Feeling a bit numb after all the recent news about the economy? If you are ready to move forward the information here can help you get back on track to achieving your financial goals.

• In troubled financial times, what are we to do?
  As the stock market jumps up and down and my accounts shudder, I think of the serenity prayer: Grant me the courage to change what I can change, the patience to endure what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.  To use Stephen Covey’s terms, grow the circle of influence, and shrink the circle of concern¹.  So how can we do that?
  
• Financial Security in Tough Times
  Sugato Chakravarty, PhD, Purdue University, studies psychological factors involved in personal finance. His research suggests that the less we handle our money, the more removed we are from it and the more out of control it can become. In other words, the more we disconnect with handling our money by using debit and credit cards, direct deposit, automatic bill pay, etc., the more risks we tend to take with our finances. The more we touch money and work with it, the better/more carefully we take care of it. His advice is to get intimate with your money – real hands-on -- to reduce risky and costly financial behavior. Also, protect your financial identity from theft. Check your credit record (for free) periodically: www.annualcreditreport.com
• Financial Crisis Seminar
  (10/6/08) Philip Abbott, Michael Boehlje, Sugato Chakravarty, Larry DeBoer and David Hummels spoke about the financial crisis during a panel discussion on Purdue's West Lafayette campus. Purdue University economists said an ailing financial industry is going to need strong medicine to pull out of a deepening credit crunch brought on by risky loans and deregulation.
• Economists: Tough measures needed to cure economic ills
• Krannert School Discussion Of The U.S. Financial Crisis
  (10/3/08) Purdue University's Krannert School of Management held a faculty panel discussion about the causes and implications of the current financial crisis facing the United States. That same day, the House of Representatives passed a $700 billion bailout bill previously approved by the Senate; President Bush immediately signed the bill into effect.
• Financial Crisis Web Site
  The Department of Agricultural Economics also maintains a Web site devoted to the current financial crisis.