Xin Lu's blog

Could you determine someone's creditworthiness by his or her looks?

Today I read about an interesting study done by Rice University on the correlation between trustworthiness and looks. The researchers utilized the popular peer to peer lending sit

The "marriage penalty" of taxes in America - how does it affect you?

It is tax season again, and it seems that every year the tax code in America gets a little more convoluted. One thing in the tax code that has always annoyed me is something calle

Details of Obama's mortgage plan released - Will you benefit?

Today the Obama administration officially released the final details of the mortgage plan that was announced a few weeks ago. Here is a quick summary on what is in the plan and h

Did your car break down? Check for recalled parts and fix it for free!

I drive a ten year old car and it has been out of warranty for quite a while. Over the years I have received recall notices in the mail for various parts of the car and got fixes

What should you do when you are asked to repay an overpayment of severance?

TechCrunch recently reported that the software giant Microsoft made mistakes on the severances it paid to its laid off workers. As a result, Microsoft sent out letters to an unknow

Countrywide tried to steal my parents' money - How you can avoid being a victim of mortgage servicing fraud

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about checking your mortgage statement, and interestingly enough my family was recently confronted with an erroneous mortgage statement. This is

Will Obama's new mortgage plan really reward responsibility?

Today President Obama announced a new $75 billion Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan to the world. It is touted as a plan that helps responsible homeowners who have not

Will the "Buy American" clause in the stimulus bill create or destroy jobs?

Tomorrow on February 17th President Obama plans to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill recently passed by Congress. One controversial portion of the bill is a clause for the publ

What can you do with $13 extra a week?

On Friday both the House and the Senate passed a new $789 billion stimulus package as a continuation of the efforts by the United States Government to jumpstart the economy. A sig

Write for money online - Part 5 - Your own blog or website

In parts one through four I reviewed various revenue sharing websites. There are actually many more of these sites out there that share a part of their revenue as long as you prov

Restaurant.com helps you save for Valentine's Day - 60% off gift certifcates and a free $15 FTD gift card!

A few months ago I shared a coupon code for Restaurant.com that allowed 80% off on their already discounted gift certificates, and that post was quite popular. Today I found that

How to check if a flight is delayed

Once in a while friends and relatives would visit my family from other countries, and we usually go to the airport to pick them up. The problem is that sometimes flights are delay

Write for money online series - Part 4 - Mahalo.com

So far I have reviewed three pay for content sites. Today I am reviewing a site called Mahalo. This is a site that is aiming to be a human powered search engine. It was started

Write for money online series Part 3 - eHow.com

So far, I have covered two pay for content sites called Bukisa and Associated Content in part one and two of this series. Both of these sites allows a wide range of content, but t

Write for money online series - Part II - Associated Content

In the first part of this series about writing for money online I covered a relatively new revenue sharing site named Bukisa. Today I am reviewing a much more established website

Write for money online series - Part I - Bukisa

I started writing online in 2007 at my personal blog and have not stopped since. I am very fortunate to have been selected to join Wise Bread last year and I have made a steady am

How to check if your mortgage statement is correct

This week the Federal Trade Commission sent out around $28 million in redress checks to more than 86,000 customers of Bear Stearns and EMC Mortgage Corporation. Apparently EMC Mor

Need a job? Apply to become a Census enumerator

The Census Bureau produces an important set of demographics data about the United States every ten years. The 2010 Census is coming up soon and the Bureau is hiring thousands of t

How to create a speculative bubble and profit

Recently I read an enlightening story in the New York Times about the Pu'er tea bubble in Yunan, China. The burgundy fermented teas fetched prices of $150 a pound at the peak, but

Goodbye Circuit City - Final liquidation begins January 17th, 2009 - Updated

Circuit City officially announced that it is going out of business today. The number two largest electronics retailer begins final liquidation sales on January 17th, 2009 in all of