Thanks! :^)

Don’t buy what you don’t need. Invest in a couple of good cook books and eat at home. Squeeze more time out of your car by maintaining it properly (inflated tires, oil changes, etc.), and plan errand trips in bunches to minimize travel time and wear and tear, carpool when available. Give up cable TV and join Netflix and the library instead, and join book clubs. Read up on ETF’s that invest out of the US (see Minyanville.com, for example, on some ideas). Generally, don’t believe the hype of stuff pitched on TV and you’ll be better able to resist temptation to buy stuff you don’t need.

@M Daughtrey

The LIBOR resets will be slowed by lower overall rates. There was a spike in LIBOR after the credit freeze-up in August, even after the Fed dropped rates. It’s come down, but not nearly as much as you’d think given the amount of $$ pumped in. This slowing will mean borrowers with LIBOR based Option Arm loans may have an extra month or a few months before they hit the reset cap. That’s it - it doesn’t stave it off problems unless and until said borrowers have enough funds to pay OFF the negatively amortized portion, and then principal, to a figure that will keep the reset date at bay. And even if they do - most Option ARMS have 5 year triggers (Wachovia has 10) - so the day of reckoning for a payment reset is staved off at best by a couple years, maybe 18 months.

Values won’t increase enough by then to permit refinancing.

Here is an example of myth repair: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQKNvPn3V-8

Whether a pageant or economics the public must buy in. How can AAA ratings be maintain when it has shown that it’s not deserved.