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Book Review & Giveaway- "The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide"

Book Review - "The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide" by Martin D. Weiss

This is a fabulous book.  Absolutely great - not filled with the usual tired maxims, Weiss offers unusual strategies.

Run to your store or Amazon Books and buy it.  (if you need it).   Vaboomer has a free *new* copy -- to enter drawing send an email to:   contact@boomermade.com .  We'll select a winner next week. 

Not to be "doom & gloom" but this writer is calling our current "Recession" the "the Second Great Depression".  Well, whatever we want to call "it", we are facing some challenges.

Here are some tidbits from this great booK:

!)  Pay Down Your Mortage - even "Fixed Rate Mortgages" --Even "fixed rate" mortgages are problematic, as "deflation" drags down wages but the payments on the mortgage do not decrease.  So pay more than minimum payments.

2)  Jobs -- Don't be in a fog if you are employed!  Get out of your trance.  Keep up-to-date on your company's financial situation - read & research.  In the meantime assess what your company needs and acquire those assets.

3) Housing & Real Estate -"Don't look back" --- Forget what your property was worth at its peak or what you paid for it."  What is the current situation?  Look around & do your research.

4) Forget the 'Government as Savior' idea--- yes, it will help some people, but it will be "spotty".

5)  Selling your Home?  Offer an additional bonus commission for agents to get things rolling --  If the current commission rate is 6%, offer 8%.  Make sure the extra bonus is indicated in the MLS Listing.

6)  Safeguard your 401K & IRA accounts - Get a list of the investments.  Shift to the safest fund.

7)  Watch for Watershed Events to invest.  When the government gets out of the "bailout business" (after they realize it didn't work so well), there may be a 'sea change' & a good time to find bargains.

The author believes we will survive and recover and life will go on, but we have to be alert & unerstand how events will likely take place.  He believes "crisis breeds opportunity".

Visit the author's website:  http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/guide

Eco(nomy) Terrorists Bush Etal Fear Mongerer

Ok, did you see the CNN story today in which the soon-to-be-evicted home owner chained herself to the porch post?  CNN Video In two ways people are starting to fight back: compassionately helping with the purchase like the Foreclosure Angel, and like today's direct opposition...a bit of Ghandi and Malcom X (one of my other heros!)

We need to fight. I have been so troubled in recent years at the passivity that the Bush Et Al fearmongering has produced. It is certainly time for us to fight back. If we are so lucky to have President Obama, perhaps we can begin to climb out of the bunker/hunker position that has been actively encouraged. Whether it has been a purposeful and planned means of citizen control we will not clearly know until the records are opened. But it is clear that many have bunker-hunkered down hoping that the storm would not damage them. And unfortunatly many many have been damaged.

The Dallas Foreclosure Angel: The Beatles Had It Right--We'll Get By With a Little Help from Our Friends and Even from Strangers

Money on Monday: With a little help from our friends and even strangers we'll get by.

Tracy Orr lost her modest family home in Texas, when she couldn't keep up with the mortgage.

She planned to go to the foreclosure auction with a friend hoping to save  it. Her friend didn't show, but she went anyway. And that is where her foreclosure angel Marilyn Mock appeared.

Mock had hoped to find a house for her son, but when she saw Orr crying in despair, instead she bought Orr's house and promised that she could move right back in. Orr's tears of despair changed to tears of joy and disbelief. Read story

I am so heartened by this Boomer's compassion and care for another in trouble.

It's been hard to hold on to any kind of big spiritedness in the past number of years with its climate of fear and mean spiritedness. Some months ago I suggested that those who had enough money to buy foreclosures let others live in the houses for a modest rent. But Mock has gone one better by making it possible for the original owner to move back in.

When I first heard about the story this morning, I started hearing the the Beatles refrain "I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends" in my mind. And I started thinking  how I learned as a child that a stranger was just a friend you didn't yet know. Marilyn Mock said she expects that she and Tracy will be good friends and that people need to help each other. I am hoping that we come through this national time of crisis like Marilyn Mock with the spirit to go beyond ourselves and help each other.

Often people repeat an incorrect translation of  Risis/Weiji to  mean within crisis there is danger and opportunity.

But a more accurate translation is that a crisis is an opportune pivot. 

I think Mock showed us today that a moment of crisis for Tracy Orr became her opportune pivotal moment. Isn't this being truly rich?