When I left my ex-husband I was 39 years old and during our marriage he dominated the family finances. I was a vice president with a Wall St. insurance company and I would turn over my earnings to my ex-husband who gave me an allowance that I had to account for. I did not even have my own checking account until I left him.

The abuser controls the finances as a means of control over the victim. Women arrive at shelters bewildered and scared and so many don’t even have a credit card or any ...

FreeCreditReport.com is not free. FreeCreditReport.com will send you a free credit report but only if you enroll in a $14.95-a-month credit-monitoring service and then cancel it within a week. This is an obvious deceptive marketing practice. The site for truly free credit reports is www.AnnualCreditReport.com.

The Huffington Post yesterday had an article that outlines that one of the provisions of the Credit Card Reform Act is the requirement that organizations of phony “free” credit r...

That is the title of a Wall Street Journal article which ran on February 26^th. The article sites instances where it may be wise to walk away from your mortgage and give the house back to the lender.

The author of the article, Brett Arends, states the following; “Sure, a strategic foreclosure may hurt your credit score. But if you're in financial difficulties, it has probably already suffered. And your credit score is not the only thing in life that matters”.  

The article continues, �...

In San Juan County in New Mexico the Family Crisis Center has seen a rise in pleas for help according to a news report on KOB.com.

Yes the economy does have an effect on the increase in domestic violence but as I said yesterday the root cause is really one person in the relationship wishing to be in control by force if necessary.

The economy is not the root cause since other factors are usually evident, the economy can cause tenuous relationship to boil over.

Read the entire article http...

A recent article in Newstimes.com reporter John Pirro writes about two domestic violence cases in CT.  It’s a story of two different men who abused their families.

One a immigrant construction worker from Ecuador who murdered his wife and will serve 55 years behind bars, the other a successful man who served in both the administrations of George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush who beat his wife to unconsciousness when she asked for a divorce.

Domestic Violence is an equal opportunity crime; ...

Diets and Budgets get the same reaction from many of us.  We ate that chocolate chip cookie now we have to deprive ourselves and go on a diet because we have been bad.  We overspent and now we have to deprive ourselves again.

Budgets are not a punishment they are a roadmap which will help us achieve our goals.  For example, if we want to get more education to advance our career we need money set aside to achieve that goal.  It is the budget that helps us monitor the use of our money so we ca...

There are times when we must make some very difficult decisions and bankruptcy may be one of them.  Bankruptcy is a business decision you make so you and your family can move forward.

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts bankruptcy filing for businesses and individuals are up 35% for the year ending June 30^th over the previous year.

We live in very tough economic times and sometimes if we are to move ahead we may have to do things we would never have thought we would ...

It is no surprise that the incidents of domestic violence are on the rise in part due to the current worsening economic situation.

High unemployment and rising foreclosures have led to economic stress that has affected millions of families.  The stress has led to the hike in calls to domestic violence hotlines. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline conducted a survey from November 12 to December 31, 2008 asking the callers on the hotline about the connection between financial issues and...