I'm down on my investment as well but that's not where my mind has been. I'm a contractor with Suncor and up this point have been extremely fortunate in that I have not had my contract terminated. I don't know how long my luck will last.

Last year my wife and I decided it would be a good safety net if we renovated our basement suite. The idea was if my contract was not renewed or terminated alltogether, we could rent out the basement suite to help cover the bills if we got into a desperate financial situation. Since then things have rapidly changed in the Calgary real estate markets and it's no longer a guarantee that we would even be able to rent our basement suite out now if we needed to fall back on that safety net, after having spent $27,000 on the reno.

So here I am putting on a brave face to my Wife telling her we will be just fine, but on the inside I am rather terrified right now. I've got two young ones who are oblivious to what is happening. I hope this terrible downturn in the economy does not last much longer. I hope we can all prosper in the very near future. Good luck to one and all.

Cheers