I know the pain people are feeling

If you are one of the many Americans who has been living beyond your means, then I know the pain and fear you may be feeling right now.

Six years ago I had a five bedroom, three car garage house with an address just ten miles from the Pacific ocean. My monthly mortgage payments totaled $4,000.

Then the bubble burst.

My long-troubled, nearly 11-year marriage to Amanda's father ended. He was jobless and living unsupervised in the house. Amanda and I retreated to a $1,800/month condo (a bargain, believe it or not). Because Raj was unemployed, I was under court order to pay $1,300/month in spousal support.

It was insane.

I had petitioned and it was so ordered that the house be sold, forcing Raj to move out. The purchase price was much less than we needed to break even and the house sold short. In a deal to hang onto my retirement savings, I took 100% of the short-sale debt. It was a good trade. Though he had equal share of the short-sale debt, he also had equal claim to my TIAA-CREF accounts.

Then California's economy tanked (thanks Enron), and I got RIFd from the university that employed me. That's right, I was fired.

How the hell else would I end up sharing a ZIP code with the late not-a-Dr. Jerry Falwell?

Anyway, that's my embarrassing financial meltdown, bubble-got-burst, sordid, woe-is-me tale.

But here's the moral: I survived.

I got some financial help from my parents, but it went toward my legal fees, which were not trivial (a six-month court fight over child custody, spousal and child support, division of assets and debts, sale of the house).

Undoing the financial damage wasn't pretty. In fact, it really hurt. Interest rates were killing me and three years ago I was pushed into Chapter 13. I've worked two jobs most of that time. My life has simplified dramatically.

I'm in better financial shape now than I've ever been (even as my retirement savings are vanishing like farts in the wind with tanking stocks). By this time next year, seven years from the divorce, I will have completely paid back the debt.

It will take a lot longer to get my income up to where it was back in my heady California dreamin' days. That doesn't really matter. I have plenty.

My point is, the sky didn't fall. I learned, the stupid way, to embrace thrift.

The United States was a much stronger nation when our well being was based on thrift. Over my lifetime we've become a nation that borrows for everything. We're all vulnerable because of it. Perhaps it's not a bad thing that we take our spanking, suffer our losses, and collectively reconnect with our inner Ben Franklin.