Well doesn't THIS just break your heart? (put pic of violin and music here)...

According to insiders, Fuld, 62, has for months barely left his den for longer than a few hours: he's worked from 5am to 2am most days fighting to defend the bank at
which he has spent his entire working life.

Lehman Brothers is going to go bust... awwww... I feel for them... Wonder if Fuld is going to be homeless over this? NOT!

They write about him like some hero because he can't find someone to buy up a company that's based on bad mortgages... DUH... he is in charge, are you telling me that he didn't know they weren't any good and were high risk? Wow... that's just too, too, bad for old Fuld, now isn't it?

Fuld announced a radical plan to split the bank into two, effectively separating the healthy investment bank from around two-thirds of its $41.8bn of toxic real estate assets which would be sold off to its investors

He has 41.8 BILLION in bad paper (mortgages) and NO BODY thought they weren't any good before now? Not the realtors or banks who were upselling people over their income levels? Nobody at all? And what is he going to do? Well, he's going to sell all that to....

Oh wait, no one wants it unless US TAX PAYERS pony up a 48 BILLION dollar guarantee on paper that is ALREADY PROVEN not worth the ink used to print it (especially giving the price of crude oil theses days).

And that will be ON TOP of the 200 Billion already going to Fannie and Freddie. Thats enough for eight more attom smashers! Or they could just hand over $100,000 against the mortgages of 480,000 (nearly half a million homes!) OR if they only handed over $50,000, it would be close to a million homes... but do we want to do that? NO... lets give it to some british bank to get them to buy up the homes that will surely be forclosed instead.

Holy cow! How determined is the government to keep helping the rich get richer? The 200 Billion that is being spent on Freddie would cover $50k to 4 MILLION mortgages. Instead, they'll be paying it to the "poor bank" who got stuck with foreclosed homes.

Now, what will poor, poor, poor, over worked Fuld be left with after his fire sale? A totally solvent bank that gets to "put all that behind them"... WHAT, I'm still paying taxes on the few minimum wage jobs I get and the government is going to hand it to some idiot to get them to buy him out of HIS mistakes? This is where all that "bail out" money is going... to the businesses who made the mess. What do home owners get? Certified councelors who hand you over to the bank (well, just everything you say) lock, stock and barrel!

I hope I'm in that portfolio! I think since I'm technically filed against in court (we'll see when someone bothers to send me even a note about the whole thing)... I should get to take SOME credit.

My property isn't worth squat because the foreclosures in my county are up 650% in the last two years. Yes, a county who once had 120 foreclosures is on target this year to break 800 easily. AND that's just foreclosures... that doesn't count the short sales (for less than appraised value)... Even if I had a perfect mansion I'd be screwed.... sure am glad I didn't get to a whole lot of fixin'up on this 'fixer-upper', since it would have been money flushed right down the toilet.

Again... if you're having trouble... google "jingle mail" and don't get yourself screwed like I am right now. The entire economy has sunk because a few big guys wanted to get rich selling a shill game... now they're going to walk away, or WORSE we tax payers are going to pay someone to buy them out of their mess!

If they're doing that, why in the world shouldn't you? I can't begin to tell you how I wish I would have.

Today is a bad day... I just couldn't go to church. I had no idea of what I would say or how I would react if someone talked to me about this and knew that I would make myself crazy thinking everyone was looking at me and wispering.

So instead I'm kind of moping around the house, trying to get photos for stuff put up on craigslist and just generally going between crying and wanting to just trash the place. Unfortunately, it wouldn't even show if I did, so what good would it do. I could take the inspector and point out one of the bazzillion problems in the house and point and say... see that? see that? *I* did that *on purpose*!!!!

At least the move will be an upgrade. It HAS to be because my house is not legal to rent.... something about the wall with no panneling and exposed 120v wires.... the stairs to the basement that end about 2 feet off the ground causing you to either jump or step down on cinderblocks... oh, there were a lot of things the realtor said made it impossible to rent this place... so I guess I can at least say that I will be living in a place that should be much less likely to kill me when this is all said and done.

PORT your home phone number to a cell phone to keep it.



If you're like me, your home phone number is on all those resumes that you've been flooding the world with. Even though they didn't do me much good, I still don't want to loose my home phone number. It turns out most land lines can be transfered over to cell phones so you can take it with you.


