Bankrupt Billionaires: This Could Happen To You

The laws of financial gravity affect everyone, whether you earn minimum wage or millions of dollars. If you spend more money than you make, and load yourself up on debt, then you are asking for trouble, regardless of the amount of money that you are earning. The website Smart on Money runs a great anecdotal story about Patricia Kluge, the divorced wife of media mogul John Kluge. Apparently, Mrs. Kluge took on gobs of debt to establish a vineyard right before 2008, and when the housing crisis hit, she lost everything, having to file for bankruptcy as her debt payments greatly exceeded the money that she was bringing in. This story is incredibly sad because it was so preventable, but Mrs. Kluge's story is just a larger reflection of the tragedy that faces so many Americans today. When the economy is tough, taking out loans in the hopes of paying it off when a better tomorrow comes is all too easy of a trap to fall into. To read a great profile of Mrs. Kluge's tragic story, be sure to visit the Smart on Money link here: http://www.smartonmoney.com/from-billionaire-to-broke-one-wealthy-heiress-and-her-slide-into-bankruptcy/ .

Should Parents Give Their Adult Children Money?

One of the recurring topics that financial pundits love to tee off on is when parents endure any form of financial hardship to help their adult children. Pundits and website commenters usually start speaking in high-fallutin' 'we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps' language about making your own way, learning responsibility, and other platitudes that sound like they come out of a Wild Wild West documentary. The truth is, a lot of parents tend to love their children, and a natural by-product of this is a desire to help their kids out when they need a helping hand. Let's face it, today's economy doesn't have the security of the boomer generation factory job with a pension, and we can't be surprised that children have to rely on their parents to just to get by. It is not 'evil' for a parent to help out a kid in need, but of course, parents should not compromise their own security in order to meet the short-term demands of their children. There is one thing that financial pundits are right about--there's no such thing as loans for retirement! Boomer & Echo recently wrote a solid piece on this topic, and you should visit their website and read about it here: http://www.boomerandecho.com/bailing-out-your-adult-children/ .