Please Don't Panic!

The woes that our country is facing due to its recent economic situation have me scratching my head at times.

I understand that our country is facing hard times and those hard times are not going to be overcome overnight.

I understand that many of us might need to tighten our belts a bit more and make do with what we have, rather than what we would like to have.

I understand that life is short and that people want to live life to its fullest too.

But some of the recent discussions have me a bit befuddled. I'd like to state that I'm not an economic genius by any means, I'm not even an economic genius wannabe either.

Hubby and I were watching the Dave Ramsey show the other night on the Fox Business channel.


If you're not familiar with Dave Ramsey's show, callers phone in to get advice for their particular situation from Dave. The callers usually give Dave a 30-second summary of what their financial woe is and Dave helps them to figure out what they can do to make their situation better.

A lady phoned in to talk to Dave and you could hear the rising panic in her voice. She explained that she and her husband purchased their existing home, but found out recently that their home was no longer worth what they paid for it. She was shrilly explaining that they didn't know if they should talk to the bank and get a short loan. A short loan is where the bank will agree to take less money than is owed to pay off the mortgage for the home. (When we lived in California years ago, the housing market had become falsely inflated and many banks were opting for short loan payoffs vs. having owners walk away into foreclosure.) That way the bank can get some money instead of no money.

She thought maybe they should get a short loan, or maybe go bankrupt and walk away. She was truly panicked.

Dave asked her if the house was an adequate size for her family. She said that it was. He asked her if they could still afford the mortgage payment or was it out of reach for them each month. She said they had no problem paying the existing mortgage. He asked her if they hated the home. She said that they liked the home rather well. He asked her, "Why do you want to get rid of this home?"

She stated that they felt trapped. They owed more in the mortgage than the home was worth. He asked her if that were not the case, would she and her husband have decided, down the road, that they might like to sell the home. She said that they liked the home and would have stayed in the home for quite some time or maybe even forever, if this hadn't happened.

Okay, do you see my point yet?

Why would this lady think she needed to sell her home?

Well, Dave advised her to 'sit tight' and 'DO NOT PANIC' and wait out this situation. If you like the home and you can afford the home, stay in it and wait this thing out.

I think the most important words he said was, 'DO NOT PANIC.'