I'm a bystander to all this housing market stuff going on these days. I'm
not trying to buy or sell a house. I've got a mortgage with a locked in
interest rate and income that will cover the payments. None of my
investments are in any mortgage backed securities. But I am very concerned
with what is going on, and not for the reasons one might guess.



I could talk all day about predatory lending, agreeing to unaffordable
re-payment terms and rates, excessive leveraging of investments, or whatever
else could be brought into this subject. My view is that all of this is
another example of a lack of financial education in our society.



I still to this day can hear something my father said a lot when I was a
kid.



"When you get a job, make sure it has good hospitalization."



Not really the best financial education. He really should have been telling
me this:



"When you get a job, invest some money into an asset that will provide you a
consistent stream of income into the future."

Or

"When you negotiate your mortgage, make sure the deal favors you, and not
the bank."

Or

"Anyone can get paid for how much they sweat. Get paid for how much you
know."



These are all examples of a sound financial education we need to learn and
to teach. For me it wasn't until I was married, with a family, and in the
midst of a graduate education that it hit me that I did not have a financial
education. Not really the best time and place to learn that. Since then I've
worked very hard on improving my financial knowledge. I'm not talking about
knowing when my credit card payment is due. I can set up an automatic
electronic transfer to take care of that. I mean having understanding that
disposable income spent paying down debt takes away from the opportunities
to invest for future income. The other day I was very excited when an
interest rate on a loan I have adjusted with the most recent Federal Reserve
cut. Why? Not because any new balance would have a lower rate, but because
my future payments would allocate a greater amount to reducing the principal
than to interest. It was like a party in my wallet! It felt really good to
know that this was getting me closer to financial independence.



Luckily, I don't personally know anyone who may be losing their home. Maybe
they just won't talk about it with me. I believe that they have the
financial knowledge to keep them out of that position, and if they wanted to
talk about it I'm here for them.



I have three small children. They aren't ready for any of these things now.
But my oldest child is excited every day to know that Daddy's stock
portfolio is up or down. He likes to tell people "when the people at the hot
dog store (Costco) do good things, Daddy makes money". I'd like him to
remember that we talked about things like that.



Here is my advice on anyone else's financial education. Go get one. Get it
from wherever you can. It's not in one book, one class, or one seminar. This
is because everyone needs a financial education for their own level of risk.
You need to know a few things, like how to get a better interest rate from
the credit card company. But if you don't have the stomach for the Dow Jones
gyrations, you don't need to have an in-depth knowledge of trading options.



Take a little time, take stock of what you know, and then ask yourself if
you want to know more. You will be surprised by the answers.



Some of my financial education resources: Rich
bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207011692&sr=8-1> Dad, Poor Dad; The
f=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207011844&sr=1-1> 4 Hour Work Week; Jim
_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207011874&sr=1-2> Cramer's Real Money; The
Wall Street Journal; CNNMoney
; Google Finance
; Bloomberg Radio/TV; Fox Business; CNBC.