I wish no one ever understood the kind of agony that someone feels in order to make such a decision.

I’m young. I don’t own my own home. I don’t own anything. Just my very expensive laptop and a very nice automobile’s worth in clothes and shoes. I’m saddled with school debt and I’m unemployed.

This isn’t to say that I understand because I can’t. You’re a husband (and maybe a father) a homeowner and you have responsibilities that you are trying to be accountable for. And I say in my ignorance and youth that — it is just money. It is just a house.

How easy for me to say this I know but — the truth is you cannot take either with you when you go and you cannot give your family what they need in your absence. What they need to know is that IT WILL BE OKAY. A life insurance policy (even if it pays out) doesn’t guarantee that. Because IT WILL BE OKAY means that really, you have to be there, with them, to ride this out. It sucks and it hurts and no family should ever have to go through something like this — but it happens, more frequently than we’d like to pretend and now it’s happening to a lot more people who it was “never” supposed to happen to. You don’t save a family by saving a house.

No one has any idea how long this financial crisis will last. Take consolation in the fact that unfortunately you are not unique. It is happening in every city across every state in our Nation and it may take a very long time for everyone to heal. Things may get a lot worse before they get better. But the fact that I have no idea what a depression looks like — that this is the first time I’m ever learning about a recession — that all I’ve ever really experienced was a booming American economy means this:

It will not always be like this. And if we dare to see how things will change, we have to be strong enough to endure our worst nightmares. You could lose money and your house and your job and wits end by the time it’s over. But you could get it all back again if it doesn’t destroy you.

(I do apologize if I came across as too “whatever” — I can’t even think of the word. I just really don’t want to hear another story like this Massachusetts woman. Too many people have lost enough as it is.)

Steve, I’m sorry you’re in such a rough situation right now. I know you’re not asking me for one, but I wish I had an answer for you. It’s just not fair, is it.

I believed that helping people was good and right and true. I over-extended myself helping others, and now I’m in the hole financially. No one will help. Everyone gives advice, but no one will simply help. I need someone to believe that my wife and I deserve the safety net we’ve provided everyone else. “The economy,” they all claim. But I watch them gamble, play the market, and be frivolous to the point of complaining that they have to bag lunch, though they can gamble $20,000.00 in the stock market.

I’ve tried to obtain assistance, and so I understand the woman’s reason for making her last financial decision. It’s crossed my mind many times recently. I’m not looking to live extravagantly. I just want to be able to zero out my extended debt, save my house (and get a safe rate, not a usurious one), and work my job to provide.

As it is, I’m hemorrhaging cash, and all I have left is life insurance.

I understand her decision.

I wish I didn’t.

Some of the previous posts have stated that life insurance policies on those who commit suicide do not pay out a death benefit. This is not necessarily true.

“I’ve never heard of a life insurance policy that paid out on a suicide.”

In many states there is a period of contestability of two years, after which it does not matter if the insured commits suicide or not – the death benefit will be paid.

I post what I can to try to temper the media’s exploitation. I think they are enormously responsible for worsening the mortgage problems and many other negative perceptions the American people have about the state of our nation.

They create hysteria, plain and simple. I think the media heard this story and found it to be the perfect tie-in story to heighten anxiety over the foreclosures. They have a lot of power, and aren’t reponsible with it.

Another interesting foreclosure case, for example. One of ABC’s “Home Makeover” houses is going to be foreclosed. Nothing to do with the mortgage crisis at all – the family took out a 2nd mortgage on the home for $450,000, and couldn’t afford to pay it. This is after 1,800 volunteers worked on their home, the home was paid off, and they were given $100,000 in cash by the builder. They basically cashed in on a good deed, and now their kids will be uprooted from a mini-mansion they were given as a gift, to who-knows-what.

Not every foreclosure is the same. But certainly, if you heap them all together, it looks like a much bigger crisis.

Thank goodness for blogs!!! ;o)

Mr. Balderrama is a plumber making a very good income ($90K+) that increased since the purchase of the home, as did his bankruptcy filings. Three, to be exact, beginning 8 months after they moved into the house. That was in 2002, when the mortgage crisis didn’t exist.

They had over $100K equity in the home this year. It could have been sold for very little, and they still would have made money on it.

In public records for the bankruptcy, there are no outstanding credit or medical debts. The only debt was the house and car. There is no explanation for why they were unable to afford the house payment with such a good salary.

No one knows where all the income went. There is speculation about gambling or illegal drugs, because, quite simply, the money had to go somewhere, if not the mortgage.

His bankruptcy filings were thrown out all three times, because he failed to make payments and scheduled court appearances. There is a system in place to help people, but you have to take part in it.

How he could say he didn’t know what was happening in regards to the mortgage, is bizarre to say the least, since he was earning a better-than-avergage income, yet filing for bankruptcy over a span of 6 years.

The media is making this a sensational story about foreclosure, but you should really be questioning this family – including Carlene’s – true motivations.