(NNPA)—As the U.S. Treasury Department devoted a day’s discussion this week to the future of two housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) issued a new research report that details the impact and characteristics of foreclosures in the nation’s most populous state, California.

Dreams Deferred dispels the McMansion myth that the foreclosure crisis is the result of consumers purchasing high-priced, opulent estates. Instead, the new report found that the majority of California foreclosures were modest homes of three bedrooms or less with a median size of only 1,492 square feet. Although foreclosures are highest in major cities such as Los Angeles, the highest concentration or density of foreclosures occurred in the big-city exurbs of Central Valley and Inland Empire.

(NNPA)—As I get older, I find myself increasingly aware of the way money attaches itself to almost every deep emotional issue in life: love, acceptance, freedom, expectation, control, you name it.

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Everybody wants success but not everyone is willing to do what it takes to get there.

Whenever I say those two sentences in front of people, the response is very similar. I sense a collective silence as people think about what those statements mean, quickly realizing how true they really are. You might have recognized the first statement. It’s heard in many song lyrics and no one knows who originally authored it.

(AP)—The final phase of the landmark federal legislation that placed new restrictions on credit card interest rates and fees takes effect Sunday. Though the bulk of the law’s provisions were enacted earlier this year, there are still a few important changes you need to be aware of:

Penalty fees

New protection: Fees for late payments and other transgressions will be capped to the amount of the violation, up to $25. Previously, these fees were often between $35 and $39 regardless of how much was owed. Also, a single violation can no longer result in more than one fee.

Other than insurance there’s no other product I can think of that we buy and hope we never use. Confusion abounds in the area of insurance. I don’t sell insurance. As a result I have no agenda to encourage you to purchase a particular type of insurance. As a financial planner I understand the importance of insurance. In this article I want to give you a better understanding of the purpose of insurance.

Insurance is a transfer of financial risk. As comedian Chris Rock says, “You need insurance in case (expletive) happens.” Until we become financially self-sufficient to endure the financial risk, being properly insured is vitally important. So when those things that “will never happen to you” happen, you have a risk management plan in place that will help you foot the bill and help you avoid declaring bankruptcy. Below is a brief overview of some basic types of insurance that the average person should have in place.