Men Beware!

June 14th, 2009

Funnily enough, there was an article in “TheTimes” yesterday, about the opposite situation to the lady mentioned in my last post. In this case, a woman won a payment of £220,000 in a divorce settlement, 22 years after separating from her husband.

The divorce proceedings were initiated after the woman discovered about her husband’s inheritance. She says that she did not want to put their son through the messiness of a divorce when he was younger, but also that the change in her husband’s finances had been a catalyst for her action.

He inherited £120,000, invested it in property which he sold last year for £1.1 million.

At first, it seems unfair and that the woman was simply cashing in. Why should he have to pay something to her, so many years later?

Reading the story more closely, you realize that she had brought up a son, alone and had received little maintenance from this man. He was left with a substantial share of the capital after all, and she was reimbursed for her years of struggle. In fact her lawyers point out that the settlement had to be just to the husband also.

H

owever, it does seem to be risky to drift along in the legal limbo of separation without divorce, since at any time life could throw a curved ball of some sort and then the legal process to sort everything out will be that much more complicated and of course expensive.

WomansDivorce.com  is a helpful site for US women thinking of divorce. The situation in the UK seems a bit different, as an inheritance that is received before divorce is likely to be taken into account in sharing out the couple’s assets. See wikidivorce.com for the Uk version of events.

 

 

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Women Beware!

June 13th, 2009

This week I met a lady living in a Council House in a not so wonderful part of London. She was telling me about herself and how she had last seen her husband about 7 years ago. They had parted before that. But she does not want to get divorced, because she does not want to spend any more money on him.

He left her with a debt of £7000 which she has been paying off ever since. She still has £2000 to pay off and  that will take about 2 more years.

I wonder. Is that really necessary? A quick check on the law highlights that there are some straightforward questions to answer. For example, whose debt is it anyway? Did they take on the debt jointly, using a joint account? Or was it something her husband bought in his own name? This is the basic question.

Since she has not been divorced, it is possible that she has not consulted with a solicitor or legal adviser, and she may just have assumed that she is liable. Perish the thought, but it could happen. A huge behemoth of a company could just bluff its way and  convince her that she is responsible.

An interesting point about this is, the law in US and Uk is somewhat different. Debts incurred after marriage are more likely to be  seen as the responsibility of both parties in the US than in the UK.

There is an interesting post on this subject at the intriguingly named plonkee.com site. It was uplifting to read that at least one husband would not consider not paying off his wife’s debts, providing he was able to. The age of chivalry is not dead after all, ladies.

But still, better beware of what you are doing, and what is more, of what your husband is doing, before you have an unpleasant wake up call from a credit agency. And I think I will have a little chat with the lady I met yesterday, just to be sure she has been properly advised.

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Women, shopping, spending.

June 7th, 2009

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A Woman’s Business

May 24th, 2009

If your finances are in disarray, it can be a sign that you are out of tune with life in some way. Coping with debt is a challege to take a good look at your life and what you want out of it. Perhaps you are in uncongenial employment which is not bringing out the best in you. Perhaps you chose to do something because it seemed a good idea at the time, but your heart is not in it now. This could be frightening, or it could be exciting, depending on your point of view.

What if the situation is a message? Something needs to change in your life. It could be that you have got into a rut, and need to take a risk. Is there some gift, some skill that other people would pay you for?  It does not matter if it is a long way from your original training or profession, if it is more in line with who you really are, and what you want from life now.

For example, if you are a very sociable person, you might be an ideal partyplanner. You can get paid through hosting parties on a theme, where some product or service is promoted in a sociable way. Something like this can be done outside office hours, so you can carry on with the day job for the time being. For more information Click Here. 

The possibilities are endless! The start up costs are small, the range of products and partyplanning businesses is growing all the time. Things have come a long way from the days of Tupperware  and Ann Summers, though they are still going strong.

Are you interested in saving the world? Then click here.    . Or are cosmetics more your thing- have a look here. How will it work if you have a family- find out here.

It is important to take your personality into account, and find something that is a good natural fit for you.  The better the fit, the more your efforts are likely to succeed. Homebased business is a great way forward for women as well as men and the partyplanning model is particularly suited to women.

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Start Being Money Active

May 13th, 2009

Many people have the experience today of feeling stressed and overwhelmed by their financial situation. The aim of this site is to provide information about financial matters, in straightforward language. It will cover topics from settling credit card debt to finding ways for kids to make money. 

 

Sometimes it seems that the money world uses a foreign language, remote from the everyday world where people run up debt, and then have to work out whether a consolidation loan is a good idea, or would debt resettlement be possible, or what about  refinance consolidation? What if you have run into difficulty with  pay day loan debt?

These terms are offputting, but they do relate to real people and their real situation in terms of money. 

Then again, many arguments between couples are about money, and how to handle it. It is such a deeply personal subject, and one that we are still reluctant to talk about and yet it can eat away at our relationships.

 

So the better we understand the practical workings of money, the more we feel empowered to make good money decisions. Many of us grew up with the idea that money was someone else’s problem or responsibility, someone else would look after it, and with the credit crunch is coming a new realization that this is not the case.  

If you are in a very tight financial corner, you may feel so stressed that you cannot think straight. The very first thing to do is to stop  allowing your thoughts to run wild. It is very unlikely that you will end up in jail for non payment of debt. Find a way to relax, stop the feelings of panic, and devise your action plan. 

How much do you owe, and to whom? What is the most important debt to take care of?  What is the relevance of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for you? 

It may be necessary by taking the very long view. Life is never static, and this stressful time is not going to last for ever. 

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lays down guidelines for debt collection Agencies. It stipulates for example the the consumer should not be telephoned before 8 am, after 9pm. The debt collector should not use stationery or any markings which show that he is a debt collector. And if you decide that you cannot, or will not pay the debt, you can write to the debt collector to tell him to stop contacting you. 

They may then contact you only to tell you what action they propose to take, but cannot continue with telephone calls.  It is well worth checking out exactly what your rights are. Remember that even if you are in debt, it does not mean that you are "worthless" as a person. The issue of the debt has to be addressed, but there is never a time when it is acceptable for you to be bullied or abused by a debt collector.

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