Posted on Thu, Oct. 09, 2008

The recent decline in our financial markets reminds us that our future is never fully secure. Many Americans have lost their homes; many, many more have lost thousands of dollars on plummeting investments.

There are legions of financial experts offering advice on what to do with our money. We should heed their advice and do what we can to protect our investments, but most of us have lost or are going to lose money. More important, we shouldn't let our financial woes dictate our sense of well-being. A California financial adviser recently lost all perspective, and killed his family and then himself because of investment losses.

In an effort to help people focus on what really matters, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us on Monday the danger of relying too much on our material possessions.

"He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand," the pontiff said. "We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes. It is nothing."

He said the only solid reality was the word of God. Now, I understand that adopting the pontiff's perspective won't do much for your financial portfolio.

But it will help you cope -- unless you're an atheist. And because 80 percent of Americans still claim to be Christian, his words should have some resonance.

The alternative for some seems to be placing their faith in the government. That's an understandable reaction, but is it any more reliable than the markets?

Some politicians want us to believe it is; but it's a farce. It was politicians who prodded lending institutions to give loans to people who couldn't afford them. Try as they might to pin the blame on Republicans, Democrats had a huge hand in this financial mess. It was under their legislative leadership in the early 1990s that these lending practices were championed. To compensate for their mistakes, our political leaders passed a bailout bill that, according to an article recently in The Eagle, will have little direct impact on helping people in a financial crunch.

"It's sure not helping the guy who's struggling to make payments or anyone who's selling a house that's gone down in value," said Tim Holt, broker for Realty Executives in Wichita and chairman of the Kansas Real Estate Commission.

But the blame doesn't lie only with politicians or predatory lenders; it lies with us. We're responsible for our actions, financial and otherwise. No one can make us sign the dotted line for a house we can't afford.

Sometimes we get into trouble for reasons beyond our control, such as a loss of a job. But many of us lost our perspective long before the market declined. It happened when we bought into our culture's message that says material things matter most.

We need to refocus, and that's why the pontiff's admonition is relevant.

"On sand is built only things we can see and touch: success, career, money. Apparently they are real, but one day they pass," he said.

Losing money is never pleasant. But with the right perspective, it's a surmountable obstacle, and one for which we all should be prepared.

Brent Castillo appears in Opinion on Thursdays. Reach him at bcopinion@gmail.com.