Picturing Our Debt

This comes courtesy of my dad and with all the bailout, budget, deficit and bonus amounts getting tossed about in the news, I felt it was apropos and worth sharing.

What does a trillion dollars look like? Using Google Sketchup, here's an idea of what exactly that amounts to.

Let's start with a $100 dollar bill, currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen one, slightly fewer have owned one. Guaranteed to make friends wherever it goes.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. It fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for a week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looks a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet.

And $1 BILLION dollars. Now we're really getting somewhere.

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number you've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

Notice those pallets are double stacked and remember those are $100 bills.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars," that's what they're talking about.

Something else to think about. On The Daily Show the other night, Jon Stewart and his guest economist, Peter Orszag, were discussing the projected deficit for the country. It was around $15 trillion over the next 10 years if we make cuts. So you have to take that last image and multiple it by 15. And you thought it was a horrifying sight by itself? Thank God my personal debt is still below the single pack of $10,000. Which is helped the fact that I have not had any fast food, bought any books, purchased alcohol or spent money going out more than one night a week since February 23rd. Unfortunately, while my friends who gave up things for lent get to start enjoying them again after Sunday, I have to keep up my budget crackdown because I need to limit how much I'm borrowing from my parents.

Budget Crackdown: Day Seven

I'm doing much better on my budget resolutions than on my new year's resolutions, though I am still walking pretty much daily (despite a couple slip ups last week). I haven't had any fast food for a week and a half and I actually ended up not spending any money going out over the weekend. That won't be the case this coming weekend (birthdays must be celebrated), but it will be limited to one night. I have also decided to add another budgetary restriction. No book buying. I was shelving books this weekend and made a list of the ones that I have and haven't read. It's too long, therefore, I am not allowed to buy any new books until I get through a sizeable chunk of the ones I already own and haven't read. I actually finished three books that I've been stumbling through forever this weekend, one being the second in a Jane Austen mystery series by Stephanie Barron that though I enjoy the idea immensely and the mysteries are so far quite intriguing, they tend to drag a bit at times with lots of historical detail that gets a bit slow, but I find it to be good research and a bit easier to digest than my Regency historical texts. I did get good news this weekend. My sister (who is studying accounting/finances) found out that there is a way for me to claim my severance so that it isn't taxed twice, which should cut my taxes in half. Take that, IRS.

And now for something completely different...
Zombie Poll Results!

1st Place is a Three-Way Tie between "I've got a cricket bat in my car just in case," "Is that who Bella Swan falls in love with next?" and "It's a hoax by the Republicans," which each received 1 vote.
In last place, with no votes, are "My best friend is one," "Zombies? What are those again?" and "What bad horror movie are you living in?"

Budget Crackdown: Day Two

This year, I'm using Lent to help me enforce my self-imposed budget cutbacks. It will help a lot that Andrea is giving up alcohol, so we can go out and not drink together. My budget rules:
1. No fast food. No exceptions.
2. No buying alcohol when I'm out with friends.
3. I can only spend money going out one night a week.
These cutbacks should serve two-fold. I will save money (which is good as my buffer is going to be gone by the end of March) and I will get back to a healthier lifestyle. I hate feeling fat every time I go into my closet. This week has been hard on my exercising objectives as I had to work later a couple of days and spent all of Monday afternoon cleaning my grill and oven. Not fun, but I always figure housework makes pretty decent exercise. This weekend I have to get back on track. Today I have to work on meeting my weekly job contact quota.