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Nigella Lawson and the High Cost of divorce

Celebrities

Nigella Lawson Eats A Banana
Nigella Lawson Eats A Banana (Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold)

Heartache and heartbreak are hard enough to endure but imagine having to go through the loss of a relationship while the world looks on. Such is the high price of celebrity divorce and the latest victim is the beautiful and talented television chef, Nigella Lawson. Shocking photos of Nigella apparently being choked by her husband, Charles Saatchi, surfaced in the media following the June 9th dinner at Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair, London, where the incident occurred. Saatchi’s advisors urged him to humble himself and admit a public apology for the assault. Saatchi denied any wrongdoing, saying he never assaulted her and in fact, was actually removing mucous from his wife’s nose. Nigella was stunned by the admonition of “nose-picking” and his refusal to apologize. She left Saatchi and their family home in Chelsea.

The two sides continued to disagree about the pictures; Saatchi claiming it was just a “playful tiff” and Lawson hurt and humiliated by the public’s assumption of her as victim of domestic violence and her husband as her tormentor. Insult was added to injury on July 7th, when Saatchi announced his intent to divorce his wife in the media instead of directly to her. Lawson, who had been waiting for a public apology, was blind-sided by his cruel divorce announcement. Lawson and Saatchi have been married for 10 years; Saatchi has claimed that the couple had become “estranged” the last few years. Saatchi claims that he had no choice but to act publicly since his wife “failed to defend” him with a statement to the media. In fact, Lawson has remained silent at the advice of her publicist so as not to further affect their children. Lawson (53) and Saatchi (70) have three teenage children from previous marriages that they were raising together.In addition to the “he said, she said” controversy, Lawson and Saatchi will have to fight over $150 million in shared assets, including their $12 million Chelsea, West London home. Both brought substantial assets into the marriage. Charles Saatchi is worth $100 million from the high-profile, highly-successful New York advertising firm, Saatchi and Saatchi. Nigella Lawson is a celebrity chef, bestselling author and television star with a net worth of $15 million. By the time lawyers for both sides duke it out in court and attempt to untangle the shared assets, those net worths will be considerably less.But it’s not just a monetary cost to this celebrity divorce. Saatchi had grown increasingly resentful of his wife’s high-profile career that he helped established. It’s a common theme in celebrity couples; one partner becomes the higher earner or the more recognized celebrity and the other gets bit by that green-eyed monster, jealousy. In Nigella’s case, there is the public humiliation at the hands of someone she loves to endure. It seems that Saatchi is determined to do whatever he can to make her suffer in the media. And then there are the children; children always suffer in a divorce. It can be lessened when parents work together to keep it private and amicable. But it’s incredibly painful to have your lives dragged through the media. In this case, it is Nigella and Saatchi’s children that are paying the ultimate price.

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Paying For Heart Surgery When You’re Not as Rich as Randy Travis

Celebrities

Travis performs "Three Wooden Crosses"
Travis performs “Three Wooden Crosses” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Very sad news broke this week about Randy Travis. The country crooner, whose hits ironically include a song titled “From the Hard Rock Bottom of my Heart,” was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart problem that arose from viral cardiomyopathy, a condition that is characterized by a weakening of the heart muscle due to a virus. The virus that caused this disease is usually pretty harmless, but in some patients, extremely dangerous complications can arise. For Travis, the complications weakened his heart, and he required hospitalization and emergency heart surgery.

Travis is pretty fortunate, financially.  He is also pretty wealthy. Therefore, the costs associated with this problem are not likely to set him back financially like they would most Americans. How can people who are not rich like Randy Travis pay for heart surgery?

The easiest way to pay for a heart surgery is to let someone else pay for it. This tip may sound like a joke, but it is the way most people pay for heart surgery. Insurance is a risk management system in which many people pay premiums so that they do not have to bear the entire brunt of a financial loss. Some will come out ahead by paying less in premiums than the amount of the health benefits they will receive. Others will be on the opposite end of the stick. Health insurance can come from the private market or the public coffers through programs like Medicare and Medicaid. While there might be a copay for these procedures with insurance, the insured will not have to pay the whole tab.

Another way to pay for heart surgery is by raiding a retirement account. This is not really advisable in most instances, but desperate times can call for desperate measures. The money can then be paid back over time in the best-case scenario, and getting the doctors paid off will take a major burden off of the back of any heart patient.

