What Most Americans Are Missing

Fallan Research and Communications, Inc. discovered that 91% of all homeowners still believe real estate is a good investment. 72% of renters want to own a home.http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/4cdb6500463596dc84e7bdce195c5fb4/3_11_Home_Dellivery.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=4cdb6500463596dc84e7bdce195c5fb4 Americans have never been good at planning. While other cultures have traditionally saved more and planned for future generations, our cultural trait of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" has led us to be a do it yourself culture. But as we have slowed down the pace of our lives and find ourselves taking a hard reflective look at the value of acquisition verses security, we are making changes. Security, while instinctive has not been intellectually embraced. Living Americans have never experienced a war or physical threat to their safety. Apart from the terror of aids in the 80's, no plague or pox has made us think about our destiny. We have enjoyed freedom from worry that burdens many other nations even today. The 'Greatest Generation' that experienced the depression did plan, many have enviable fortunes to pass down, but find their children are spoiled and entitled and have no life skills to manage any form of wealth. But those that still have their thinking caps on, are rethinking the whole thing. Gone are the casual expenditures on the next big flat screen. Maybe a hybrid is not so geeky after all. Do I really need 200 channels of TV for $150.00 a month? What legacy do I want to leave and how much time have I remaining to get it together? Through all of the soul searching and agonizing "if only I'd have...." the dream of home ownership is alive. It is largely a biological drive to own your own shelter. Animals defend their nest courageously, without shelter they die. We have a deep limbic need to feel secure in our nest. Ownership speaks to that drive as well as the highest of Maslow's needs, self actualization. http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp Nobody wants a landlord telling the they can't express themselves with a lavender bedroom, or decoupage bathroom door! "Let me be me!" is every renters cry. So having a home expresses both the second of Maslow's needs, Shelter (second only to air,water,sex, and food) and the highest, self actualization. As you think about whether to buy a home or not, remember it is not totally realistic to think only in terms of fiscal sense. You must have shelter. Renting is great when you are young with few assets and responsibilities, but when you are 80 and don't want your kids to put you in a home or hanging out with a lot of other folks with walkers, owning you own home gives you massive control over your destiny. ONLY by buying young and buying smart will you assure yourself of that security. Or, if you have squandered that chance and are over 40 , buy smart and hand the asset to a well informed adult child, and you will have made a legacy for them and for their children. Only by setting that example and talking about the virtue of sacrifice and planning will we save our society from the "me first" thinking that took root in the 80's. By being committed custodians of our assets and thinking more about generational time lines, will we starve out the disposable thinking of many Americans today. If you accept that the new normal may not hold the cavalier expenditures of the past, that life is profound and your responsibility is to model good decisions for your children, nieces, nephews, friends and business relations, you settle into a way of thinking that is more about quality and less about quantity. Shelter, it is a huge concept. It has been a long time since prices and % rates collided to your benefit. Think long and hard about the wealth creation you can gain right now in this historic time. This constellation of conditions may never come again, as this event is a product of globalization. Once the standard of living has equalized around the globe, things will settle again into more predictable patterns and this anomaly will vaporize. The dream is alive, and the means are here to make huge gains. Don't miss it, but expect it to manifest slower than we fast paced Americans prefer.