Turn on the evening news, open the newspaper, read a recent magazine article, listen to CNBC…all sources seem to be laying out a scary picture of you and your neighbor losing your home in foreclosure while the economy of our country falls apart.  Set that thought aside for a minute and read on.

Do you remember ever being home sick from school or work?  You lay on the couch for a day or two, feeling sick and not seeming to be improving a bit.  You may have thought to yourself…”am I ever going to feel better?”  Finally, sick of being sick, you get off of the couch and start acting healthy, even though you still feel a little sick, and almost pretend to be healthy because you are tired of being sick.  Within an hour or so of acting healthy, you suddenly feel healthy.  What happened there?  Your glass changed from being half-empty to half-full, that’s what.

Sure, it isn’t the easiest time to get ahead.  But as soon as we start acting like it isn’t so bad, it will soon start feeling like it isn’t so bad.  Our global economy is ever-changing.  It’s time to deal with that and make adjustments to allow for these changes. 

You can’t go and refinance your home to pay for “junk” that you could live without as easily as you could a year or two ago.  Now is the time to figure out how you can pay for it or live without it.  Stop focussing on what you don’t have and start appreciating what you do have.

Back to the news, it is true that many people are experiencing a very difficult time in their lives.  They will lose their homes and/or businesses to foreclosure.  From my experience being “sick at home on the couch”, the sooner they brush the dust off and start acting like it isn’t so bad, the sooner it won’t be so bad anymore. 

Take time to appreciate what you can’t buy at any store or in any real estate market…it is something that nobody can ever take away from you.