No Money for Retirement - You Are Totally Responsible

An article in USA TODAY titled Undervalued Homes Dampen Retirement Dreams starts out:

When Jennifer and David Wakefield bought their home at the end of 2005, they believed its value would rise. After all, the couple they'd bought it from made a $100,000 profit in just three years.

But instead, the housing market foundered, and the house in Oviedo, Fla., that the Wakefields bought for about $230,000 is now worth just $115,000. Jennifer Wakefield says she's put off hopes of moving to a larger home. She once thought she could use a home-equity loan to help cover the $30,000 cost of adopting a child, but now there's no equity to tap into.

This is a sob story about how some Americans cannot count on their houses for retirement and may not have much retirement income.

Then there are several comments by various readers blaming George Bush, Barack Obama, and the banks.

This was the comment that I posted:

I can't believe the people who are blaming Obama. The damage was done during the Bush years.

Even so, don't blame Bush or Obama. Blame yourselfs.

The problem with most people is that the don't take responsibility for their own lives. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who purchased homes that are worth less than what they paid for them. If they couldn't afford the houses, they shouldn't have bought them. Don't blame the banks either.

As Newsweek magazine said in its cover story in October 2008 shortly after the economic downturn got really bad, "The whole nation was complicit in a fraud."

Virtually all Americans were living the big lie and now everyone wants to blame everyone else, including Bush, Obama, and the banks.

I purchased my home at the height of the market but I always looked at a house as a consumer item instead of an investment.

What's more, I always felt that I should be able to pay off a house totally in cash if I purchase one.

So the fact that my house has gone down in value is no big deal. My house is a consumer item just like a car or a pair of socks.

If everyone looked at values of houses as I do, there would be no problem.

By the way, I will have no problem in retirement either. When I started making some decent money, I made sure that I saved at least 35 percent of my earnings a year.

I would suggest that anyone who has money problems because of a house or otherwise to read "You're Broke Because You Want to Be" by Larry Winget. What I like is that Larry Winget tells it like it is by making you own up to your financial reality - or lack thereof.

In short, you created your own financial situation. Stop blaming anyone else.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and "The Joy of Not Working"
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

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