Coward's way out

Sad but true, two former Wall Street traders took their lives recently, in separate incidences, since they were under water on their mortgages, and facing financial ruin.  At least to them, it was financial ruin.

The first guy found another job, after he lost his first, but he was only making $125,000 or so a year.  Well, I can tell you, from a double income family that does NOT even bring in $100,000, you CAN live on less!  But why wait until everything seems hopeless.  Why didn't you give the house back to the bank, find a nice apartment to rent, tell your kids the truth as to why you're downsizing, and LIVE for them?  Nope.  Too much ego?  Too macho?  Too humiliating?  Hey, there are a lot of us out here who would have envied your $125,000 salary, and would have thought you did the right thing by your family.  Rather than taking the coward's way out and leaving them in a potential lurch.

The second guy, more recently, torched his house because he couldn't pay the mortgage.  Which was in the range of $17,000 a MONTH!  That's more than a lot of people LIVE on per YEAR!  But although he was a Wall Street broker, he wasn't very bright in the ways of the world, and got caught as the arsonist.  So after his trial, which he was found guilty, he decided to take the coward's way out.  Again leaving his family in a lurch! 

Obviously, both these individuals loved money more than their families, and if they couldn't have it all, then they didn't want to live.   A very sad legacy to leave their children.

Living poor by some standards, and enjoying life...on Day 217!

No good deed goes unpunished...

This line was in an e-mail sent to me by someone who did not think along the same lines as I did, concerning conservation, and tearing down a house.

I simply said that the people who bought a house on the property adjoining theirs, for over $4 million dollars, only to raze the house so they could have a "better view" perhaps should have considered the house could have been salvaged by people who wanted the wood, windows, etc, for architectural purposes.  I don't care that they wanted to tear it down, after all it's their money.  I just though that rather than go into a landfill, the pieces could have been conserved, for other more useful purposes.

It would have taken a bit longer than a bulldozer, but so what! 

The writer of the note said in not so many words that he/she never got any satisfaction from good deeds, and so did not do anything along those lines.  That most people really don't give a crap.  I tend to disagree.  I thought he/she was being very cynical.

I'm not rolling in dough, but I do make contributions if I think it's for a good cause.  I also hold the door open for people who need an extra hand.  I let people cut in line in front of me, or if I'm in my car, provided they're using their turn signals!  Even a smile can lift some spirits.  I don't expect to get a "hurray" every time.  If I think the benefactor is obviously ungrateful, then I just don't help that person again.   But most people are grateful, even if they are not effusive about it.  It just makes me feel good. 

Keeping up a positive attitude on Day 216!

For love or money?

Ho hum, Rielle Hunter has penned a tell-all book about her tawdry affair with the one-time presidential candidate, John  Edwards.  If you've been sleeping under a rock, you may not know that he was married at the time, to a woman with terminal cancer.  Of course he was one of those "born again Christians" (before the affair, in fact!), and now he's oh so remorseful.  All the more disgusting turn of events. 

This affair even produced a child.   Of course Rielle, who seemed to be smarter than she looks, did not practice safe sex, and obviously John didn't either.   Being a woman, she should have known her cycle better than she did, or if she was practicing the Catholic standby of rhythm, she should know its effective only 50% of the time.  In essence, it's a crap shoot. 

So, I'm wondering, does Rielle not get enough child support from John, that she expects to reap a fortune with her book?  I can tell you unequivocally that I will not be reading it, even if the library has it in stock, where reading it would be free to me.

Saving my money for more important things on Day 215!