Pooling Resources - Good for All

It's that time of the economic cycle where we must make the conscious decision to go it alone or pool resources. We've decided to do the latter. Sure, we all love our space and independence. Sure, we love our stuff and having things just the way we like them. When times are good and money comes easily, I find that people tend to put more space between them and those around them. There is sort of a social disconnect. And, certainly, the nuclear family is becoming a thing of the past. The "Village" mentality has come to mean playgroups and group events among people who live miles apart. We have a rather large piece of property and a nice sized house. When we bought it, our mortgage was seriously low. But things were good! The value was going up! Money was coming easily! So we pulled equity out of our house and now we are in a bit of a fix. How to solve? Try to sell in a depressed market? Allow foreclosure? Take advantage of our situation somehow? Again, we'll go for the latter. Some of our family members are parking their rv's in our lot and paying us a little less than they would a commercial lot. Good for them, good for us. We may start raising chickens and selling free range, organic, local eggs to our friends for less than what they pay in the stores. Good for them, good for us. We may be renting out our master suite to some friends for half of what they are now paying for their apartment to help us pay our mortgage and manage some childcare to boot. Good for them, good for us. DW is going to use her net and theatre savvy to do some freelance grant writing. I'm going to do everything I can to keep my job! This is how we choose to come at the problem. We work together with friends and family to make a better situation for everyone involved. It requires work, ingenuity, and some inconvenience, but this is how we get through difficult times and help to take care of those around us in the process.