Yahoo Personal Finance ran a story late tonight on the impending adjustable rate mortgage foreclosure crisis that sent me into immediate blogging mode.  Something that rarely happens because I generally spend a day or two researching and/or writing the posts here at SF.

But this post doesn’t take a ton of research because my beef with this article is about the message the article conveys:

1. You had bad things happen to you?  I feel bad for you, but bad things happen to good people.
2. You made poor financial decisions during the good years, and now during bad times you just figured out you’re screwed?  It’s called thinking beyond the six inches in front of your face.
3. You borrowed too much cash against your primary source of shelter?  Never bet the farm.
4. You signed a high risk ARM loan without anticipating the risk or fallout?  I’m no economist 9.5% APY sounds worse than 6.5%.
5. You fell for the “real estate can never go down in value” argument?  What goes up, must come down.

As you can see, I’m getting pretty tired of the superfluous use of the “Sympathy Factor”.

Now before you say I’m turning into Mr. Burns, let me assure you that you won’t need an icepick to hack your way into my cold cold heart.

I’m simply tired of listening to the media constantly playing on the hardships of real life people (I have doubts in their sincerity) or trying to identify with the little guy who feels he got screwed over by big business.

I sympathize with those who have suffered, or will continue to suffer in the future due to the ineptitudes of the morally bankrupt and bailout seeking corporations of America, but folks… where do we draw the line on the little guy’s ability to make their own important decisions?

If we continue along this path of blaming everyone’s poor decisions on someone else, should we consider setting up a government sponsored idiocy protection clause into every legally binding document over a value of $100,000?

Should we consider limiting a person’s ability to take on financial risk?  Knowing what we know now after the financial house of cards has fallen, should we have created some type of system to prohibit an individual citizen’s ability to live a carefree life?  Some of us have spent until we can’t spend anymore, and now we’re supposed to say everything is fine, the majority of folks who lived within their means will take you in, give you shelter, and forgive n’ forget.

Or should we we say… you made your bed, now lie in it!

Case in point, the aforementioned article that caused my little tirade.  I’m sure the folks in this story would be singing a different tune had they sold their home at it’s maximum value (which they considered) or refinanced at a fixed rate.  They could have sought excellent medical care in North Carolina (Duke Medical Center is one of the best in the world), and had they chosen a fixed rate, it’s doubtful they would be entering foreclosure on their home.

I know, I’m a complete jerk for pointing out What If? after the fact, but folks… personal finance isn’t rocket science.  You make the conservative choices so you can live to fight another day.  Otherwise, you’re playing with fire, and you will most certainly get burned.  Maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually, the odds go against you.