Comments on: How healthy are your finances?

By: E

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:54:05 +0000

DW: You do not have to pay for the debts your ex signed you up for and used your name. A friend of mine had this happen to him recently. He filed a police report, and mailed a copy of it to the CC agency fraud department. They did an investigation and found out his disgruntled ex had signed him up, and he either didn’t sign for it, or she signed his name.

Eventually, the CC wrote a letter to him, saying to send a copy of that letter to call 3 credit reporting agency’s. He did and they badness was removed from his credit reports.

Oh, of course, the CC agency tried to get him to pay….he told them he was a victim of identify theft, and no, he’s not going to pay someone else’s debt! It worked.

By: DW

DW — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:34:18 +0000

I read your blog everyday, but have only commented a couple of times. I decided to pop my head out today! LOL. Ok, I took the test, and got a score of C+. Im as confused as all of you!! Im fresh out of college (but hey…whats with the min age being 25…I’m 23…and Im trying to get my stuff together!) I got points taken off my retirement savings, emergency savings and diversification. (which are all currently at $0…but I will explain) I also got taken off for only having $100,000 worth of life insurance. I just got married about a month ago, and I have no children–I would think that’s enough!! OK..I digress….so there WAS a time when I had an IRA (the yearly max–since I was 18 until 21), when I had stocks, and an emergency savings–there was also a time when I had perfect credit–for my age, with a score of 720. All that changed about 1.5 years ago, when a disgruntled ex—signed up for all kinds of credit cards in my name (about 4 within a mth–we’re talking about a $4000 limit with citicard, $500 with capitol one, orchard bank and 1st premier bank $400 each [i dont even know what those last two are...smh])–maxed all of those out, maxed out some of the ones I currently had (I have Amex–with no preset limit–by the time he was done–there was over $8000 on there…and I had my own Capitol One card with $2000 limit–yea…now I have 2 COne…how that was able to happen—who knows, and a student Discover card with $1500 limit), overdrew accounts, and finally–but not least–took out several pay-day loans in my name. *exhale* At the time, I was about to graduate (from the real HU…and no–not Hampton Institute *smile*), was ready to embark out on the world—until all of this…scrrrreeeetched it to a halt. OH…I think I forgot to mention, that not even a full month prior to me starting to find out about this mess he got me in, we had signed a lease on a house (suburbs of MD)(my mom told me not to give the cow away–shouldve listened! lol)–a lease that I couldnt get out of–no matter that I had lived in the house less than a month–I thank JESUS–that that house situation is over now! (some of you may wonder that after all of this, at such a young age—how in the WORLD did I just get married–answer–I re-found the love of my life (HS sweetheart)–love doesnt wait for life—cause it’s definitely not promised!) So…just to get my head above water–I cashed out my IRA, my stocks and took out my savings–to pay off some of the debts–it still didnt cover all of them–and I’m still getting phone calls about crap—my credit score sucks now–and I am just downright broke right now! But it is looking up! The debt is dwindling—slowing but surely! My husband (still not used to that word…lol) has been very supportive the entire time and has even offered to help pay the remainer off–to which I always reply a resounding “NO”….my (HUGE) mistake—I’ll take the responsibility myself. And is understanding to my not wanting to combine any finances any time soon (*smile*…I’m in love…but I’m not stupid…LMAO) However, I have recently made a desicion to start saving again–I need some kind of back-up, and once all this is done…NO CREDIT CARDS…they have put such a bad taste in my mouth. Ok…I think I’ve typed my head off enough now…back under my rock I go!! Till Next Time!! *peace & happiness*

By: velvet jones

velvet jones — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:37:15 +0000

I got an A, but dinged for not having any life insurance. I don’t need it. I have no debt, no dependents. I always joke with my mom (but I’m really not joking) that if I die before her to nudge me into the lake. Quick and free. If that doesn’t work, throw my body in a cheap-azz box and cremate me the cheapest way possible. I’ll be dead at that point, what do I care what happens with my body? I’d rather she take the money saved and go get her groove on (but not get married…learn from terry) while taking a cruise or something.

But anyway, yeah. This was pretty weak.

By: TellaLuca

TellaLuca — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:03:17 +0000

I’m going to take the test now! I would look into your life insurance coverage though — you have a child. It should cover all the things you mention, but what about the costs she will have to take on with no help? College, food, shelter, etc.

Not to say she should “inherit” a large chunk outright, but God forbid something were to happen, there will be other things for her to worry about that cost $$.

Just a thought, you may have a will that covers all of this…

I’m a married mother of two (under age 6), you’ve blog is fantastic!

~TellaLuca

By: Tazzee

Tazzee — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:48:13 +0000

I got a B, low score for diversification (I had to cut back on those stock investments), life insurance (although I disagree, it’s just me and I have enough to pay off the mortgage and bury me) and savings (just socked almost $30K into my house downpayment).