I occasionally like to go back and read articles from before the financial crisis hit to get a sense of the psychology at the time. Here are links to a couple of BusinessWeek articles showing that in February 2007, there was still too much complacency as to what could potentially happen with asset returns:
The final paragraph of the second article mentions someone who likely made a very good decision....and for the right reason:
"Knowing that his own business could face a downturn at any time, Cowen and his wife decided to kick in an additional $1,000 a month to mortgage payments. Their desire to stay in their house for the rest of their lives was reason enough."