accumulating and hopes for the future that were moving out of reach . However bad it was then , these days it 's worse . Back then the recession hit certain sectors and left other ones alone . Home prices were going up , so people felt protected , and there were loans to help . Today , everything 's been hit , nothing 's going up and credit is frozen . Many have already lost jobs , homes , self-identities , luxuries and necessities . And there 's more to come . That 's especially true for many older Americans , who might not have 10 years to recover and who do n't have sources of income other than their savings -- which have dwindled dramatically . They do n't deserve to live with the fear they now feel . I 'm still living in a rental apartment because I did n't want to take out a loan I could n't pay back . I saved money . Invested it . And now my investments are down 70 percent . But it is what it is . And when we wake up in the morning we are left with
Editor 's note : Peter Bregman is chief executive of Bregman Partners Inc. , a global management consulting firm , and the author of `` Point B : A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change '' . He writes a weekly column , How We Work , for HarvardBusiness.org . Peter Bregman says good times persuaded people to sacrifice what they loved for money . NEW YORK -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- I started my consulting business 11 years ago with a laptop computer in a living room . It grew quickly . The first year I made more money than I had in the previous three combined , the second year I doubled that and by the third year I began to fantasize about retiring within the decade . Then everything crashed ; the dotcom revolution , the financial services industry and my business . I had a large number of subcontractors and a small number of employees who had become friends . I also had a bad feeling things would n't turn around quickly . My wife and I were in a tough spot . We had one child and another on the way , bills that were