In a recent WSJ article it tells how a woman named Susan reduced the asking price of her home by $1,000,000 to $2.25 million… and even after the million dollar discount, nobody was apparently interested.

She got an offer for $1.6 million, which is LESS than what she paid in 1999, and HALF of her original asking price.

These numbers are huge, and I personally would not buy a million-dollar home… but this certainly presents a worthwhile opportunity for those who are paying attention.

Housing prices are dropping and mortgage troubles are multiplying, and if you and I are smart, we will do two things in response to this:

1. Get our “stuff” together now… our ducks in a row, if you will, and start building or rebuilding our credit (and our financial picture) to where it needs to be, and…

2. Hopefully as a result of #1, position ourselves so that when the right half-price housing deal comes our way, we can jump on it.  Many who think ahead will jump on not just one, but several.

So rather than stress about the economy and healthcare and whether or not you’ll have a job tomorrow (and believe me, I understand all of these stresses), my advice would be to use that energy to work on positioning yourself for financial success in the future. (That’s what I’m doing.)

Worrying will not make you 1 single cent richer.  Getting over it and building credit, saving money, taking action to make more money, and doing more with the money you have–these things will make you a lot of cents richer.

If you start preparing today, EVEN IF YOU MISS YOUR MARK, you will be much better off than those who sat, and worried, and did nothing.

~brian