Another year, another class graduated.
It use to be that students looked forward with anticipation to graduation as the next step in their Journey of Life. Now many look toward graduation with dread because it means that payments must begin on their Student Loans. Those who are unemployed or underemployed graduate into loan default, but many with decent jobs are also finding that Student…
On May 14 the Nation of Israel will celebrate its 65th year as an independent nation.
The rebirth of Israel after almost two thousand years stands as an amazing fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Numerous scriptures refer to an end time role for the Nation of Israel. Even the date of Israel’s formation can be calculated from the scripture in Revelation 11: 1,2 which speaks of a “42…
Some years ago we counseled with a young man who considered suicide because of a $5,000 debt. That’s when we learned that its not the amount of debt that matters, it’s the burden of the debt on the soul.
Now we hear that hard economic times are being blamed for a 31% increase in suicide from 1999 to 2010. Since the beginning of the 2008 recession more people have died in the suicid…
More and more people are not asking themselves when to retire, but if they can retire.
Most of our ideas about retirement were based on the 50’s industrial model, with a company pension after a lifetime of work supplemented by social security. That model began to break down in the 70’s, as old fashioned pension plans proved to be unsustainable, companies downsized, workers changed jobs…
We live in a time when technology has made banking much more convenient. But few people realize the risks that come with the convenience.
Online banking is a good example. You can pay your bills from your living room. However, a hacker can pay his bills from Russia. It is true that you might be able to recover your stolen funds from the bank after a few weeks, but we have heard of…
Tax filing time is upon us once again.
Millions of Americans are suddenly realizing that the dreaded April 15 deadline is next Monday. Its National Panic Week.
The Panic can be particularly acute for people struggling with debt burdens and unexpected tax liabilities. So lets review some tax wise ideas which we hope can help relieve the Panic:
1) Don’t…
People are always asking us how to fix a broken credit score.
The first thing you should do is get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free report once a year from the three major credit bureaus at annualcreditreport.com. Credit reports often contain errors and you have a right to dispute incorrect information. The creditor which provided the incorrect information must…
Little, far away Cyprus caused a big stink in financial circles this week. But the real question for us is not how far away Cyprus is from us, but how far away we are from Cyprus.
Cyprus ran into trouble when its banks lent money to insolvent Greece and then asked the European Union for a bailout. The EU and its Washington based cousin the International Monetary Fund then demanded…
February brought a stream of good news for the Housing market.
First of all, the number of foreclosures dropped by 29% from the prior year. This is the lowest level since September of 2007, and half the record level of March 2010. While there is still an overhang of foreclosures in places like California and Arizona, it seems that the worst of the crisis is over. The improvement in…
The Stock Market was busy congratulating itself this week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high.
Not so fast say the economists. After inflation is taken into account, the current Dow highpoint is still ten percent below its high reached during the Internet bubble on January 14, 2000. It has also not recovered from the housing bubble highs of 2007. However, thes…
