Hi, I’m Liz Freeman, and I approve this message. I’ll be doing the daily pick from here on out and what I read this morning just made me want to toss my cookies. It was actually a whole collection of wimpy columns suggesting that the worst thing that can happen to homeowners is to be “under water” or “upside down” on their mortgages. Now, why is that so? It’s not great for your lender if you’re upside down, but why should that bother you? Think about it — if you find yourself unable to make a mortgage payment for whatever reason (hopefully a good one), do you want to be the homeowner with a couple hundred thousand in equity or the one with nothing to lose? Who is the bank going to foreclose on? Who is the bank going to work with, perhaps offering more generous terms to make the mortgage more affordable? This is truly a case in which good guys do not finish first; trading as much home equity as you can for cash transfers risk from you to your lender and may put you in a more powerful position when you need it the most

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