Student Loans - The Dark Side of....

So there is a "dark" side to the student loan process!

It seems that some schools were getting a "kickback" or some other kind of brible in recommending some student loan programs. It seems that colleges had the right to act as "middlemen" for some student loan resources and those "acts" were quite lucrative. Now Congress wants to introduce bills to get rid of this.

Did you know that some lenders are protected even if a student defaults on their school loan?

Did you know that some "for-profit" schools have been accused of accepting students who don't stand a good chance of graduating just so that student will apply for (and the school itself will get the) student loans(s)

excerpt from the Ann Arbor News

Adsense?

For those of you that have never heard of Adsense it is a very great way to make money using one's blog or website. It places ads on your site and you get paid when visitors to your website click on the ads! The above link is to a blog that shows a list of how much some people have made using the Adsense program.

One of the reasons why I mention Adsense is because #1 it is a great way to make money and #2 its a great legitimate way to make money!

Basically how it works it that ads are placed on your site according to the content of your site. As you can see on this blog the ads are related to the subjects of this blog.

Now if you are reading this and have a blog or website you should definitely look into adding Adsense to your site. People have made a LOT of money using Adsense and if anything it a great resource for bringing in some extra money.

Getting Behind On Your Bills?

I know of someone who told me that they were a couple of months behind on their phone bill but they were afraid to call the company. My advice is for you to call and see if you can set up a payment arrangement. Time and time again I have seen representatives from these companies talk about how its important to keep in contact with them as opposed to not sending in any payment. In fact its better if you can send in what you can to at least show that you are making the effort.

I talk about a lot of programs that are out there to help people who fall behind on their utility bills and you should see if you are eligible for any of these programs.

Unclaimed Money?

Have you ever heard the term "unclaimed money"? That is exactly what this is. Unclaimed money includes bank accounts that have been forgotten, insurance policy proceeds that are waiting to be paid and on and on and on. If the account holder of these unclaimed accounts are deceased then the money goes to their next of kin.

In my own area (Philadelphia) there is a listing that appears in the newspaper and its about 4 - 6 pages long! Nothing but names and how much money is under that name! I have seen amounts as high as $50,000! (By the way I checked our family name and it wasn't on there )-:

The department that is in charge of all of this unclaimed money seems to frown upon those who charge others for this kind of information. This has always kind of bugged me. If the department can't do a good job of letting people know that they may have unclaimed money that may be theirs then what is wrong with someone (or some company) helping people with this for a fee. I'm not talking about those that do this kind of thing dishonestly but a legitimate professional individual person or company.

Do You Want To Buy Property Cheaply?

I have always had mixed feelings about about buying foreclosures and buying property "on the cheap". The problem I have with it are the people that don't want to lose their homes and they are forced to lose their homes - sometimes at a price less than the equity that they already have in their homes.

With that being said there seems to be a lot of talk about real estate investing and opportunities for people to buy their first home or for investors to buy property. Unfortunately there will be a record number of foreclosures this year and a lot of people and investors are taking advantage of it. I even posted earlier about how one county sells delinquent property tax bills to the highest bidder. The county gets their money and the highest bidder now has a valuable lien note.

There are different types of property sales all over the United States and when you figure in how many different counties there are in different states then the number of opportunities increases. I have seen properties sold for less than 1/10th of their appraised value! And that is where the money is being made as far as investing in real estate is concerned.

However if you're not a real estate investor and are just looking for property that you can live in you should definitely check out some of these opportunities. You may be able to get a good piece of property very cheaply!

Dollar Store Buyers Beware!

Interesting article about the toothpaste that is being sold in various "Dollar" stores.

Home Loans - Oh The Trouble We Get In!

There are going to be a record number of foreclosures nationwide! This is sad news for homeowners but good news for real estate investors.

I know that investing in real estate is a popular (and lots of people say) profitable business to go into but my thoughts are on the people that are losing their homes. It is not a very good feeling and it is not a pretty sight!

If you are a homeowner and you still have a mortgage on your property - in my honest opinion - I think that you should make paying your mortgage a priority! While you make your regular mortgage payments set aside what extra money you have and put it towards a "mortgage" fund. In fact try to make it a point of having extra money that you can put aside and put into your mortgage fund!

What about mortgage insurance? Personally I would rather set up my own mortgage insurance using the advice that I gave above. Insurance companies take your money and invest it and earn interest and dividends on it. Hopefully you should be able to do that very same thing on your own.

Having Your Own Bank Account

While having your own bank account is a good thing I realize that there are a lot of people that don't have one. There could be a number of reasons for this like they don't have enough money to put in a bank account or they are not able to open a bank account because they have had a previous bank account that hasn't been settled. For instance here in Philadelphia you can't open a new bank account if you have a debt to be paid from your old bank account.

I even remember talking to one bank cashier who told me that she didn't even have a bank account - although she hereself worked in a bank!

Also a lot of banks have a lot of different fees - fees that keep people away from having a bank account. So there are a lot of different reasons why some people don't have a bank account.

