I also believe in Index funds, and am a big Vanguard fan. Have been for many years…

I sold my house because it didn’t make sense to own an overvalued property whose value was about to plummet. We took the profit. Had we owned the house outright, we would have stayed. My husband loved that house, and he misses the views and over 5 acres we had. If we’d owned it, our mortgage payments would have been zero, and you can’t rent for zero.

I used to call doomsdayers pessimists, but the more I’m learning about the markets, the more I’m turning into one of those doomsdayers too. Now I have to change the label from pessimist to realist, because I’m an upbeat person.

The big mystery is the derivates and MBS markets, where all the money is coming from to keep the game going, the role of the gov’t in keeping the markets stable, and how long the gov’t can keep up the game. I want to be smart enough about it, to protect my family, learn from others, and educate too.

My rant about Sell Now is meant to educate, to widen people’s perspectives. I tell everyone I meet that I sold my house to get out of the housing bubble. I do that to enlarge people’s perspectives. It’s a type of charity work for me.I’m helping someone a lot more if they avoid foreclosure, than I could ever do checking in books at the school library or doing my Treasurer job at the PTA. They easily found another mom to take over the Treasury job, but there won’t be too many people as outspoken as I am about the real estate market.