“The window of opportunity for buying a home for most Americans was never so wide open than in the last 4 years. Going over 36% rule a bit may be...” David Crittenden
“I would give some validity to the assessment considering whites' easy entrance into the workforce, which translates to more of them being laid off as a result of the recession....” Shelly
“Having watched Baroness Maggie Thatcher in her flaboyant days as the British Prime Minister, i became a fervent observer of the World political scene as shaped by admirable, eloquent and...” SUNDAY AREMU
“Breast cancer has been in my family for decades. I lost my grandmother, 45 year old cousin to this desease. My sister and myself are both surviors. It has changed...” charlene drain
“Ohio (and the Midwest in general) is definitely coming up....” Carlton
It's been impossible to ignore the hype surrounding this weekend's release of the second installment in the Twilight franchise, a story about abstinence and being a teenage vampire.
Call me curmudgeonly, but I really don't get it. I don't get the current vampire zeitgeist, and I don't get why so many people are so crazy about these Twilight books. Virtually everysinglepublicationinexistence has had an article about what this whole trend means and, after reading a lot of them, it's still not really clear.
Q: How do you determine if you are a millionaire? What items do you include in your analysis?
A: What you are asking is what's your net worth. That's how you determine if you're a millionaire.
Interestingly, most people have no idea what their net worth is or even how to figure it out. The Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association sponsored a survey a few years ago and found that only about half (49%) of adults know what personal net worth is. Even after survey participants were given the definition of personal net worth, ...
Job seekers at an employment fair in Southern Florida.
There have been Op-Eds in The New York Times saying that "blacks are the ones who are taking the brunt of the recession, with disproportionately high levels of foreclosures and unemployment."
But a recent article in the paper asserts that the recession is helping bridge the racial divide in a suburb of Atlanta. The article quotes an African American woman, Keasha Taylor, who is seeking help at the Division of Family and Children Services:
"Right now, a lot of white people are in this situation," Ms. ...
Q: I need ideas on how to develop a retirement budget. Do you have recommended Web sites people can go to and get information for developing one?
Dumfries, VA
A: One of the best retirement calculators is the Ballpark E$timate, created by the Choose to Save Program. This nonprofit aims to help people become better money managers.
The retirement calculator is an easy-to-use, two-page worksheet that helps you figure out how much you need to save to fund a comfortable retirement. You have to complete several fields of information, including about your expected Social Security benefits and assumptions ...
Bill Cotter, McSweeney's contributor and author of the book, Fever Chart, put some money on some credit cards to start a business. The business didn't take off. He ended up in debt. The story, give or take a few details, is common enough in America these days. Cotter's account of his ordeal, however, is something different.
Published in seven parts on the McSweeney's Website, Cotter's story of his situation not only details the bizarre world of debt collection and bankruptcy law, but does so in a way that makes those things far more interesting to read about ...
Q: Here's my situation (deep breath). Due to surviving domestic violence during spring 2006, I made an emotional purchase two years after bankruptcy. I leased a gas-guzzling SUV and, by September 2007, I had to give it back, because I fell behind in my payments and could no longer afford it due to the gas prices being $4 a gallon. Well, since I broke the contract, I now owe $17,000, and I'm thinking about filing bankruptcy again. I also have $46,000 in student loans I'm repaying and about $3,000 in credit card debt, along with the usual household expenses--rent, ...
Each year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation that sets aside November as National Adoption Month. In addition to the presidential proclamation, many state governors also issue proclamations, in an effort to raise awareness of the need for loving and permanent homes for children in their states.
National Adoption Month, which was originally put in place to make adoption from the foster care system an important social issue, has now become the ...
Questions abound. People want to know why former Chicago Cubs player Sammy Sosa appeared several shades lighter at the Latin Grammy Awards last week (pictured right) than he did several months ago at a People En Espanol event in May 2009 (pictured left).
What the heck happened?
