On the Street

Maria Magee, Resident
"It doesn’t get me down. When it comes to my life, I just live it. You can’t just stop living. I have to take kids here and there, and you can’t say ‘gas prices are too high, I’m not going to take them anywhere.’ In some ways, I’ve changed my spending habits. For example, we plan trips to Naples on one day instead of two or more. I try not to read the papers, but if I do, and see a doom and gloom article, I switch to something else. It’s depressing to read that stuff. If you look back in history, the country’s always gone up and down, and we always seem to come out of it. News always seems to makes things 300 times worse than they are."

Lori Gross, Resident
"I don’t watch (TV news) about it at all. There are several different sides to stories: the person that it happens to, the person who did it, and the person who writes the story or says it. People don’t plan ahead financially, I believe. Everybody seems to live paycheck to paycheck, or they live above their means. They should simplify. Make it easy, not get what you have to have. It is difficult with children because they want everything. Moms do without. (As for high gas prices) I usually schedule my errands, and try not to go off the island unless I have to."

Gary Ozak, Financial Advisor, Marco Island
"From a financial investment point of view, people should stay the course. Stock market declines are normal and frequent, and are not a reason to sell quality investments. “Bear” markets are an opportunity to buy quality stocks at attractive prices. People shouldn’t own investments today that they would not want to own in a bear market tomorrow. Quality investments typically have what it takes to bounce back, and lower-quality investments may not recover when the bear market ends."