Luxury Real Estate

By Robert Lockard

I’d like to talk about a topic that is not necessarily a pressing matter for people buying luxury real estate, but which I still find very important: Debt. It is very sad to me to see so many people struggling with the enormous burden of debt.

I recently read a wonderful editorial in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer entitled “The great seduction,” in which author David Brooks points out the astonishing truth about debt. Brooks notes that for the past 30 years Americans have forgotten our noble heritage of frugality and living within our means. We have even forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression that we should not overextend ourselves on credit.

I have heard people argue that easy credit is a good thing because it leads to additional economic growth and a wealth of new capital to expand business operations and ventures. I politely disagree. Yes, debt gives us more money in the short term to grow, but it is a false growth based upon a false sense of stability.

Debt has a way of perpetuating itself. Years ago, homebuyers paid off their home loans as quickly as possible because they understood the disadvantages of being indebted and paying interest. However, now we are encouraged to stay in debt and use our unpaid-for assets as leverage to go into even more debt.

I am not desirous to abolish all debt because it serves a useful purpose in moderation. But I would like to see debt portrayed as less of a convenience and more of an obligation and hardship that should not be undertaken lightly.

Many people who declare bankruptcy do so after facing unexpected medical issues, job loss or other life-changing events. I think that people are smart and that they can make it through these tough times if they are prepared. But many of us are not saving money and we are drowning in ever-growing debt.

I want to see this change. No matter if you are rich, poor or somewhere in between, simply living within your means will help you avoid the unhappiness and stress of living in debt.

The above picture is from www.anxietyculture.com/debt.htm.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. Feel free to share your thoughts on what can be done about this sad issue. I definitely think that people are smart and I hope that we will figure out a solution to this problem.

By Robert Lockard

“Do you ever stop smiling?” One of my neighbors asked me that question on Monday, June 2, 2008 while I was walking back home from my mailbox after I got home from my job at Luxury Real Estate. I was pleasantly startled by the question because it was asked by the young woman before me in a slightly exasperated way, as though it had been building inside of her for some time. She said that she has seen me on numerous occasions walking nearby and I always have a smile on my face. She found herself worrying that I was either hiding something or crazy.

I assured her that neither is the case and that I most assuredly do stop smiling from time to time. Looking back, I wish that next I would have pointed out that I find much to smile about in life and I try to just prepare for hard times and then not let bad things or hurtful words cause me to be unhappy, bitter or unforgiving. But what actually came out of my mouth was, “I guess I’m just a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.” That’s not strictly true because I do strive to plan and live wisely instead of just throwing caution to the wind, but I am most certainly happy.

Despite my less-than-profound answer, the young woman said that she was glad that I was happy because when she sees me smiling she often feels a desire to smile, as well. I like sharing happiness with other people, even if it’s completely by accident, so I was filled with joy to hear that and I smiled even more. I thanked her for stopping me and telling me all of this. Then I introduced myself so I wouldn’t be a stranger and she introduced herself. I love making new friends.

I bring this up because I read an interesting article in CNN on the same day as this experience, entitled “Want to be rich? Don’t get too happy.” I was fascinated by this article because, according to its findings, people who claim to be perfectly happy and content are not usually as successful as people who are somewhat less happy. I personally find it a bit questionable to try to quantify happiness since everyone’s definition is probably slightly different and there’s no clear way to delineate between the different numbers on a 1-10 scale. Also, I’m sure that a person’s answer would change on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.

For the purposes at hand, though, I’ll just push these objections aside for the moment and talk about something interesting I find from the results. People who rated their happiness as 10 out of 10 on the scale were less likely to be as successful as moderately happy people. Also, perfectly happy people were less likely to save money or plan ahead for hard times, while less-happy people exercised a bit more protectiveness and foresightedness. I think that if the survey takers were to check up in the next few months or years on the people who claimed to be perfectly happy, they would find that their happiness wouldn’t always last.

Life has a way of pulling the rug out from under us when we get too comfortable. I apologize if I sound too pessimistic. I just want people to be wise and not be too unhappy all the time or too happy if their happiness is based upon a false hope. I recommend living wisely so that we can be very happy but never perfectly content to stay the way we are. I want to always grow and so I do not intend to be perfectly happy in my current state. However, if I worry too much about my imperfections or desire to grow too quickly, I will probably waste time and energy being miserable or sorry for myself. I prefer being happy for a long period of time by making small improvements each day. Out of small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Do I ever stop smiling? Of course I do. But the trick is that I start smiling again and again.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. Feel free to let me know what you think of this story and how you feel about your success and happiness.