It's been a tough year for many people who've been caught up in the whole mortgage and housing mess. A lot of people got way over extended in all kinds of wild mortgage loans. And many people are losing their jobs as companies affected by mortgage losses cut staff and even close up shop altogether.
There's still another shoe yet to drop too. Energy prices are rising rapidly and the cost of goods and services has begun to follow, but hasn't yet matched, the upward trend in energy prices. As a result the next twelve months may be tougher than the previous twelve months for a lot of people. There's something you can do though. Think before you act.
People can't get back into the homes that they've lost. People probably can't get back into jobs at the businesses that have laid them off. And when those people do get back to work they will probably take salary cuts. There's a lot that we can't change. What we can change is the way that we approach important life situations. We can think before we act. We can act rationally instead of emotionally.
Acting rationally is rarely fun. And very few people want to be marked as a worry wart or spoil sport. Those kinds of characterizations are fleeting. I know a few people who thought they were heroes in mid-1999, borrowing money to buy stocks with absolutely no rational chance at succeeding. The market was flying high. A year later all of those people had taken huge losses. And while they were seen as pioneers and brave investors in 1999, no one was interested in what they had to say later in 2000. The emotion is fleeting and the perceived fortune brought on by emotional decision making is fleeting.
