American Dream

I was reading my latest Time magazine. And there is an article called
American Dream... "American Dream has seen better days"...
The article is up and down as you can expect from their title.
And one of the questions they said about it, that we can expect the
question from the Reagan/Carter debate, this year at the debates...

"Are you better off today, than you were 4 years ago".. Now I know there
are a lot.. a. lot... of people who will say no. They aren't. They are losing
their jobs, their homes and etc. But so far it is only trickling towards Idaho.
There are people who have lost their jobs here, but not to the extent of
the rest of the country. And there are those who are having their homes
go into foreclosure. But so far, those that I am aware of.. over extend them
selves. They got second mortgages on their homes.. borrowing against it
at much higher rate than what the homes were priced at before, when they
bought. Ending up in what they call upside down mortgages. This is truly
sad...but in all honesty.. I have to ask.. what were they thinking? To borrow
$200,000, $300,000 on their homes they bought for $125,000, just because
they could. And lot of them didn't do it to improve their homes but to
buy more toys. So they went from $300 to $500 monthly payments to over
$1,000 a month. Some as much as $2,500. It is hard to feel bad for them.
Mostly feeling bad that they made bad choices.
So those people are not better off today than they were 4 years ago.

Being a penny pincher, and not a risk type person.. I rather play it safe. I
rather do without, and know that if I ended up or the King ended up on the
unemployment line, we still could afford our home. So we stayed with the old
mortgage and the $450 a month payments while our friends went for the higher
amounts. Even when we had house repairs, we did it on a pay as you go.
So we can honestly say, yes, we are better off than we were 4 years ago.

We were finally able to pay off our home. The King took back his old job, after
doing only summer work. We have old vehicles but they run well. We have done
yard sales to improve our yard. And we are saving up so we can paint the house
next year. While we never have been well off, as in the way of a lot of people.
Where we can just go buy what we want or need. But we never have been in
that position.. so maybe that is why we are doing ok.. and doing better than we
were 4 years ago.. our bar is lower than some people. And we are happy with
less.

So come November and before, and they ask... are you better off today than
you were 4 years ago.. our answer will be yes.

As I sat at my table in the yard this afternoon, after mowing the lawn, and
working in the yard... I looked over the top of the magazine, around our place
and thought as I read the article... thankfully yes, we are living the American
dream... Wish it was so for other.
And I don't take this lightly... I know I am blessed