US Finance World

Keep Your Home California is a federally funded program recently opened by the California Housing Finance Agency to keep consumers who qualify for unemployment benefits in their homes, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle. Applicants whose mortgages are handled by Bank of America, Chase, GMAC or Wells Fargo Citi is expected to join soon can have up to $18,000 in home loan payments over six months covered.

However, there are some strict qualifications consumers have to meet, including maximum income levels, the report said. In addition, consumers may not own more than one property, or have a second mortgage or equity loan on their home.

Many consumers have faced foreclosure problems in recent months, though that may be due to the robosigning controversy that led many to be unfairly hit with seizure notices.

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Happy New Year! Hope everyone has a happy, safe and prosperous year. During my absence from the blog, a friend of mine asked what, if anything, I had learned about personal finance during my years of blogging. The advantage of not doing something everyday is that it gives you perspective on a subject matter.

As many of us use the turning of the calendar as a milestone to commit to or recommit to our own personal finances, I would suggest that my years of blogging have taught me at least 3 things:

Personal finance is like anything else in life. What you get out is a result of what you put in. The book The Millionaire Next Door stated it the best- those with financial independence spend nearly twice the number of hours a month than those who did not experience the same degree of financial independence or security. As an absolute number, the number of hours is actually quite modest at an average of 8.4 hours a month.

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As part of the Obama tax cut deal reached with Republicans (aka the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Authorization, & Job Creation Act) , the 2010 Child Tax Credit was extended through 2011 and 2012. So, for those of you planning on having your first or more children this year, it’s time to start pro-creatin’, or adopting, kidnapping, whatever means you need.

The Child Tax Credit allows you to claim a maximum $1,000 per qualified child. This is a non-refundable income tax credit, meaning that if your credit exceeds your income tax liability, then you won’t get a check for the difference. It also means that it is a subtraction from your actual taxes owed, which is much more valuable than a deduction (which is a subtraction from your actual income). And, the image in this post is technically wrong! Oh we

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Debt is likely the first reason that leads many people to financial crises and even to bankruptcy. What can be said about a debt is, at first it may offer us a way out in fulfilling our immediate needs, but continually it slowly brings us to the black hole especially if took several loans in the same time. People having debt usually haven’t realized of the big financial threat waiting for them in certain period until it really comes to their life. What www.consolidatemydebttoday.com is both preventing you from such bad financial crises and pulling you of the black hole if you are already being trapped.

Here’s what you should know, don’t ever let the peaceful feeling where you still feel secure because your paycheck is still sufficient to pay the monthly payment, controlling you. Because that’s a mistake that often happens to many people. You should know that in the future there’s always a possibility of unexpected incidents that will lead you terrible crises.

www.consolidatemydebttoday.com truly understand on how you should act in order to manage your debt soon enough. It brings

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I get sick of all the New Year’s resolutions people make and then after about ten days, are completely forgotten.  I’ve been in the personal development business for twenty years now and I’m just tired of it.  “I’m gonna change!”  My response:  Bet you don’t.  Harsh?  Probably.  Mean?  Possibly.  Realistic?  Absolutely.  People lie to themselves.  Yeah, they lie to other people too but they lie mostly to themselves.  The truth is that people don’t want to change.  If they did, they would.  And since they don’t change, it’s because they don’t want to – at least not enough to actually make the change.  Because change requires work and people would rather do just about anything than work.

So here we are at that time of year where we pretend we want our lives to be different because a mark on the calendar says we ought to evaluate our lives and our results and fix them.  Okay, I’ll play along.  Let’s talk about resolutions.  Here’s my list of ideas for you if you want next year to look different than last year

1.  Last year is OVER – let it go.   No good comes from dwelling on the past.  If you were an idiot, beat yourself up over it a bit, then move on.   The past is called that because it has PASSED.

2.  Get negative about your life. Don’t pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how great you are.  Tell yourself the truth: you could do better if you worked harder!  Positive change comes from first getting negative!

3. Focus on accomplishment, not activity.  Don’t get bo

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