Controllers

Considering Bankruptcy?
If you're struggling financially and considering bankruptcy, you need to learn as much as you can before taking this serious step. The bankruptcy law changed in 2005 making it harder to qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy where you were not required to pay your debts. Most people today must file Chapter 13 bankruptcy and have the court set up a monthly payment schedule to partially repay your creditors over a three to five year period.Bankruptcy will appear on your credit report 10 years. This report will pop up not only every time you apply for credit, but when you apply for a job or promotion, insure your home or car, or rent a home or apartment. If you feel bank

The Feminine Mistake
Lisa Bennets thinks women put themselves and their children at risk by not working. In her book The Feminine Mistake: Are We giving Up Too Much? She argues women should not quit their careers once they get married and have children. Bennets interviews women who have been out of the work force for a decade or more whose husbands left them for a younger woman, or decided they "weren't happy anymore." She points out the alimony, if any, women receive is now called "rehabilitative alimony." because the courts expect women to work. Of the many women interviewed, stay at home moms, those who were stay at home moms whose husbands either left or die

Women-- Know Your Jobless Benefits
Today, women make up around half of the full-time work force and two-thirds of the part-time workforce. Many women are the sole support of their families. In 1935, Congress included the unemployment insurance program in the Social Security Act. At that time, legislators assumed the labor force was mostly white males. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act– the stimulus package– gives states financial incentive to bring their unemployment insurance programs up to date to claim their full share of the federal recovery funds. Thirty-one states have to change their unemployment insurance laws to receive the federal dollars for new jobless benefits. States need to adop

Don't Hire Cantankerous Women
Feminists and The New Agenda want fair pay for women. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a strong fair-pay advocate who first introduced The Paycheck Fairness Act 12 years ago, recently reminded us that women still earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men in the same job. "It's time to close the wage gap," she said.We talk about wage gaps and glass ceilings today. During WWII, when women were needed to fill jobs formerly held by men, they put up with wage discrimination AND job discriminati

Lending Money to Family and Friends
Lending Money to Family and Friends When I was young, crawling through college and raising two sons, every Wednesday I'd borrow $20 from my father for groceries and pay that $20 back on Friday. A railroad employee, his seniority number was low. He was on unemployment at that time– another recession. That $20 meant a lot to both of us. Several years later, illness on his end and a college education on my end changed the balance of money between us. I bought a small home for my parents. My sister, who never got the money thing figured out, often borrowed money from our parents– her car broke down, her furnace needed repairs, her