b'"H g You l\\1ake Sense oflt All"Housing a the E nomythe Aftermath elpin ndco in Continued from page 6Continued from page 11 ical expenses.to include insurance costs, childcare and enter ab 4by late next year. In this scenario, the n unemployRememberovepercentation\'s tainment such as aat the movies. At this point, most lists end. How ment rate gets up to 5.7 percent by the second quarter of next year before night ever, you must now add one more line and label it "my investments andreceding later in the year. Inflation remains benign through te forecast ou thsavings." If you treat investments and savings as an expense that needs toperiod. week NAHBenteracks be made on aly or monthly basis, you will be a lot more likely to setAnpoll tak shortly af the terrorist att (September 19-20) the money aside for yourself.providedbothreassurance andcaution about theh outlook. We ousing Once you\'ve calculated the dollar amount youitem, con found that home sales had held up well and that cancellations of previous spend on each vert that to aexample, suppose an individual earns $3,500sales contracts had not.ever, traffic of prospective buypercentage. Forspiked upward Howper month a has a mortgage payment of $1,200 per month. Simplyers fell off by 10 to 20 percent, speculative building was being scrutinized nd divide $1,200 by $3,500 to determine that the expense is 34 percent ofclosely, and options to buy land were being extended by 4 to 8. weeks In calcu sincetgage income for that one item. By performing thislation, you will identifyterms of key economic datathe attacks, mor interest rates have the relationship of eachto your total income. Then the processmoved down by about 15is,measures of con r cexpensebas points butsume onfibecomes a matter of reducingpercentages whenever practical. The ideadenceshowedsign erosion inSeptember(beforeand af the ificantter here is there are aof expenses that can be trimmed all per attacks). numbersmacentage at aCategorize expenses as either fixed or flexible.Everything con some weaken of housingmarket activity is time.You havesidered,ing attacks,2001 discretion over the latter but not the former. Generally,it is the flexibleinevitable in the wake of the terroristparticularly in lateand ents impac should expenses that erode funds for savings and investm .early 2002. The heaviesttbe in the fourth quarter of this year, Take yourlist of expensesandrankthem asimportant,moderatelywhen our post-attack forecast tor total housing starts is 13 percent below important or unimportant. Begin by eliminating the unimportant items. Thisour pre-attack forecast. Theforecasts converge asgoes along and two2002 in itself may be enough to begin aand savings program.are virtually theby late next year. Byen, 137,000 hou starts have modest investmentsameth sing If it isn\'t, eliminate some of the moderately important expenditures; thenbeen"lost," but most of these p mably will be made up in 2003or resupay yourself first. And here\'s the key: don\'teliminate the amount,beyond. justwrite out aaialand start saving. Where the money goesInition of the durable demographic foundations of the housing check tospec accountrecognow muchyouyouwe of depends on h you have. Ifbegin with two hundred dollars,sector,\'ve raised our forecasthousing starts for 2003 by 50,000 units might use an accountmoney market fund. Ifare retirement (above theforecast) to a hefty 1.684 million units.The savi gsoryoupre-attacksolid minded, use an Individual Retirementnt (if you qualify) until you\'veinvestment aspects of housing shouldbolsterand Accou alsodemandproduction contributed the maximum annual contribution.in the yearsas memories of the 2000-2001market debacle ahead,stock It is often difficult for any two people to agree onexpenditures arelinger whichon. more important than others. It islrles to disagree on bu It must be recognized thatare in un waters, and currentnatura fo coup dgetwechartedforetwodifferencesavealchoices, especially inpaycheck families. It is primarilyincastsfor the economy andhousingh unusu ly wide"confidence" priorities that cause couples to disagree. Negotiation and compromise gen bands around them. Allare off ifare attacked again (or poisoned or betswe erally helpcouplestosortouttheirmost appropriateandimportantinfected with disease), if alyengulfs much of the world, or if the "ho war" expenses.flow of oil from theleis seriously disrupted. Barring such disasMidd East ters, thesilien of the U.S. economy, aided by our policymakers,ld re ceshoucarry us through. l\\1enat tbeir C s Better than their Health or "IfnotDavid F. Seiders is chiefthe National Association of Tre ar it\'seconomist forHome rokB en, Don\'t Fix it?"Builders (NAHB). Continued from page 10 are the boss, regular DOT physicalsneeded, therefore your health aren\'t goes unchecked.on the other h are in their childbearing years Women,and, andrequire annualcheck-ups. Ann examsgreat opportunities to ualare teach prevention and/or detect early signs of illness. We know that prevention of hyper ion, high cholesteroldiabetes tens and is the better intervention compared to treating the illnesses. Why set yourself up to fail? Get that health-up that you have beening off. Lischeck puttten to and heed your healthcare provider\'s advice.urage others in your Encoorganization to do the same. Instead of that tired old cliche, try fitting another one in your mindset: "An ou of prevention isaof cure." nceworthpound Merilyn Douglass is aand the wife of MRCA Board registered nurse MemberDouglass ofDouglass, Inc.Garden City, Kan. StevenDVin'