As days of renovations on my new home turned to weeks and then months – five of them to be exact – despair ruled each passing thought. I was certain I had bought at the wrong time. That’s when my bride of 30 years decided it was time to slap some sense into me. “Darrell, we didn’t buy this place to make a fast buck or to flip it in a year or two!” she exclaimed. “We bought a home for the kids and for us to enjoy. Be thankful and enjoy this place or else—”

I interrupted my well-deserved smack-down. “Or else what?” I asked. It was false bravado, but a man has to keep some sense of dignity as his wife rips him a new one.

“Or else I’ll call the moving truck and you can return to your condo,” she fired back. “You wanted a house with a view. On a hill. With space. And a diving pool. You got it all. So stop whining and get over it. Enjoy your blessings!”

I fully expected to have to drop and give her 20 at any moment, but deep down I knew she was right.

A few weeks later, shortly after Bear Stearns tanked and news of a Fed-sponsored bailout hit, a stock trader shared an interesting bit of advice. “I’ve made a lot of money over the years – not learning stocks but learning people and psychology,” he said. “Houses are wanted just as much today as they were two years ago, but because a few ‘for sale’ signs go up and some bankruptcies hit, people dash to sell their properties at basement prices. And  as a result, I get richer. They still need a roof and a yard, but they get caught up in the moment and forget the long run.”

That was me – caught up in the moment and not thinking about the big picture. Wow!

Remember when the American Dream involved working hard, saving money and buying a family home, and that’s if you did everything right? I was reading an article last week that said Baby Boomers really should be called Ego Boomers because we are obsessed with stature and stuff – lots of stuff – and we’re entitled to it all. So we buy a house on a whim and gladly trade up if we can get the right interest rates. I’m all for intelligent use of our resources, but I do wonder how many people have attempted to bypass the hard work part of the Dream, and how many fat cats threw together loans that would make them fatter, knowing all the while the scams would someday crumble.

Sure, people got hurt by a cyclical change in the economy; that happens. But a whole lot of folks tried to circumvent a well-defined system, and now prices are falling, homes are vacant and we’re all paying the price. And, on top of it all, the many who played the Phoenix land boom game want a federal bailout of their own. Sorry, but unless you were scammed by fine print or disappearing ink on a contract, then stay with your property and pull out all the stops to keep it. You bought it, so do what you can to save it.

Cycles are just that – cycles. Hang on just a while longer and you’ll be OK.