Archive for February, 2011

Foreclosure, Pets, and Bankruptcy

 The economic downturn has had a far-reaching affect. The mortgage crisis created a new victim: the family pet. As more families lost their homes to foreclosure, more pets were abandoned or left at animal shelters. USA Today reports that some pet owners are leaving pets in empty houses and garages with some food and water. [...]

Leaving Your 401K To Charity

An important part of putting together an IRA, 401 or other qualified plan is appointing a beneficiary. On a positive note, this helps ensure that upon your death, any remaining account balance will transfer directly to your heirs without going through probate. On the negative side, your heirs might lose up to 80% of the [...]

Discharging Family Debt in Bankruptcy

Consider the following example:  Tom and Becky Sawyer get a divorce. They have no children and Tom and Becky each have identical incomes (Tom is an aspiring riverboat captain and Becky owns a seamstress business). Tom and Becky are joint owners of a 2008 Pontiac GTO which they own outright, and they have $20,000 in [...]

Irrevocable Vs. Revocable Trusts

A trust is a legal agreement that allows a person (the trustee) to control certain assets that have been listed in the agreement. For a trust to be legitimate, it must have four parts. First is the grantor. This is the person who creates the trust. Usually it’s the person who currently owns the assets [...]

Credit Card Consolidation Loans

We frequently come across the term credit card consolidation when searching a way out to resolve the credit card debt crisis. As the name suggests credit card consolidation refers to a process of merger of outstanding balances on various credit cards into a one credit card. How it Works? Generally for consolidation purpose a credit [...]