies to the fact that Earth's economics tend toward getting out of whack and having to be re-set periodically.

Twenty-three percent of the US workforce is jobless, which is stressful enough, but activists agitating for a $15 minimum hourly wage only makes it more economical for employers to hire robots--which pushes unemployment numbers that much closer to 24 million. 

Then add the derivatives problem, immigration, ungoverned borders, and domestic terrorism to the list of uncertainties. Add the fact that every other American doesn't have $400 in ready cash for emergencies. Add the fact that 70% of American young adults are economically disadvantaged and are forced to live with their parents. Add the fact that housing is a shaky business. Add the fact that rental housing is becoming unaffordable because institutional buyers are buying up distressed properties. Add the fact that real salaries haven't grown for thirty years. Add the fact that 2% annual inflation takes $2 out of every $100 you put in your pocket, so your dollar buys 20% less than it did in 2006. Add un-funded and under-funded pensions...and inadequate retirement income for those who depend on Social Security. These troubles remind me of Meredith Wilson's musical, "The Music Man," in which "Professor" Harold Hill shakes up the idyllic town with his claim that big troubles are brewing in River City.

Conventional wisdom once said, "Pay off the mortgage to reduce monthly living expenses". That made sense once upon a time when a couple got married and settled down into predictable lifetime employment followed by secure retirement, but that kind of safety and security is long gone. Frequent relocation is a fact of life, and people pack up and move every six or seven years. Years ago, homeowners looked at their houses as an investment, expecting the value of the house to appreciate steadily, but those days are long gone, too.

Paying off a mortgage is fabulous for lenders, but it can be a money trap for owners. If your money is tied up in a house, you are tied to that house and bound to the lender. Then, the cost of repairs and maintenance compromises its investment potential, particularly in today's market. Cash tied up in a house is far from accessible. Furthermore, if you had to move, or if you had such a need for cash that you were forced to sell your house, there's no assurance that it would sell quickly...and market conditions might force you to sell to a bottom feeder at a price far below its actual market value.

Obviously I can't list everything that is contributing to national stress,anxiety, fear, and indiscriminate rage, but the list is a long and growing one. So, I suggest it would be wise to stock some cash, some precious metal, some food, some medications, some water and a good water filter. Figure out a way to stay warm, to heat food, to provide light, to treat injuries, to protect yourself, to wash and dry clothes, and to entertain yourself should worse come to worse for a few weeks... or months. I applaud the lead Germany has taken by telling its citizens to do these things, preparedness just seems prudent in a day when terrorists or hackers can disrupt a nation by shutting down anything they please any time they please.

The part of preparedness that is never mentioned by secular experts may be the most important, and that is the spiritual foundation of wealth and prosperity. And here's what my spiritual hero, Charles Fillmore, wrote about it: "Watch your thoughts when you are handling your money, because your money is attached through your mind to the one source of all substance and all money. When you think of your money, which is visible, as something directly attached to an invisible source that is giving or withholding according to your thought, you have the key to all riches and the reason for all lack."

It should be comforting and reassuring for us to know that regardless of earthly economic conditions, those who stay linked with the invisible dimensions that surround this tiny sliver we call the Third Dimension, will always have access to what they need.