Today is memorial Day. While a lot of my friends are enjoying the Eastern Washington BBQ’s and camping trips I am educating myself in an empty office. Sure, I could have taken the weekend off worked on my tan somewhere east, but instead I choose to work. This weekend had me thinking more about the reason most people get today off. Initially, Memorial Day started as a day to remember the men and women who fought for our country. Today, it is an over police-patrolled, hot dog and other BBQ food day off. I would imagine in this economy and these times, people would be more concerned about our country. Or maybe I have it all wrong and the public is trying to take today as an excuse to get away and not be concerned about life’s stresses.

I must say, I am concerned about our country. While I try not to advertise my political views, it makes me wonder where we went wrong. Now I am no history expert, although I do enjoy the history channgel, we are very far from where we were as a country 40 some years ago. Maybe its the technology, or maybe its the economy, but somewhere somehow we got off track. What once was a country that was proud of its American made vehicles and hard working people, is now outsourcing the majority of jobs . Consumer debt did not exist and kids did not come home to play video games and watch TV.

People find it okay to allow the general public to pay for their debt and many file bankruptcy multiple times. Some distressed homeowners blame banks and mortgage brokers for their negative equity and for losing their homes. This weekend alone, I have received 4 calls from people wanting to rent because they have lost their home. All named the bank to blame for their loss. I am not against helping others out, in fact, I have made a habit of helping others where I can. You never know when it may be your turn and your misfortune. What I do not get is how we can blame others for our misfortunes. We need to first accept and learn from our mistakes, and try to remidy the situation. As a society, we have learned to hide from our problems and to throw things away at the first sign of trouble.

Fortunately, I did not get into the hype of buying McMansions and overleveraging myself with fancy cars and credit card debt. But I had great teachers. Growing up, I had access to many great things, but I was taught that all things come at a cost. Either they cost time or money, and sometimes both. I learned to save for the future and that if I lived below my means, I would never be in trouble. When I purchased my first house I had a loan officer who would not allow me to buy into the adjustable rate mortgage and suggested I purchase at the bottom of my price range and eventually work myself up to the McMansion. Fortunately… I was listening to those lessons of life.

Recently, I was following a blog about real estate values. One man was trying to demonstrate that purchasing a home is overrated and that it is the worst investment you could make. I found myself instantly offended, I had purchased 4 homes already in my life, they are supposed to be my biggest investment… how could he say that? Well, turns out he more or less was interested in getting reactions from people on the site. My reaction was to politely explain to him my theory. My theory is that a person must live somewhere. There are two people in this world, renters and homeowners. Now of course there are renters that don’t pay rent (live with mom and dad or family) and homeowners that don’t pay their mortgage (like me!). Either way, we are going to have to eventually pay to live somewhere. Well, if you are going to pay to live somewhere, and it turns out that you can own the same home you can rent for the same amount, I think we would all agree that the smarter option would be to purchase the home and pay it down so that eventually we can sell or it will be paid off. In doing so, lets say you also get to write off a portion of those monthly payments which we call tax deductions. That makes the deal even sweeter now doesn’t it? Lets go even a step further and say we can rent the home we own and let someone else pay our mortgage down for us. Lets say the government gives us an even bigger tax write off by doing this. That sounds really sweet, and that is what I mean by saying I am a homeowner who does not pay my mortgage. In fact, some of my rentals cash flow which means my mortgage gets paid in full, and I get a few extra hundred dollars to own it! Long story short… I won the blog war