Financial Information

Buying a home, especially your first home, is exciting and heart-wrenching. It certainly is a satisfying experience. We’ve even gone so far as to name it “the American Dream”-you know the story: white picket fence, a dog in the yard, kids playing out back. No one ever misses a mortgage payment in this American Dream and the house values keep going up and up. There are no sheriff’s sales, no bills piling up, no collector’s phone calls, no banks coming to foreclose. But, for many Americans, that dream has turned into a nightmare now. No one imagines when they first turn the key to their new home that at some point they may be considering walking away from their home and their mortgage. What once was a great source of pride has now turned into an unbearable burden. What could have changed? How did you get here? Why would you even consider giving up your home and walking away from your mortgage?

There are a lot of problems right now because of the collapse in the housing market. It’s pretty crazy with what has happened and it will not be until the housing market rights itself will we see a change in the situation of the country. We need the housing market to get better as so much of people’s finances are tied to their homes. I don’t think this should be the case but once things stabilize people will begin to feel better.

Housing Housing

As an investment banker I thought I knew everything about stocks and shares till last year. My ego was crushed by the crash of Dow Jones. I got paralyzed and didn’t know what to do. All my money was invested “wisely” in stocks that were “doing well” a couple of years ago. When the downslide started I was losing more than $1000 a day. My mind told me to sell everything and get out of this rut. But my heart thought otherwise. I thought ‘if only it could pick up a bit, then I’ll sell.’ This way I ended up with a big loss. My 401k is also down, where in I had invested for my twilight years. Even if the market picks up, I’ll still be at a loss. With a recession going on, it is indeed difficult for any company to do well. More and more companies are folding up and hundreds of people are losing jobs. If you have the staying power then keep your stocks and don’t sell them now. The new government is sure to get us out of this mess. After all there is light beyond the dark tunnel, isn’t it? I am sure about it. How about you?

Recession 401k, banking, investments, Recession, Stocks