Choose wisely

Have you ever thought about the theory that goes something like this: that where you are, right here, right now, is a product of all of the decisions you’ve made in your life? That your particular position in life is the consequence, good or bad, of the choices you’ve made?

For example, if I told you that you would marry someone based on where you decided to go to college, would that make sense? For me, it does. I was down to two schools, and I had a choice to make. I made my choice and went off to college. On one of our breaks from college, one of my college friends invited me to a party, where I met a girl who was friends from high school with my friend from college. We started talking, and you know the rest. If I chose the other school on my short list, I never would have made that college friend who introduced me to that high school friend who I ended up marrying. Forget about all of the thousands of small decisions that my wife and I have made together ever since; that one big decision I made to go to Binghamton was the catalyst of it all.

So it is with you, the person facing foreclosure right now. The easy thing is to blame outside forces for your problems. The broker who said you could afford that house above your budget. The boss who made a bad business decision leading to your hours getting cut. Your spouse, who is no longer someone you want to be with, and the two homes you now have to support being unaffordable. If you think about it, all these decisions were yours.

You made the ultimate decision to trust a broker (who makes a higher commission if you buy a more expensive home) when he said you could afford that expensive house. You saw your boss making bad decisions but didn’t look for another job before it was too late. You knew for a long time that you and your wife were growing part, but you stayed in the marriage anyway. These are your choices.

There are lots of decisions to make during the life of a foreclosure, and they are yours to make. Whether to ignore your problem or face it head on, whether to hire an attorney, which attorney to hire, to sell your property or try to get a loan modification, whether to litigate, how hard to litigate, whether to file bankruptcy, and those are the bigger decisions. When you sit down and think about where you’re going to be in a few years, it’s going to depend on the decision you make today.

Make the right choice.