The CareerPlanner Blog

7000 Foreclosures Per Day According to Obama on Larry King

Last night on Larry King Live, Barack Obama was mentioned that there are now 7,000 new foreclosures everyday.

Everyone is talking about home foreclosures but people do not seem to know there is a way to prevent or stop the foreclosure on your home.

It's called "Loan Modification" and you can see how it works at http://www.loanmodifications360.com/

Basically you can pay for this service where they will go to your lender and negotiate a more affordable loan payment.  They can usually get you a lower interest rate.  Sometimes they can reduce the amount you owe on your mortgage.

This all works because the banks do not want anymore houses.  They have too many already. 

You can check out their blog http://loanmodexpert.typepad.com/

You can try to process a loan mod yourself, but you will come out better if you hire an expert.  They know how to work the lenders. 

My Barber Knows More About The Economy...

The other night, Phil Gramm, the genius (?) who advises Senator McCain on the economy said that there is no real problem with the American economy, it's all in our minds and we are all a bunch of whiners.

Most of us Americans have suspected that those in charge of our government and living inside the Washington DC "Beltway" were a bit out of touch.  But now we know just how far out of touch they are.  It's not just George W. Bush who looks so damn stupid.  It's most of the Republicans and Democrats in DC.

My barber seems to know more about the economy than McCain and Phil Gramm put together.  I was in there the other day getting a haircut and my barber had these observations about our economy:

• Credit cards are being used to pay for haircuts twice as often as this time last year.  Presumably because people don't have cash because they are out of work or their mortgage payment is bigger than they can handle. These are $18 haircuts.
• At the local grocery store, the bagging and shelf stocking staff is now composed of 45 to 60 year old ladies.  It used to be students and Hispanics.  These older ladies have had to go back to work to help make ends meet.

But apparently in DC, people still have money for haircuts.

A funny story about barbers and the cost of haircuts.  Up until a few years ago I used to go to a hair stylist who would charge $40 to $60 for a haircut. I had been doing that most of my adult life.

That made some sense when I had lots of hair to cut.  However, if you look at my picture today http://www.careerplanner.com/MichaelTRobinson.cfm  you'll see that spending $50 for a haircut was just plain stupid.

The real reason I cut back my spending on haircuts was to prepare for a time when I might not be making the big pay check.  A time when the economy was going to sour, and sour badly. 

Well the time has come and I'm glad I switched to my barber / economist with his $18 haircuts. 

By the way, the stylist that was cutting my hair moved to the city (San Francisco) where she gets  $300 to color someone's hair.  Gee, maybe I should get the gray out.