Announcing Money Health Central

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Have you ever looked at the sorry state of personal finance information out there?

Books written by people with absolutely no experience or credentials shoot to the top of the bestseller lists.  Blogs purporting to help solve personal finance problems churn out nothing more than endless streams of coupon codes and affiliate marketing offers.  There’s no end to the crap that consumers get shoveled at them, yet they eat it up.

It’s like the diet industry.  All the late-night informercials are selling pills that do nothing, yet Americans run to their phones at 3am and beg for overnight shipping.  We all know it’s al illusion, yet we buy into it over and over again.

Over the course of approximately 15 years I’ve had the privilege of meeting thousands of people who are over their heads in debt. For many, bankruptcy has been a welcome means of obtaining relief from their debt problems. For others, the federal laws have offered no help.

For some, it has been income. For others, property that they would lose in bankruptcy that they needed to keep for one reason or another. And of course, there have been numerous other issues that have arisen which precluded somebody from being able to obtain relief under the bankruptcy laws. Those are the people that I’ve been unable to help, and who I’ve sent out into the world knowing full well that a lack of basic personal finance information all but guaranteed that they would not be able to get out from under their problems absent a lottery winning.

Even for those that I’ve been able to help, the bankruptcy laws provide only a short–term Band-Aid for the problem.  Many of my clients were not paying the bills before they came to me, so wiping them out does nothing to improve their financial health. What these people need is real personal finance information to help make their lives better in the future. A failure to provide guidance all but ensures that many will fall back into financial trouble later on down the road.

There are many personal finance websites out there, some of which are excellent. The best ones involve the author’s journey from debt to financial success (whatever the author may deem that success to be). From those stories, the reader can clean a tremendous amount of information that they can then adapt to their own life.

Sadly, those sites are few and far between.  The mainstay of the personal finance blogosphere involves individuals talking about coupons, the best deals on online banking, and the like. They offer no actionable, substantiative information for people who are either trying to get out of debt or have recently emerged from bankruptcy.

That’s always bugged me.

So for the past few months I’ve been discussing this problem a number of colleagues of mine. We’ve decided to take a fairly bold step and enter the personal finance blogosphere.  Today I’m pleased to announce the launch of Money Health Central.

Make no mistake, this is not a blog about bankruptcy, or consumer protection laws. Rather, we’re looking to fill a void in the personal finance blogosphere.

Money Health Central emerges today as a beacon in the darkness, a place for real people to get actionable, results–driven information to help them get out of debt. For those who have already been through bankruptcy, divorce, job loss, foreclosure, or any number of the major life–altering defense that trigger financial difficulties, money health Central will provide help that can be found no place else online.

Standing with me in this project are Cathy Moran, Eugene Melchionne, Jill Michaux, Doug Jacobs, and Kurt O’Keefe. These men and women are some of the brightest legal minds I have ever met, but their involvement transcends their legal background.

Rather, each and every one of us brings to the table decades of experience dealing with the problems that plague consumers. We understand that we are facing a tremendous challenge, which is why I hope you will join us in helping to get the word out about Money Health Central.

Please tell your friends, your colleagues, and your clients about Money Health Central. I hope to see you there, and encourage you to participate in our comments area. Also, please pass our information around to anyone who you think may benefit from practical personal finance advice given by professionals with the experience, dedication and desire to provide the most accurate information online.

See you there.

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