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Identity thieves are capitalizing on the excitement of this presidential election by running phishing scams with a voter-registration twist. They want to con people into divulging profitable data, such as Social Security numbers, bank account data or credit card information.

A phishing scam involves an e-mail that mimics a legitimate entity and includes a link that when clicked on, downloads malicious software onto the recipient’s computer or takes them to a fraudulent Web site designed to capture personal or financial information.

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Gamber says traditional boardinghouses provided daily meals mostly to single male boarders as Americans moved from the farm to the cities during the 1800s.

The boardinghouse’s seedy reputation, though sometimes deserved, was as much a reflection of the various turn-of-the-century campaigns for decency as the living conditions themselves, she says.

Cybill Shepherd scored early big-screen hits with “The Last Picture Show,” and “The Heartbreak Kid,” and then spent a decade trying to regain the respect of Hollywood’s fickle industry.- advertisement -

It seems almost everyone is familiar with her story — a quick rise from top model to actress-of-the-month, and eventually, a Golden-Globe winning television actress with sitcom hits “Moonlighting,” “Cybill” and lately, a regular role on “The L Word.”

Over her 40 years in show business, singer and actress Cybill Shepherd has always struggled to disprove those who said she was just a pretty face.

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Every mortgage comes with a stack of paperwork. Federal regulators are adding a few pages to the pile, with the goal of making it easier for borrowers to comparison shop.- advertisement -

The feds are revising the good-faith estimate of closing costs. Know as the GFE, the document is an itemized estimation of the fees and taxes on a mortgage transaction. Lenders and brokers are required to provide a good-faith estimate to mortgage applicants. GFEs are not standardized, and they’re usually on one long sheet of paper, and they’re head-scratchingly hard to understand.

By the beginning of 2010, the GFE will be standardized and expanded into a three-page document that’s easier to comprehend. The estimated fees will have to be accurate. And the new GFE will encourage consumers to shop for mortgage deals.

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“The first big trend, I think, is all the stainless steel,” says Mark Connelly, senior director of testing for appliances at Consumer Reports. The good news for consumers is that manufacturers have “been doing that without the price getting too crazy.”

The abundance of stainless steel is a reflection of what’s going on in the high-end kitchen market, he says. “The more stainless steel, the more expensive,” he says, but, it’s popularity has made the sleek, shiny look more affordable for everyone over the past year.

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New York, Texas, Florida. For the second straight year, those are the most expensive states in which to get a mortgage.

Nationwide, the average origination and title fees on a $200,000 mortgage this year totaled $3,118, according to Bankrate’s annual survey of closing costs. The fees in the survey don’t include taxes, insurance or prepaid items such as prorated interest or homeowner association dues.

Fees in New York City were highest, averaging $4,016 in Bankrate’s survey. Houston came in second, with fees that averaged $3,975. After that came Buffalo, N.Y., with fees averaging $3,845, and then Miami, at $3,683.

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In recent weeks, mortgages quietly became harder to get.- advertisement -

Mortgage insurers require higher credit scores and bigger down payments than they did a month or two ago. Underwriting software used by brokers and loan officers is issuing fewer approvals than at the end of May.

Most buyers can still get home loans, but some find themselves pushed out of the private mortgage insurance, or PMI, market. Instead, they have to get mortgage insurance through the Federal Housing Administration. That often entails having to switch mortgage brokers, because many don’t have FHA certification.

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For as long as credit cards have been in use, it has been standard operating procedure for issuers to urge cardholders to sign the back of new cards as soon as the plastic arrives in the mail.

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But in an era when credit card companies promote “zero fraud liability,” online transactions are commonplace and point-of-purchase card readers and self-checkouts at retail stores essentially remove clerks from even handling the card, let alone looking at the signature, does it really matter if you do?

Want to do something truly patriotic to help preserve the American way of life?- advertisement -

Don’t retire. At least not yet.

That’s the advice of Andrew Yarrow, vice president and director of the Washington, D.C., office of the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization Public Agenda.

Yarrow urges the nation’s 78 million baby boomers to forgo traditional or early retirement and work for a few more years, for their own sake and the good of the country.

If boomers all turn in their keys at age 55, 62 or 65 and head for the Tuscan hills, that great sucking sound you’ll hear is untold amounts of taxpayer dollars being leached from the economy. That is money heirs will either have to replace or do without.