Taking out a home equity loan can also be a way to pay for a heart surgery. Those who have some equity built up in their home can sometimes find enough to pay off some emergency bills. Of course, it usually takes years to build up this equity, so many will not have this option available to them.

One final way to pay off a heart surgery without being rich like Randy Travis would involve getting a second job. This might cut down on the amount of time available for cardiac rehab, but the doctor will want his or her cut. It is likely that the hospital will be even more serious about getting paid. This will especially be the case if the hospital is for-profit. It might take some time, but those who are able to survive the extra work should be able to eventually pay off their bills.

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Repo Man

Finance

Here is a fun blast from the past.  This was originally posted in February 2010.

A few years ago, we bought a new truck.  We brought our old truck in as a trade, but the offer was bordering on insulting, so we kept it.

We posted the old truck on CarSoup, the classifieds, and anywhere else we could find to post it.  Nothing.  After a few weeks, we finally found a

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-evidence-/2063223009/
Repossession

buyer–a friend we had hired to help with a large remodel on our house.   He didn’t have all of the money to buy it, but we knew him, we knew his family, and he was work for us.  It should have been a low-risk loan.  We’d give him the truck, he’d make monthly payments.  Simple, right?

That was the plan.  He made payments for about six months.  When the starter died, we forgave that amount of the debt.  When we was short, we’d let him skip a payment.  Were were good lenders, at least from his perspective.

Then, “I’m a little short this month” stretched into two months, three, six.   Then one day, he fell off the face of the planet.  I found out later, he’d canceled his phone and left the state.  We were the kind of lenders that get banks closed down by bad business decisions.

What could we do?  Fortunately, we’d created a written loan agreement and entered ourselves as the loan holder during the title transfer.  I eventually filed the repossession payment…a year after he disappeared.  I figured, if by some chance the truck got impounded, we’d get it back.

A few months later, we were driving down the highway that just happened to pass within sight of his brother’s shop.  I just happened to glance in that direction as we drove past.  I’m sure I caught my wife by surprise with the sudden u-turn.  I found our truck.  The long-lost friend was back in the state, staying in his brother’s shop.

[ad name=”inlineleft”]The next day, I brought another friend to the shop.  We knocked on the door.  No answer.  I left a note on the shop door and we took the truck, using the spare keys I kept when we sold it.  I had just completed my first–and so far, only–repossession.   I’m not a bank or a repo man, just a guy who got screwed.

Possession was mine.  Wrongs were righted.  The truck was tentatively sold immediately.  If the buyer couldn’t pay, the truck was gone.  He called, offering his apologies and hoping to get the truck back and start making payments again.   I accepted his apologies and kept the truck.   People are only allowed to rip me off once.  Almost two years without a payment or even an excuse is too much for me to accept.  So far, I am the only person I know to manage a legal repossession as a private party.

The repo process varies by state, but the basics don’t change much.  The loan holder can file for repossession as soon as the loan agreement is broken.  They can repossess with no notice and the borrower is on the hook for the difference between what’s owed and twhat’s recovered during resale.  If you get to the point of repossession, you are out of options.  You are generally left to pay the debt in full, or lose the vehicle.  If you are accepting payments from a friend to buy a car, make sure you have a written agreement and are listed as the loan holder on the title.  Keep some leverage to avoid getting screwed.

How far have you gone to recover money you are owed?

 

The Zombie Guide to Saving

Finance

Mr Zombie
Image via Wikipedia

Brains!

Nobody has ever accused a zombie of being smart.  The are, after all, dead and rotting.  Their primary means of education themselves is eating the brains of the living, which is hardly an efficient learning style.  Besides, in a strictly Darwinian sense, their victims are among the least qualified to teach useful skills.

Zombies smell.  They are little more than flesh-eating monsters.  They are lousy in the sack.  Yet, for all their flaws, have you ever heard of a zombie in debt or worried about financing retirement?  They are obviously doing something right.

What can you learn from a zombie? That depends on the type of zombie.  Not all of the life-challenged were created equal.

There are 3 main types of zombies:

1.  Slow shamblers are best recognized by their lurching gait and unintelligible grunting, similar to a frat party at 3AM.  They are rarely fresh specimens.  Arguably the the scariest of all zeds, due to the sheer inevitability of their assault, they do always get where they are going, even if it takes a while.   Trapped in a pit or a pool, they will keep trying to reach their goal.  A slow shambler, were he able to effectively communicate beyond the basic “Hey, can I eat your brain?” would tell you to approach your goals like the famous tortoise: slowly.  Set aside an affordable amount in savings every week, no matter what. Even if your are stuck saving just $10 each month, you will eventually get your sweet, sweet brains.

