Can I write off credit card debt with an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

One option for people with problem credit card debts may be an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) – a formal arrangement with your lenders in which you`ll repay as much of your unsecured debt as you can afford over a set period of time, after which your lenders will write off the rest.

IVAs have helped many [...]

Index Funds – The Newest Investing Scam

Why index funds are your best choice for investing:

- they don’t try to time the market
- low management costs
- they own an entire segment of the market (or the whole market), so there’s no stock picking involved
- Study after study has proven that index funds are the best way to consistently grow your wealth investing [...]

Getting a mortgage – A REAL Mortgage

The true costs of owning a house
The first thing you have to do is look at the true costs of home ownership. It is vital that you understand that the cost of buying a home is about more than just the monthly mortgage payment, which also encompasses interest. Here are some of the other costs [...]

Personal Finance – Living Will Attorney

The better living will attorneys are those attorneys that are able to demonstrate their association with their state’s bar organizations and who also are continuously improving their knowledge about living wills through ongoing educational courses and who also understand mandatory liability insurance which is important in case the lawyer makes a costly mistake in drafting [...]

Retirement Planning – SBLI Sharing Advice with Baby Boomers

If you are one of America’s 78.2 million baby boomers, you are likely considering what ideal retirement will look like, and the steps required to achieve it. With the current economic downturn, many boomers are finding it necessary to revisit their initial retirement goals.
Consider the following ABC’s of retirement planning:
A: assess your financial plan [...]

Retirement Planning Mishaps

We all make mistakes. The key, of course, is catching them early and correcting them before the damage is irreversible.
Retirement planning, with all its moving parts – finances, families, health care and legal issues – presents lots of opportunities to get things wrong.
With that in mind, we asked some pros to talk about the more [...]

Deducting your mortgage interest

It is important to note that your tax form comes with a standard deduction. Right now, that standard deduction is as follows:
Single: $5,700
Head of Household: $8,350
Married Filing Separately: $5,700
Married Filing Jointly: $11,400
You can only take the mortgage interest rate deduction if you are using Schedule A to itemize your deductions, and forgoing your right to [...]

Investor Year-End Tips from Schwab

To assist in helping everyone be financially fit, Charles Schwab is offering a series of tips to help investors be better positioned to begin the New Year.
Year-end Financial Checklist
Financial Tips: 1. Manage your investments for potential tax savings
It’s smart to think ahead — especially if your investments have fallen
[...]

Dubai Bailouts Consume Abu Dhabi’s $43B ‘09 Oil Wealth

Dubai’s debt woes are becoming an albatross around the neck of oil-rich Abu Dhabi, which has committed the equivalent of almost 60% of this year’s oil income to bail out its ailing neighbor, according to Zawya Dow Jones calculations.
Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates and producer [...]

Credit card companies exploiting loopholes in federal law

Upcoming federal credit card reforms are intended to make debt management easier for people, but one consumer group is warning that lenders are already using a variety of tricks to continue maximizing their profits.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), consumers are finding it very difficult to gauge the true cost of their [...]

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