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U.S. News & World Report - Amid high unemployment and sliding home prices, a growing number of struggling consumers are doing what was once considered unthinkable: paying their credit card bills instead of their mortgages. A recent study developed by TransUnion found the percentage of Americans who were current on their credit cards but behind on their mortgage increased to 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the share of consumers making mortgage payments on time but behind on their credit cards moved in the opposite direction, sliding from 4. ...

AP - American Capital Agency Corp. reported sharply higher earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009 Monday as the government-backed mortgage securities it holds gained value.

AP - Hanmi Financial said Monday that it has retained Cappello Capital Corp. as a financial adviser while the company pursues strategic alternatives.

Reuters - U.S. regulators are investigating whether the mortgage insurance market was improperly distressed in 2008 because of payment demands that Goldman Sachs Group Inc and other banks made on American International Group Inc , The New York Times reported on Sunday.

AP - Americans borrowed less for an 11th consecutive month in December, paying off credit cards while increasing borrowing for cars and other products.

Reuters - A weak job market and tight credit conditions caused consumer credit to fall $1.73 billion in December, the eleventh straight monthly decline, a report from the Federal Reserve showed on Friday.

AP - Attorneys for retired Visteon workers are appealing a bankruptcy judge's order allowing the auto parts supplier to terminate their health and life insurance benefits.

BusinessWeek - Financial planners can advise, books can inform, worksheets can approximate. But they'll never replace the advice you can get from folks who have ventured before you into that great unknown: retirement. To help you avoid dead ends and pitfalls, we asked retirees to look back over their time outside the working world and talk about their smartest financial moves, biggest surprises, and worst mistakes.

AP - The financial wizards who concocted the complicated mortgage-linked investments that nearly brought down the world economy are trying to come back from the dead.

AP - Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages rose slightly this week, inching above 5 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

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