Who are the Jones' anyway?

Are we living and breathing this economy every day? We turn the telly on and receive the latest (usually pessimistic aka. hara kiri type) news, then first thing in the morning we pick up our newspaper and are faced with headlines like "Economic pain..." or "Delinquencies up..." What are we meant to think?

I think we all know that with every correction there will be a new brand of millioniares - is it going to be the Jones' next door or you?

Let's pretend we are the Jones' - what decisions would we be making today? What are we basing are decisions on? Do we depend on the Telly, the Press, the Internet or past trends (history)?

If we are relying on the Telly, more than likely we will not be making a decision to invest in anything, staying put with our mutual funds, hunkering down for the storm and maybe cashing out of any long term investments.....

If we are relying on the Press (Fourth Estate - truly an escalating form of influence in our society) then there is the likelihood you may need to move to your basement with a Y2K attitude.

If we rely on the the internet we could easily fall prey to all kinds of schemes ranging from send me your SSAN to front row tickets to the Inauguration.

If we rely on past trends:- Housing prices double every 12-14 years; Rental prices only go up; Population is increasing; Interest rates never stay low.......

So what do we do as Mr & Mrs. Jones, December 2008 - we can hope that our retirement investments increase overtime or we can take advantage of 2002 prices in real estate. Do it now, don't wait, don't stop to wait, just do it before it is too late.......

We all understand how tough it is to make a financial decision, but listen to that little voice (it is more than likely saying " there isn't a better time to buy your next home than now").