Archives: 2007 August

George Bernard Shaw (July, 1856 - November, 1950) was an Irish dramatist, literary critic, and socialist. During his career Shaw wrote more than sixty plays. He was uniquely honoured by being awarded both a Nobel Prize (1925) for his contribution to literature and an Oscar (1938) for Pygmalion. He was a strong advocate for socialism […]

No.  It usually costs less to administer an estate when a person leaves a will than when there is no will.  A properly drafted will may reduce the expense of administration in a number of ways.  Provisions can be placed in wills that take full advantage of the federal and state tax laws.  Drawing a […]

Have you done the following to prepare for your retirement?
1. Discussed your plans and expected retirement date with your supervisor or manager (and Human Resources if you have any questions before your retirement exit meeting).
2. Obtained adequate copies of your birth certificate or other birth record and that of your primary beneficiary to provide to […]

Applying for credit can be tricky. On the one hand, you need credit cards if you want to build a credit history and have a good credit score. On the other, applying for too many cards too quickly can hurt you. That’s because each inquiry (when a creditor pulls your credit report and score to […]

Apply for Social Security retirement benefits at your local Social Security office three months before you want to begin Social Security benefits and/or Medicare coverage. You establish your retirement year when you apply for benefits if you are eligible for the benefits and if you do not earn anything over the retirement-year monthly exempt amount […]

Guess what: You can have a perfect payment history, never a day late on your cards, and still have a less than average score, says Fair Isaac’s Watts. “You could lower your score from an excellent category to a good or fair category simply by using most of the credit available to you,” he says. […]

Jeremy Bentham (February, 1748 – June, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was a political radical and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law. He is best known as an early advocate of utilitarianism and animal rights activist who influenced the development of liberalism.
Economist Jeremy Bentham left a […]

Many folks think closing unused credit cards will improve their credit score. Quite the opposite: Closing unused accounts in fact decreases your score, Watts says. Why? You’re eliminating a chunk of available credit, which then automatically increases your credit utilization, or how much of your available credit you’re using. Credit utilization is responsible for a […]

It goes without saying that late payments hurt your credit. What many people don’t realize is how much. “Being reported as delinquent in paying your bills is the biggest whammy for your score,” says Craig Watts, a spokesman for Fair Isaac, the company that calculates FICO scores. A single late payment could sink you by […]

Kung Yu Sum was born in Shanghai, where she was a childhood playmate of Teddy Wang, the son of Wang Din-shin, who had established a paint and chemical business. The Wangs moved to Hong Kong, and the business became the Chinachem Group, eventually one of Hong Kong’s largest and most powerful companies based on a […]