I found an article about "free stuff" on the Internet. In the course of your travels through the web, I'm sure you've run into those ads that promise you a free iPod, laptop, PSP or some other coveted item. The article provides quotes from many individuals who have tried to obtain these so-called "free" items, but found that things weren't as they appeared. The author seems to really paint the companies that "give" these items away as fraudulent scams.

Another article I had read a while ago seemed more neutral. The author does warn of what is required from you to obtain the "free" items, but weighs in on the cost vs. benefit of having to jump through all the hoops. In the end, he found that it simply was not worth his time and trouble for the item.

It may seem obvious to many people that business are out there to make a buck, so one shouldn't expect something out there to be free. At the same time, I've done refinances for many people who were consolidating debt from credit cards, furniture purchases and even RV purchases. It reminds me of an episode of Saturday Night Live were they proposed a "radical, new debt management system" of not spending what you don't have. The positive thing to note about my clients that consolidate their debt is that they realize there is a problem and are taking steps to fix it. However, it's not an overnight solution and will take a few years for real results to weigh in.

The "free" giveaways simply illustrate a growing trend in society: We want more but don't want to put money into now and will pay the price later. Although this attitude has allowed me to generate more business, it makes me wonder how long it can go on for before everything comes crashing down on all of us.

The biggest example I can cite is the US housing market where many sub-prime lenders were allowing purchasers to acquire property with no money down. Recently, I received an e-mail about a new lender offerring a 55 year amortization. If you've never had a mortgage, what that means is that the mortgage is set up in such a way that based on the current rate of interest and amount of the repayments, it would take 55 years to pay the mortgage in it's entirety. The benefit of doing this over a more traditional 25 year amortization is that the monthly payments will be lower, thus making home ownership more accessible and affordable to people. However, this concept of a long amortization period is not new: It existed in the United States for some time.

Many are suggesting that the real estate market will remain strong over the next while and that Canada will not follow the trend of the United States. We've already begun to follow it's path of "no money down", so will we follow it's real estate market trend?

Stay tuned.