French author Colette mused decades ago that January was “the month of empty pockets.” She must have known that this seemingly normal week during the dawn of 2008 would be packed with bizarre identity thievery like no other.
In New York City, two elderly men tried to take a friend in to cash a $355 Social-Security check. Doesn’t sound like identity theft, except for the fact that the friend was dead. They clothed the corpse, strapped him to an office chair and wheeled him to the nearest check-cashing store, only to be caught by a New York detective who happened to be sitting down for some grub at Empanada Mama next door. Too bad they didn’t make it to the beach house. (more…)
This here Weekwrap takes a look at new year’s personal-finance resolutions and suggestions from around the web. Check back here in a few days for posts from FiLife staffers on what they’re determined to do in 2008.
Our cousins at The Wall Street Journal ran their annual “How to Fix Your Life Next Year” feature this week. Our old pal Anne Marie notes that people weighed down by student-loan debt need not give up on public-service gigs anymore, since there will be a new student-loan forgiveness program for cops, social workers and others after October 1, 2008. (more…)
A recent issue of Money Magazine takes apart the portfolios of the leading presidential candidates and their spouses and discovers that they make the same investing mistakes that everyone else does.
Hillary Clinton’s trying to beat the market with a collection of individual stocks, while John McCain’s wife is in pricey J.P. Morgan mutual funds. Meanwhile, Giuliani, Edwards and Romney all have money in private equity, hedge funds or consulting firms with investments or clients that have or could cause them political trouble.
Barack Obama gets our endorsement on the basis of he and his wife’s holdings in two low-fee mutual funds at Vanguard, including a voter-friendly socially-responsible index fund.
Great story idea. Wish we’d thought of it. Oh wait, we did think of it! Our Sam Grobart dreamed it up right before he left the magazine to join FiLife. (more…)
It’s the holiday season, which might mean cookies, carols and Secret Santas, but it can also bring out your inner neurotic.
To combat your internal insanity, we recommend Zen Habits 15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind and Wise Bread’s 25 Awesome Ways to Beat Holiday Exhaustion. The cute kitty picture on the latter’s post is a great step in the right de-stress direction.
But Santa borrowing against his home’s equity isn’t a step in the right direction, according to Gen X Finance. Gen X points out the insanity of a recent CNN story about a subprime borrower who used to tap into her home equity like it was a savings account to buy Christmas presents for her grandkids, nieces and nephews.
No one wants a Christmas without gifts, but if this is how you’re funding them, think about giving yourself a budget for the holidays. The lunacy of this kind of financial routine is exactly what got us in this subprime fiasco in the first place and should serve as a wake-up call for people to evaluate how they spend and borrow. Sheesh. (more…)
Hair extensions are pretty risky idea as is, but trying to pay for them with a fake $1,700 check is just flat out lame.
But that didn’t stop upper-class identity thieves Edward Anderton and Jocelyn Kirsch (pictured here) from Philadelphia. This week the couple was busted for thieving thousands of dollars and as cops try to piece together the story, they find that most of Anderton and Kirsch’s victims had no idea that anything had happened. And again we learn that Eastern Europeans and meth addicts aren’t the only ID theives.
As for good neighbors, the Digerati Life points us to the Economides (ha!) – a family of seven that lives comfortably on $35,000 a year. The secret? (more…)
Over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is a good primer on the different types of accounts in which you can park your emergency cash fund.
The blog lays out the difference between a high-yield savings account, a money-market deposit account and a money-market mutual fund. These last two are the source of a lot of confusion, and BFP more or less makes it clear what the differences are. (more…)
Hope you had a filling Thanksgiving.
Good post on MyMoneyBlog this week: What to do about payroll-withholding taxes if you have more than one job and, as a result, may be overpaying the government. From my own personal experience, I’m always amazed at how imprecise the whole withholding thing is–you fill out this weird-ass form, put down “2″ or “4″ or something at the bottom, and cross your fingers that this is the right amount for the year.
Earlier this week, Bob Herbert wrote his New York Times’ column about Rosa Dailey, an ailing 65-year-old woman in Chicago who has basically not a penny to her name. Somehow, however, she wound up with exorbinant mortgage fees and payments that are quickly drowning her in debt, and may even result in Ms Dailey losing her home. (more…)
Almost every local-news operation has an undercover consumer-fraud squad. You know, those “7 On Your Side” reports that take down, say, the local dry cleaner who’s selling people’s clothes on eBay–stuff like that.
Well, consider this our audition tape. We don’t have any hidden cameras (yet), but we did want to call to your attention these annoyances, scams and travesties.
Get Rich Slowly has a good piece about telemarketers and how to deal with them. Hanging up is many people’s preferred method, but if you want to make sure John from EZCredit4U doesn’t call you again, you need to have a little conversation with them, and it wouldn’t hurt to put your number on the federal Do-Not-Call List. GRS has the script and the link to do both.
Punny Money takes on fiduciary malfeasance in the food-service industry. Namely, waiters who alter the tip amount on your credit-card receipt so they can get more cash. (more…)
A few of our favorite stories and blog posts from the week that was:
On Playing: Another fun money metaphor turned up, this one on the Blueprint for Financial Prosperity blog: Eight reasons why playing Scrabble is like managing your money.
On Giving: Tricia, on Blogging Away Debt, has a terrific post showcasing six piggy banks that can actually teach kids something about saving and dividing up their funds
On Taking: How identity theft can land its victims (yes, the victims) in jail, via a disturbing Albuquerque Tribune story.
On Talking: On the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Ka-Blog, columnist Kara McGuire recommends the tools on Nationwide Insurance’s Have the Talk site. Like Kara, we believe that people don’t have enough hard discussions about money (and that they wouldn’t be so hard if we weren’t so afraid of starting them).
Had a productive money chat of late? How did you start it? Let us know in the comments below.
Happy weekend…
– Ron Lieber
Photo: Flickr
A few of our favorite stories and blog posts from the week that was:
Britney Spears makes $737,000 per month, spends $49,267 for two mortgages and saves… nothing, according to court papers.
The writer behind the One Frugal Girl blog wonders whether we all need at least one financial confidant, someone to whom we can confess everything. Meanwhile, only two people in her life know that she keeps this blog.
We mentioned Prosper earlier this week; Tricia at Blogging Away Debt writes about her experience on the receiving end of a Prosper loan. (more…)
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