Crisis, really?

I'm a student. When it comes to finances, I'm worth nothing more than the measly $7,000 I have idling in my bank account and the $2.50 subway fair I have tucked in my pocket. My family doesn't rely on my $650 bi-weekly paycheck to survive, I don't own a struggling independent business and my investments are limited at best. If it weren't for the daily media reminders plastered across newspapers and CNN broadcasts, I wouldn't have a clue that something bad was sweeping over our country's economy.

Over the last few months families and individuals alike have felt the repercussions of a suffering Canadian economy. Men and women have lost dream jobs they've held onto for years, lost thousands of dollars invested in crashing stock markets and even declared bankruptcy. Yet somehow Canadians maintain a steady desire to vacation.

My parents recently traveled to Mexico, my boss just left for the Dominican Republic on a "business trip" and my roommate leaves tomorrow for two weeks in Cuba. I have to wonder, is this really what a financial crisis looks like?

Economists have questioned whether or not our generation would ever witness a recession; some have said that it was inevitable. We are a generation of spenders. Period.

It has been estimated that when our grandparents were in their twenties and thirties they saved 20 percent of their paychecks, putting money away monthly for retirement and their kids' college funds; our parents (the baby boomers) put away 10 percent; we, on the other hand, save negative one percent. In other words, most of us spend money we don't even have. And any money we do have kicking around on our Visas or in our savings accounts we blow on week-long benders in tropical paradises or on shiny new Mazda 6s — or whatever your toy of choice may be.

Is it our greed that keeps us wanting more? What is it about laying on a beach in the middle of February that makes it worth maxing out all five of our high-limit credit cards to get it?

Wanting warmth is no excuse to splurge on a trip we can’t afford. Welcome to Canada! We get snow in winter and yes, it does drop below minus 30 sometimes. We should be used to it by now, right?

However, if going on vacation means being completely relaxed and stress-free for a few days, I suppose I can understand the allure. I just can't help but wonder if our minds wouldn’t be continuously burdened by the overdue notices stuffed in the back of our nightstand drawers awaiting us when we returned home. Sure ignorance is bliss, but it's also irresponsible.

A television newscast did a special a few weeks ago on ways to financially outlast the downturn. One tip highly advocated on the show was to make your vacations work for you. Taking day trips, as opposed to expensive rendezvous’ down south, can be very productive in troubled times. Spend quality time with your family, rather than waste a week lounging on a pool-side beach chair, and you will be able to rationalize spending money you can’t necessarily afford.

Makes getting more out of your holidays than an itchy sunburn or bad case of malaria almost vital to your financial — and emotional — survival, doesn’t it?

But I digress. I think I’ll just stick my hand in my pocket, fish around for that toonie and two quarters, and continue to trudge blindly through the unfamiliar world of financial stability, happy that I don’t have millions to lose on Wall Street.