European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 6, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                May 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 23 your Money mom wrong to propose loan scheme dear Liz my mom keeps hinting that i should help her buy a heres the situation i live at with my brother and loser my moms credit int fabulous so she wants to have me apply for the loan and she and her husband will pay for the catch is that Hes a bit of a dead and my mom May eventually file for a in not worried about not making the mortgage my mom and i could cover that on our if i take out a loan and put her on the can he get half of the House if they divorce what other things can go wrong Here answer other than just about every you mean what your Stepfather could get de pends on a number of including How you Structure this arrange ment and what state you live in Community property such As Cali assets acquired during marriage Are generally considered joint in other equitable distribution principles Are used in divorce and a judge could decide the House is fair even if divorce we rent a Factor in this Equa your mothers bad credit if she Hast paid her Bills in the recent what makes you think Shell keep her end of the Deal now unless you can cover every mortgage payment entirely on your you  even consider this you might not be Able to pull it even if for Money talk Liz Pulliam Weston some reason you decided to if you want a Lender to consider Only your credit history and not your mothers then typically Only your income would be used to de Termine How much of a loan you can whats especially is that your Mother would bring up this scheme at she wants to use you and your Good credit to pull off some thing she cant accomplish financially on her that not something she should ask As a Parent and not something you owe her As a perhaps its time you started separating your finances and lives by moving out on your dear Liz i feel the housing Boom that has happened Over the past couple of years has done some serious prices have inflated so greatly that firs time Home buyers like my self Are in in my late i make an honest a and i have excellent but buying a Home seems completely out of what is the future for firs time Home buyers answer there May be no future at least where you live the Only answer is to either farther away from an Urban Center where you live now or away from expensive cities of you May have other there Are state and local programs that try to encourage firs time offering Low interest Loans and other a visit to the National Council of state housing agencies at can get you started looking for programs that might help but if Home owning is important to you and you cant swing it where you Are then you need to explore other there Are still plenty of particularly in the Midwest and the where you can buy a decent Home for or the nation Al association of realtors median Home Price available at can help you narrow Down the dear Liz youve had a couple of letters about credit card companies putting holds on cards As part of their Frau prevention pro i recently booked a hotel room in Ensena but when i got my card was i had another when i got i called the first card company and they told me they froze the account because the charge didst fit with my past spending so on my next Mexico i called the company in Advance to let them know i was going into Baja California from this Date to that and everything was answer that an excellent calling your credit card issuers before any foreign trip is a smart Way to prevent your plastic from being Frozen because of suspicious Liz Pulliam Weston is the author of the books your credit score and Deal with your both published by Prentice questions for possible inclusion in her column May be sent to 3940 Laurel Canyon studio Ca or via the Contact Liz form at distributed by no More red Gas prices draw ire from Page 22 although analysts expect domes tic production to increase in com ing weeks and somewhat restore inventories before the Start of the driving even a Small mis Hap can have a huge effect on pric earlier this a Raccoon and an opossum wandered into two Southern California causing a Power Supply disruption that resulted in flaring at one refinery and an outage at the incident along with other factors contributed to Rise of a few cents per gallon in gasoline prices in the consumer groups already have started complaining about the re cent Rise in gasoline prices and Are urging politicians to push Oil companies to expand refining there enough refining Ca and that is a deliberate Busi Ness says Judy director of research at the foundation for taxpayer and consumer a nonprofit the Oil Industry counters that its More economical to build refiner ies in rapidly growing markets like Asia than in the in the it May come Down to Consumers either  have to use less or there going to continue to pay a fridays Market summary indexes 52 High Low name last net chg Ltd chg chg 52wk chg Dow Jones industrials Dow Jones transportation Dow Jones utilities nose composite amex Index Nash a composite 500 Midcap Russell 2000 do Wilshire 5000 nose amex Nash a most Active or More name last chg Motorola Pfizer Geneles Coeur timeworn Micron inc forum Hal Libens is Japan 399415 364949 295438 283298 277414 240801 235200 213769 206506 205878 most Active or More name Yokoo last chg Spur ishr2k nya up engy Prus Haqq n oils vat Semi her Djina diam up incl Crystallo g it Hgt g 857097 443316 201881 137183 130713 107981 103681 86608 79838 78520 most Active or More name Yokoo last chg Yahoo Microsoft pm she 000 Sun Micro Intel Andreon Cisco Char Tom intact re n level3 1982434 962889 822999 551505 480913 458841 450041 306745 233556 233288 key Valliant techno system Armor holdings 24 computer general dynamics general Harris Allied l3 Lockheed Rockwell Seq a Texas text Ron United key Mutual funds name Nav Ltd ret Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity spartan Putnam funds a Erlna Amer Century inv Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity invest aim investments a const Frnk a aim investments a Dws Scudder cd s grown is Fidelity advisor t Fidelity advisor t Groppo Putnam funds a Globe qty Dws Scudder cd s into Fidelity advisor t Dws Scudder cd s Putnam funds a gig a Exchange rates military rates euro costs May Dollar buys May British Pound May japanese yen May South korean won May commercial rates Bahrain British Canada China Denmark Egypt Hong Kong Hungary Israel Japan Kuwait Norway Philippines Poland saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey new military Exchange rates Are those available to customers at military Bank ing facilities in the country of issuance for South the Netherlands and the United for no local currency Exchange rates purchasing British pounds in Germa Check with your local military Bank ing commercial rates Are inter Bank rates provided for reference when buying All figures Are foreign currencies to one except for the British which is represented in and the which is precious metals new York merc close Gold Silver interest rates prime discount Federal funds Market rate 3month 30year sources the associated Bank of America units and sensibility Fig Money tip of the Day give grads some credit by Brian Hershberg the Wall Street journal graduation season is almost and with it a flood of Soontok Fornier students Are facing financial decisions that can affect a there Are Pitfalls at every yet there Are a few things new grads should focus on to avoid those two key areas to focus on Are managing credit and saving for the first step throw those of fers from your Mailbox says Bonnie a certified financial planner in its not that there necessarily bad but theres a better Way to find the right Sites like and credit offer Side beside com look for Nofee cards that offer either Cash Back or re wards plans that match up with particular whether travel or use the rewards pro Grams a smart Way to do that use cards mainly As a cashflow Hughes says that chiefly for paying Ordi nary monthly such As Gas and and pay off the card promptly and in the Tough part of All this avoid ing the temptation of charging extravagances like Fla screen tvs or save in and Vance for big ticket they can still be put on the card thus scoring More but say ing in Advance Means youll still have the Cash available to pay the Bill each which avoids carrying an expensive using cards this Way can quickly build up a Good credit that is key to obtaining better insurance and mortgage and other next step save for put the maximum pos sible into an employers 401 k program or at least enough to Garner any company after consider opening a Roth a Roth Ira lets investors with earned income up to cer Tain Levels contribute pretax Dol also up to set Al though there Are restrictions on pre retirement withdraw distributions Are