There's no doubt that the current downturn has changed people's spending habits.

Since the peak in housing wealth, homeowners lost more than $5 trillion in equity and 15 million homeowners own homes that are now underwater (worth less than they owe). Unemployment is hovering near 10% with no clear signs of falling.

Homeowners' previous piggy bank -- home equity -- is no longer available for spending. Even if people still hold a job, many are worried that their jobs are at risk and won't spend except for necessities.

People, afraid for their future also changed their savings habits. In the first quarter of 2008, before the recession took hold people saved about 1% of disposable income. By the second quarter of 2009 the savings rate soared to 5% of disposable income. But now that we appear to be near the end of the recession the savings rate dropped back to slightly above 3% in the third quarter of 2009, as people see the end of the recession in sight.

While economists now don't believe this recession will be as deep as the Great Depression, its depth and length will certainly change people's spending and savings habits for a long time to come.

"Well-funded marketing campaigns and perverse incentives to brokers are targeting seniors' home equity and using reverse mortgages as their tools," attorney Tara Twomey said in the NCLC news release.

Not all mortgage rates are created equal. There is a time and a place to consider an adjustable rate mortgage vs. a fixed rate.

If you have short term plans to pay off your loan in full then an adjustable rate may save you money over the term of the mortgage. If you're planning on keeping your mortgage for a longer period of time then an adjustable rate may be too risky considering today's evolving stock market.

Check out this week's video and we'll explain a few more scenarios to help determine which option is right for you. Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

Homebuyers did not have to truly be first-timers in order to qualify for the "first time homebuyer" tax credit, expiring Nov. 30; they only had to meet the limitation of not having owned a primary residence for the past three years, with income limits of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married taxpayers.

According to the Treasury Department, however, 4-year-olds (and other individuals incapable of legally signing a purchase agreement) don't count.

In an Internal Audit Report meant to assess the 2008 filings in anticipation of a surge in claims for the 2009 tax season, as many as 90,000 claims were determined to be potentially ineligible, and 528 of those were to homebuyers under 18.

The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers is $8,000.

Think your kid's college bill is pricey? Think again. For the second year in a row, Sarah Lawrence College has the dubious distinction of being the nation's most expensive place to attend college -- a whopping $54,410 for the current 2009-10 school year, including tuition, plus room and board, according to data compiled by CampusGrotto.com.

Of course, for that price, students get the distinction of attending one of the finest colleges in the country. Most of the colleges in the 100 most expensive colleges ranking are private liberal-arts universities in the Northeast.

CampusGrotto notes that while the current school year saw one of the smallest increases in costs in decades, expenses still rose 4.3%. By contrast, the annual rate of inflation in the United States fell 1.3% in September. Many of the colleges on the list now cost around $50,000 a year to attend.

When it comes to finding the best deal on mortgage rates, some homeowners might be feeling as if they missed the boat.

Earlier this month, interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages hit their lowest point since the spring, falling to 4.89 percent. Plenty of homeowners rushed to take advantage of those cheap rates with mortgage applications climbing 18.2% week over week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But last week rates were on the rise again. Last Friday, the rate on the average 30-year mortgage hit 5.32%, according to BankRate.com.

Those who failed to lock in those sub-five percent rates are now faced with a quandary: Refinance now before rates rise even further or wait for rates to start falling again.

What do you call $899.4 billion in credit-card debt? A good start.

As staggering as that sum sounds, August actually marked the 11th month in a row Americans have collectively paid down the total volume of their debt, according to new data from the Federal Reserve.

The amount is what the agency calls "revolving debt," which includes things like credit cards and home equity loans but not car loans and student loans. The amount of this second type of debt has also dropped by a bit, although not as dramatically.

According to the Fed's number-crunchers, we're paying down our revolving debt at an annual rate of 13.1%, compared with 1.6% for non-revolving debt.

There are two main reasons for this decrease: Many Americans are still deeply worried about the state of the economy, and credit-card companies have been hiking interest rates in anticipation of next year's regulations banning various fees and rate hikes.

Having a good business idea isn't enough to make money. You also need the means to execute it. Last night, inventor Lisa Lloyd showed up on ABC's Shark Tank a nervous wreck: sleepless, mortgaged to the brink of disaster, and unable to meet the demands of her business without some quick capital. Banks were of no use. She needed the investment, and the know-how, that comes from the Sharks.

She got it. Or at least, she got the promise of it, and today, she looks a lot happier to know that she won't have to shoulder the burden of the day-to-day operations of her business for much longer. Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John promised to make her "filthy rich" by taking over the back-office demands of her manufacturing, and soon she can go back to what she does best: inventing.

