I heard a story recently, that was supposed to illustrate what the recent housing market collapse has done to real estate investing, but actually demonstrated how foolish people can be.

The gist of the story was that a couple spent $250,000 on an old home they intended to fix up and "flip." No word on whether the house was appraised or how they got financing for the house. But they did pay $250K for it, only to discover later (I'm not sure why later, but no word on that, either) that both the floors and the roof sagged.

If you know anything at all about buildings, you know that means the foundation was bad. Turns out there was a wooden foundation (this was a very old house), and that had to be essentially replaced, which took twice as long as they had allotted for all the repairs, and cost them $200,000 more than they had allotted for fixing up the house.

So they ended up holding the house two years, not one, paying over $200,000 to "fix it up," with up being the operative word, and then the housing market burst.

Obviously, the report went on, these people are victims of the housing market collapse.

I won't be so uncharitable as to call them victims of their own stupidity, but I will say this: A strong foundation is the most important element a house can have, and they didn't have that checked? They didn't notice the house was bowlegged in the middle? They didn't notice any of that because they were focused on the end result, and not so much on their beginnings.

In our lives, sometimes we do the same thing. I know I've been guilty of starting out on a project without really building a strong foundation first. I know what I want to do, so I just start doing it, and the next thing I know, things may be going extremely, horribly wrong, because I didn't do the basics first, and I don't have a foundation to hold everything together.

I am sorry for anyone who lost money or their home because of the changes in the housing market. I believe most people were simply unfortunate, and that even this couple just made some bad choices.

Obviously, I'm mainly using this story as an example, because it has a sagging foundation right as its main point.

How we build our foundation, and how we settle our lives on it, is the most important decision we will ever make, in terms of becoming who we want to be. But the good news is, you can rebuild your foundation if it starts to sag. It won't take two years, and it won't take $200,000. Rebuilding your foundation is as simple as saying, "I'm basing my life on these principles from this point forward," and then doing it.

How can you determine if your foundation is stable, and rebuild it if necessary?

• Do you feel that you're really headed in the direction you want to go?
• If not, what do you feel is the cause of that?
• Start building a new foundation that will point you in the direction you wish to go.