But if you can manage it please do try to have one. Hopefully you will be able to find a bank that doesn't charge excessive fees and/or don't require a minimum balance in order to keep it. I realize that you may have to do a bit of searching around to find such a bank but there are some of them out there.

Executor of An Estate?

If you are asked to be the executor of someone's estate you should consider this very carefully before you accept. As executor of an estate you agree to take personal responsibilty for the handling of someone's estate. It will involve going through the probate process, paying fees and a LOT of paperwork. You will be responsible for noting both the assests and debts of the person.

If the estate is small then you may not have too much difficulty handling the role of executor. But if the estate is large then you should consider getting an attorney who specifically deals with probate cases.

If you decide to handle the estate yourself it will involve filing with the decedent's area courthouse, paying some fees and like I said above a LOT of paperwork. You will need a copy of the decedent's will. And just in case you're wondering what happens if the person didn't leave a will well then it will go to the courts to decide.

"No Insurance" conversation

...................but I have to pay off my hospital bill, $12k for 6 days stay in ICU. That is with a cash in 30 days discount (no insurance) with out that it would be $42K. Man, they really rake these insurance companies and people wonder why the premiums are so high! The system is so messed up I never seen a bigger bunch of crooks, no wonder all those people are smiling!

Property Tax Bill(s) Tidbit!

Here is an interesting little thing that I found out

It seems that there is at least one county that sells the unpaid property tax bills of its residents. Whoever buys these property tax bill(s) will pay the bill but will then become the person or company that you still owe the bill to.

In other words while you won't be liable to your county you are liable to whoever owns that property tax bill note.

Personally I think that this is just horrible - instead of finding a better way to work with the persons that owe the property tax bill they are sold off to the highest bidder.

So I guess that my piece of advice here is to just be able to pay your property tax bill because you might end up with a more worse creditor than your county tax office!

Those Nigerian Email Scams

Do you get those Nigerian email scams in your email box? I caught the tail end of a show on MSNBC about it. Now I didn't think that a lot of people actually sent in their money but I was wrong! Apparently this kind of scam has raked in millions of dollars! If you're not familiar with this kind of scam it goes like this:

You get an email from someone from another country saying that they have access to millions of dollars but they need your help in getting it. In return they promise to pay you a lot of money - somewhere in the 5 - 6 figure range (sometimes even higher!) Either you're supposed to send some "good faith" money or you are asked to send personal information like your bank account information. Even though just this much sounds suspicious many people have done it! Sometimes if you don't answer the email you'll get another one down the line saying that the money is ready for you but the representative hasn't been paid (by you). This payment that you're asked to make is supposedly suppose to be the representative's commission.

If you get this type of email - do you know what the experts say to do?

DELETE IT!

The Water Bill

Out of all my monthly bills, one of the smallest is my water bill. Paying this bill gives me a good feeling - enough so that I can tackle the higher bills for the month!

Don't Forget That Stamps Go Up 2 Cents Monday!

The price of mailing a first class letter will go up 2 cents on Monday. That means if you mail a letter this weekend then it would behoove you to add the new rate. While the post office says that they will give some lee-way as far as this is concerned - why take chances?

There is supposed to be a new stamp on sale called the "Forever" stamp. It's cost is 41 cents - which corresponds to the newly updated price of a stamp but this stamp is special because you will still be able to use it even if the stamp rate goes up.

PayDay Loans

Payday Loans? I really can't agree with these things! I know that there are circumstances that come up where people may need quick cash fast but I would advise that you stay as far away from these things as possible. First of all the money that you have to pay back will be considerably higher than the money you get. Secondly you will be charged very high interest rates!

If you can manage it at all start an "emergency" account. You can start off with any amount of money that you have. Keep adding to it even if its just a penny! Soon you should have enough to put it in some kind of bank account - hopefully a bank account that pays interest. Keeping adding to your emergency fund and watch it grow. Don't spend any of it unless it is a real emergency and then replace it as soon as possible.

Health Insurance

What can you say about health insurance? It's expensive and they don't cover every thing and you get loads and loads of ads about purchasing it!

Its not like it was in the "old" days - the days before HMO's. If you're lucky your job provides you with health insurance. But even that is becoming more of a problem because more and more news stories are about workers striking and one of the major issues has to do with the employee having to take a cut out of their paycheck to put towards health insurance coverage.

But that still leaves a lot of people without health insurance. Since I do a lot of grant research I know that there are some government programs where you can apply for health insurance benefits but you have to make sure that you're eligible.

Unfortunately even with the government programs that still leaves a lot of people without health insurance (and you may be one of them)

The only real advice that I can give you is that you shop around for the best rates. Just like with everything else you should do some investigating, research and comparison shopping when you are looking for a health insurance plan. Maybe you can get some feedback from friends and neighbors. You can also go online and search around for some forums and message boards where other people discuss about their health insurance coverage. There's no better "word of mouth" than the people that have the coverage themselves.

Barack Obama Has A Website

I know that most of the politicians have a website but it just struck me as something interesting. Here is a link to his website:

Barack Obama's Website

There is also a blog but its written by his staff. You can post comments and find out what is going on currently in his campaign bid for President.