Another fallacy. Nobody is ever 'stuck'. You are 'stuck' if you allow yourself to be 'stuck'.

The only time anyone is ever 'stuck' is if they are dead or in prison.

You have a choice. Your sister had a choice. She just chose not to choose. Big difference.

You can be a 'victim' or not. The choice is yours.

By the way, there is such as thing as a real estate short sale. Look it up.

I suggest that you "look up" the percentage of "short" sales that are actually approved by lenders, then I would suggest that you familiarize yourself about the time it takes to get a short sale through to closing before you advise others to "look it up."

Yes, there are numerous plans, alternatives, programs, but the devil is in the details.

Again. You are putting up obstacles that keep you from making a change.

I could care less if the success rate for short sales is less the 1%. I don't care if it is 0.00001%, I will make it happen.

Take charge of your life. The bank does not own you.

Think about it and reverse that negative view of the world.

That is the kind of thinking that got us into this recent economic malaise. Blaming Goldman Sachs for making so much money is easy (and fun) but they were acting in their own best interest! As you should!

Please tell me you are not letting those lousy short sales success rates stop you from doing what you have to do.

Thanks for beating me to the punch... Seems like that to some people, unless they've experienced it, it's not possible...

OK. Let us assume that the bank refuses to compromise at all. No short sale.

Now what?

So do you just continue to live a life of misery living upside down (mortgage). Until when? When you are finally not upside down? Then only then can you get out of the bank's grip? In other words, the bank decides your fate.

That's a tough life.

I think the original poster is missing the point...with more workers than jobs, it's a "buyer's" market.

Firms can decide to hire people with EXACTLY the qualifications they need because the resource pool is brimming with displaced talent. So being able to "design accounting systems" won't fare well if they are looking for someone who can "design account systems for ceramic manufacturing using C-PAL version 7 software"!!! (I jest here, but you get the picture).

They will also not consider someone who used to make 6-figures for a lesser position because they know that if things turn around, that person will leave for greener pastures. In addition, folks who command those figures are typically on the other side of 40, not advantageous in the worker pool of 20 and 30-somethings.

Being "over-qualified" sucks right now. Those folks hear that a lot now...I remember getting the same brush off in my 20's when I was out of work for months and had to seek lesser-paying positions.

I never said that. My point is merely that all is not as easy & peachy as "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" for lots of people out there. There ARE people who knowingly got themselves in over their head. For them, I have no sympathy. There are also people who were steered into stupid $hit like ARMs that were otherwise qualified for "legitimate" mortgages and now find themselves in the same place as those that knowingly went in to one. Why ? That old profit margin - but by your feeling that GS has no culpability at all, it's ok to take advantage of people and mislead them, so long as the bottom line looks good...

Part of the problem is the workers; I know many folks with pretty stable low/mid-six figure jobs who think they are completely safe in their current position. Most of these folks are over 35 or 40 and have some type of lower/middle management job. It is pretty easy to get too comfortable and lose track of the job market in you field; at some point you don't even have any contacts outside of your own company. Feeling too safe is always dangerous.

Many years ago I worked for a large engineering company that mis-managed its way out of business. I was in my 30s at the time, so I just quit and went out on my own; but there were plenty of 45-65 year olds who had never even considered having to find another job. Many of those folks didn't have a clue where to start. Many folks over about 45 actually thought that they would only have one or two jobs in their career and could live in the same place for 40 years; many cities and many "jobs" later, most of us know better now.

New grads don't seem to have this problem, they understand that they will live and work in many different places (probably several different countries) over the course of their careers. That expectation affects their choices; they don't buy houses in inflated markets, many don't have kids early in their careers, they don't really care where they live because they know it's always temporary, etc.

There are times when it makes sense to cut your loses, walk away from the mortgage and take the credit hit; you will be renting for a few years, but you won't be "stuck" in a dead area for a decade waiting for the market to turn around.

I have some friends in AZ who are about $300K upside down on a house; they have better job opportunities elsewhere but are being held back by this silly house. In there case, walking away from the mortgage is probably less damaging than putting their careers on hold for 5-10 years in their late 20s.

I can't plug in "China" in my Garmin...

I'm upside down on my 2008 Chevy Impala. I can't afford to trade it in, pony up the cash to pay it off, THEN buy a '92 Civic.

I'm upside down on my house. I can't afford to pay the difference and then cough up the $3k security deposit that my prospective slumlord requests.

My rugrats, left unattended, would burn the house down, and a babysitter/day care service costs more than a Kelly girl grosses.

Which is why pizza places have a 4-inch thick list of job applications.

As opposed to filet mignon?!? We're already on rice and beans.

Smart people. Sure, the hit on their credit will be severe but life must go on. This is their lives, it does not belong to the bank!

My original point has always been.... You have to do what you have to do to survive. Do it for the sake of your ancestors who risked their lives to come to America to escape oppression. Make them proud.

Regarding GS, it is not clear that they mislead. If that is the case they should be punished. However, it is clear that GS is a for profit business and anyone who deals with GS knows that if GS does business with you, GS is making a profit. Note that GS has been profitable not only in the past but it is also profitable in its other divisions (trading, underwriting, banking). The mortgage part is just part of the company.

One set has seen the writing on the wall, read it and proceeded with life. The other hasn't. That latter group can serve as an example to future generations of what happens when you do silly things.

Back in 2001 I had to take a job at Target stocking at night because it was the only thing available. I went from $135k to $8.00/hr. I survived until I was able to land another IT job months later.

A friend of mine has gone from Wall St making mid 6 figures to being a janitor at a local High School. It can be done. All you need to lose is your pride and have the ability to adapt.

A few years ago I was outsourced from my VP job at Morgan Stanley. I took a 46% pay cut and moved to DC to get a job with the Feds...

Doing a good job is not always easy. More importantly, not everybody will achieve it. We all want the brass ring but not everyone will get it. Some will fail. That is life. Those that do serve as an example to the young ones. Those that don't also serve as an example to the young ones in the "What NOT to do" department.

Stupid or not, the let themselves be led into those thing because of the rosy projections. IOW you want to believe some crap and not do your homework or you were too stupid to have been signing on the dotted line in the first place. Almost everytime I have found myself in that situation, I have been able to trace it back to one simple thing. Greed. I got too greedy.

Sounds to me like a bunch of bad choices. All the way from the car to the rugrats. Guess you have to pay for them and serve as an example of "What not to do".