If you’re struggling to pay all your bills and have a lot of debt, you may need some help with your money management skills. A credit counselor can help you set up a budget, reduce debt, and avoid bankruptcy. Here’s a checklist to help you choose a reputable credit counselor.

1. Choose a nonprofit credit counselor that offers its services for free or a low fee.

2. You should receive a full disclosure of all your rights as a consumer before signing a contract for credit counseling.
read more

Here is something new, different and smart, the creation of a reverse mortgage score.

Since reverse mortgages are not income or credit based, you might wonder why a reverse mortgage score would be necessary or even interesting. The answer is that such scoring provides an easy way for lenders and loan servicers to identify borrowers who might be able to use a reverse mortgage to avoid foreclosure.

Of course, if a lender can convert a distressed borrower from a toxic loan to a reverse mortgage there are a number of benefits: No foreclosure, no loss on the lender’s loan and less foreclosure inventory to hold down local home values.
read more

If you’ve lost your job or just need a bigger income, starting a home-based business can be a good way to earn money. There are many legitimate work-at-home opportunities that can put cash in your pocket without a long commute. But watch out for offers that sound too good to be true or require you to pay money upfront. An article at AARP describes some common work-at-home scams to avoid.

—Bait-and-switch scams require you to pay for materials or client leads. The scammers either don’t send anything or send a few materials or supplies and ask for more money before they’ll send you the entire package. Some of the more common scams that use this tactic include envelope stuffing, medical billing, and data entry schemes. read more

Peter R. Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, is generally regarded as one of the good guys in Washington, someone who deals fairly with everyone, regardless of their politician preference.

Orszag is now being mentioned in news reports as a possible budget director for the incoming Obama administration. Should that be the case there would be widespread approval in Washington because of Mr. Orszag’s past dealings with federal officials and the public.

For our purposes, however, we are especially interested in testimony given by Mr. Orszag last October 7th before the House Committee Education and Labor.

“Data from the Federal Reserve suggest that the decline in the value of financial assets cost pension funds (private-sector and public-sector combined) roughly $1 trillion — almost 10 percent of their assets — from the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2008 (the latest period for
which data are available), and there has been a significant further drop in asset prices since then.”
read more

There always seems to be a new way to get at pension money and the latest idea seems to be the 401(k) debit card.

Yes folks, step right up and use plastic to borrow from yourself. Needless to say, in exchange for that bright piece of plastic you get the right to pay the debit card company lots of money — your money.

As usual with these ideas, the concept of a debit card to access a 401(k) pension account would seem, with some cautions, superficially logical. What are the cautions? Such things as how much does it cost to set up the debit card? Is there a fee for each use? How can you terminate the plan? Can anyone but you have access to the account? (Think of debit card companies withdrawing their money directly from your pension.)
read more

Do you feel like you’re paying more to do your banking? You probably are since many bank fees for everything from ATM withdrawals to bounced checks continue to rise.

Many banks have seen business decline due to the credit crunch. Raising fees is one of the areas where banks can still make money.
read more

People of all ages, backgrounds, educational levels, and lifestyles are getting laid off in droves. In fact, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits reached a 26-year high last week, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

But if you’re over 50 you may be wondering if your layoff might be due to age bias. It will be tough to prove a discrimination claim in this economy with so many people losing their jobs. But if you really think you have a case for age bias here are some things to consider:
read more

During the past two days we have looked at how the new Obama Administration can be expected to address social security and pensions, today we want to check BarackObama.com for his healthcare proposals.

The issue with healthcare is very simple: We have wonderful medical treatments and terrific doctors in the U.S. Very rich people from all over the world come here for medical care. The problem: The cost of healthcare is so great that many of us either cannot afford it or can only access the medical system by giving up the assets acquired over a lifetime.

The Obama proposals — as outlined below — suggest a far more accessible healthcare system. But we need to go further to assure that everyone, without exception, has access to medical care.
read more

Yesterday we looked at the Obama Administration and its ideas relating to social security, today we want to check BarackObama.com for retirement savings.

At the heart of the Obama platform is something not fully discussed during the campaign, the destruction of pension and borrower rights under the so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.
read more

With the election over we now have a future path. The country has voted and both on the basis of the popular vote and the electoral vote the Obama/Biden ticket is in.

The question for seniors is this: How will the issues which impact those 60 and older be impacted by a new Administration? And how about those who one day hope to be over age 60?

Over the next few days we’ll take a look at some of the core issues the new Obama Administration needs to address.

Today we’ll start with Social Security
read more

If you have a 401(k) you’re probably reeling from the drop in your account’s assets as the stock market has plummeted this year. Just this week alone the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5%.

As if that isn’t bad enough, some companies have decided to suspend matches to contributions their employees make to retirement accounts. Among the big and small firms that are suspending company matches are General Motors and Ford Motor.
read more

Remember U.S. savings bonds?

We were visited recently by folks in their mid-80s and they happened to mention that they had some savings bonds — several hundred dating from as long ago as World War II.

Are such bonds worth anything?

You bet.
read more

If you’ve been out of the workforce for a while here’s an interesting idea pioneered by Sara Lee. The global food manufacturer based in Downer’s Grove, Ill., is looking for people to apply for what the company describes as internships for professional people. These returnships are designed to help people re-enter the corporate world and explore possible full-time work.

People who take part in the returnship program may find themselves working in areas such as marketing, brand management, sales operations, human resources, legal/government affairs, corporate communications, finance, operations, tax, treasury, internal audit, product innovation, and R&D. Applicants are expected to have five to 10 years of relevant work experience and at least a bachelor’s degree.

read more

Given the mortgage mess, stock market declines and growing levels of unemployment what do you think is happening with retirement plans?

A study by the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press says while folks are cutting back, relatively few are changing retirement plans:

“The public’s belt tightening extends to other major purchases as well. Nearly four-in-ten say they have delayed or canceled plans to buy a new home or make major home improvements because of the recent economic downturn (38%) and a nearly identical percentage say they have delayed or canceled plans to buy a major home appliance such as a computer (39%). Some 36% now say they have delayed or canceled plans to buy a new car, up 13 points over the past few weeks alone.

“In addition to reduced spending, about half of the public (48%) has changed the way their money is saved or invested because of what’s been happening with the economy lately. However, most do not see the current economic crunch as affecting their retirement as of yet: Just more than a quarter (26%) say they have adjusted their plans for retirement, up only three points from Sept. 19-22.”

The report was issued October 15th and to put this as nicely as possible, I view it as a lagging indicator — that is, correct and in context at the time but superceded by events since the report was issued.

read more

The FHA Reform measure passed by the Congress last summer established new origination fee limits for reverse mortgages insured by HUD.

As HUD explains, for all HECMs where the FHA case number is assigned on or after October 31, 2008, “the loan origination fee limit will be the greater of $2,500 or two percent of the maximum claim amount of the mortgage, up to a maximum claim amount (MCA) of $200,000, plus one percent of any portion of the maximum claim amount that is greater than $200,000. Lenders may accept a lower origination fee when appropriate. The total amount of the loan origination fee may not exceed $6,000.”

Right. So what does this mean in plain language?

read more