Jobs are bring cut. Housing prices have fallen off a cliff. Wages are stagnant. The “R Word”–Recession–now seems to be accepted by economists as what the economy’s in, and even the “D Word”–Depression–is being tossed about.
In other words, the economy’s in a mess.
So why is the stock market doing so well?
If you liked that post, [...]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Yesterday, I served as a judge in a contest organized by a local paralegal school. The class of prospective paralegals had just completed their 4 week bankruptcy unit and the teacher divided the students into three groups. One group presented a paper and oral explanation about Chapter 7, another about Chapter 13 and [...]

Popularity: 26% [?]

My recent post on the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Tax Act of 2007  entitled Home Loan Foreclosure No Longer a Tax Trap appears in Don’t Mess With Taxes.  That website, created by professional journalist and self-proclaimed tax geek, Kay Bell, is a collection of useful links, tips and stories about tax issues.  It is called, in internet speak, a carnival.  This is [...]

Popularity: 24% [?]

Quoting Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School from her book All Your Worth: “You can’t borrow your way out of debt.”
People in debt are flooded with information that tells them that they should NOT file bankruptcy but they are told to find the answer to their debt problems by refinancing, getting a [...]

Popularity: 37% [?]

Visit the Google search engine and type in the search term “student credit cards.”  You will not be surprised to find that the top sites listed are databases directly marketing to students that allows them to search for a credit card that best suits their needs.
If you liked that post, then try these…Two-Cycle Credit Card Billing — [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

Disability, life and unemployment insurance on credit card balances is a sweet deal for credit card companies, which is why their agents will use pressure sales tactics, deception and subterfuge to get you to sign up for it .This useful tidbit of information came from a bank credit card representative who sat next to one [...]

Popularity: 21% [?]

Yesterday I wrote about The Exploding ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage), where a mortgage interest rate suddenly explodes to a stratospheric level based upon a stated Base Interest Rate and the Margin.
LIBOR is the most common Base Interest Rate for ARMs.  It stands for London InterBank Offered Rate.  Reasons for its use are not clear to [...]

Popularity: 19% [?]

The website of the Pennsylvania Department of Banking has several features intended to better to inform consumers for the purpose of protecting them from scams and predatory lending.  The main page related to consumer protection is located here.  The page contains the following links:
If you liked that post, then try these…Tell The Federal Reserve What [...]

Popularity: 14% [?]

The National Organization of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT) was founded in 1965.  NACTT is an organization for the over 200 Chapter 13 standing trustees from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, as well as bankruptcy judges, debtor and creditor attorneys, cpa’s and other insolvency related professionals.
NACTT focuses on education related to Chapter 13 bankruptcy and [...]

Popularity: 10% [?]

Marshall Loeb just posted a blog on Marketwatch.com, Why you might need a credit counselor. Mr. Loeb believes that folks in debt trouble need to run to a credit counselor. While I believe that in a few instances credit counseling might help with repayment of debt, Mr. Loeb’s advice urges folks [...]

Popularity: 23% [?]