How to shrink your mortgage and save!  From MSNBC article…

Some things, such as “Insurance companies are expecting record profits in 2006 after predictions of another year of devastating hurricanes have so far come to naught.”, leave you speechless…

This study out from the General Accountability Office, concerning Credit Card Companies….  you can read the report (PDF) or highlights (PDF) from the GAO.  Read further articles below…

from the FTC:

For Release: June 4 , 2004

FTC Issues Final Rule on Free Annual Credit Reports

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its final rule regarding free annual credit reports under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). FACTA, which was enacted on December 4, 2003, amends the FCRA and requires, among other things, that the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) – Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union – provide to consumers, upon request, a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months.

woohoo!  good move by the FTC.  so what does this mean to you?  once a year, you are entitled to a *free* credit report, so you can find out what information has been gathered about you.  eligibility for these free reports is based on the FTC’s rollout schedule:

provisions in new law (in a nutshell):

ONE: a “means test”: consumers with income greater than the median level in their state (us median income level is $65,093) with a disposable income of $100 that can be used to repay $6,000 in 5 years *MUST* file chapter 13.  these are the same guidelines used by the IRS for tax evaders.  severely limits allowable expenses: $200/month for food, $800/month for housing and utilities.

TWO: money contributed to 529 college savings plans more than 2 years prior to filing are exempt.  money contributed to 529 college savings plan more than 1 year but less than 2 years is subject to a $5,000 limit on assets that the credit card companies can access.

THREE: 40 months of home ownership, even in states where homesteads were exempt, is required to exempt your home from assets available to creditors.

FOUR: up to $1 million in retirement savings can be shielded

FIVE:  unlimited money can be protected by placing it in state-sponsored asset protection funds.  (available in 5 states)

hmm, i wonder who’d benefit from all of those provisions.  how many of the individuals filing for bankruptcy have access to millions of dollars they can stash in funds?  and if they did…wouldn’t they then have enough money to pay back their debts?  just a thought.

yet another link on social security:

Commentary: “Economic Scene: A Weekly Column” from the December 27, 2004 edition

One man’s retirement math: Social Security wins
By David R. Francis | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

At the heart of President Bush’s plan to sell Social Security private accounts is a simple notion: You’re always better off investing your retirement money than letting the government do it.

By doing it yourself, you can stow some money in the stock market, and over the long run will get a better return on that investment than today’s Social Security system offers.

The idea is broadly accepted. That’s why the administration’s plan to partially privatize the system sounds appealing to many. But that better return won’t always happen.

read the story here.

This published on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 by Reuters:

Half of Bankruptcy Due to Medical Bills—U.S. Study

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers with health insurance, researchers said on Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans every year, if both debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children, are counted.

“Our study is frightening. Unless you’re Bill Gates you’re just one serious illness away from bankruptcy,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study.

“Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection.”

there seems to be a bit of confusion over the social security issue.  is it a “problem”, a “crisis”, or neither?  and, honestly, i’m not sure that i know myself.

here are two places to start:

From Holden Lewis @www.bankrate.com:

“The Federal Reserve raised a key short-term interest rate today, reassuring investors that major combat operations against inflation are not over.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee increased the target for the federal funds rate a quarter point, to 2.5 percent. The prime rate will rise to 5.5 percent. Consumer loans based on the prime rate—variable-rate credit cards and home equity lines of credit, for the most part—can be expected to rise in the coming days and weeks.

Short-term rates have gone up 1.5 percentage points since the end of June. In that time, the Fed’s rate-setting committee has met six times, and each time it raised the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point. In today’s after-meeting statement, the committee hinted that more rate increases are in store.”

What does this mean to you in a nutshell?