You know how I feel about how money – one of the number one causes of divorce – should be handled in a marriage or long-term relationship. But I now I want to know how you feel.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a contributor to More magazine. For my column in an upcoming issue, I’m looking for women who will tell me how the finances are handled in their relationship. Do you and your partner merge every cent? Keep everything separate? A little of both?
Share your system – and why it works for you – by sending me an email.
After a two-week hiatus, Money 911 was back on this morning’s Today with questions about student loans, credit card cancellations, and debt. Here’s the video:
This morning I was on Today to talk about President Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program, which goes into effect this week. Watch the video below to see if you might benefit:
Looking for a guide to help navigate tough financial times? Tune in tomorrow at 12:00pm EDT (SIRIUS Channel 195 or XM Channel 156) as Martin Weiss discusses his newest bestseller, “The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide,” and shares his tips for successfully weathering any financial storm.
A few days ago, I got an email from my friend, a mortgage trader, pointing me to this article from Bloomberg News. The article lays out some scary facts – essentially, people who are undergoing mortgage loan modifications through the President’s Making Home Affordable plan are seeing their credit scores fall – and in some cases, fall hard. One of the folks featured in the piece says his score lost 121 points. More…
I joined Carlos Watson on MSNBC again this morning. Today’s topic? Health care reform, of course. Watch the video below:
Coming up tomorrow, Roxanne Emmerich joins Jean to discuss her bestseller “Thank God It’s Monday!” Tune into SIRIUS Channel 195 or XM Channel 156 at 12pm EDT.
On Monday legendary TV news anchorman, producer and author (among many other things) Bill Kurtis, stops by to talk about his career, his popular AT&T commercials and why his Tallgrass hot dogs were voted the second best supermarket franks according to New York Magazine. Tune into SIRIUS Channel 195 or XM Channel 156 on Monday at 12pm EDT.
I know you’re probably thinking I’m crazy right now. Sushi? Really? Is it worth the trouble?
And I’ll admit, while I was walking through Whole Foods gathering supplies, I was thinking the same thing. Who knew that sushi rice was different from regular white rice (it’s stickier), or that real, authentic wasabi is nearly impossible to find?
Not me. But I learned, first by Googling a lot – I found about.com‘s instructions to be the most helpful – and then by trial and error.
Surprisingly, though, there wasn’t a whole lot of error. I decided to give my sushi a go last Saturday night, and invited four girlfriends over for the event. They brought the wine and the dessert, and I supplied the sushi fixings. More…
This week’s question comes from Fran Merwitz in Boca Raton Florida:
Question: “My life insurance company just had its rating taken down a notch. What does this mean? Should I be worried?”
Answer: Like the rest of the financial world, life insurance ratings aren’t immune to the effects of the recession. According to the American Council of Life Insurers, these ratings are used to help potential and current policyholders see the insurer’s present-day ability to pay claims. Ratings also provide an assessment of the insurer’s vulnerability to possible economic downturns. If your insurance company’s rating has gone down a notch, it means that the financial circumstances of your provider have changed in such a way that increases the odds that your insurer may not be able to pay all it’s expected claims. However, a rating downgrade doesn’t necessarily mean that your life insurer will have this problem. “A one notch downgrade is not serious…there are a lot of companies who are in good shape that have faced minor downgrades,” says David Wentworth of the American Council of Life Insurers. In short-if your insurance company’s rating has gone down slightly, I wouldn’t worry, as long as they had at least a fairly secure rating before the downgrade.
But how do you know if your insurer’s rating is good, or in this case, at least fairly secure? There are four separate organizations that rate life insurance companies: A.M. Best, Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. According to the ACLI, the way that they rate insurers varies More…
