Your rates of bank

Normally, I use this space to answer reader questions. However, today I’d like to discuss an issue that affects many American savers.- advertisement -

Beginning Jan. 1, the Treasury changed its annual limit on purchases of U.S. savings bonds. The new annual limit is $5,000 per Social Security number, but the limit applies separately to Series I and Series EE savings bonds, and for paper versus electronic bonds.

So, an individual can invest a total of $20,000 in savings bonds annually, as shown in the following table:

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What is the first thing borrowers should do if they are at risk of missing a payment?
Homeowners should begin by calling us and expressing their interest in keeping their home; the sooner a homeowner reaches us, the more options we have to find a solution.- advertisement -

The homeowner should prepare for the call by gathering income and expense documentation that might be needed to consider a potential workout.

When should they call you

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Editor’s note: Citi declined to answer Bankrate’s questions, asking instead that borrowers call Citi directly. They also referred Bankrate to a report on their Web site titled “Citi U.S. Mortgage Lending Data and Foreclosure Prevention Efforts.” Bankrate consulted the document and found answers to as many of the questions as possible. We have reported them here.

What is the first thing borrowers should do if they are at risk of missing a payment?

Distressed borrowers should contact Citi at one of the following numbers:

CitiMortgage: (866) 272-4749.Citi Residential Lending: (800) 211-6926 or (800) 430-5262.- advertisement -

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Lou Ferrigno is an imposing figure at 6 feet 4 (more…)

The real estate industry suffered such a freefall in 2007 that even the most hopeful scenario was for the market to hit bottom by summer, or by autumn, or by Christmas. That turned out to be overly optimistic.- advertisement -

Four months into 2008, the bad news keeps rolling in, and most analysts agree the bottom everyone kept predicting remains elusive at best, and years away at worst.

“I think we are a ways from the bottom — and a long way from any indicators that would even hint at an upturn,” says Mike Simonsen, CEO of Altos Research, a real estate data firm based in Mountain View, Calif.

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Regis Philbin has the mannerisms and voice that launched a thousand parodies, but his ubiquity underscores his accomplishments. Think about this — in a society where television has played such a major part of our lives for the past half-century, Regis Philbin holds the Guinness-certified world record for the most hours logged in front of a television camera. (more…)

Forgiven debt may be free from income tax
The first tax break concerns forgiveness of debt, which occurs when a lender forgoes repayment of principal and/or interest the borrower owes.

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Typically, discharged debt is considered ordinary income to the borrower for income tax purposes. The new law allows taxpayers to exclude this amount and thus escape the tax liability.

“When you’re worried about making your payments, higher taxes are the last thing you need to worry about. So this bill will create a three-year window for homeowners to refinance their mortgage and pay no taxes on any debt forgiveness that they receive,” President Bush said in his remarks upon signing the law.

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Rule No. 1: Don’t panic
The stock market’s gyrations can give even the hardiest investors a case of the jitters.

However, converting all your investments to cash is likely to cause you far more harm than good, says Joe Baker, CFP and president of Alcus Financial Group in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

“People are scared,” he says. “They’re asking, ‘Is the economy crashing? Should I move my 401(k) to a money market?’”

Baker answers: “Please do not, unless you need the cash tomorrow. You’d be making a huge mistake.”

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Cash-strapped employees are turning to their retirement plans as the credit crunch drags on and costs for everyday necessities continue their upward spiral. While hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans are taken by a very small number of participants — about 1.5 percent at Vanguard — the giant fund company says hardship withdrawals have been increasing significantly; up about 17 percent in 2006 and another 9 percent in 2007.- advertisement -

“We would say from our data that the big uptick began earlier than the subprime crisis, which indicates to us that it wasn’t a lagging indicator, it was a leading indicator,” says Stephen Utkus, director of Vanguard’s Center for Retirement Research. “When people started to have difficult times, they started tapping their 401(k) plan for various hardships and then, later, the subprime crisis manifested itself. We fully expected them to be up a little in 2006 and then really up in 2007 when, in fact, the big growth rate occurred in 2006. This suggests to us it’s much more an issue of financially stretched households and not so much a subprime issue.”

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Using a hypothetical example, we break out some of the cost savings of commuting on two wheels instead of four.

Savings on two-wheel commuting

50-mile commute, 150cc scooter20-mile commute, bicycle”Sam” is a 40-year-old man with a 50-mile per day commute in suburban Chicago. He replaces his Ford Taurus sedan that averages 20 miles per gallon with a 150cc scooter that averages 70 miles per gallon. Gas is priced at $4 per gallon.

Sam saves $60 per week, with $36 of that being gas savings. (Assuming 54 cents a mile to operate the car and 30 cents a mile to operate the scooter.)
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1. What does your master policy say?
Owners of condominium units obviously do not own the entire condominium complex. Typically, they own their own unit outright and share ownership of the rest of the complex with all the other owners.

From an insurance point of view, that means all individual unit owners have a collective responsibility for insuring areas of the complex owned in common — building exteriors and hallways, the pool area, etc. A condominium association typically collects monthly dues from unit owners and uses a portion of these funds to insure common areas.

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