Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.

With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16% in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.

“The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can’t go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.

Rising mortgage defaults and falling home values are at the heart of it. More than 4 million Americans were at least one month behind on their mortgages at the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. A record 500,000 had entered the foreclosure process. And that trend is expected to continue through next year, despite the current programs from the government and the lending industry to refinance delinquent homeowners into more affordable loans.

Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it’s common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely. Suicide is never the answer.

People are overpaid because there are certain things consumers just don’t want screwed up.

Almost no one in America would admit to being overpaid, but many of us take home bloated paychecks far beyond what we deserve. Below is a list of the 10 most overpaid jobs in the U.S., in reverse order, drafted with input from compensation experts:

10.) Wedding photographers: Photographers earn a national average of $1,900 for a wedding, though many charge $2,500 to $5,000 for a one-day shoot. The overpaid ones are the many who admit they only do weddings for the income, while quietly complaining about the hassle of dealing with hysterical brides and drunken reception guests.

9.) Major airline pilots: While American and United pilots recently took pay cuts, senior captains earn as much as $250,000 a year at Delta, and their counterparts at other major airlines still earn about $150,000 to $215,000. The pilot’s unions are the most powerful in the industry. They demand premium pay as if still in the glory days of long-gone Pan Am and TWA, rather than the cutthroat, deregulated market of under-$200 coast-to-coast roundtrips.

8.) West Coast longshoremen: In early 2002, West Coast ports shut down as the longshoremen’s union fought to preserve generous health-care benefits that would make most Americans drool. Next year, West Coast dockworkers will earn an average of $112,000 for handling cargo. Office clerks who log shipping records into computers will earn $136,000. And unionized foremen who oversee the rank-and-file will pull down an average $177,000.

7.) Skycaps at major airports: Many of the uniformed baggage handlers who check in luggage at curbside at the busiest metro airports pull in $70,000 to $100,000 a year. On top of their salaries, peak earners can take in $300 or more a day in tips. That amounts to a $2 tip from 18 travelers an hour on average. Many tip more than that.

6.) Real estate agents selling high-end homes:  Anyone who puts in a little effort can pass the test to get a real estate agent’s license, which makes the vast sums that luxury-home agents earn stupefying. While most agents hustle tail to earn $60,000 a year, those in affluent areas can pull down $200,000-plus for half the effort.

5.) Motivational speakers and ex-politicians on the lecture circuit:  Corporate trade groups pay astronomical sums to celebrity-types and political has-beens to address their convention audiences. The national convention circuit’s shame is that it blows trade-group members’ money on orators whose speeches often have been warmed over a dozen times.

 4.) Orthodontists:  For a 35-hour workweek, orthodontists earn a median $350,000 a year. General dentists, meanwhile, earn about half as much working 39 hours a week on average, in a much dirtier job. The difference in their training isn’t like that of a heart surgeon vs. a family-practice doctor. It’s a mere two years. U.S. dental schools have long been criticized for keeping orthodontists in artificially low supply to keep their income up.

3.) CEOs of poorly performing companies:  CEOs at chronically unprofitable companies and those forever lagging industry peers stand as the most grossly overpaid. Most know they should resign — in shareholders’ and employees’ interest — but they survive because corporate boards that oversee them remain stacked with friends and family members. The ultimate excess comes after they’re finally forced out, usually by insiders tired of seeing their own stock holdings plummet.

2.) Washed-up pro athletes in long-term contracts:  Those who sign whopping, long-term contracts after a few strong years, and then find their talents vanish, who reap unconscionable sums of money. They point to owners as the culprits, yet golf star Tiger Woods and tennis champ Serena Williams earn their keep based on their performance in each tournament.

1.) Mutual-fund managers:  They’ve been long overpaid. Stock-fund managers can easily earn $500,000 to $1 million a year including bonuses.  Now we discover an untold number enriched themselves and favored clients with illegally timed trades of fund shares. That’s a worse betrayal of trust than the corporate scandals of recent years, since they’re supposed to be on the little person’s side.

