Tucson By Choice!

In less than a year, I'll turn 60.  September 24, 2008.  Mark it on your calendar so you don't forget to send a card.  I try to keep up with the government.  It's hard, but someone's got to do it. 

If you're a "boomer," and you make your living in the Mortgage industry, strap on your helmet!  Riding the wave of "mortgage fraud" that is all the rage right now, and under the guise of protecting us from financial scams, more than one lawmaker is getting ready to regulate us more thoroughly. 

Here's an example from the website of  Senator Wayne Allard from Colorado:

Protecting Seniors Financial Nest Egg
Over 75 million Americans will turn 60 years old over the next twenty years, or 10,000 people a day. (MJ note: Here's the heart of the issue for our Congress:) The impending retirement of the Baby Boomers will leave 91% of America's net worth controlled by seniors, making them targets for financial fraud and con games. It is our responsibility to ensure seniors have the proper tools and education to maintain their financial wellbeing throughout retirement. Scams targeting seniors can range from investment fraud, loan or mortgage fraud, prize and sweepstake fraud, and thefts by people seniors know and trust. Without appropriate guidance or financial education seniors could fall victim to any of these scams or numerous other con games...  And so on.

America's net worth will be controlled by seniors!  Oh My GAWD!  I'll tell you what:  I'm real comfortable protecting myself against finance scams. 

How about doing something really valuable for Baby Boomers?  Continue to fund programs at the University level around the country that create Nurses and Nursing Faculty!  I'm getting older, and so are you, at a time when nurses are in short supply. 

Today, October 22, 2007, at 5:30 p.m., the Senate will vote on an amendment by the same Senator from Colorado (#3369) to the Labor, Health and Human Services (L-HHS) Appropriations Bill (currently being debated in the Senate) that will cut funding for the HRSA Title VIII nursing programs.

As a Lender, and a licensed REALTOR in the State of Arizona, I give back to my community by serving on the Board of the University of Arizona's College of Nursing.  Dean Marjorie Eisenberg tells me that we've received around $4M in HRSA funds for our programs over the past 4 years.  This funding is critical for our graduate students, and for our Nursing Practice, PhD, and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree programs.

I'm not just plugging for Arizona.  The other 49 states in the union have the same issue, and will suffer in the same way as our College of Nursing if these funds are cut.

So Lenders and Real Estate Agents of the Baby Boomer generation, take a little action.  10 minutes is all I ask.

• Call YOUR senator. 
• Ask her or him to vote against this amendment.  You're not getting any younger, and neither are they!
• Click here to find your Senators and their phone numbers.
  
  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

EDIT:  Message from Marjorie Isenberg, Dean, University of Arizona College of Nursing (10/23/07)

AMENDMENT DEFEATED!

Beginning at 5:30 p.m., the Senate voted on Amendment 3369 offered to the FY 2008 Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill by Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO). I am happy to report that the amendment was overwhelmingly defeated!! The Senate voted 68 to 21 to table (kill) the amendment.

Thank you ALL!   Marjorie A. Isenberg, DNSc, RN, FAAN Dean & Professor, College of Nursing University of Arizona, Tucson tel. (520) 626-6152  FAX (520) 626-2669 misenberg@arizona.edu;

Somebody smack this kid!  Make him sit down.  I can't see!

An unavoidable consequence of successful business marketing is a greater emphasis on me, myself and I--the three most selfish people on the planet.

I'm one of the first "boomers."  I came around in 1948.  My generation found its way into the history books as the "Me Generation."

"Generation Me" followed, born in the 70's, 80's and 90's. 

• You can't tell me what to do!
• You're not the boss of me!
• You can't make me!
• Me.  My.  Mine!

From our youngest years we're selfish.  Selfishness used to be something parents wanted to reverse in their children, so that they would be well received by others, and successful in their future careers.  If children insisted on remaining selfish, they became a source of embarrassment to their parents.  They were perceived as bullies by their peers.

Beginning with Generation Me, and continuing with the Me Generation, the sense that selfishness is shameful has been selectively bred out of society as a whole.  It's been replaced by a sense of entitlement, and an admiration for the individual who claws his way to the front of the pack.  "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes."  "Teamwork is for underachievers."  "Those who can, do!  Those who can't, teach."  "I'm taking what's mine!" 

I'm reading a lot about the greed, avarice and fraud that, all of a sudden, seems to permeate the mortgage business.  Congress is all up in arms about what has happened, and what should be done about it.  Folks, we don't need more laws to make us do what's right.  The ups and downs of the Real Estate Market don't need more regulation, in this Arizona lender's opinion.  If anything, they need less of it.

Liars and cheats in the real estate, title and mortgage industries didn't spring full-blown from a post 911 easing of credit.  They are the product of a society that worships at the feet of the new trinity: Me, Myself and I.

A former boss, and dear friend--Joanna Stevens of OPEX Business Machines Corporation--loved her Diet Coke.  She bought it by the case, and kept her private stash in the refrigerator on the executive floor of the World Home Office in Moorestown, NJ.  There were maybe a dozen of us on that floor--owners, sales managers, and attorneys. 

Joanna's Diet Cokes began to disappear.  What to do?  Joanna was never an accusatory individual.  But it wasn't long before a hand-lettered sign appeared on the front of the refrigerator. 
It said:  "God helps those who help themselves.  If you keep helping yourself to my Diet Coke, you're going to need God's help!"

In your real estate practice...  In your mortgage business...  Are you there to help, or are you helping yourself?

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, Arizona mortgage lender.

photo courtesy of Friday-Fun.com
content copyright Michael W. Jones, Tucson, AZ