It seems like I blink and the moment is gone which goes to show you how fast "Time really does fly".  School is getting ready to start and I officially have a highschooler, middleschooler, and an elementary student.  Three kids all in different stages of life with the oldest trying to set the tone and make her own pathways. (Ahhh, the life of a teenager.  They think life is so rough.  I tell her to wait until she's an adult and then we'll talk.)  Life is busy especially as my kids get bigger and want to do more things, but it's also such a great time in life to enjoy where each of them are at and their special gifts.

So... September and school starting.  Brings me back to last year about this time when I was running around getting all those last minute school things done and got in a car accident.  Fortunately, it was not my fault and no one was injured.  In fact, it was a four way stop in which someone failed to stop and hit me on the passenger side back end.  Unfortunately, it did enough damage for the insurance company to "total the car" and give me a check to find a new car.  O.K. I can handle that, I think.  After all, I'm used to juggling a lot of balls up in the air with being in real estate, a wife, mom etc...  Why not, just add looking for a car as well.

First day was O.K. and did my search.  After that point, school started so my life proceeded to get a little bit more hectic.  The schedule (since we were down to one car) was getting up in the morning at 5:00 am, dropping my husband off at work, coming home, getting the kids ready for school and dropping them off at their respective schools.  Morning schedule accomplished, time to go look for cars.  I'm a little bit in a rush with the car hunting business because I now have recieved a phone call about volleyball practice starting up after school which means I need to transport my daughter to volleyball practice, pick up my kids and oh by the way, my husband is getting out of work all about the same time.  Hubby will have to wait while I take care of the kids, go pick him up at work, then head on back to pick up Marissa from practice.  Whew, I'm tired and that's day one.  I know that tomorrow will be the same pattern and in between the morning crazy time and the afternoon crazy time, I have real estate appointments that I have to make.  And wouldn't you know it... it happens to be in Wayland and I'm going to have to rush across town to get back to Belmont to get my kids from school.  Take a deep breath.

Remember, I'm down to one car and trying to get everyone to all their respective places and working.  On my way home from my appointment in Wayland, I'm flying home on 131 Northbound where I blow out a tire.  Thankfully, it was the back tire especially since I'm going 70 mph on the freeway!  I'm safe, all is good and this nice semi-truck driver pulls over and replaces my tire, while I make "emergency" phone calls to my parents to see if they can pick up my kids until I can get to them.  All is well and things are taken care of. 

Needless to say, that was the beginning of many things that were about to be "thrown my way."  I had so many things going on in the first two weeks in September (besides the two car incidents) than I honestly knew how to deal with.  It was a rough stretch of time that I can still remember thinking, "O.K. Job (in the Bible) went through much more than I'm going through.  I should have faith like Job."  So while I would love to say that I did have faith in God (which I did and still do), I wasn't feeling very "Job-like".  I was thinking, "God, I really can't handle much more."  Now, obviously I haven't given you all the details of what went on during that time but it was one of those times of being in the valley and hoping to get back on top of the mountain and quickly.

Looking back, it seems like a short period of time.  In the moment, I felt like I was ready to fall apart.  That was September.

Then October hit with the stock market and real estate market... and the rest is history.  So, it's been an interesting year with many ups and downs for everyone.  I've had a lot of friends lose their jobs and watched it happen.  Ugh.  Now in the months to follow, I see the pain around me.  Again, a very interesting period of time, I believe for most people.

Re-Focusing on the Positive

I really don't like to focus on the negative.  If you choose to do so, you can watch the news.  There is definitely enough negative media attention to keep everyone unhappy.  Coming back to being the optimist... I see great things in store for the future. 

1) What I see is that people are buckling down.  They are being much smarter with their money.  That is definitely a good sign.

2) Yes, we still have a lot of foreclosures but the homes that are "good deals" are being bought up very quickly and homes are moving!

3) With the tax credit incentive, first time home buyers are buying.  First time home buyers drive the market, allowing others to sell and continue with the home buying process.

So... is the market going to recover soon?

Highly unlikely.  I believe everyone needs to make their choices to buy and sell regardless of the market.  There are times when it makes sense to hold tight and other times when it's time to sell.  I would love to advise you on all your options.

As Far as Being Smart with Money...

Most businesses are cutting down on their advertising expenses.  I opted last year to stop my newsletter all together based on the cost to publish it.  Now, I've decided to put out a quarterly newsletter with articles from the "experts" in the field.  I believe you will enjoy not only hearing from me, but hearing from the people that actually work in the respective fields and their opinions/advice.  Let me know what you think of the new format and anything else you might want to see. :)  Email works best: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Expect your next newsletter in December!