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It’s trendy to save money. You’ll see more newspaper, magazine and online articles on how to make the most of your income in the weeks and months ahead.- advertisement -

This was popular in the 1960s, too, some boomers may recall. I remember a helpful hint that ran in a column on how to make use of ordinary items headed for the trash can. One item encouraged readers not to throw away old knee-high stockings. Fill them instead with soap remnants. Then tie a knot at the open end and use it instead of a new bar of soap, the columnist advised.

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Mortgages are still available, despite talk of a credit crunch.- advertisement -

Qualified borrowers can find conforming and FHA-insured mortgages easily. Jumbo mortgages are more scarce, but available. Rates went up in the last week, which is another way of saying that credit is tighter. But the mortgage marketplace isn’t frozen, at least in part because of federal intervention.

“There’s almost no difference in the availability of money compared to a year ago, with the exception of jumbos,” says Jim Sahnger, mortgage consultant with Palm Beach Financial Network in Stuart, Fla. “The main difference is that you have to provide documentation, such as W-2s, tax returns and bank statements. Welcome to the full-doc world.”

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In one respect, Washington Mutual (WaMu) customers who have uninsured deposits, and the FDIC, should be breathing a big sigh of relief. JP Morgan Chase agreed to accept those uninsured deposits in its buyout of the nation’s biggest thrift — the biggest banking failure in U.S. history.- advertisement -

“You’re never happy to see a bank fail, but you couldn’t expect a better outcome for a bank of this size to be closed and it not costing the FDIC any money,” says FDIC spokesman David Barr. “But again, you’re never happy when a bank fails; particularly one this size that touches so many people’s lives.”

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If flipping a house in today’s real estate market seems riskier than trekking with a ragtag band of hobbits to Mordor, take heart: Home flippers can still find plenty of opportunities, though they’re not entirely without risk.- advertisement -

It may seem counterintuitive to invest in real estate when the housing market is in its darkest hour. But in fact, it may prove to be the most optimal time for such a venture. According to RealtyTrac, a seller of mortgage default data, the foreclosure rate reached its highest level in 50 years in 2007, and has since risen to record numbers in the third quarter of 2008. Real estate investors are finding bargains everywhere, particularly in formerly hot housing markets such as Florida, Nevada and California.

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Laddering certificates of deposit is a way to provide a constant income stream at the top of the CD yield curve which, for most CD buyers, is five years.- advertisement -

But when mired in a low-rate environment, and when there’s little difference between the low and high ends of the yield curve, it can be tempting to shorten the ladder. Using the current average yields for high-yield CDs, it’s easy to see why someone would be wary of locking up money for five years when rates may start rising sometime next year.

Making the decision to lock up money for five years when only 37 basis points separate the one-year yield from the five-year can be difficult, especially when many consumers say 5 percent is the minimum they’ll accept to tie up funds for five years.

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Inflation bloats the prices we pay for goods and services. But if inflation, or the threat of it, keeps the Federal Reserve from lowering short-term interest rates, then it will bring a smile to the faces of people who rely on fixed-income returns, because right now they’re getting pummeled on two fronts.- advertisement -

Consumers are paying higher prices on everyday necessities such as food and fuel. But the interest they’re getting on cash and CDs is nothing short of lousy. If the Fed stops cutting rates, interest on deposits may stop dropping.

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It seems that mortgage servicers aren’t satisfying anyone these days.- advertisement -

Homeowners get fed up when they try to work something out with their servicers, to no avail. Real estate agents complain that mortgage companies drag their heels on short sales. Regulators are restless about the lack of “meaningful improvement in foreclosure prevention outcomes.”

If there’s a lesson for foreclosure-avoiding consumers, it is this: Be patient, don’t take mortgage servicers’ actions personally and be ready to send paperwork multiple times.

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Whether you’re a homebuyer, seller or an owner, you probably have one central question about this market: Where are prices headed from here?- advertisement -

You can gain some insight into the pricing puzzle by focusing not just on home values, but on rental rates.

Housing economists have long used a home price/rent ratio as one way to gauge whether or not home prices are inflated or undervalued.

Moreover, on a very practical level, relating home prices to rents can give you a more detailed view of whether there’s a financial payoff to homeowning, says Gary Smith, Pomona College professor and co-author of “Houseonomics.”

