Even the most responsible are sometimes caught up in situations beyond their control, and faced with consequences which can, almost overnight, lay waste to years of careful planning

Few of us are financially immune from the unforeseen catastrophes which life can send our way A job loss, a sudden illness, or as millions of American homeowners have learned with disastrous consequences, a continuing rise in the prime lending rate, may be all it takes to send someone in a downward financial spiral which leads to the brink of foreclosure