Gone are the days when enterprising thieves would dig up an old grave and pillage for gold teeth and rings. Today, it’s mostly the bronze markers and flower vases that draw their attention. Rising scrap metal prices, coupled with the lagging economy, have triggered a string of cemetery thefts both locally and across the nation. Grave robbery was more common in the 19th century, when thieves dug up the dead in a search for gold. Through the decades, such nefarious acts became uncommon. But now, grave robbery is quietly sweeping the nation. Again. 

Grave robbers beware: The authorities are getting wise. States are passing laws and police are cracking down.  The scrap value of a bronze vase is about $10, according to cemetery operators; the replacement price often tops $300. In the last few weeks, robberies have been reported at cemeteries in Arizona, Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina.

A Proof of Virginity Presented To Families Before A Wedding

The surgery in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 self-dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.

Like an increasing number of other Muslim women in Europe, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent had a “hymenoplasty,” a restoration of her hymen, the thin vaginal membrane that normally breaks during the first act of intercourse. “In my culture, not to be a virgin is to be dirt,” said the student, perched on a hospital bed as she awaited surgery Thursday. “Right now, virginity is more important to me than life.”

Gynecologists report that in the past few years, more Muslim women are asking for certificates of virginity before marriage.

That trend in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. The service is widely advertised on the Internet; there are medical tourism packages to countries like Tunisia where the procedure is less expensive.

One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms. Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them. About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

Five money management tips the rich can offer all of us

1) Psychology: The rich are no different than you and me. There are jerks, nice people, smart people, greedy people, and unethical people in all walks of life. The rich may flaunt their character traits more, but the same traits exist among all economic strata.

2) Investing: Long-term growth may be the road to success, but you have to take risk to get rich. Concentrated, thoroughly researched positions will make you rich. Diversification, as money manager Marty Whitman says, “diversification is for amateurs.”

3) Lifestyle: They may seem fancy, but just because homes and vacations are expensive doesn’t mean they are better. The magic of all things wears off after a while. Being smart about how you live trumps ostentation and shows you have class. Go to old-moneyed Greenwich, Conn. and you’ll find the richest people driving the most broken-down looking cars. Think smart; don’t show off.

4) Passions: Whether it’s art or fly-fishing, the hobbies of the rich come out of the same engaged attitude that likely led to their financial success. Wanting something for more than its value is the key. That comes from an inner desire — and stopping at nothing to achieve. Money doesn’t come into the equation here so much as “winning.” A good tennis or golf partner will be wanted whether rich or poor.

5) Goodwill: Rich people deserve more credit about their goodwill and philanthropy. A few bad apples make the headlines but most often the rich — just like you and me — have good hearts. They volunteer. They donate. Indeed, arguably without the rich many, if not most, of the cultural institutions in the U.S. would not exist. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are also proving that money given to the right causes can change the health and welfare of the planet. They are setting a huge example by the billions of dollars they are donating each year. This is where hope lies in our futures.

One out of every 20 job applicants screened last year had a criminal record

When one company found $3 million dollars and their CFO missing, they called Ken Springer, the president of Corporate Resolutions, a business investigations concern.

Mr. Springer, a former white-collar crime specialist at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, started Corporate Resolutions in 1991 in New York, and has expanded it to 25 employees and offices in London, Boston and Miami, with a fifth planned for Hong Kong in October.

Most of his clients are private equity lenders and hedge funds that ask him to conduct management background checks at companies they are looking at, and to look into suspicions of wrongdoing at companies they hold stakes in. As layoffs increase, so does employee theft. And as loan defaults rise, so does the need for banks to track down the assets of borrowers.

There is plenty of wrongdoing out there. Employee theft alone exceeds $400 billion annually.

After spending nearly three decades investigating larceny in the workplace, Mr. Springer has some suggestions, especially for smaller companies, which are particularly vulnerable.

• Mr. Springer’s primary recommendation is to screen all potential employees, starting with their résumés. If you detect a single lie, he says, throw the résumé in the wastebasket. Be wary, too, of claims that are difficult to verify, gaps in applicants’ job histories and vague descriptions of what they did. If, for example, the computer hardware company tried to contact the three references listed by the candidate for chief financial officer, it would have learned that one was dead, one did not exist and the third had a low opinion of the candidate. Mr. Springer suggests that after authenticating the facts in a job candidate’s résumé, a background check should be done.
• Require job applicants to sign an agreement that allows you to do background checks and drug tests on them at any time during their employment. Make it clear that you plan to conduct such investigations. The troublemakers and other bad eggs will probably walk away.
• Make sure current employees know that everything on the company computer is company property, and that you have the right — and intention — to monitor their use and their e-mail messages.
• Never let the chief financial officer write checks or open mail.
• Buy fidelity insurance to cover theft by employees and vendors, which on average represents 5 percent of a company’s revenue.
• Look for red flags, for example, employees who never take a day off, a sign that they may be covering up a fraud.

