I do volunteer work for an organization that provides food, clothing, hygiene products, and various other survival items for the homeless...

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

With the struggling economy, there comes an insidious group of people who have only one intention... and that is to take your identity and steal your credit.

Identity theft is becoming so pervasive that one out of every 6 people in this country will have this happen to them sometime in their lifetime.

Can you really "protect" yourself from identity theft?  Well, the short answer to that question is no.  However, there are many ways that you can use precautionary measures to help to prevent it from happening to you.

Times are still tough, and payday loans are becoming a more popular source of short-term financing. This is especially true for low-income families. Payday loans are easy to get and don’t require any sort of credit check, so they are popping up everywhere.

The number one reason for bankruptcies, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the total number of personal bankruptcies as of December 31, 2010 was 1,473,675.  This is an 8.1 percent increase over 2009 statistics.

A study done at Harvard University identified medical expenses as the number one cause of bankruptcy.  Medical expense represents that 62% of bankruptcy filings, and were the leading factor in personal bankruptcy.

What's interesting is that some 78% of those that listed bankruptcy had health insurance.

A solid belief system can take you a long way.  Success has its own belief system and when you can master such a system, there is very little that can stop the inevitable:  massive achievements.  Take a look at the seven beliefs that can take your success to greater heights:

Belief #1: Everything happens for a reason

We've all heard about or been involved with family fortunes locked up in family feuds after a loved one has passed away.  Interestingly enough, the fights themselves are not typically caused by the way the money and possessions are being distributed or the method in which the affairs are being handled.  It's almost always about a lack of communication from the person who's passed.

What is unfortunate, is these things happen, even though  the feuds and miscommunications can be easily avoided.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development anticipates a high amount of demand for the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program (EHLP). In order to ensure that program funds are made available in a fair and impartial manner, homeowners interested in applying must first complete a Pre-Applicant Screening Worksheet (see below). If there are more potentially eligible homeowners than there are funds available to assist them, these worksheets will be entered into a randomized selection process.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.

The secret of life isn't what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.

Help other people to cope with their problems and your own will be easier to cope with.

Never use the word impossible seriously again. Toss it into the verbal wastebasket.

Self-trust is the first secret of success. So believe in and trust yourself.

In 2007, Harris Interactive for Martindale-Hubbell conducted a research study and found that 55% of all adult Americans have no will in place. 

Through our own research, we have found that only a fraction of those who do have a will, also have a trust in place.  Further, of those who have the necessary documents of a will and a trust, a sizable portion of those people need to update and modify their documents.