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Recent Reviews
- How we pay with plastic will change Monday with new credit card rules
- Eliminating ‘He Said, She Said’ on Loan Modifications
- 10 Ways to Screw Over the Corporate Jackals Who’ve Been Screwing You
- The Unemployment Game Show: Are You *Really* Unemployed? – From Mint.com
- Credit card’s newest trick: 79.9 percent interest
- 42% of parents have paid a child’s debt
- More Homeowners Fall Behind on Mortgages
- Problem mortgages hit new high at 14 percent
- Google Tackles Mortgage Market With New Comparison Ads
- Latest bank fee is for paying off credit card on time every month
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Mortgage defaults in America: Can pay, won’t pay
It is easier to dump a home loan if a friend has done so too
HOUSE prices in America have fallen so far that as many as one in five households have mortgage debt greater than the value of their homes. In a few states, borrowers are not liable for the shortfall between an unpaid loan and the resale value of the home it is secured upon. Even where borrowers are on the hook, lenders often find it too costly to pursue unpaid debts. So some homeowners may be tempted to default and escape the burden of negative equity.
How widespread is this practice? New research* based on a survey of 1,000 homeowners suggests that one in four mortgage defaults are “strategic”—by people who could meet their payments but who choose not to. The main drivers of strategic default are the scale of negative equity, and moral and social considerations. Few would opt to renege on their mortgage if the equity gap were below 10% of their home’s value, the authors find, partly because of the costs of moving. But one in six would bail out if loans were underwater by a half.
Four-fifths think strategic default is wrong. Those in the unethical minority are four times more likely to renege on loans (allowing for other influences) when their negative equity reaches $50,000. But morality has its price. When the equity gap reaches $100,000, “immoral” homeowners are only twice as keen to walk away from their debts as “moral” ones. People under 35 or over 65 are less likely to believe that default is wrong. So are the well-educated. (Read more at: Economist.com)
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{Photography by TheTruthAboutMortgage.com}
Failed Bank List 2009
Read the list at Failure Magazine
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{Photography by locusolus}
7 free worksheets to help your budget
Budgeting is becoming cool again!
It really comes as no surprise that more and more people are starting to budget as the economy tightens up. I have been noticing more people interested in budgeting – which gets me excited! If you have been around here for any length of time you know that I was converted to budgeting and have been thrilled at how liberating it has been. Yes, I said liberating – I believe that budgeting should be fun and if done properly, it really makes your life a whole lot more peaceful. (Read more at: christianpf.com)
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{Photography by Jeff Keen}
10 Ways Moms Can Make the Most of Their Money
Give your finances the same TLC you give to the rest of your family.
Recently I was a guest on a radio show about kids and money, and a number of adults called in to talk about their own family experiences as children. One woman had grown up with a father who had a gambling addiction. She credited her mother with holding the family together both financially and psychologically. Another caller confessed that he still loves to indulge his children — now in their early twenties-with things his family couldn’t afford when he was growing up. He depends on his wife to rein in the family purse strings.
In fact, studies consistently show that by margins of 60% or more, women tend to be the ones who pay the family bills and balance the checkbook. So on Mother’s Day it makes sense that Mom should give her own finances the same TLC she applies to the rest of the family. (Read more at: Kiplinger)
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{Photography by Nordgren}
Barclaycard cuts minimum repayment on credit cards
Barclaycard extended to some of its customers a lower minimum repayment – 1.5% Vs. the prior 2.25% of the remaining balance. This will give some of its customers additional flexibility in these tough economic times. A Barclaycard spokesman said: “We are doing this to help customers. This is an option we are giving to selected customers for them to be able to make a reduced minimum repayment for a limited period if the customer chooses to do so. We understand that some customers may appreciate this additional flexibility during the current economic circumstances.” (Read more at: Compare Top Cards)
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{Photography by Gregg O’Connell}
What a job! Paid to drink Jack Daniel’s
‘I’m the luckiest guy I know,’ says Old No. 7’s master distiller
LYNCHBURG, Tenn. – Jeff Arnett takes a sip of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, just enough for it to settle on his tongue, and then — spits it out.
After all, he is at work. And besides, it’s the tongue, not the throat that’s vital, he says.
Whiskey lovers might not agree with his assessment. But for the master distiller at the 143-year-old Jack Daniel’s Tennessee distillery, it’s all about the taste. (Read more at: msnbc)
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{Photography by Direct Dish}
Goldman Sachs cleans up on the second Great Depression
The World Bank predicts that global economic growth will decline by 2.9 percent in 2009. That’s the worst year for the global economy since at least World War II. As measured by a comprehensive set of indicators, the global economy is on pace, so far, with the outset of the Great Depression.
Goldman Sachs, however, is expecting 2009 to be the most profitable year in its 140-year history, reports the Guardian. As a result, Goldman staffers are salivating at huge bonus payments — their biggest ever. (And reason enough that Goldman was in such a big hurry to pay back its $10 billion of TARP bailout money.)
The irony is that overall revenues in the banking and securities industries have fallen significantly in the last few years, but the collapse of Bear-Stearns and Lehman, along with the merger of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, means fewer companies are dividing up the spoils.
Also good for Goldman: Big government deficits. The more bonds the U.S. Treasury has to sell to fund government operations, the more money Goldman makes as one of the prime brokers authorized to bid for those bonds. (Read more at: salon.com)
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{Image by finance.yahoo.com }
The Descent into Credit Card Debt Hell
When used wisely, credit cards can be the cornerstone of a sound financial strategy. A solid credit history makes you a good credit risk and that in turn allows you to purchase the necessities of life. But credit cards can also be a slippery slope. One misstep and you’ll tumble into the abyss of credit card debt hell . . . (Read more at: Mint)
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How to Deal with Collection Agencies and Attorneys
You have received a letter in the mail saying that a bill on which you owe has been sent to collections. Whether this is the first letter you have received or the collection agency has been calling you to collect, the most important thing is that you take care of your debt in collects immediately before you incur more interest, acquire more fees, and blemish your credit record. Here are the steps you should take immediately.
Evaluate the Bill in Question
The first thing you should do is gather all bills, letters, and information you have about the debt that was sent to collections. Evaluate whether you in fact do owe this bill. If you do not know what the bill is for or you do not think you truly owe the bill, you should begin by requesting information from the agency. You have a right to request a copy of the original bill. If the bill does not belong to you, you will have to be ready to dispute the charges.
Be Ready
Once you have evaluated the situation and you agree that you in fact do owe the amount in question, sit down and evaluate your monthly expenses in order to come up with a game plan for paying off the bill. When you do make the call to the collections agency, you will want to know how much you will comfortably be able to afford to pay per month when negotiating a payment schedule. . . (Read more at: Debt-Professor.com)
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{Photography by Listener42}
The Home Appraisal Mess
From The Business Insider, June 25, 2009: We’ve been talking this week about the NAR’s war against what it claims are low-ball home appraisals, caused by new regulations, and outside appraisers using distressed and foreclosure sales.
Real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller is weighing in on the question, and finds some merit to the idea that there are problems with current appraisal methods.
But first, he thinks it’s ridiculous to dismiss distressed and foreclosure sales as being somehow irrelevant, since the market is the market. If a home seller has to compete with other homes that are being foreclosed upon, then them’s the breaks, and that does legitimately drag down the value of a home. (Read more at: Yahoo Tech Ticker)
Update: The NAR’s Appalling Fight Against Honest Appraisals (The Business Insider)
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{Photography by Nancy Arora}
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