Late last year, the Fed approved some new mortgage guidelines as part of a broad effort to fix the housing woes. These guidelines, aimed at the sub prime mortgage industry:

• Requires lenders to determine the borrower's ability to repay a mortgage loan by using the highest potential mortgage payment during the first seven years of the loan.
• Ban "no verification" loans -- meaning lenders must now verify both income as well as assets.
• Ban prepayment penalties if the payment could change any time during the first four years of the new loan.
• Require insurance and tax escrow accounts, called "impound" accounts in many parts of the country.

There. That will fix those mean old sub prime lenders. No more sub prime lenders making bad loans to people who can't afford them. Yeah, that'll teach 'em. The problem is, just exactly who will these new rules apply to, hmmm? I don't see any sub prime lenders, they're all out of business. Went away last year. Can anyone say, "too little, too late?"

I love roller coasters, especially when I'm riding in the back. My favorite part is when you start to go down the first drop. You've just been pulled up the hill by a ratcheting engine, and you have that little moment when you can anticipate the next few terrifying minutes. The twists and turns haven't happened yet, but you know what's about to happen, even if you've never ridden on the coaster before. It's too late to go back and you now realize that you're about to face a terror that you previously only imagined.

Looking at the subprime mortgage mess, I'm getting the same feeling. This time, though, I'm really not looking forward to the ride.

About three years ago, my wife and I contemplated buying a house in Roanoke, Virginia. Our credit wasn't very good, so we considered a subprime mortgage. The theory was that we would get a decent, fixed interest rate for five years. With interest rates incredibly low, we would have been able to buy a nice little duplex at a great price. Our mortgage payment would have been lower than our rent, freeing up some money so we could get our financial house in order. By the time the rate went up, we hoped that our credit would be better, and we would be able to refinance with better terms.

I feel like I dodged a bullet.

I've hit a wall. A realization. The point in my life where I have realized how bad I was with money. It started with my tracking my spending for a week. It was ugly. Then came a big time in my life...refinance. We got one of those variable rate loans...you know the ones...where your interest rate blows up after two years?

Well, we are about 8 months from that point. So I go out and look for refinance options. Get lots of great schpiels, quick talking salesman, but that's about it. I can not get help getting refinanced. "Your scores are too low," they tell me.

It's horrible. I feel like crap now. I even left work just so I could come home to mull around. Our house payment is about to go up. I've seen a lot on the news about sub-prime problems, and I never really understood what it was all about. But now I do. It's about ME!

Am I in danger of losing my house? No. Not even close. But we are living paycheck to paycheck right now and I don't like the fact that I don't know where my mortgage will be in a year.

So now I feel like I'm back at Square One, with nowhere to go, and no idea what to do. I submit my plight to you, readers. What would you do in my position? I'm all ears.