Matthew Botos

500 contest winners get mortgage relief, including me! Thanks to the power of the Internet, the Associated Press picked up my blog entry about ING’s mortgage contest. The actually did email me for additional comments, but I was out snowboarding and didn’t have a chance to respond. In any case, they found a compelling main story and quoted me later in the article:

Another winner, Matthew Botos, wrote on his blog that he was a winner of ING Direct’s “own little bailout contest.”

“I figured they’d get plenty of sob stories and I’m already paying $700 billion to bail out irresponsible borrowers and lenders, so my essay implored them to take a contrarian view and reward a responsible citizen,” he wrote.

He posted his winning contest entry, in which he states: “I personally have lived within my financial means, made savings a priority and accepted the necessary sacrifices. My mortgage is still small; my car is old but paid off, and I’ve eBayed old electronics to fund new toys without ever carrying a credit card balance.”

Here’s my full essay. Google shows the article is running in a number of papers; if anyone has a chance to grab a hard copy, I’d appreciate it.!