Can we just stop and take a breath?

On days like these you want to turn off the TV and the radio and use the newspaper to light a fire in your barbecue! Anything, but anything, just get away from the news media’s predictions of doom and gloom. Wait, certainly Wall Street and Congress are doing a great job of helping us to the doom and gloom philosophy too!

What does the average working American do today? What about those that have recently lost their jobs? Who is helping us through this confusion and what is the first thing to do?

I strongly suggest that before you make a run on your bank account, mutual fund or sell all of your stock holdings at their low, you do one very important thing. Breathe. Yes, breathe slowly.

Now follow these simple steps to settle your mind, your thoughts and your stomach:

1. Take out a pen and paper and write down all the circumstances you might be facing in your personal experience. Where are you at? Your home mortgage? Car payment? Job situation? Once you have all of this on paper, you can then begin to look to the right people to answer these questions. So here are some examples to work from:

2. Make a list of everything you currently own

3. Make a list of everything you currently owe

4. Make a list of all monies into your household per month

5. Make a list of all monthly payments per month

This is the beginnings of your personal family money organizer. Some would call it a budget but it’s much more than just a basic budget. It’s an entire roadmap for your financial sanity. When you write down where you stand today you have a better chance of staying out of crisis mode.

As with any business, the family business must stay organized. It needs a system with jobs assigned to each member of the family.

Now that you have written down everything you own, owe, bring in and spend, you can take a step back and ask yourself