The New Year --- Can We Call it 200Fine!?!

There is something to be said about the late Norman Vincent Peale: He was the eternal optimist!

The upcoming year will be our proving ground, and we need to enter it with a positive, optimistic attitude. It WILL BE 200FINE!

I am not old enough to have lived through WW I, or WW II or the "GREAT DEPRESSION." But my parents did. And they must have been even more anxiety ridden then I.

The one thing to remember is . . . they survived, as did our Nation.

From some of the conflicts in the early to mid part of the 20th Century, our Nation went through some very painful historical events. We are no where near that now, and while there are some suffering and plight, we are not at war with Japan to the East and Germany to the West. Our country is still strong, and yes we have major overhauls needed. And these overhauls are due by factors that were at of my control . . . and yours.

My clients didn't get snookered into loans they couldn't afford. I checked! I actually pulled my closed deal files for the past two years and noticed that mos of my buyers STILL resided in their property, and only one had sold their property.

When I think how fast we went into "RECESSION" and how quickly the media picked it up and jammed it down our throats, I have to think positively . . . since no one else is!

200Fine! I'm ready for it, are you!?

We have a new President taking office in about 3 weeks, someone who wanted "change" and preached this in his electoral speeches.

Interest rates are being lowered. Housing prices are becoming more and more realistic.

I think that after our winter weather thaws (in a lot of areas in the nation), and people who had been thinking of purchasing will calm down as they STILL are employed, and STILL have great credit scores, they will be out in the Spring, and they will be looking for some good deals. They'll find them!!

As a Realtor(r) for 10 years, I've seen the up and down cycles. Nothing this dramatic, and long-lived, but then I didn't see a lot of borrowers use their personal home as a piggy bank, putting nothing down, and then refinancing on an alleged appreciation. Most people didn't use their property that way, and most people aren't facing default, short sales and foreclosure.

But, there are some people who got in over their heads. Sure, they can blame their lender, they can blame the ease to which they were able to obtain their loans . . . they can even blame their real estate agent, but there has to be some personal accountability when it comes to living above your means.

There's several companies now who are running TV ads in my local area. Send us your gold jewelry, and we'll send you money.

That's the gist of it.

Just sent it . . . and we'll give you money.

Can anyone see the "Sucker Born Every Second" in this type of SCAM!?

But, there will be people who will be panicked, and they will go through their jewelry box and send in their gold jewelry, and get back $40. Then they'll bitch and moan because they got taken.

Hmmmm . . . first rule of NOT being suckered . . . don't send in your jewelry! Don't buy a home that costs more then you can afford. Don't buy a home if you don't have at least 6 months CASH in your bank to pay the mortgage, your monthly bills and other household expenses. Don't live on credit cards.

Start to simplify your live, and the New Year will truly be . . . 200Fine!

"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds." ~Norman Vincent Peale

"If you're going through hell, keep going.: ~Winston Churchill

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much." ~Mother Teresa

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders." ~Jewish Proverb

"You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." ~Walt Disney

"When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity." ~John F. Kennedy, address, 12 April 1959

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." ~African Proverb

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered." ~Oscar Wilde

"A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity 'til he has tasted adversity." ~Sa'di (Musharrif-uddin)

"My strength is made perfect in weakness." ~II Corinthians

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." ~ Bill Gates

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." ~ Helen Keller

"The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow." ~ William J. H. Boetcker

"Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the torture of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job." ~ Victor Hugo

"I think my biggest achievement is that after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane. I'm proud of that." ~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

"The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties." ~ Abigail Adams

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars." ~ Anonymous