The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

New York Times editorial rips Trump administration for failing to protect borrowers

With the Trump administration proposing to reduce federal oversight of mortgage lending, perhaps the most obvious lesson from the 2008 financial crisis, the need for stricter supervision of mortgage lending, has been lost, the New York Times editorial board said in an editorial Thursday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created in 2010 to protect borrowers, and it increased the reports mortgage lenders are required to file each year. The new information makes it easier to identify predatory lending and discrimination.

The Trump administration is proposing to increase the number of small lenders exempt from the requirements and has announced it won’t penalize lenders who don’t comply with the requirements this year, the first year the new reporting requirements went into effect.

What baby boomers have on their minds

As my yard is bursting into spring, I’m reading the articles of my baby boomer blogging buddies that are bursting with ideas on their blog sites.

Their recent posts include:

• Solutions to ease neck and shoulder tension.
• Comments on the Democratic presidential candidates.
• Which companies have the cheapest car insurance.
• What to say when your sister is dying.
• Whether people leave home when they grow up and don’t come back, or they never leave, or they do leave, but return to retire.
• How to make quick chicken soup from chicken broth to help with healing.

Carol Cassara of Heart•Mind•Soul writes about these articles in Best of Boomer Blogs #594. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers enjoy hearing from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Personal Finance Writer

How to improve your finances during Financial Literacy Month

It’s a good time during April’s Financial Literacy Month to take a look at how you handle your finances.

What is financial literacy? It’s knowing how to manage your personal finances.

How are Americans doing with financial literacy? In a survey of 1,500 people, respondents estimated that lacking knowledge about personal finances cost them an average of $1,230 in 2018, according to a study by the National Financial Educators Council.

What can you do to improve your financial literacy?

Take a look at your finances.

If you don’t have one, you need a budget. It’s a financial plan that will help you reach your goals. To develop a budget, you’ll need to keep track of your spending. Write down what your fixed monthly expenses are such as car payments and rent or mortgage payments. Determine what your periodic expenses are. They include items such as vacations and tax payments. Then you’ll need to track your variable expenses – food, clothing, transportation, and entertainment, costs that probably change every month.

How is Trump’s tax act affecting you?

On Saturday afternoon, I mailed in my income taxes for 2018. Instead of getting a refund of around $1,000 like I do most years, my refund was $170.

The TurboTax representative I spoke to said deductions that were helpful to me in the past, such as for my small business and charitable donations, have been eliminated.

So while Trump’s tax revisions are helping the rich, they have no benefit for me. That huge corporations pay little or nothing in income taxes and I’m paying more is discouraging. I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes. I support good schools, roads, and bridges. But Trump’s tax law is making the rich even richer.

Baby boomers say goodbye to March winds

While my baby boomer colleagues were busy writing articles at home, I was on a seven-day cruise in the Caribbean. It was fantastic. The weather was good, the food fantastic, the excursions interesting, and the seas not too heavy. I’ll be writing about how to pick out a cruise and top tips for first-time cruise goers. So, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, my fellow boomer bloggers were writing about:

• Spring through photos.
• The secret of retirement.
• The greater meaning of the hard things that have happened in people’s lives.
• Why granny pods are becoming popular with baby boomers.
• How to find your rhythm and flow.
• The problems women are experiencing from breast implants.

Jennifer Koshak of Unfold and Begin writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #589. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Personal Finance Writer

Number of renters 60-plus up 43 percent in a decade

As the baby boom generation gets older with 22 percent of the nation now 60-plus, the number of older adults renting, rather than owning their own homes, is increasing. Renters households aged 60 and up increased 43 percent, from 6,550,000 in 2007 to 9,370,000 in 2017. This growth was more than younger renter groups.

In more than 300 cities analyzed, 24 cities have larger numbers of older adult renters over 60-plus years of age than young renters under 35 years of age. 

In a study analyzing the growth of renters 60-plus across the United States since 2007, RENTCafe.com, an apartment news website, found:

Under Trump, enforcement of consumer financial laws drops sharply, especially in areas with the highest complaints

The number of publicly announced enforcement actions under the Trump administration at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is dropping sharply, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America.

“Law enforcement activity at the CFPB has dropped precipitously under the Trump Administration’s leadership,” said Christopher Peterson, director of financial services for the federation and author of the report.

The bureau is charged with enforcing federal consumer financial law and bringing legal action against companies that violate that law. The bureau also has the authority to seek restitution for consumers and levy fines when it finds violations. The report finds that activity in both of these areas is on the decline – overall enforcement activity is down by 80 percent from the bureau’s peak in enforcement actions in 2015 and average relief to victims is down by 96 percent per case.

Top 14 consumer stories of 2018

All in all, it’s been another bad year for consumers. President Trump and his administration’s generate so much chaos that they get all the media attention. Meanwhile in the background, federal agencies are moving forward on the administration’s conservative regulatory priorities, which are harmful to consumers. One bright spot is the Democrats taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives. That will help curb President Trump's excesses.

Here are the top 14 consumer stories for 2018:

1. The Trump administration continues decimated consumer protections.

President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under Mulvaney's leadership, the bureau reversed prior actions and programs of the agency. It has delayed rules to protect consumers from payday lenders, dropped lawsuits, stripped enforcements of fair-lending protections, and reduced the number of fines issued.

Consumers need more information about how real estate transactions work, consumer group says

Two-thirds of consumers believe that real estate agents are always or almost always required to represent the interests of the home buyer or seller with whom they are working, according a survey. Yet, many agents working with consumers represent the interests of the other party or the interests of neither party.

A report by the Consumer Federation of America incorporated its research of the literature on real estate agency, its mystery shopper survey of agents, and a survey by ORC International.

“Today, many home buyers and sellers do not know whether their agent is representing their interests, those of the other party, or those of neither,” said the report’s author, Stephen Brobeck, a federation senior fellow. “Given the huge expenditure of a home purchase and the conflict of financial interests between seller and buyer, it is important that consumers know who their real estate agent is actually representing.”

Manafort, guilty – Cohen, guilty: What’s next?

Paul Manafort                        Michael Cohen

Photo: Voice of America        Photo: IowaPolitics.com

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’ve written dozens of articles about how the Trump administration is slashing environmental and consumer laws and regulations as fast as it can.

To me, yesterday was a great day in terms of beginning to get some answers about the crimes being committed by members of Trump’s inner circle and, perhaps, the president himself.

Paul Manafort, 69, Trump's former campaign chairman, was found guilty Tuesday by a jury on eight counts of financial crimes. The eight counts included five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.

Michael Cohen, 51, former longtime Trump attorney, pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight felony charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations. Cohen said he coordinated with Trump to illegally payoff two women to keep them quiet about alleged affairs with Trump.

At last, we’re beginning to get some answers on what officials in the Trump administration were up to. Cohen pointing to Trump about a campaign violation is particularly illuminating.

What’s next?