Anyone who’s been divorced knows that!

I also feel for you on the bills. Being Canadian, I continue to be shocked at the price you Americans have to pay for what I don’t even have to think of. (Three kids born in Ontario – total hospital bill – Um, I think I paid a few bucks to rent the bedside TV service … otherwise, $0.)

No matter how much people like to bitch about waiting times (and there’s only a wait if it’s not absolutely serious, from my experience), I’d rather wait than have to pay money I simply don’t have (I hold no credit cards, either.)

That’s about $2.09 per litre, or almost $8 per gallon.

And that’s not the highest it’s been recently, it hit over £1.30 awhile back but dropped some since.
For diesel, it’s about £1.25/litre.

If the supposed yearly growth was 6 percent last year, but inflation was 10 percent, THEN WE HAVE been in a reccession.

*waiting for the obligatory – why don’t you ride your kangaroo to work – remark*

You just have to have a solid Idea, a good plan, and the ability to move your mind from a worker’s thought process into a work-owner’s thought process, which is a most difficult jump for a lot of people.

It doesn’t even have to be revolutionary – you can do something everyone else does, as long as you can put your name on it, and do it well.

There are still plenty of opportunities available. Sieze them.

I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone here, but it’s simply that I’m completely fed up with people who should know better, or who ignore common sense, going out and overspending, and then acting like it’s the government’s fault that they’re in a bad position.

Have you thought about renting, ReTARDIS? Even in an unstable housing market, you’ll have people looking to rent (and usually even more because of the instability). If you can get at least enough to cover monthly mortgage and taxes (pretty much bring it to zero balance), you can live elsewhere and not really have to worry so much about how you’re going to pay for two houses, etc., AND you’ll be able to sell it when the market’s better. Just a thought – I don’t know how doable this is in your situation, but I’ll do all I can to help people who are trying to be fiscally responsible. And I apologise personally, as it seems you’ve taken it that way. I’ve tried to explain my position, so hopefully forgiveness will be justified.

Fannie Mae:

Fannie Mae has a federal charter and operates in America’s secondary mortgage market to ensure that mortgage bankers and other lenders have enough funds to lend to home buyers at low rates. Our job is to help those who house America.

Freddie Mac:

Freddie Mac is a stockholder – owned corporation chartered by Congress to increase the supply of funds that mortgage lenders, such as commercial banks, mortgage bankers, savings institutions and credit unions, can make available to homebuyers and multifamily investors. Since Freddie Mac was created in 1970, they have pursued the purpose the Congressional founders set out: to provide a continuous and low – cost source of credit to finance America’s housing.

I’m sort of at a loss as to why this is a problem for you.

I think the full bill (the birthing hospital, the ambulance, and the NICU) came to the ballpark of $70,000. We were nothing short of lucky to have only had to pay to pay off about $4,000. (There was no burial; the NICU gifts the cost of cremation and a little resin-cast statue to contain the ashes; and the priest did the funeral service pro bono.)

Comparing that to the little one I’m finally getting to sleep right now, whose prenatal care, homebirth, and 6 mos. of post natal checkups with a registered midwife only cost us $3,000…

It’s almost like leadership in this country WANTS to wreck the economy.

The other tactic I lurved was changing the lendee’s income so that they could qualify for a larger loan with shady interest. The guy signing the forms doesn’t know this because he’s in the dark.

And as far as Noone’s comment below goes, no, we don’t think we’re hard up just because we can’t afford a big screen TV. We think we’re hard up because we sometimes have to decide between diapers and milk. And we aren’t on any sort of welfare or food stamps.