Preview the book here — there’s a lot of vital information you can’t find anywhere else. I suggest too that you make a small investment on the book. It changed my total outlook on investments, mortgage, equity and personal finance.

http://www.stopsittingonyourassets.com/MarianSnow/preview/contents.html

You can contact Marian through her personal blog here:

http://mariansnow.typepad.com/assets

These are the “side loans” banks offer, like a signature line of credit tied to your house. Read the fine print: it says that if you default on payments (including being merely late) they can call the ENTIRE loan amount due: including your house!

Many people are getting caught in that – along with other financial scams big brother is trapping the middle class consumer with. Be very cautious: operate like someone IS trying to separate you from your assets.

As an example, I have a friend in Sacramento, CA that had a mortgage with a major bank (Wamu). Her son went away to college and increased her expenses so she called the bank to restructure her loan. They did, but they didn’t tell her they were sending data to the credit reporting agency that she was LATE on her payments (that she WAS making on time, just not the orinigal amount – the new amount they had worked out with her). Now they are saying they want to go into foreclosure due to the Lates!” Amazing! Also, they have wrecked her credit rating, and now she doesn’t want to pay them anything – having a bad taste in her mouth because she feels betrayed by the very company she trusted and worked with in good faith.

As for your business, I would say test market first. Most businesses don’t actually need a large amount of cash to get started. Do some low cost materials on good paper. I use http://www.PSPrint.com to order short run four color materials on glossy stock. I like their business cards, club cards and posters (you can get a 4 color poster made for $10). I have a desiger work up a professional layout in Photoshop for less than $100. This will sell your “sizzle” and you will see if there is any consumer interest.

Your next step is to build a website – but make sure you have something to sell, and people can buy it via the website. Use Paypal to conduct your transactions. They have a virtual terminal that allows you to process checks and credit card orders by phone, fax, email, snail mail and web. I use http://www.netspend.com for my debit card tied to Paypal to tranfer funds and use them; but you can also use Paypal’s debit card now.