Best Pet Halloween Costume Ever!!

Are you an issue based voter like me?

My friend Molly sent me a great link to see which candidate fits you best on the issues that matter to you: glassbooth.org

The survey on the issues confirmed what I already knew. I was going to vote for McCain. It also confirmed that that I was only and issue or two on the McCain side.

I know people that swear on a stack of Mothers graves that, "if McCain wins they are moving to Canada". I'm not that adamant either way.

-- Let me know what your glassboot.org scores are! VOTE!

My $.02 on the Meltdown

When Brenda and I bought the townhouse we could not believe how much money the bank would loan us. We didn't even need my name on the loan at all to buy it. We bought it under just Brendas name and got some serious tax advantages. I still owned a townhouse that we rented out.

Brenda could have easily gotten a loan she could not afford. One that the two of us together could not afford!

We showed restraint. We knew what size house we could afford. We spent hours drilling the numbers in spreadsheets, analyzing budgets. We played it conservative. Leveraged both townhouses into our current house. Once again, %30 down and a loan we could afford.

That was the key. We bought what we could actually afford. We borrowed what we could afford, not what they would loan us. The Jugheads that took the loans the stupid banks allowed them are the ones that snowballed this mess into a meltdown. Everyone gambled the Real Estate market would continue to climb. Banks and borrowers.

--Gambled and lost.

Brenda is on the mend, the stock market not so much

Brenda starts back to work next week. It has been a long six weeks to get back to this level. The entire six weeks went faster for me than the 4 hours I had to wait to see her that morning in the hospital.

In preparation for her return to work, we did the last, most painful, activity we needed to do.

Look at our retirement fund.

Ouch.

It was not as bad as we thought it would be. It still sucks. After the "Dot Com" bubble I was more conservative in my mutual fund choices. One fund we have continues to climb. Even now. Slow and steady.

The closer we get to retirement the more will be transferred to secure funds like that.

--For now, there's Scotch!

The world sucks sometimes.

This cartoon represents one of the main reasons I believe that McCain will win the election.

It's unfortunate.

I wish it was only about the issues. Race should not be a part of the equation.

--But it will be...