His friend and former Cubs employee, Rebecca Polihronis, told the Chicago Tribune that it was a ...
Q: Would it be realistic to expect the average American to be a millionaire within his/her lifetime? And, if not, what is it we're doing wrong, and how can we correct it?
Landry Tientcheu, Madison, WI
A: You might be interested to know the world's population of high net worth individuals dropped 14.9% in 2008, according to the 13th annual World Wealth Report, released by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini.
The U.S. saw its population of millionaires drop 18.5%, although it remains the single largest home to the rich, with 2.5 million, or 28.7%, of the total global ...
To understand the future of healthcare, however, is to understand the past. Where did the notion of healthcare come from? How did health insurance start? And where on earth did we go wrong?
A recent episode of Chicago Public Radio's This American Life endeavored to answer those questions and, in the process, created probably the most interesting hour about the insurance industry ...
Every actor who achieves success for a certain role will always be identified with that character in real life, to a certain extent, and there's a general assumption that the two are similar. This is especially true for a show like Curb, which stars Larry David, Ted Danson and other celebrities, ostensibly playing themselves. In her appearance on the show last week to discuss her new ...
I have a tiny, 750 square-foot house. But I've somehow made room for one of those enormous Obama "Hope" posters. You know the one. You've seen it a million times. This one sits framed in my kitchen. On it are the signatures of many of the volunteers I worked with on the Obama campaign last year.
Every day I am reminded of the miracle we pulled off. Every day ...
Q: I lost my job and haven't worked for 8 months. Most of my savings is gone. How do I prioritize my bills, house note and car payment? What is more important? What can you do if creditors give no slack to regular payments?
A Visitor, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
A: I don't have to tell you the awful unemployment numbers.
It's bad out there for a lot of people. I'm working one-on-one with several people who are unemployed, and often, after speaking with them, I want to cry. (Sometimes I do.)
At this point, you are in crisis mode. What gets ...
If you're like me, you spend way too much time trolling YouTube for nuggets of awesomeness like this. Hopefully, by my posting it here, I can save you some valuable time in your workday. Or, at least, give you a jumping off point for more video watching.
The clip is from a 2005 documentary called Looking Glass, about the composer Philip Glass, and sounds to me like it's narrated by Werner Herzog. I couldn't confirm the latter, but ...
Q: We hope to sell our home as soon as possible, but we are not due to leave the area until June 2011. When is it smart and not smart to refinance our interest-only mortgage?
A Visitor, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
A: First, I highly recommend you talk to a real estate agent and find out how long it's been taking for people to sell their home in your area. Given the uncertainty of the housing market and how difficult it's been for many people to qualify for loans, you might want to sell now and rent for a year ...
I have been taking some college classes recently, with students just out of high school. It is exciting to get to know these young men and women and hear about their goals, their dreams and their strategies for the future.
When I tell a woman in her twenties that I had breast cancer, I see her eyes glaze over. It is pretty obvious that this is a topic that she is just not interested in.
Q: I currently have a medical school loan that is $200,000. I went into deferment because I went back to school. While in school, I was paying on the interest. What is the best way to pay on the primary loan now?
A Visitor, Wadsworth, IL
A: I thought I'd share this with the masses.
The average educational debt of graduates in the class of 2008 was $154,607, an increase of 11% over the previous year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Part of the reason the medical debt is so high is because students defer paying down ...
Most people enjoy taking the opportunity to sit down and take a photo
with their family. It's a fun opportunity to share and
cherish a brief moment in time for years to come. By the looks of all the smiles in the picture, it appears the
same is true for the Obamas.
The White House photo was taken back in September and released last week through its ...
In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Tavis reflects on the loss of his friend and colleague, Sheryl Flowers. He emphasizes the need for African Americans to get checked in order to catch cancer as early as possible. He also responds to comments from viewers.
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BY BRANDY HAGELSTEIN
This post was first published at VeniceforChange.com.
BY KATHY-ELLEN KUPS
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