How the crisis is changing you

Frugality and safety are in; bling and plastic are out. The economic meltdown has sparked a major shift in our financial values. And one that’s likely to last.

…A new set of American values is emerging from the ashes of 600,000 layoffs a month, a lost decade in stocks, and the worst housing crash ever. These values may ring familiar to anyone who lived through the Great Depression. But for most of us it amounts to a large-scale makeover of the way we think about money and life.

We’re not just cutting our bills, we’re rejecting materialism. We’re placing safety and intrinsic rewards like relationships and personal growth ahead of profit. We’re embracing family and community and asking how we can help others, not just ourselves.

“We’ve hit a hard pendulum swing,” says Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University in Houston. And he, along with many others, believes the changes in the nation’s core values could last for decades.

What does this pendulum swing look like? First, we have a sweeping new attitude about how to shepherd and deploy our assets.

Money Magazine