Credit Reports -- Your Free Report Could Cost You

The growing prevalence of identity theft and increased concern about good financial health has led many consumers to seek copies of their credit reports online. Doing so is certainly laudable; the more you know about how potential creditors and lenders see you, the more prepared you can be when it comes time to apply for a loan or credit. An added bonus is that consumers can obtain one copy of their credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus once a year through the official Web site set up for such purposes at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Unfortunately, there are still many Web sites that exist for the sole purpose of tricking consumers who are seeking copies of their free reports. A quick Google search for the term "free credit report" today turned up no fewer than twenty four million sites in the search results. There certainly are not twenty four million Web sites that are going to provide copies of credit reports for free, so what is this all about?

It's about money. Aside from the "official" site, the others are there to profit, and they can profit in one of two different ways:

Sell you something - Some of these sites actually belong to the credit bureaus; they have set them up to give you the credit report while selling something else to you in the meantime. These sites will offer the "free" report in large letters, while telling you in smaller ones that by accepting the free report you are agreeing to buy a credit monitoring service, which can cost you $10-15 per month. The credit bureau-owned sites will also tell you that you can get your report for free at the "official" site. That is usually stated in fairly small print near the bottom of the page.

Steal something from you - Unfortunately, there are still many unscrupulous crooks out there on the Internet who see the interest in credit reports as the ideal way to steal personal information from people. Their sites will offer a "free" report, and perhaps some other services for which you can pay. But when you fill out the application and provide your name, Social Security number and credit card, you get nothing in return. Instead, the operators of these sites use the personal information to borrow money and take out credit in your name, leaving you to pay the bills.

If all you want is a free credit report, the best way to avoid this problem is to obtain it from the official Web site at AnnualCreditReport.com. Alternatively, you can call 1-877-322-8228 to receive your report by mail. That way, you can avoid being victimized by the thousands of Web sites that might cause you to pay dearly for your "free" credit report.

About the author:

©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including http://www.End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation, credit counseling, payday loans and personal bankruptcy.

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How to File For Personal Bankruptcy

Filing for personal bankruptcy means that you’ll be protecting yourself from the creditors that you owe money to. Bankruptcy, however, is a radical way to achieve that protection. What bankruptcy does is take away your debt so that you can make a fresh start when it comes to your finances. If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy there are certain things that you’ll need to do so that it’s done correctly.

The very first thing that you should do is get in touch with a lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy. You’ll want to be working with someone who knows exactly what is required and what steps you need to follow for bankruptcy. When you first meet with the lawyer make sure that you take along all of your financial papers, including bills that you owe, a verification of your monthly income, and statements from your bank.

You and the lawyer will need to determine exactly how much money you owe. You’ll be including everything that you owe so don’t leave anything out just because you don’t want your debt load to appear too high. The goal is to make a fresh start, so you don’t want any forgotten debt to get left behind because you’ll still owe it.

The lawyer will explain to you the difference between secured debt and unsecured debt. Secured debt is debt where your creditor will hold some type of secure interest on what you owe until the entire amount has been paid back. If you don’t pay back the amount owed the creditor can take back what you’ve purchased, such as your car. Unsecured debt is debt that isn’t secured with interest and is not tied to property.

There are some debts that you may owe that can’t be cleared by bankruptcy that you’ll have to pay back on your own. This type of debt includes student loans, child support, and any back taxes that you owe. Make sure that the lawyer has all the information needed to make an accurate application for bankruptcy.

Once you’ve determined all your debt you’ll be filing a bankruptcy petition with the local courts in your area.
Your creditors will need to be contacted and notified that you’ve filed for bankruptcy. Once you’ve filed for bankruptcy your creditors will be unable to contact you and won’t be able to collect any of the money that you owe them.

Your debt will be settled by a trustee who is assigned to your bankruptcy case. The trustee will be responsible for paying your debt and being in contact with your creditors. If you have any property it may be sold and used to pay off your debt and, depending on where you live, you may be entitled to some of the profit that is made from the sale of your car, home, or other property. In some cases you’ll be given an allowance to live off for a certain period of time.

Filing for personal bankruptcy is a long and lengthy process that will affect your financial outlook for many years to come. Make sure that you have all the information that you need before you decide to file for bankruptcy.

About the author:
Ben Fallison is a bankruptcy counselor and owner of
Bankruptcy At,
a top Internet directory for bankruptcy information.
Get more great bankruptcy tips and tricks at
http://www.bankruptcyat.com


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Market Cycle Investment Management

Whatever happened to the Stock Market Cycle; the Interest Rate Cycle; Baby Jane? How did Wall Street get away with pushing these facts of financial life down the basement stairs? Most investors, I'm beginning to believe, and all financial advisors, media representatives, and market gurus have abandoned these fascinating curves for the comfort of a straight-edged twelve-month playing field... simple, yes; realistic, not. I have to wonder if things would be different with a more investor-friendly tax-code, but that would be far less lucrative for The Wizards...