2.  Voodoo zombies are the still-living, yet mindless minions on a voodoo priest.  These unlucky non-corpses crossed the wrong people–usually by stealing or not repaying their debts–and ended up cursed for it.  They are forced to do the bidding of their masters until such time as their debt has been repaid, if ever.  Their warning is to always pay your debts and do not steal.  Honest, ethical behavior is the best way to avoid this fate.

3.  Runners are almost always “fresh” to the game.  As they decompose, they slowly transform into slow shamblers.  These fellas can often pass for the living…from a distance.  By the time you get close enough to identify them as monsters, your brains are on the menu.  They are capable of sprinting for short distances and, on occasion, have even been seen to run up vertical walls.  To properly categorize the runners, we have to break them down into 2 sub-groups.  The first sub-group is the envy of all zombies still capable of envy.  They have used their skills to trap enough prey(that’s us, folks!) that they will feel no hunger for the foreseeable future.  They are secure.  They are the successful runners.   The other sub-group tries to emulate the first, but lack both planning and follow-through.   While the first group builds momentum to secure their future, the second group tends to use that momentum to smack face-first into the wall, confused at where their lunch went.  Constantly charging from one thing to the next, they never manage to sink a claw into their goals.   To avoid falling into the second group, you’ll have to settle on a strategy and pursue it with all the single-minded, decomposing determination you can muster.

You know what they say: “Great minds taste alike.”  What kind of financial zombie are you?

What Can Cause Damage to Your Credit?

Business, Finance

Factors contributing to someone's credit score...
Factors contributing to someone’s credit score, for Credit score (United States). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Credit scores move up and down as new financial data is collected by the credit bureaus. Many factors can cause a credit score to rise or fall, but most people don’t have a clue what they are. Understanding what affects credit can help keep your number in a good score range, where it should be. But, even a bad score can recover more quickly than most people realize, even after a bankruptcy or default. Here are some factors that can help you understand why credit moves up or down:

Late Payments

About 30% of your score is made up from your payment history. This is comprised from things like credit card bills, auto loan payments, personal loans, and mortgages. At this time, bills like utilities or rent are not factored into your score, unless they are sent to a collection agency. If you are late to pay your credit card bill, it will show up on your credit file. One late payment will probably not have much of an effect, but a history of this over time can drop your score. It is very important to keep bill payment current as a courtesy to creditors and the benefit of your own financial history.

Credit Inquiries

One of the most misunderstood factors that can cause a credit score to drop are “credit inquiries”. An inquiry takes place anytime your credit is checked. This makes up 10% of your total score. What most people don’t know is that there are two different types of credit inquiries, “hard inquiries” and “soft inquires”. Only hard inquiries affect credit and happen when you apply for a new credit card, loan, or mortgage. Soft inquiries on the other hand happen when someone like an employer, landlord, or yourself check your credit report. These are not factored into your credit score at all. Hard inquiries are a necessary part of applying for a loan or credit, so an occasional inquiry will not cause damage. It can only cause problems if there are many hard inquiries in a short period of time. This can be a signal to creditors that you are in financial trouble and are desperately seeking cash.

Credit to Debt Ratio

Your total amount of available credit compared to the amount of credit you use each month, makes up your credit-to-debt ratio. FICO suggests that you use no more than 30% of your available credit before paying off your balance each month. For example if you have $10,000 of available credit spread across 3 different credit cards, the optimal amount to charge would be $3000 or less each month. Maxing out your credit cards can cause your score to drop even if you pay them off completely each month.

Age of Your Credit History

The length of time you have had an open credit account is a major factor of your credit score. It can help to open a credit card when you are younger by getting a co-signer. If you are the parent of a teenager, it may be helpful to open a credit card in their name, but only allow them to use it for emergencies. Having an open credit card in good standing for a long period of time can help build this history. The length of time that you have had credit makes up about 15% of your score.

Different Types of Credit

The last major factor that makes up about 10% of your score comes from the different types of credit that you use. These credit types include revolving, installment, and mortgage. The ability of an individual to successfully handle all of these credit types can show that they are financially well-rounded. This makes up about 10% of the total credit score.

About:
Ross is an investor and website owner.

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