This isn’t a joke. It isn’t a scam. It’s a request, an appeal if you want, for help.
The current economic crisis is not going to go away overnight. No one knows if we’ve hit bottom or when we will begin to see better financial times. Most of us already facing the loss of our homes are going to be joined by many more people who will be in the same situation very soon. Due to the huge number of foreclosures and the lack of any realistic help from either the banks or the government, we homeowners need to help ourselves.
Yes, I am asking for help for myself but I also want to help other people too. I know I can't help everyone who's going to lose their house but if I can help three other people save their house...well I think you can see where I’m going. If I help three people and they in turn help out three people we can change a lot of lives for the better.
What I’m proposing something very simple but very powerful. Give a dollar. That’s right 1 dollar, 4 quarters, 10 dimes, 20 nickels, 100 pennies, however you want to do it. get your friends to also give a dollar, your coworkers, church group, school, anybody. I’m going to be posting people in need of help on a web site titled Save My House located at http://www.house.phantazm.com/ along with information on how to donate to help them. If you want to get started right away get in touch with a local church or a group that deals with homelessness. I’ll have some of those listed on the website soon too. There are millions of people in America. At one dollar each, think of what we could accomplish.
Ultimately, my goal is to raise enough money, to not only make mortgage payments but to pay off some of the mortgages of homeowners who can no longer afford to make payments do to loss of income, medical issues or some other financial distress. Jobs are going to be very difficult to find until the economy starts to recover and people shouldn’t have to worry about the roof over their head along with how their going to survive a monetary disaster.
Don’t say “I can’t help” Skip the coffee or doughnut on the way to work one morning a week, collect 20 soda cans if your state has a deposit on them, pick the change out of the couch, pick up all the pennies you see on the sidewalk. Give a dollar just once if you like. Give a dollar a week if it makes you feel good to be helping people out. If you can, and want to, give more than a dollar, you’re amazing and thank you so much. Please pass this along; spearhead a local effort for people in your area. Just remember, it won’t help anyone, if no one knows about it.
Thank you
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Bail Out Oversights
This applies to Wall Street, the Banking Industry, The Big 3 Car companies and a lot of others out there.
When I was growing up I remember hearing about mergers and take-overs that were stopped by laws here in the US against monopoly organizations. Today as an adult there seem to be very few individually owned companies; most are subsidiaries of huge corporations based in far off locations. My dad and his fellow workers were treated as respected assets who were essential to the success of the company where they worked. Those companies were for the most part owned and operated by people who lived in the same communities where their businesses operated. They knew their employees and the people in the towns where they did business. Today’s worker is treated with disrespect, even contempt because their needs and needs of the municipalities where they operate cut into the corporate/shareholders profits.
What happened to those laws which were supposed to keep companies from getting so large that they would cause financial collapse on not only a national scale but a global one?
What happened to corporate responsibility? Today companies do what ever it takes to make the most profits with the least expense up to and including cutting all the corners they can get away with. Outsourcing has been a tremendous boon, especially to manufacturing companies that have moved to countries where oversights are lax or even nonexistent.
Before ANY company in ANY industry gets ANY kind of assistance from the government, which, by the way, represents the American People, they should be required to sign agreements limiting the salaries of CEO’s and dividends paid to investors. These CEO’s made the bad decisions which brought their companies to the brink of disaster. These investors backed those CEO decisions and therefore should also suffer the consequences of investing in questionable practices. Why, if the government agrees to fund an attempted recovery, should there not be some oversight and penalties for the people who created this mess?
OK I can hear people now saying that this is America and we can’t regulate companies like that…True, if these companies want to take responsibility for and pay the price of their bad policies they are free to do what they want, on their own. However, if they want government help to keep their companies from failing, they should be required to agree to take drastic cuts in profits and put that money back into their own companies. Further, if they want help from the American people they should be required to use American workers on American soil for any product or service sold or provided to the American people. If they don’t like that let them find private funding for their bailouts.
When I was growing up I remember hearing about mergers and take-overs that were stopped by laws here in the US against monopoly organizations. Today as an adult there seem to be very few individually owned companies; most are subsidiaries of huge corporations based in far off locations. My dad and his fellow workers were treated as respected assets who were essential to the success of the company where they worked. Those companies were for the most part owned and operated by people who lived in the same communities where their businesses operated. They knew their employees and the people in the towns where they did business. Today’s worker is treated with disrespect, even contempt because their needs and needs of the municipalities where they operate cut into the corporate/shareholders profits.
