My marriage is successful beceause we're almost 100% compatible. The good news and the bad news is that we pretty much share the same character flaws. We agree on most things and seem to compromise pretty well when we disagree.

But there's one area where we're complete opposites: sharing emotional issues. While I need to talk; he needs to not talk.

The current US and global financial crisis has me extremely anxious and frightened. He says he's scared, too, but he doesn't want to read or hear about it which leaves me needing an outlet. This is my outlet.

We're retired. Living aboard a sailboat and cruising the east coast and the Bahamas. Theoretically, we should be able to live on our minimal fixed income. I think that the bank that holds the mortgage on the boat is sound. But our 401k is taking a beating.

We both tend to be spenders rather than savers, and it has taken us a long, long time to learn to scale back from our previous spending habits. We still eat out far too often and that's been difficult to control because we're always going to a new city or town and we love good restaurants. But that's something we can control and we're working on it.

Even so, I can't figure out why I'm so anxious about the economic mess which is totally out of our control. Maybe that lack of control is what affects me so much. Maybe I'm worried about how our kids and grandkids will fare. Maybe I've heard so much from my parents about the horrors of The Great Depression, that I fear another one. I just don't know. And I have no one to talk to about it.

The worst part is that I'm inexorably drawn to internet articles about it. Every story about credit card issuers cancelling accounts & lowering credit limits gets my attention. Just adds to the problem. I'll just have to exercise some self discipline and stop reading them. But that's easier said then done.

In the meantime I'm hoping that some venting here will help.