I’ve been cutting back on spending since early this year, when my good friend, who happens to run his own investment firm, warned that things were going to go from bad to worse in a hurry.

The signs were there for everyone to see, yet as a whole, people kept spending and spending.

It was like we were all trying to pretend it wasn’t happening. After so many glorious years, society was in denial.

Now, people have watched their RRSPs and other investments fall to unimaginable lows.

And there is a lot of fear, especially among seniors, who were counting on their investments as a source of income in their retirement years.

I sympathize with those who have lost money in the markets. My father has taken a hit and is not happy about it.

I have been fortunate, in that, I have always placed my paltry savings into very conservative investment vehicles. In fact, I’m one of the few people that hasn’t lost any money in this market crash. I haven’t made much, but I’m not crying the blues like many other people.

I’m not one to wish bad luck on anyone, but I’d be lying if I didn’t feel this financial crisis may be a good thing for all of us. We had it coming.

For years, we have seen greed reign and perpetuate a false economy. And it might be a good thing that we have all come back to earth and will be forced to manage our money better and stop diving into unmanageable credit.

I’ve watched in amazement over the past few years as people I know have loaded up on high priced toys with the expectation that the economy would continue to grow and they’d pay for it later.

I don’t own a big screen television. I can’t afford one. I don’t own an ATV, but I see lots of people towing them up and down the 400 all summer long. I can’t afford to put a hot tub in my backyard, or buy new appliances. I’d like to have all these things, but I resisted the temptation to keep up with the Joneses.

I could have put it all on credit, like many people do, but I loathe paying interest on anything I can’t really afford to buy.

I have always been an extremely frugal person. I’ve never needed toys and outrageous accessories to fuel my ego. My motto has always been that if I can’t pay for it with cash, then I can’t afford it.

I’m sure there are people that can afford to buy the luxuries of life. To them I say good on ya.

Then there are the people who buy things with no intention of ever paying for them. They skip out on debt and leave the rest of us to pay for it through higher interest rates.

We are fortunate that Canada will weather this financial storm better than most other countries across the world.

The US economy is in recession, as is the British economy, and many other major world economic powers.

Iceland is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Interest rates have risen to 18 per cent and the country is working on a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

In contrast, Canada’s banking system was rated as the soundest in the world in a recent Reuters article. Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia followed closely behind in a survey by the World Economic Forum as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

This is good news for Canada, but the economic slowdown in the US will certainly impact our economy. I fear potential job losses looming, however, I hope for the best. I’ve always believed the power of positive thinking can overcome bad situations.

What bothers me the most in all of this is how both the provincial and federal governments are failing to show leadership on the economy.

Last week, the Ontario government announced it would willingly allow deficit budgets for the coming year. The federal government, once the champion of balanced budget economics, is also hinting it may slip into deficit spending.

At a time when we are all being asked to tighten our belts and do more with less, our political leaders continue to spend willy-nilly in order to fund pet projects and insure special interests are kept happy.

Ironically, recent polling shows most Canadians would rather the government slash spending to balance the books.

The same poll shows most Canadians do not yet have a sense of urgency about the economy and do not feel this country is in any crisis.

Maybe this is the type of attitude we need to take, but I’ll stick to my frugal ways and wait for the day I can afford to put that hot tub in my backyard, relax, and pretend none of this is really happening.