This past Summer I had my house painted, inside and out. What I learned from the experience is that painting is not an easy job to do. I began this project by painting one of the small upstairs bathrooms by myself. My game-plan was to paint the smaller rooms by myself and ask friends to help with the larger ones.

Needless to say, things did not proceed as planned. I had trouble painting close to the ceiling, I had trouble with the baseboards (I actually bought the wrong paint and then could not even return it). When I started calling all those great friends of mine for help I received excuse after excuse but I could not even blame them because after the mess I made of the bathroom I would not have helped someone else paint either. I ended up hiring professionals.

I have been semi-retired for almost 5 years now and was thinking about buying some type of franchise to run. My recent experience this summer got me thinking that a painting franchise might be perfect. I could hire some young hard-working painters and the marketing and advertising is my forte. After a brief web search I was able to find the perfect painting franchise opportunity I hope to be up and running by spring so if you need any painting done in the Detroit area please feel free to leave a comment with your contact information.

I can tell you from personal experience that divorce sucks. The process can be very stressful and embarrassing. The most important part of any divorce is the lawyers you choose to represent you. I went the bargain route and I paid through the nose and because my lawyer did not have the experience or expertise the proceedings ended up dragging on longer than it should have and the end result was a way bigger lawyer bill and I also got killed on child support and spousal support.

A friend in New York recently contacted me for some advice because he and his ex are heading for divorce court. I told him to plug in the search phrase New Jersey divorce lawyers and email the list to me and I would help him go through it and find a good lawyer.

Now I am not sure New Jersey attorneys are any better than the ones over here in Washington but I do know what it is like to have a bad lawyer, so I will do everything I can to save my friend from the same fate.

I have been doing business online for almost 7 years and when I first got involved with the web it was tough to find a trustworthy way of accepting online payments. Really Paypal was the only player.

I dealt with them for a few years but I always had problems because they had so many silly policies and never seemed to protect the interests of both parties in a transaction. Plus nowadays fraud is rampant with phishing and what-not. I decided a long-time ago that setting up my own merchant account was the way to go. I just did a Google search for “merchant account company” and voila, I got started quickly and effortlessly. I have been very happy ever since. I would advise anyone, that is serious about their online business to seek out a quality credit card processing company. It can really make a difference in your business success.

So, let me tell you. Being a student is a lot of fun, parties, girls, interesting classes and did I mention girls? The one thing that can really get you down is paying tuition because getting good grades is so important I don’t want to be weighed down with working too much. Getting and carrying a student loan can be a stressful experience. Consolidation of credit cards and other debts has become a popular way of managing a high debt load and it really works well as it applies to student loan consolidation. Some of the main advantages are, low fixed interest rates, no prepayment fees, no credit checks, deferment benefits and more. Even if you are a student make sure to borrow smart.

A federal appeals court upheld the conviction of former Cendant Corp. Chairman Walter Forbes Monday for leading the largest accounting fraud of the 1990s.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld Forbes’ conviction on conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of making false statements. Forbes was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay more than $3 billion in restitution.

Forbes was involved in a fraud that inflated revenue by more than $500 million at Cendant’s predecessor, Stamford-based CUC International, to drive up the stock price. The fraud was reported in 1998, causing Cendant’s market value to drop by $14 billion in one day.  The fraud cost the company and 119,000 investors more than $3 billion.

The appeals court concluded that prosecutors’ use of the term “$14 billion fraud” in their opening statement was not misleading and prejudicial. They also said the District Court correctly ruled that references to the company’s decline in stock price and investor losses were permissible.  Last year, Cendant stockholders changed the company’s name to Avis Budget Group (Charts, Fortune 500) to reflect its Avis and Budget vehicle rental brands.  It is well known that he attempted to use offshore banking to hide assets.

The Cendant case was among the first in a series of corporate accounting scandals that sparked outrage from investors in recent years.  The case was tried after two previous juries deadlocked.  Forbes, who testified during the trial, has argued he knew nothing about the fraud. His co-defendant, former Cendant Vice Chairman E. Kirk Shelton, was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud and making false statements to the SEC.  Shelton was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $3.27 billion restitution to the company.

Forbes was chief executive officer of CUC and Shelton was president before the membership marketing operation merged with the travel and real-estate services company HFS Inc. to form New York-based Cendant in December 1997.  Not very suprised at this outcome as the guy is a dirty as a pig rolling in it’s own shit.