Even though ANY cell phone company can do this, here's what I got from calling some of them:

SPRINT - No clue... clerk finally said they could do it, but couldn't answer how long it will take or anything really except that she kept trying to push me through making an order for a phone and services. This was even though I said repeatedly that I couldn't order service until I know what was involved. I also didn't see anything about it on their front page.

VERIZON - (the "can you hear me now?" people) has it right on the home page "Keep Your Number" and the woman on the phone told me that it would take at least a week and seemed like it was no problem to do (so, I'm guessing she was on the home page too :-) They also have a try Verizon for 30 days thing.. but I think technically all phone companies are supposed to allow you to return phones.

ALLTEL - (the blond guy people)... someone told me they can do it, haven't found it on the site and haven't called.

But, HERE IS THE KEY... you have to do it WHILE YOUR HOME PHONE IS ACTIVE. So you can't just tell them the number, the number has to be still assigned to you and (likely) paid up current. If you have land service like mine that goes out everytime it rains...

Yes, everytime it rains, there is static on my side and anyone calling in gets
either busy signal or line being checked message. I've been through the
state UCC complaint system twice and still it isn't fixed. But at least my
friend in California can tell the weather here in Ohio just by calling me.

... then giving up your land line and going to a plan with minutes on it won't be as bad. Now, depending on how much your land line is costing you, it might not be bad at all. Most companies have a "unlimited" package for $99.99... since cell phone plans make my head spin, you'll just have to go check them out yourself.

So, the practical advice is that if you want to keep your number, don't let it go too long or try to do it the day before you move. It might not happen. Once I've waded through all the plans, etc, I'll post how the experience was... I had been keeping the land line because it allowed me to work from home for these call centers, but I'm guessing that's not going to work much longer now.

Obviously, still no official word from the mortgage company. Hopefully they were headquarters in TX and the hurricane wiped out their entire business building and/or MANY, MANY homes that they have mortgaged (obviously I would want the owners to be safe!)

Don't get yourself screwed like I am. Google "jingle mail", be proactive and find out what's needed in your state. Don't walk, RUN from your mortgage on your terms!

Bet a lot of readers are saying that's horrible. Last year, I would have said the same thing too. Well, good for you. My attitude has changed dramatically after about two days of google and research on this topic. I WISH I'd researched jingle mail back in March when I tried to sell or rent this place. I wasted my time and money trying to come up with a buyer or a tenant.

For those who say "but I've made a promise"... believe me, you bank is in a business transaction and nothing more. They have not made any promise that is not documented in your agreement and, despite all the "we're here to help" crap. That is not the case. They are attempting to minimize their damages from bad business practices that THEY SET UP and that THEY PROFITED FROM. They are ONLY interested in MAXIMIZING their PROFIT or MINIMIZING their LOSS. Do not be fooled into thinking that they'll make even one decision based on empathy for your situation in the current economy. Not even when THEY SAY THAT TO YOUR FACE. Remember, I found out about this from a neighbor who read it in the newspaper the very same day that I was talking to them on the phone trying to put together this package to work something out. They don't even have any information about my income or my situation yet.

You think I'm just ranting because I'm angry... well, yes I'm angry.. but here are some reasoned people who explain that its just a business transaction:

Jan 2008 CBS Report "House Of Cards: The Mortgage Mess"

Almost all of the people involved in the transactions made huge amounts of
money, then passed the risk on to somebody else. Instead of keeping the dicey
loans in their own portfolios, the big banks and giant mortgage companies that
originally underwrote them resold the mortgages to big New York investment
houses.

Firms like Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch sliced the loans into
little pieces and packaged them up with other investments, then sold them to
their best customers around the world as high-yield mortgage-backed securities,
turning sows' ears into silk purses, all with the blessing of rating agencies
like Standard & Poor’s.

"At every step in the way, somebody has his or
her hand out, getting paid. And everyone, for the time, is happy. The broker got
paid. He or she was happy. The lending officer, ditto. The rating agencies got
paid for passing judgment on these securities. They, too, were pleased, and
their stockholders were happy. And on and on. And it would never end, except
that it did," Grant says.

So not only is my once overvalued house (I'll write how that happened later) no longer worth what I paid for it. I had paid additional principle payements (remember, I was raised to do everything right) and had paid it down $20k in only 5 years. The house isn't even worth the paid down amount thanks to the current mortgage debacle made by the 'big boys'. Remember, I'm not whining because my ARM went up.. I got a fixed rate. I tried to put 20% down (wow, that you to that person who kept me from doing that). I've put over $50k in upgrades to this property and payed principle in advance and it still isn't worth the amount owed on it! And I can't get any straight answers about how long this process will last, so am scrambling to get stuff liquidated so I don't have to pay storage on it.