1.3 Million. Where does this number come from? And do more than 650,000 Americans really “make a living” selling costume jewelry, baseball cards, and cameras in the world’s largest swap meet?

 “Today, for example, 1.3 million people in the world make a living off eBay,” proclaimed presidential candidate John McCain in late April. “Most of those are in the United States of America.” The number can be traced to a 2006 study conducted by ACNielsen on behalf of eBay. 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income,” with an esti­mated 630,239 in the United States.

To reach the lowest level, bronze sellers must rack up $12,000 in sales (sales, not profits), or move 1,200 items over the course of a year. A bronze-level power seller isn’t making a full-time living on eBay.

Levels rise from silver ($3,000 or 300 items per month) to Titanium ($150,000 or 1,500 items per month).

EBay continues to attract people who would like to make a portion of their living selling. Of course, there’s a big difference be­tween making a buck and making a living, between a sometime-thing and a steady gig. The notion that 630,000 Ameri­cans—a number roughly equal to the population of North Dakota.

Earners Feel More Secure Due To Their Confidence To Control and Preserve It.

PNC Wealth Management conducted the survey of people with more than $500,000 of investable assets. The Wealth and Values Survey showed that 69% of “wealthy” Americans accumulated most of their money through work, business ownership or investments; 6% percent received money through inheritance; and 25% gained wealth through a combination of inheritance and earnings.

A couple of things separate the earners from the inheritors: First, earners were in control of making their money, and therefore feel more confident about preserving it or making even more. Second, earners likely took large risks to achieve wealth. As we all know, as risk increases, so does return. Accordingly, earners are likely more comfortable with the concept of risk.

Driving the point of risk tolerance home, the report says earners also have a higher risk tolerance than heirs: 39% of earners rate themselves as moderate to risky investors compared with 21% of heirs. Those who inherited their wealth often view themselves as stewards for future generations. As a result, they tend to be more conservative in their approach to investing.

Other Intersting Finds:

•  Heirs are more than twice as likely to say “Having a lot of money brings about more problems than it solves.”

• More people who have earned their wealth (37%) agree with the statement: “The money I have made so far has come from being in the right place at the right time.“

• Far more of earners agree with the statement: “Every generation should be responsible for creating its own wealth” along with “It is more important for children to learn the value of money through hard work.”

Not a bad idea, adults!

Older Americans Are The Happiest

Americans grow happier as they grow older. The study also found that baby boomers are not as content as other generations, African Americans are less happy than whites, men are less happy than women, happiness can rise and fall between eras, and that, with age the differences narrow. The happiness measure is a guide to how well society is meeting people’s needs.

Charted happiness across age and racial groups, Yang Yang, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, found that among 18-year-olds, white women are the happiest, with a 33% probability of being very happy, followed by white men (28%), black women (18%) and black men (15%).

Differences vanish over time, however, as happiness increases. With age comes positive psychosocial traits, such as self-integration and self-esteem; these signs of maturity could contribute to a better sense of overall well-being. Second, group differences in happiness decrease with age due to the equalization of resources that contribute to happiness, such as access to health care, Medicare and Medicaid, and the loss of social support due to the deaths of spouses and friends.

Looking over the study’s 33-year period, she noticed definite upticks when the nation flourished economically. For example, she found that 1995 was a very good year on the happiness scale.

The Right Pressures or Incentive Will Cause Anybody To Lie

Here are some stats and tips on how to tell if someone is lying to your face:

• Skilled liars don’t break a sweat, but the rest of us get a little fidgety. Four possible giveaways: shifty eyes, higher vocal pitch, perspiration and heavier breathing. Of course, not everyone who doesn’t meet your gaze is a liar. Certain behavioral traits, like averting eye contact, could be cultural and not indicative of a liar

• Another clue: imprecise pronouns. To psychologically distance themselves from a lie, people often pepper their tales with second- and third-person pronouns like “you,” “we” and “they.” So when we lie, we pause longer and speak slower than normal and often experience speech disturbances that serve as gap fillers, such as “um,” “er” and “ah.”