What happened to those laws which were supposed to keep companies from getting so large that they would cause financial collapse on not only a national scale but a global one?
What happened to corporate responsibility? Today companies do what ever it takes to make the most profits with the least expense up to and including cutting all the corners they can get away with. Outsourcing has been a tremendous boon, especially to manufacturing companies that have moved to countries where oversights are lax or even nonexistent.
Before ANY company in ANY industry gets ANY kind of assistance from the government, which, by the way, represents the American People, they should be required to sign agreements limiting the salaries of CEO’s and dividends paid to investors. These CEO’s made the bad decisions which brought their companies to the brink of disaster. These investors backed those CEO decisions and therefore should also suffer the consequences of investing in questionable practices. Why, if the government agrees to fund an attempted recovery, should there not be some oversight and penalties for the people who created this mess?
OK I can hear people now saying that this is America and we can’t regulate companies like that…True, if these companies want to take responsibility for and pay the price of their bad policies they are free to do what they want, on their own. However, if they want government help to keep their companies from failing, they should be required to agree to take drastic cuts in profits and put that money back into their own companies. Further, if they want help from the American people they should be required to use American workers on American soil for any product or service sold or provided to the American people. If they don’t like that let them find private funding for their bailouts.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Reprieve !
To everyone following our story, We have gotten a temporary reprieve on the auction of our home. It has been postponed to December 5th while our paperwork is being reviewed for yet another new program. To anyone out there in a similar situation, keep looking for help, keep trying, and don’t give up. I can’t say you’ll be able to save your house but don’t give up. As to our own house, we have 32 days to work a miracle…
Monday, October 20, 2008
Proposal for Alternative Mortgage
Proposal for Alternative Mortgage
I would like to propose the following idea as a means to allay some foreclosures, keep people in their homes and ultimately help not only the Wall Street economy but also the people on Main Street America. The Alternative Mortgage would be available to people who don’t qualify for, and or in addition to, the HUD, Hope for Homeowners and other programs.
I believe this plan would be most beneficial to all parties by allowing for the maximum retention of homes by homeowners, maintaining home values in municipalities and minimizing losses to the banking/mortgage industry. The Alternative Mortgage would work something like this:
1. Starting with the date of signing a modification the past due Principal, Interest, (and if applicable) Home Owners Insurance and Property Taxes, be added to the end of the existing Mortgage extending its term. Depending on the financial situation of the homeowner the bank should be required to cede attorney and other associated foreclosure fees.
2. To facilitate keeping people who are in temporary financial crisis in their homes the mortgage payment should be based on a percentage of the household income. Income to be determined based on total household Federal tax returns and reviewed annually. (children living at home under a certain age and or still in college should be exempt unless particular circumstances prevail) This would allow banks to adjust mortgage payments as the home owner becomes financially stable again.
3. In the event of sale of the property or re-financing the total amount of principal and interest due on the reformed mortgage would be due and payable as in the due on sale clause of a regular mortgage.
Example: The homeowners can’t afford their mortgage payments due to the loss of income of one of the household members. They fall behind on their mortgage by 6 months. Their home is worth the same or more than the original mortgage. They agree to pay their mortgage company 25-33% of their after tax income as a mortgage payment while the unemployed person finds work. Their current arrears less late fees, attorney fees and foreclosure fees are added to the end of their mortgage extending the term by 6 months. For the period they maintain the alternative mortgage they provide their mortgage holder with copies of their Federal tax returns for annual review. Their mortgage payment can then be adjusted as their income stabilizes, up to but not more than, the amount of their original mortgage payment. (original mortgage payment with property taxes and insurance $1000.00, Reformed/modified mortgage payment @ 25% of homeowners household income, $750.00. per month with 9 months added to the term of the original mortgage, 6 - $1000 payments to cover the 6 missed payments and 12 - $250 payments to cover the 12 income adjusted payments. At the first annual review the homeowner has sufficient income to resume regular payments of $1000 and the reformed mortgage reverts to a regular mortgage with the additional 9 months added to make up the missed and adjusted payments.)
This would allow the economy to stabilize, people to keep their homes and banks to incur less financial costs than those associated with traditional foreclosures. This would also prevent further decline in the housing market helping to slow the depreciation of house values.
I would like to propose the following idea as a means to allay some foreclosures, keep people in their homes and ultimately help not only the Wall Street economy but also the people on Main Street America. The Alternative Mortgage would be available to people who don’t qualify for, and or in addition to, the HUD, Hope for Homeowners and other programs.
