Now here is a question for all you financial gurus.  We hear and read about so many opportunities to invest our money and yet we are not sure what to do, especially after seeing how so much of those monies are mismanaged (stolen).  So please tell us your thoughts about the best way to invest and hopefully this community might learn more about the better investment opportunities.

If you were handed $10,000 today, how would you invest it in the current world economy?

I laughed so hard when I heard this woman talk about her experience.  Sometimes I wonder if people think before they open their mouth.

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Doris Coates is the Author of this article and a valuable volunteer for the organization.

I have a success story to tell, in the midst of this unfolding drama called a Recession.  It’s a success in the changing of a few lives that were about to fall down the Rabbit Hole.  But first, let’s look at the size of the Rabbit Hole.
It would be hard to pinpoint the single most troubling aspect of this period, but foreclosures–mostly the result of unemployment-are probably having the most immediate impact on the most people.  Those who aren’t radically affected may not realize it, but to the six and a half million who have been told their job no longer exists or the more than two million who’ve been forced to leave their homes, this has the force and devastation of a tsunami or a tornado.  The images of Katrina’s aftermath come to mind.
Those numbers won’t stop there; they’ll keep growing for quite a while before this horror wears itself out.  Even with the moratorium on foreclosing, according to CNNMoney.com, there were a million and a half foreclosures in process just in the first two quarters of this year, a 15% increase over the same period last year.  As the moratorium is lifted, the numbers will swell even more.  And this isn’t just one and a half-or two and a half-million individuals in most cases; it is a multiple of those numbers, because there are so often children involved. Such a massive displacement of families is forever altering our landscape.  It is likely to prove comparable to the days of the Dustbowl.
Huge portions of the wealth of this country are going down the drain, as homes are taken from the people who’ve paid on them for 10, 20, even 30 years, and sold for a fraction of what would have been paid over the life of the loan, had the homeowner been allowed to get past this hump and start making payments again.
A home in foreclosure doesn’t just damage the people who lived there; property values around it are affected, tax revenue for schools decline, and too often the home is bought as an investment, to be rented out with little regard for the neighborhood; the result is a downward spiral wherever it happens.
But, I said I could tell a story of success in the midst of all this chaos and I can.  There are homes being saved here and there across the country by a little organization which didn’t even exist a year ago, and which still has no paid employees.  The Foreclosure Angel Foundation is saving homes and making the difference between disaster, defeat and trauma or a family able to stabilize and recover.

The foundation was born out of the compassion and alarm that grew from a chance encounter at a foreclosure auction.  Marilyn Mock had accompanied her son to an auction, intending to be a by-stander, but she encountered a weeping woman and stopped to talk to her.   Marilyn’s compassion and breezy, outgoing manner soon had Tracy Orr-a complete stranger-telling about the home she had lost. She said she had come to the auction to see who would buy it.

Marilyn doesn’t pass a serious need without figuring out if she can meet it; she isn’t rich, by any means, but she owns a small company and the company has a dump truck. Using her dump truck as collateral, Marilyn bought the house at a reduced price and Tracy is back at home, making affordable payments to her new best friend.

That act of generosity wasn’t out of the ordinary; it’s just the kind of thing that Marilyn does as she goes about her business, so she was stunned when suddenly there were cameras aimed at her and satellite trucks in her front yard.

For a little while she became the media darling, but that only scared her half to death; what she discovered in the process changed her life.  Her sudden exposure sent dozens, and then hundreds of people calling her, begging for help.  Learning the enormity of so many like Tracy overwhelmed and angered her; “Where are their neighbors?!” she yelled.

She formed the foundation and, with a few volunteers, set out to be a neighbor to as many as possible of the desperate people who came to the web site to apply for help.  They number over 10, 000 now.   There is no way to help them all, but one home at a time, she is
saving some.  For those she can reach, the world gets turned right-side up again.

As donations come in, they go right back out, paying the taxes to keep one out of foreclosure, settling with the mortgage company or the bank to save another, and another.  Where it isn’t possible to save a home, she and her volunteers are helping to relocate the family to suitable lodging.  The expense of those moves are often beyond the means of the evicted family, because landlords are requiring huge deposits after learning of the foreclosure; by the time they’ve given up the fight and started to move, the former homeowners have usually exhausted all their resources and need help.

We, who help with this effort, see a different world from the one shown on the nightly news.  We are like firefighters rushing to a burning building.  We see people screaming for help from the flames in the windows, some are already falling.  We are rushing to get hoses hooked to the water supply, moving ladders into place, and heading for the stairs to save as many as we can.  And we see the relief, after so much fear and utter exhaustion, as their lives become safe again.

So, I really did have a success story in the midst of what many in the housing industry are calling the Apocalypse.  It really is as bad as I began this account with, and the fight is uphill, but the more donations that are brought to bear-like the water filling the firemen’s hose-the fewer who will fall from those windows.

These families in crisis are a large part of our social fabric, and we need as many as possible to be able to stabilize and recover.  It is in our best interest to see that they can.  Our countrry is in crisis, but we can save it, one family at a time, or even better many at a time.  We need volunteers and funds, so bring your hammers, saws and nails, neighbors; we need to rebuild our neighbors’ barns.

Send your donations to:

Foreclosure Angel Foundation
P.O. Box 265
Rockwall, TX  75087

Or donate on the website at:

www.foreclosureangelfoundation.com

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death throes? He’s now 82 years old and has a new book, ‘Where Have All The Leaders Gone?’.

In it Lee Iacocca says:
‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder! We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course…’
Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned, ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore..
The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.. While we’re fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the ‘ America ‘ my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C’s of leadership, with crisis being the first.)
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here’s where we stand.

-We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.
-We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.
-We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.
-Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy.
-Our schools are in trouble.
-Our borders are like sieves.
-The middle class is being squeezed every which way.

These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’ Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC news or CNN news will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope – I believe in America . In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America ‘s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: The ‘Great Depression,’ ‘World War II,’ the ‘Korean War,’ the ‘Kennedy Assassination,’ the ‘Vietnam War,’ the 1970′s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: ‘You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a “Call to Action” for people who, like me, believe in America ‘. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had ‘enough.’
Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It’s our country, folks, and it’s our future. Our future is at stake!!