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Today’s financial maelstrom has consumers fleeing to safe havens to park their hard-earned cash. One place that’s largely been off the radar for most folks is the neighborhood credit union.- advertisement -

These relatively small financial institutions have long been perceived as antiquated and unable to provide the same services as banks, but just the opposite is true.

“Today’s credit unions provide the full cornucopia of services that banks provide,” says Fred Becker, president of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. “They are fully open for business.”

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Nina Smith was among those who obtained, but never tapped, her HELOC. Instead, Smith — who owns properties in Nevada and California — thought having an open line of credit for a home she uses as a rental investment in Phoenix would be a smart way to access cash in case of some big emergency.

“Obviously, I have plenty of savings and investments, but I like to have someplace where I have cash that’s liquid. It’s my backup to my backup,” says Smith.

Not anymore. In February, Smith was among 122,000 borrowers who got letters from Countrywide Lending informing her that she couldn’t use her credit line after all.

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It’s not just homes that are being taken away these days — cars are also being repossessed at startling rates.- advertisement -

Today’s all-too-frequent recipe for hard times — resetting mortgages, increasing foreclosures, declining home prices and soaring prices for food and fuel — is now peppered with increasing numbers of consumers falling behind on car payments.

Thomas Webb, chief economist at Manheim Consulting, a wholesale vehicle auction operator, says 1,505,000 vehicles were repossessed in 2007, a 10 percent increase over 2006. He predicts another 10 percent increase in repossessions during 2008, sending repo numbers to one of the highest levels in a decade.

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Whether you’re buying a home or refinancing an existing home loan, you’ll soon find out that lenders today are a picky and demanding bunch when it comes to loan approvals. Even well-qualified borrowers are expected to jump through some pretty high hoops to qualify for financing. - advertisement -

But fear not: These tips and suggestions can help you make the best possible impression on the lender of your choice.

Just as job-hunters may wonder what top employers want to see on a resume, prospective borrowers may be curious about what lenders look for on a loan application.

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The sound of the B-52s — quirky, cutting, dance-a-riffic — was not just perky and fun, but always very much of its time. It’s hard to hear “Rock Lobster” or “Dance This Mess Around” without being transported to the days of bizarre new-wave hair and ’80s fashions; by the same token, “Roam” and “Love Shack” are equally transporting to their own era.- advertisement -

So it wasn’t that surprising to learn that the band — Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland — had gone 16 years without recording. When news emerged, then, that the band was finally going to release a new record, the curiosity factor was high.

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It’s a common misconception, but in fact, the FHA is not a lender. Nor does the FHA give people money to buy a home or set interest rates on home loans. Rather, the FHA, or Federal Housing Administration, is a federal government agency that offers mortgage insurance on loans originated by lenders that are approved by the agency. This insurance protects the lender in case the borrower defaults on the loan.- advertisement -

The FHA was set up in 1934 after the Great Depression and is a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. FHA-insured loans enjoyed decades of popularity, but then fell out of favor during the recent housing boom in part because lenders began to offer subprime loans that had artificially low initial interest rates and monthly payments. These subprime loans have since proved disastrous. As a result, lenders have tightened their credit standards and borrowers have flocked to the comparative safety and familiarity of FHA-insured loans.

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As the FDIC mops up the mess that was once IndyMac Bank, consumers are left with unpleasant images of long lines of worried customers waiting to get their uninsured deposits back. There was approximately $1 billion in uninsured deposits spread among consumers, businesses and nonprofit organizations.- advertisement -

The sad reality for those customers is that they’re getting $0.50 on the dollar for their excess deposits. Anything they get above that will be determined by the sale of IndyMac assets. You can bet many individuals had substantial amounts of money not covered by FDIC insurance and may end up losing at least a quarter of their funds.

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The politics of housing have changed in four years.- advertisement -

In 2004, George W. Bush campaigned on a platform of increasing homeownership, especially among minorities. He wanted the government to insure zero-down payment mortgages. “In changing times, ownership can bring stability to your lives,” Bush told a rally in Michigan.

It turns out that homeownership brought instability to the lives of people who bought houses when they weren’t ready. Perhaps as a result, Bush’s potential replacements aren’t running on a platform of extending homeownership. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., both offer proposals to let homeowners keep what they have. They have modest goals, born of the bitter experience of the mortgage meltdown.

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