I believe this plan would be most beneficial to all parties by allowing for the maximum retention of homes by homeowners, maintaining home values in municipalities and minimizing losses to the banking/mortgage industry. The Alternative Mortgage would work something like this:
1. Starting with the date of signing a modification the past due Principal, Interest, (and if applicable) Home Owners Insurance and Property Taxes, be added to the end of the existing Mortgage extending its term. Depending on the financial situation of the homeowner the bank should be required to cede attorney and other associated foreclosure fees.
2. To facilitate keeping people who are in temporary financial crisis in their homes the mortgage payment should be based on a percentage of the household income. Income to be determined based on total household Federal tax returns and reviewed annually. (children living at home under a certain age and or still in college should be exempt unless particular circumstances prevail) This would allow banks to adjust mortgage payments as the home owner becomes financially stable again.
3. In the event of sale of the property or re-financing the total amount of principal and interest due on the reformed mortgage would be due and payable as in the due on sale clause of a regular mortgage.
Example: The homeowners can’t afford their mortgage payments due to the loss of income of one of the household members. They fall behind on their mortgage by 6 months. Their home is worth the same or more than the original mortgage. They agree to pay their mortgage company 25-33% of their after tax income as a mortgage payment while the unemployed person finds work. Their current arrears less late fees, attorney fees and foreclosure fees are added to the end of their mortgage extending the term by 6 months. For the period they maintain the alternative mortgage they provide their mortgage holder with copies of their Federal tax returns for annual review. Their mortgage payment can then be adjusted as their income stabilizes, up to but not more than, the amount of their original mortgage payment. (original mortgage payment with property taxes and insurance $1000.00, Reformed/modified mortgage payment @ 25% of homeowners household income, $750.00. per month with 9 months added to the term of the original mortgage, 6 - $1000 payments to cover the 6 missed payments and 12 - $250 payments to cover the 12 income adjusted payments. At the first annual review the homeowner has sufficient income to resume regular payments of $1000 and the reformed mortgage reverts to a regular mortgage with the additional 9 months added to make up the missed and adjusted payments.)
This would allow the economy to stabilize, people to keep their homes and banks to incur less financial costs than those associated with traditional foreclosures. This would also prevent further decline in the housing market helping to slow the depreciation of house values.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Hours to work a miracle
I wrote this because I’m angry and frustrated. Angry because the people we elected to represent us in decision making matters, people who are supposed to be more knowledgeable than we ordinary citizens, dropped the ball big time and they did it more than once. I’m frustrated because no matter what I do to try to get my life back on track, circumstances beyond my control make things go horribly wrong and as the whole world is getting to know right now, it’s very disturbing to find that you really have no control over your own life.
…I have only a few hours to work a miracle.
That’s when our house is due to go up for auction in a foreclosure sale.
I know we aren’t alone; there are thousands of us out here losing our homes. Some people will be lucky, they’ll be able to work something out with their lender or take advantage of some home save program. Either way it requires you to have enough income to afford the plan.
What happens if you don’t make enough money?
Nobody seems to be addressing this issue.
When we bought our house in 2000 for $72,000.00 both my husband and I were working.
In 2003 when the company I worked for went bankrupt we lost 2/3 of our income overnight. Between April of ‘03 to present, with the exception of 2 ½ years spent going to college full time, I’ve applied for over 700 unique jobs. I’ve been asked to interview by 7 of those companies, 4 since I finished school. The last interview I went on had over 170 applicants for a single position. Even so, it seemed the most promising opportunity to date. They just informed me that they decided to hold off hiring because of the economy but they’re going to hold on to my application for when things get better. By then it will probably be too late for us. With the current financial crisis, jobs are going to be even tougher to find. I’m really beginning to feel like I’d have a better chance of winning the lottery than of landing a job. How are we supposed to save our house when we don’t have enough income for anyone to consider working with us?
Hope Now, Hope for Homeowners, workable solutions…none of them is going to do any good if you can’t make the payments.
Unlike Wall Street, there’s no bail out on our horizon, in fact there doesn’t seem to be any viable solution at all, at least not anything that can be done in less than one days time.
We have no place to go. We can’t afford an apartment. We have no family who can take us in. We don’t have any children, are too old, too young, don’t make enough money, make too much money. Waiting lists for subsidized housing are years long.
I don’t want one more person to tell me they feel sorry but they can’t help us.
I’d like to find someone who actually cares. Someone who can tell me where to find some real help. Someone who can tell me where all the jobs I keep hearing are out there, have gone.
Does anybody really care?
I am 53 years old. I am permanently partially disabled with arthritis in both knees.
