If you don't have anything nice to say

you should keep your mouth shut, right?

I'm blaming my ultra-negative view on all things financial for my blog absence. Nothing else major has happened. I'm just tired of feeling like a hamster on a wheel that keeps getting the wheel spun faster by outside forces.

Health insurance premium increases are going to take $42 of the $73/month raise I got a few weeks ago.

And then I got to thinking about what the expiration of the Bush tax cuts are going to do to our budget. I started quantifying it over the weekend, and barring a Congressional act (literally), we'll be paying at least $2k more next year. And we are FAR from a high income family. Check it out for yourself....the elimination of the 10% bracket is $835 more off the bat. Then if the child credits go back down to $500, that's another $1,000. Eliminate the preferential rate for dividend income? At least another $120. That's without taking into account the changes in Flexible Spending accounts or wondering if the deduction for state and local sales tax will be extended.

All this in an economy where average Americans are already stretched, struggling to hang onto their jobs if they are lucky enough to have one. It just doesn't seem like good sense to me. Hopefully, someone will knock some semblance of sense into Congress before it's too late!

I know. I know. It could be tons worse. So what if I can only pay down $6,000 of debt next year instead of $8,000. I guess in the grand scheme, things could be much much much worse. We have income, we have a home, we're pretty darn healthy. I was just hoping to see a little more forward progress on the financial side by now.