So, if you're behind with no real job opportunities. DON'T BE STUPID LIKE ME. Don't keep up your end of the bargain because they will not give you any credit for it. Google jingle mail and get out on your terms.

What I AM doing

I'm looking for legal ways to slow this process down. I'm not the least bit confused that this is going to have a negative impact on my finances, but after finding out about this from a neighbor, I'm now determined to make this the longest, most annoying forclosure this company has ever experienced. I'm looking for any and all ways to make this expensive for them.

Why? Well, lets see, I'm already going to be paying for that 200 billion dollar bale out so that the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can just walk away from being MAJOR CLASS screw ups over years and yet I'm getting forclosed without the curtesy of even a comment on a phone call when I was already talking to this company?

Again, that's 200 BILLION dollars and they're walking away scott free. That's more than enough money to build thirty three 6 billion dollar atom smashers powerfull enough to have the potential to cause a black hole that will swollow up the earth! That's more than has been spend on the war in any year since we got into it!

So, if you know any legal ways to make this as painfull as possible for this company, then feel free to post it here or send it to screwthemortgage@live.com if you don't want your id associated with posting it.

What I am NOT doing

I am not advocating doing anything that is not illegal. I'm not advocating that you strip your house down to the studs in the wall.

Fortunately, my house is already a worse than any nightmare that an average person could cause intentionally. My house was a fixer-upper. It had a three foot hold in the roof when I purchased it. It has walls with exposed studs and 120v wiring where I pulled off cheap panneling with the intention of replacing it with sheet rock. That was two years ago and I certainly am not going to replace it now. As of right now, I am not spending one more minute or dollar on maintaining or reparing this house.

So, now I'm in the process of photographing and documenting the place specifically to avoid being accused of vandalizing the house!

So once again. I AM NOT for damaging any house. Or doing anything else that could get you accused of any sort of crime.

Followed all the rules....

At the age of 40 in 2002 I was employed in the computer industry where I’d tolled away for more than fifteen years. In the early part of 2003, I made the plunge and finally bought the home of my dreams. Just like everything else in life, I had done my homework and played by the rules. I had a 20% down payment and the mortgage went through with no problems. My mortgage is a fixed rate and far less than the maximum my salary could afford. I was a “stellar” applicant and the lender talked me into keeping most of my down payment because it just wasn’t needed.

In December of that year, my employer disbanded my business unit. I was officially laid off for the first time in my life. The news came by a telephone call at 11:00am. The email account that I’d just used that morning was already disabled. I couldn’t even send word to my co-workers.

In the following months, job hunting turned up a 1099 contract work instead of employment. With that, I was launched as an independent consultant and never again eligible for unemployment or most other benifits. That first contract lasted for 18 months. As that one wound down, I found another. By my 44th birthday in 2007, I had a steady income and was doing even better than before. My only debts were my mortgage and a truck that was about to be paid off. I was on target to earn 50% more than I had as an employee, with hopes of an even better year in 2008.

As my contract concluded in December 2007 there was no contract waiting in the wings. So I lived off of savings while the search for contracts or employment began. But neither was to be had. In spring, I deleted half of my employment history and began to get a few nibbles. But, once they had enough information to piece together my age that was the end of it regardless of how little money I would accept.

I did odd jobs for cash and occasionally could land minimum wage employment through a temp company. That helped to stretch my savings. But, for the most part, splattering the local Walmart and grocery stores with resumes also turned up nothing. As summer wound down, so did my savings.

Then, on my 45th birthday, WellsFargo Home Mortgage filed foreclosure against me. Yes, ON my exact date of birth.

To add insult to injury, I’d been talking to their “counselors” for almost two weeks putting together a package to try to work something out. The impending court filing was never mentioned in any of those calls. They have yet to mention it to me. I learned about the case yesterday from a neighbor who’d read about it in the local newspaper. My neighbors knew before I did. They’ve known for over a week before someone finally asked me about it.

For 45 years, I’ve played by the rules. I’ve followed all the experts' advice. I did everything by the rules; yet here I sit wondering where I’ll be living in a few months.

Now, I'm done being a nice guy. I'm done playing by their rules.

Screw the mortgage company! Screw WellsFargo!