For working visa employees, most of them are sent back to their home countries if they still cannot sustain any employment. Remember that their visa is sponsored by the company who hired them. If the employee could not find a new employer willing to sponsor them, then their working visa status is in big joepardy.
Health care careers are probably one industry that are very steady in hiring. Nurses are still in demand but companies are somewhat slowing down on the hiring as well. Pharmacist are still very in demand and lucrative even at this economy. The doctors and physician assistants are also growing in demand because of shortages. Did I mention college professors? As much as you can see lay offs on the teachers in the elementary school, college professors demand would probably increase because unemployed usually return to college to improve their skill set or acquire new ones to change careers.

Lower Interest rates. Because you are using your house as a collateral, banks would offer borrowers a very low interest rate. The interest rates are around 5-10% lower than the credit card rates. Credit card rates could go from ten percent to twenty percent while home equity loans could go around five percent to nine percent depending on the credit score.
You can  lower your monthly payment: if you have five credit cards and a car loan and the monthly payments are around $1,500 combined, consolidating your debt into one can lower your monthly payment to almost fifty percent. How? This is because, most home equity loans terms are either fifteen years or thirty years.

The interest is tax deductible. Since you are using your home as collateral, most, if not all, interest paid on a home equity loans for a principal residence are tax deductible when you file your taxes at the end of the year. Of course there are limits as to how much you can claim interest deduction. The interest paid is limited to the interest paid on the $100,000 equity loan for loans not used to improve the value of the house. This means that if the combined debts amounted to $105,000 and the interest paid is $5,000 with $4,800 attributed to $100,000 and $200 for the $5,000, only $4,800 is tax deductible and the $200 cannot be claimed. Again, this only applies to those debts that are not acquired to make major improvements that would increase the basis of the home.

Of course there is a disadvantage in doing debt consolidation using your home equity. The biggest disadvantage is that if you are not able to pay for the home equity loan, then the bank has the right to foreclose on your home. Some analysts do not like the idea of debt consolidation this way because if  you cannot pay the credit cards, the effect is not as drastic as losing your home.

Nowadays, this option is less viable because most homeowners are underwater, meaning they owe more than the value of their homes.

My wife will also be selling back her old books so she would have money to buy the new books (they’re actually used books). I really hate the cost of education here in the United States. Other countries have much cheaper cost of tuition and cost books putting an american student too much in debt when they graduate. A common non-US student would normally have the same education for a fraction of a price and will graduate and grab jobs here in the United States. So this is like a double whammy for us who’s graduating here in the US.

Of course, getting an inheritance is one thing, but the tax consequences is another. You might need to ask your accountant if you have to pay taxes on those. Most of the time you don’t. But you do pay on the gain if you sell the property.

Sometimes we complain on getting up early to go to work, on eating a lousy food on not getting what we want but the reality is that we are still fortunate on what we have. Yeah, we have to get up early and go to our boring jobs but on the positive note, at least we have a job. Other people who were laid off and are still looking for a job would be willing to trade places with you. Those people in the third world who have nothing to eat would be willing to eat the lousy food that you are eating.

On the last note, we should always be thankful for what we have.

If you go to fastfood restaurants, you can see that most items on their dollar menu comprise of non-healthy ones. One dollar burgers, chickens, ice cream, pies, etc. But if you try to buy a healthy one and go to fast foods such as subway, you will notice that those sandwiches are a little bit more expensive.

Well, the cost of healthy diet is either front loaded and back loaded. What I mean is that, it is back loaded meaning you save on the money now by purchasing cheaper non-healthy foods but you end up paying more in trying to lose weight or become healthy by over-exercising, taking a diet pill , or worst is that you pay more in insurance premium or medical care costs.

So whenever you try to make a decision on whether how much you are going to save on healthy foods, you really have to look at it as a long-term investment in your health: you live longer and pay less in medical expenses.

As much as I like exercising, it is still tough for me to purchase those exercise equipment because the same issue will happen- “library card.” Only this time, I don’t know what to call it since it is not a card. As for me, I just like walking and jogging, doing a little push-ups or sit-ups. if I stop doing them, at least it did not cost me anything to purchase them in the first place.