What that means is I can’t do anything that requires long periods of standing, walking, lifting or carrying and I’m not disabled enough to get SSI or disability. I really don’t want disability anyway; it really doesn’t pay all that much and I want more from life than just survival. I have more years of experience than I care to think about, but experience doesn’t mean much any more. I graduated college with highest honors, Phi Theta Kappa. But I only have an Associates Degree and I learned very quickly that that doesn’t mean much either. I’d like to get a Bachelors Degree but Where am I supposed to live and how am I supposed to pay for school if I can’t get a job? Aside from these last 5 years, I’ve been working since I was 14; sometimes 2 jobs; not having a job makes me feel really miserable.
My husband just turned 59. He works in a small factory plating wire for the music industry. In 1998 he was making $9.19 an hour. His gross pay was $367.60. Gas was $1.25 a gallon and heating oil was $0.89. It cost $15.00 to fill up the pick up and $244.75 to fill the oil tank. Today he makes $11.90 an hour, grosses $476.00 a week; it costs $45.00 to fill the truck and $1050.00 to fill the oil tank. Over the ten year period from 1998 to 2008 my husbands pay has increased by less than 30%. The price of gas has gone up by more than 200% and heating oil has risen by more than 325%. This doesn’t even address the rise in the cost of food, clothing, housing services and utilities.
Is it just me or does anyone else see something wrong with the cost to income ratio?
…I have only a few hours to work a miracle.
That’s when our house is due to go up for auction in a foreclosure sale.
I know we aren’t alone; there are thousands of us out here losing our homes. Some people will be lucky, they’ll be able to work something out with their lender or take advantage of some home save program. Either way it requires you to have enough income to afford the plan.
What happens if you don’t make enough money?
Nobody seems to be addressing this issue.
When we bought our house in 2000 for $72,000.00 both my husband and I were working.
In 2003 when the company I worked for went bankrupt we lost 2/3 of our income overnight. Between April of ‘03 to present, with the exception of 2 ½ years spent going to college full time, I’ve applied for over 700 unique jobs. I’ve been asked to interview by 7 of those companies, 4 since I finished school. The last interview I went on had over 170 applicants for a single position. Even so, it seemed the most promising opportunity to date. They just informed me that they decided to hold off hiring because of the economy but they’re going to hold on to my application for when things get better. By then it will probably be too late for us. With the current financial crisis, jobs are going to be even tougher to find. I’m really beginning to feel like I’d have a better chance of winning the lottery than of landing a job. How are we supposed to save our house when we don’t have enough income for anyone to consider working with us?
Hope Now, Hope for Homeowners, workable solutions…none of them is going to do any good if you can’t make the payments.
Unlike Wall Street, there’s no bail out on our horizon, in fact there doesn’t seem to be any viable solution at all, at least not anything that can be done in less than one days time.
We have no place to go. We can’t afford an apartment. We have no family who can take us in. We don’t have any children, are too old, too young, don’t make enough money, make too much money. Waiting lists for subsidized housing are years long.
I don’t want one more person to tell me they feel sorry but they can’t help us.
I’d like to find someone who actually cares. Someone who can tell me where to find some real help. Someone who can tell me where all the jobs I keep hearing are out there, have gone.
Does anybody really care?
I am 53 years old. I am permanently partially disabled with arthritis in both knees.
What that means is I can’t do anything that requires long periods of standing, walking, lifting or carrying and I’m not disabled enough to get SSI or disability. I really don’t want disability anyway; it really doesn’t pay all that much and I want more from life than just survival. I have more years of experience than I care to think about, but experience doesn’t mean much any more. I graduated college with highest honors, Phi Theta Kappa. But I only have an Associates Degree and I learned very quickly that that doesn’t mean much either. I’d like to get a Bachelors Degree but Where am I supposed to live and how am I supposed to pay for school if I can’t get a job? Aside from these last 5 years, I’ve been working since I was 14; sometimes 2 jobs; not having a job makes me feel really miserable.
My husband just turned 59. He works in a small factory plating wire for the music industry. In 1998 he was making $9.19 an hour. His gross pay was $367.60. Gas was $1.25 a gallon and heating oil was $0.89. It cost $15.00 to fill up the pick up and $244.75 to fill the oil tank. Today he makes $11.90 an hour, grosses $476.00 a week; it costs $45.00 to fill the truck and $1050.00 to fill the oil tank. Over the ten year period from 1998 to 2008 my husbands pay has increased by less than 30%. The price of gas has gone up by more than 200% and heating oil has risen by more than 325%. This doesn’t even address the rise in the cost of food, clothing, housing services and utilities.
