I am a widower. My wife of 46 years passed away a year and a half ago. I recently met and felt very attracted to a woman. My problem is that she is reluctant to open up to me even though we have a great time together. We live about 1,700 miles apart. She has this mind set that poor plus poor equals poor and yet she claims not to be a gold digger. She has been married twice to rich men and has traveled everywhere. Her longest marriage was with a man who she says wasn't affectionate with her. She has actually come right out and told me that I do not make enough for her style of living. Now I may be wrong but if both her marriages ended in divorce and she now has to scrape by while this "poor" guy with more money than she has at her disposal wants to be with her, would that not tip the scales in my direction? Or could it be she just does not want to be a three-time loser. This woman, whether she wants to admit it or not, has stolen my heart, and I have told her so. When I tell her I love her, she says thank you. We seldom talk on the phone though we were talking daily at first. I am at wits end, and I truly do not know what to do.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Black News: Detroit Becoming a Hot Bed for Real Estate Purchases
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As Detroit home prices in Detroit crash, sales are heating up. But with all of the plant closings and layoffs, who's buying? Investors -- some of whom are snapping up five and 10 houses at a time.
"I have investors from all over the country and the world," said Jeremy Burgess, co-founder of Urban Detroit Wholesalers, which buys undervalued homes to rehab and rent or to sell to other investors. "One Lithuanian woman just bought a second house."
"Most of the local investors are out of money," added Mike Shannon, who specializes in Detroit foreclosures and has clients from New Zealand, Australia, England and other places.
Recently a Californian purchased 178 properties, mostly one at a time, and most for under $10,000. Another has purchased six Detroit properties since September and hopes to begin buying five a month.
Click to read more on the African American Money Blog.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Black Money Expert Ryan Mack: Keeping Your Home
How did you become a finance expert? What inspired you to pursue this goal?
When I was on Wall Street making great money I felt empty, because I was not an effective contributor to my community. I knew that finance was my passion, but I also knew that sitting in a cubicle making money only for the sake of self-empowerment was not my purpose.
Like too many families in America, many people in my family were not financially literate. My passion was to change that. In addition, I was always getting asked personal finance questions from peers who knew I was a stock trader. But trading is different from personal finance. To address these questions, I began to study personal finance and started a Yahoo group called MakingMoneyWork, which provided tips and strategies to over 200 members through weekly newsletters.
Prof Christopher Richardson Breaks down Tavis Smiley Sponsor Wells Fargo’s alleged discrimination
Dr. Christopher Richardson
Dr. Christopher Richardson, one of the world’s leading experts on predatory lending and banking, comments on a recent report that Wells Fargo, one of the sponsors of the State of the Black Union event held every year, is being sued by several government agencies due to accusations of financially exploiting and deliberately misleading the Black community. Dr. Richardson’s comments are below:
Black Money: Good news in the job market
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell more than expected last week, but ongoing claims ticked higher, according to government data released Thursday.
There were 601,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended June 6, down 24,000 from 625,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said.
Economists expected 615,000 new claims, according to a consensus survey by Briefing.com.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Black Money: Wells Fargo Accused of Cheating the Black Community
Tavis Smiley needs to have a conversation with one of his primary sponsors, Wells Fargo. This week, it was announced that Wells Fargo is being sued by the city of Baltimore for egregiously racist predatory lending practices in the black community. The company has been accused by some former loan officers of targeting subprime, low quality loans to black neighborhoods, leading to a dramatic economic collapse for the black community of Baltimore.
The statistical evidence is daunting. Half of all the properties foreclosed by Wells Fargo are vacant and 71% of those properties are in black neighborhoods. Wells Fargo's African American borrowers with incomes greater than $68,000 per year were 8 times more likely to hold subprime loans than white borrowers with the same income.
Black Money: Dealing with Borrowers in your family
You are the one who went to college, got the Wall Street job, went on exotic vacations around the world and bragged about them to your cousins back in Detroit at family reunions. Now you are unemployed and more family members than ever have their hands out. How do you determine who to "lend" money to or whether you should be lending money at all? Here are a few tips.
1. First, make sure your family is aware of the changes to your financial circumstances. Whether you are unemployed, your annual bonus is nonexistent or you recently overheard the executive assistants gossiping about cuts in your department, it is important to communicate this to family members so they know that your baller tendencies are on hold. Be considerate of their circumstances when you communicate this message. Telling them that you "downsized" your Buckingham Blue Range Rover to a Lexus Rx Hybrid to save money on gas is likely to get you little to no sympathy. Talk in terms of percentages; say things like, "Yeah, the economy really sucks, without my bonus this year I will make 50% less so I am cutting back." Communicating that you are also tightening your financial belt should make your family think twice before they ask you for money.
2. If you are still approached by family members for money, it is important to assess whether this is a recurring problem or a one-time ask. If the same family member always has their hand out, their money issues may be symptomatic of larger core issues (depression, gambling, living beyond their means, etc.). Have a heart to heart with your family member to try to unearth what may be at the root of their money problems. Then, if you discover a bigger issue, be supportive and help them to address the issue directly. Do not give them more money, no matter how bad they say they "need" it, it will only result in them coming back to you for more of the same a few months down the road. Instead, offer to pay for debt counseling or a gym membership - whatever helps them address their core issue.