For our AfterShark series, WalletPop's Jason Cochran snagged Lloyd for her first post-show interview on the morning after her big Hail Mary pass. She tells us where her invention stands now, and she hints that although some people may have brilliant ideas, not all of them are cut out to make dreams come true without help.



Read our recap of the entire episode by clicking here, and to watch all of our AfterShark video interviews, including chat with all five Sharks, head over to our AfterShark home page at www.walletpop.com/after-shark-tank.

Today, we wrap up our four-part audience with the Sharks of ABC's Shark Tank, which airs tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.

When WalletPop's Jason Cochran dares to ask the Sharks if they secretly collude to trick entrepreneurs into devaluing their own businesses, Barbara has some pointed words about it. Also, is it really worth a multi-millionaire's time to use Twitter? And guess who just had Bono out to the house?

We've talked to all five Sharks. You can catch up on our video interviews with them, and with entrepreneurs from the show, at our AfterShark Page: www.walletpop.com/after-shark-tank.




Here's part one of our interview series:



Part two of our series, in which the Sharks explain why you need them to make money fast:


Part three, in which Barbara Corcoran talks about the art of self-promotion (and her colleagues' "trophy wives"):

So you've probably heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but do you understand their role in the mortgage industry? We'll explain how they were created, what they do and how the taxpayers inherited these two multi-billion dollar organizations.

Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

The University of California-San Francisco has come up with a creative way to hose its employees who have taken pay cuts and furloughs -- loan them their lost wages and charge interest upon repayment.

The "Special Temporary Furlough Employee Emergency Loan Program," which started Oct. 1, is being implemented with the intent of helping workers in an emergency situation.

But charging interest, currently at 3.66%, to borrow lost wages seems evil.

A story in The Public Press reports that the UCSF emergency loan fund isn't for paying rent or any bills that aren't "an unplanned emergency situation." Examples of emergency loans that qualify include a car breaking down unexpectedly, death or terminal illness of an immediate family member, paying a security deposit for an apartment after a divorce, domestic violence, sudden eviction or emergency non-elective surgery.

Not being able to afford to feed your family because your employer cut your wages and is a loan shark doesn't qualify as an emergency.

Along with paying interest on money they should have received in salary anyway, university employees are limited to taking a loan of up to the amount they saw their pay cut. Pay cuts ranged from 4% to 10% based on the 11 to 26 unpaid days that faculty and staff must take in the next year, with the first cuts seen in their Oct. 1 paychecks.

At least they get a fair amount of time to pay off the advance. Loan payments are deducted from monthly paychecks over 24 months, plus interest. The current 3.66% interest rate will change in November, although UCSF officials haven't said if it will go up or down.

The temporary programs ends Aug. 31, 2010, which should hopefully give UCSF employees enough time to look for new jobs.

This week on Show & Tell with The 2 Mortgage Guys we'll explain how escrowing works when included in your mortgage payment. We'll explain the benefit and advantage of escrowing your taxes and insurance as well as what could happen with future payments.

Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

Are you thinking about buying a home? Are you worried about missing out on the historically low interest rates? In this week's episode of Show & Tell with The 2 Mortgage Guys we'll explain the rate lock process. We'll let you know how and when to lock in your mortgage rate. Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

So you've heard of credit scores, but do you really understand how they're calculated? In this week's episode of Show & Tell with The 2 Mortgage Guys we'll break down the credit report guidelines and give you a few tips on how to keep your score from limiting your financial options!

Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

Linda Stern of Money has a list of tips on how to lend money to family while avoiding all the headaches that come with it.

The ideas are good if you're committed to lending money to relatives (or friends), but I have a better tip: Never lend money to family or friends.

Really. It's just not a good idea. You're mixing business with relationships -- which is rarely good -- and, according to a Money magazine poll, "43% of readers who lent to family or friends weren't paid back in full; 27% hadn't received a dime." Here are a couple alternatives to lending friends and relatives money:

• Give them a gift! Seriously. If 43% aren't paid back in full and 37% don't get anything back, why not just avoid the whole loan business and call it a gift and avoid all the awkwardness and resentment? If you're reasonably well off and want to help your kid get out of debt or buy a house, just give him a gift if you want to.
• Let them earn it. In this economy, a lot of people who are hitting friends and relatives up for cash are unemployed or underemployed, and just looking to put food on the table. Instead of becoming your friend's or relative's creditor, just give him some cash in exchange for some work. Maybe he can help you paint the house, landscape the backyard, or cook/go grocery shopping. If he has time on his hands, this is much more helpful than a loan because you're helping him dig out of a hole instead of adding to that hole with more debt.

Look, I know that you have good intentions when you decide to lend money to someone you know. But trust me (I know from experience): There's a high probability that it will harm your friendship far more than it will help the borrower.