Investing with a calendar year focus has no basis in the realities of finance, business, or economics... isn't it obvious that the Stock and Bond Markets are far more closely related to the Business Cycle than to the Earth's around the Sun? Investopedia reports that, during the last sixty years, most business cycles have lasted three to five years from peak-to-peak. The Stock Market Cycle (in terms of the S & P 500 Average) is the period of time between the two latest highs of that average which are separated by at least a 15% decline in the average. The second high needs only to be 15% above the nadir, it doesn't have to represent a new All Time High (ATH). Interest rates (based on the 10 Year Treasury Bond), seem to cycle in the two to five year range, and are much more closely related to Business or Economic cycles than they are to the Stock Market Cycle. Confused?

Well, you should be. Although they are closely intertwined, none of these financial realities are predictable and, therefore, need to be dealt with as hindsightful tools in the performance analysis process... a process that needs to be undertaken using personalized expectations. How many times in the last 20 years do you think that any of these cycles peaked on a December 31st? The "I'll try this approach for a year or so and then change if it doesn't work out better than everything else" mentality, combined with a regressive tax code that rewards losses more than gains, has killed cyclical analysis dead. It's time to get back on our hogs and try something old. Let's re-cycle peak-to-peak analysis like we do plastics and paper products. It might just put more "green" in our retirement programs. As recently as 1980, Separate Account (the first Mutual Funds) Investment Managers were reporting fund performance in terms of income generation and peak-to-peak growth in Market Value. But that was before investing became the number-two spectator sport in America.

Few investment professionals would argue with the observation that a viable investment program begins with the development of a realistic plan, and most would agree that investment planning requires the identification of long-term personal goals and objectives. Some experts would even agree that the end result should be a near autopilot, long-term and increasing, retirement income. Asset Allocation is used to organize and control the structure of the portfolio so that it operates in a goal directed manner. Is this easy or what! It would be if the average investor would just let things alone long enough for them to work out according to the plan. That's the rub. Wall Street, the financial media, and financial professionals (including CPAs) have no interest in letting things work out according to plan... even if it's a plan that they designed.

Is it clear that calendar year performance evaluation allows an average of just six months for an equity selection to 'perform'? Is it clear that the change in Market Value of an income security over the course of a year is meaningless? Is it clear that a portfolio containing both types of securities cannot be compared with an average or index that is comprised of just one or the other? It is crystal clear until it's your portfolio that has had the audacity to shrink in Market Value over the course of the year! Human nature is predictable but not necessarily rational. Mother Nature's financial twin's twisted sense of humor, though, is both... and totally unrelated to third rock movements.

If the change in a portfolio's Market Value is really so important (the Working Capital Model would argue that it is not), why not do it over a period of time that recognizes where we happen to be, cyclically? Interest Rates have cycled seven or eight times over the past twenty-five years; the stock market has been nearly twice as volatile. Peak-to-peak analysis, although hindsightful, raises a type of question that can, at least, be portfolio personalized for analysis:

(1) Did my Equity portfolio grow in Market Value between January 2000 and January of 2002, or between January 2002 and either January 2004 or June of 2006? These were cycles on the DJIA, which at its high in June 2006, was still below the ATH established in early 2000. These are meaningful time periods that can be used to study the effectiveness of various equity-only portfolio strategies. S & P 500 cycles were pretty much the same.

(2) Does my Income Portfolio generate more income today than it did the last time interest rates were at these levels is still the most important question that should be raised... regardless of Market Value. Sorry.

But as important as it may be to determine the answers to such questions, it is equally important to understand why the results were what they were. Did I withdraw money from the portfolio, or take losses on investment grade securities for tax reasons? Did I fail to follow the plan, or lose control of my Asset Allocation? Did I change variable expenses into fixed expenses or allow tax considerations to keep me from realizing profits. Were there changes in the investment markets that would make peak-to-peak analysis less meaningful than in the past?

So by taking away the move-your-money, racetrack, mentality that runs today's investment performance evaluation methodologies, we create a calmer, more cerebral, management exercise with which to tweak our investment strategy. We may have gone backwards because we stayed on the sidelines instead of buying when prices were low. It may have been the strategy, it may have been the management, it could have been the diversification formula, or the buy-sell-hold decision-making rules. It may even have been the fear or greed that influenced our judgment. By looking at things cyclically, and analytically, instead of celestially and emotionally, we either allow our strategy to prove itself over a reasonable period of time or obtain the information needed to change it constructively.

The recent popularity of Index ETFs has detracted from the usefulness of both the popular market averages and the most useful market statistics. Issue Breadth, 52-week High and Low, Most Actives, Most Advanced, and Most Declined figures now include thousands of these hybrid and derivative securities. A bigger problem is the artificial demand created for index-included securities, a demand unrelated to corporate financial statement fundamentals. Another problem for Investment Grade Value Stock only investors is the absence of a well-recognized average or index to use for analysis... the IGVSI and related Market Stats should help.

Analyze this: if the strategy makes sense in the long run, why knock yourself out in months, quarters, and years? Where have all the cycles gone...

About the author:
Steve Selengut
http://www.sancoservices.com
http://www.valuestockindex.com
Professional Portfolio Management since 1979
Author of: "The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read", and "A Millionaire's Secret Investment Strategy"


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