George Allen's Retirement Solution: Sell Your House!

GOP Senator George Allen, Jr., whose claim to fame is that he's the son of a successful football coach, suggested on Meet the Press that retirees should sell their homes to make ends meet in their golden years. Always looking for the bright side, Sen. Allen (R-Va.) suggested that seniors could avoid lawn-mowing and hedge-cutting by doing this. This excerpt sounds downright uncomfortable:

And moreover, in the event that a personal savings account approach is taken, allowing them to invest in a home in addition to right now it's stocks, bonds and other financial instruments, if people can invest in their own home, they'll know it. They'll understand it. They'll take care of it. And they'll enjoy it and they don't have to worry about mergers and acquisitions and scandals and market share. And by the time they retire, they're going to have a pretty good nest egg there and they don't need as big a house, usually, because they don't want to be cutting grass and trimming hedges, and that is good for the economy as well.

But what happens if the housing bubble pops?