A Big Waste of Time?

As I'm sure you've all seen, millions of Americans have flooded US numerous city streets in a movement called Occupy Wallstreet. When the movement began a little more than 2 weeks ago, it appeared that the cause focus was to protest against corporate greed committed by the largest companies currently in the marketplace.  As a small business owner who is not even able to pay myself a minimum wage I of course applauded their efforts.  Unfortunately some where along the way it appears that the movement lost it's focus completely and now I'm not really sure what they are trying to accomplish.

A few nights ago we had dinner with Ryan's parents and got onto the subject of Occupy Wallstreet and corporate greed. We all agreed that for the most part this protest is turning into more of a waste of energy than a positive move in the direction of change.  It seems as though people are now congregating to complain about how unfair their lives are rather than voicing concerns that spark discussion and possibly change. 

Ryan's mom shared a disturbing incident that recently happened at her workplace, a national communications corporation which I won't name even though I'd love to (let's just say it starts with an F now and formerly started with a V).  Seems the company made a bad investment when buying out another national communication corporations local internet and television accounts and instead of making cuts from the top down, roughly 50% of the local work force was hit with a pay cut of 45% or more while the CEO received a raise earning her $12 million a year!  To add insult to injury she had the nerve to personally fly in on her private helicopter to delivery the bad news to an unsuspecting workforce. This information was so disturbing to me that I personally will never invest in their services from now on.  Unless this CEO built this company from the ground up (which she didn't) there is no way she is worth that kind of a gross salary!  Even if she had founded the company, I'd hope that a majority would be reinvested into the company or given to a charitable organization.  Heck, we don't even make 100th of 1% of that each year and we give a percentage of sales back to charity!

Still is this one woman's overcompensation and greed the root cause of the unemployment rate in America?  Is it the outsourcing of our jobs to foreign companies? Or is it that our country has so many incentives to have a comfortable live without working for it that people have learned it's easier to collect an unemployment check rather than getting off the couch and doing some good old manual labor for minimum wage. 

What frustrates me is that as a small business owner I don't have the luxury of unemployment, health care or even workman's comp.  We struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on, live off macaroni & cheese and only go to the doctor if a router bit tries to rip off our hand and the wound is too large to patch at home! If I closed our doors tomorrow we'd couldn't go to the State office and get government assistance while we figure out what we want to be when we grow up!

When our money troubles started a couple of years ago, Ryan suggested we look into food stamps to help keep food in the house, I refused and still do.  Sure it's a pride thing, but also why should I take food out of the mouths of hungry children or the homeless when I'm perfectly capable of figuring out new ways to make our business grow and earn money. Neither of us have a handicap that prevents us from earning a living and providing for ourselves. If more people would own up to their responsibilities as citizen's of the human race, quit bitching about what a tough lot in life they have been dealt and in the words of Nike, Just Do It, I think that we would be in a much better place than we are today!

Outsourcing is bad, greed is bad, but laziness is worse because it is something we all can control. Wasting energy marching up and down our city streets without a clear purpose is just that, a waste of energy.  I hope that someone stands up with a clear message and idea for change soon so that we can all start to work on making much needed improvements.

Ding Dong the House is Gone!

If someone had asked me 4 years ago if I would be happy if my house went back to the bank, I would have thought that they were completely insane to even ask.  How could someone be happy that a home they worked so hard to make their own was taken away because they couldn't afford to stay there? 

We bought the house because of the tremendous amount of potential we saw in it.  The 4,200 square foot split level was on a double lot in a quiet neighborhood.  We saw through the green indoor/outdoor carpeting, the dated mirrored  fireplace and the dreadful baby blue and pink walls and invisioned a home that we could live in for a very long time. 

As soon as the papers were signed and the keys handed over we promptly took down the two walls that had boxed in the original 1969 era kitchen.  Ryan was working long hours in Real Estate so progress was slow going on weekends only.  Within a couple months Ryan's parents returned from a 2 year trip overseas and decided to move into our basement to help us expedite the renovations.  While Ryan worked, his dad and I got to work taking down the popcorn ceiling, handing drywall and building "the continent" a massive 11 foot by 6 foot curved island that now stood where the walls used to.  His mom helped by preparing meals and keeping our working area tidy. 

The kitchen took 10 months to complete and in all honesty was not completely done when we departed in November of 2009.  Over the years the multitude of projects continued to grow and none were ever fully completed. For those of you who have seen 1986's The Money Pit you get the picture. It seemed like new "improvements" were constantly popping up over the 5 years we lived there.  We never did ever get a chance to sleep in the master bedroom in all that time. 

We had grand dreams of enlarging the masterbed room, gabling the hipped roof to something less split level etc., etc.  But we were always working to afford the mortgage, the cars and buy the tools needed to get the job done.  We were completely exhausted.  As a result the lawn often went unmowed, the weeds grew uncontrollably and my resentment for this monster house continued to grow.  Still when financial trouble started brewing in early 2008 giving up the house was not an option.  We had too much time and money into it to leave it all behind. I remember one day after struggling to make the mortgage payments for another month I broke down in tears, terrified that we were going to loose our house. It was unfathomable. The stress of it caused me to contract Shingles and sent me in to a deep depression.  When they say that loosing your house is like coping with a loved ones death, they are not joking. Even though Ryan had been in the business of REO properties (homes that have been foreclosed on) for years it was no less devastating.  No one was more surprised than myself when I woke up one Fall morning and decided to hold up the white flag.  There was absolutely no possible way to keep the house, especially not while trying to start a new business at the same time. The $3,500/month payments were out of control. The only responsible thing to do was to pack up, move out and ask the bank to take the house back as a Deed in Lieu.

As we quickly found out the bank was too consumed with other defaulted homes and had no urgency to get our debt off the books. A multitude of phone calls trying to get the issue resolved fell on deaf ears. We maintained the house payment for almost a full year after moving funded by money we barrowed from family.  At one point I called into the mortgage company to try and arrange a resolution and was told that until my account was in default they were unable to help me. That's when we decided to give up all together. Now 2 years later they have finally taken the house to the county steps for auction, at least that is what the latest notice we recieved said. 

I'm not proud to have been foreclosed on.  In my family foreclosure was always viewed as the worst thing that someone could ever do.  You take the responsiblity and live with the consequences. I carried a sense of guilt about my decision for years after we left.  I feared Ryan blammed me for forcing him to leave the house, that he would forever be resentful of that.  But now as time has passed I am relieved that I made that hard decision and thankful that we have a warm place to sleep at night.  I know someday we will have the big house again although I'm working on conviencing Ryan that we only need 2,100!