Monthly Archives: September 2009

Finding Help when Applying for Unemployment Benefits

unemployment

This is a guest post by the people at LawHelp is an online resource that helps people find free legal aid programs in their communities, answers to questions about their legal rights, court information, links to social service agencies, and more. LawHelp is a program of Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing…

Forget the Federal Estate Tax, You May Need to Worry About State Estate Taxes!

DeathTaxes

Almost every single day, I have to explain the Federal Estate Tax. The people I have to explain the federal estate tax to are not tax professionals, they are either financial advisors, other attorneys, or successful business owners. So, needless to say, I better explain estate taxes from 30,000 feet above. The details do not…

The Horror of Just Paying Monthly Minimum Payment to Credit Cards

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I think a lot of the people’s consumer debt stems from charging a large ticket item into “manageable” monthly minimum payments.  However, the problem that often arises is that a person only pays back the minimum. If we take a credit card bill of $5,000 with an interest rate of 15% and the minimum payments at…

Children Singing Obama Song! What the Hell is This?

freaking-out

This is not a Personal Finance or Estate Planning post, but rather is part of “Are you Freaking Serious Fridays” where I take the last day of the week just simply to bitch and complain about whatever topic I feel is necessary to complain about. This week’s bitchfest is about a viral video that is…

There are No New Rules when it Comes to First Time Home Buyers

personalfinancerules

Like one of my favorite bloggers out there, Bad Money Advice, I don’t really get all these “new” rules that are popping up everywhere.  I don’t believe the “its different” today BS.  I think most of the lists, at best, basically just rehash of old rules that I thought always existed (obviously, minus the past…

5 Great Ways to Find Free or Low Cost Legal Services No Matter Where you Live

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I received an interesting email the other day, in response to one of my posts where I explained what Default Judgments are, how they affect your credit score and what you should do if you find one on your credit report.  This woman in San Jose, Cali wrote, paid fees about request to remove default…