Waves of bad news

The news these days is depressing, with all kinds of investments tanking, savings shrinking and worst of all, lost confidence. It takes courage to see the stock prices in my portfolio. My reaction is, take a deep breath, glance at the prices, go yikes, and move on to something else. My biggest worry is if the prices have bottomed out yet and should I cut loss.

I guess I have less worries than other people. I had a drink with a girl friend last week. She is married, with a teenage daughter and a 10 year old son. Well, she is the bread winner in the family. We are old friends and have both seen each other's struggles through thick and thin. We were talking about something, and she started to cry.

She said that she has made the most money with her company the last 2 years, in all the 8 years she has been working there. Since she has a lot of expenses, her bring home salary every month is reduced to nil. She knows that she has growing kids and that's to be expected. However, when she checked her retirement account with the company, her portfolio is 50% gone.

She then said, after slaving away all these years, she can't even get a decent retirement. My mind went blank and I could not think of anything remotely comforting to say to her, like the economy will be rosy when we reach 65 or something...

As if this is not depressing enough, we got a visit from the police yesterday morning. A newborn baby was found wrapped in newspaper and plastic bags, with no clothes on, and left at a supermarket a few blocks away. The police are conducting a search to see if there are any clues and they left us with a circular describing the case and their contact number, should we have any information.

I could not comprehend how any mother could abandon a child, making it a stark contrast to my friend, who has given up hope on her own retirement, trying to provide for her kids.

What kind of world is this and what are we reduced to?