Is it just me or does anyone else see something wrong with the cost to income ratio?
Friday, October 3, 2008
Wall Street Bail Out
I tried to call CSPAN today about the bail out bill.
I wanted to tell them that my husband and I are both very much against it.
I did call our congressman.
I look at this situation on a much smaller scale by comparing it to our own personal situation.
My husband and I are facing the loss of our home to foreclosure.
We didn’t buy a big expensive house we couldn’t afford.
We were both working and we bought a little house for $72,000.
We didn’t get into this situation over night. I lost my job when my work place went bankrupt in 2003.
We used up all our savings, retirement, everything we could think of to save our home.
I went back to college and got a degree to improve my marketability.
I still don’t have a job.
If someone came in today and paid off our arrears it might help us today but not long term.
The bottom line is, unless we increase our income to at least our previous level, (actually with the way prices are going up we need a lot more) we’ll end up in the same situation in a very short time. If and when I manage to find a job it’s going to take a long time to get out of hole we’re in.
Wall St. didn’t get in this mess over night.
They made bad choices.
Buying up their bad paper today isn’t going to resolve this problem any more than ours would be solved by bailing us out of our immediate problem.
The underlying causes need to be identified and addressed.
A means of resolving the issues on a long term basis needs to be deliberately determined in a calm informed way.
Decisions made in panic and fear, are seldom reliable lasting solutions.
Our economy is in crisis.
Providing people with more credit without the means to repay that credit is not a sound policy.
People need jobs, I am one of many thousands of long term unemployed people, who no longer gets counted in unemployment polls.
We don’t pay taxes because we don’t have any income.
We don’t buy anything because we don’t have any income.
I and others like me, want to work, We want jobs that pay a LIVING WAGE so that we can buy cars, houses, pay for continuing education…
Without a strong foundation, a building will collapse.
Working people are the foundation of the United States economy.
Over the last couple of decades we’ve lost hundreds of thousands of jobs overseas.
We’ve frozen wages, cut wages and allowed prices to increase.
Our foundation is not only weak, we’ve taken a wrecking ball to it and now we’re trying to add a few more floors to the building it’s trying to support.
That we need to do something is obvious but make it about resolving the actual problem.
Paying off our mortgage isn’t going to resolve our problem and bailing out wall street isn’t going to resolve the problems in our country.
I wanted to tell them that my husband and I are both very much against it.
I did call our congressman.
I look at this situation on a much smaller scale by comparing it to our own personal situation.
My husband and I are facing the loss of our home to foreclosure.
We didn’t buy a big expensive house we couldn’t afford.
We were both working and we bought a little house for $72,000.
We didn’t get into this situation over night. I lost my job when my work place went bankrupt in 2003.
We used up all our savings, retirement, everything we could think of to save our home.
I went back to college and got a degree to improve my marketability.
I still don’t have a job.
If someone came in today and paid off our arrears it might help us today but not long term.
The bottom line is, unless we increase our income to at least our previous level, (actually with the way prices are going up we need a lot more) we’ll end up in the same situation in a very short time. If and when I manage to find a job it’s going to take a long time to get out of hole we’re in.
Wall St. didn’t get in this mess over night.
They made bad choices.
Buying up their bad paper today isn’t going to resolve this problem any more than ours would be solved by bailing us out of our immediate problem.
The underlying causes need to be identified and addressed.
A means of resolving the issues on a long term basis needs to be deliberately determined in a calm informed way.
Decisions made in panic and fear, are seldom reliable lasting solutions.
Our economy is in crisis.
Providing people with more credit without the means to repay that credit is not a sound policy.
People need jobs, I am one of many thousands of long term unemployed people, who no longer gets counted in unemployment polls.
We don’t pay taxes because we don’t have any income.
We don’t buy anything because we don’t have any income.
I and others like me, want to work, We want jobs that pay a LIVING WAGE so that we can buy cars, houses, pay for continuing education…
Without a strong foundation, a building will collapse.
Working people are the foundation of the United States economy.
Over the last couple of decades we’ve lost hundreds of thousands of jobs overseas.
We’ve frozen wages, cut wages and allowed prices to increase.
Our foundation is not only weak, we’ve taken a wrecking ball to it and now we’re trying to add a few more floors to the building it’s trying to support.
That we need to do something is obvious but make it about resolving the actual problem.
Paying off our mortgage isn’t going to resolve our problem and bailing out wall street isn’t going to resolve the problems in our country.
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