• Upward inflections: We upwardly inflect our words when asking a question. You may have noticed that some salespeople will upwardly inflect certain statements of fact. This is a red flag that should alert you to potential deception.

• Liars are also more likely to ask that questions be repeated and begin responses with phrases like, “to tell you the truth,” and “to be perfectly honest.“

• Touching the nose: We have erectile tissues in our noses, which engorge with blood when we lie. This causes a tingling or itching sensation that requires a nose touch to satisfy.

• Neck rub: We rub our necks because of the stress we experience when we feel that an obstacle may be insurmountable.

• Eye rub: An eye rub is an indicator of disbelief.

• Women are more likely to lie to make other people feel good, while men tend to lie to make themselves look better.

Study Shows Average Age of Management Positions Now 25 Years Old

Generation Y people born after 1981 tend to climb to managerial posts in companies at a relatively much younger age than their older counterparts. Employees born after 1980 tend to first become managers at an average age of 25.3, compared to 31.8 for their counterparts who were born in the 50s. The Y-generation people seem to climb the career ladder faster as they tend to have stronger ability to learn and a stronger work ethic, according to the poll.

Most of the business executives said they do not particularly consider employees’ ages when they are choosing new leaders within their corporations. They choose according to negotiation and coordination ability. The ability to solve problems and professional abilities are more important factors when they are considering promotions.

Interestingly enough, the Y-generation people do not necessarily perform well in management terms. According to company executives, managers aged 39-48 were the best performers.

 Equitable is unlikely to mean the same on every dimension

Women seeking a lifelong mate might do well to choose the guy a notch below them in the looks category. New research reveals couples in which the wife is better looking than her husband are more positive and supportive than other match-ups. The reason, researchers suspect, is that men place great value on beauty, whereas women are more interested in having a supportive husband.

Researchers admit that looks are subjective, but studies show there are some universal standards, including large eyes, “baby face” features, symmetric faces, so-called average faces, and specific waist-hip ratios in men versus women.

Past research has shown that individuals with comparable stunning looks are attracted to each other and once they hook up they report greater relationship satisfaction. These studies, however, are mainly based on new couples, showing that absolute beauty is important in the earliest stages of couple-hood, said lead researcher James McNulty of the University of Tennessee. Overall, wives and husbands behaved more positively when the woman was better looking. Men are very sensitive to women’s attractiveness. Women seem to be sensitive to men’s height and salary.

In couples with more attractive husbands, both partners were less supportive of one another. Men who are more attractive than their partners would theoretically have access to partners who are more attractive than their current spouses. The “grass could be greener” mentality could make these men less satisfied and less committed to maintain the marriage.

Are people having four or five children just because they can? Because they feel that it shows their wealth and status?

Raising kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the Department of Agriculture estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18. What’s worse, the desire to have another child opens one up to charges of elitism and status consciousness. In many major U.S. cities and their suburbs having three or more children has now come to seem like an ostentatious display of good fortune. The family of five has become “deluxe.”

We not only wonder, we marvel, we get jealous, we gawk. “Having three kids in the city is a way of showing off, absolutely,” says Elisabeth Egan, who, like many families she knows, moved out of New York to the suburbs of Montclair, N.J., to manage the feat. “A third child in the city is definitely a luxury good.”

A February analysis of Current Population Survey data by the Council on Contemporary Families found that in the past 10 years, the top-earning 1.3% of the population has seen an uptick in families with three or more children. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 12% of upper-income women had three children or more in 2002, compared with only 3% in 1995.

For a couple’s every conceivable wish or worry, the parenting industry knows the precise formula of guilt, fear, hope, love and desire that will empty the parental wallet. Rather than fret about spending too much money, most parents these days are consumed by the anxiety of underspending on their children.

So parents quickly adjust to the demanding realities of the child-rearing industry. Today’s American children, by contrast, get an average of 70 new toys a year.  Baby showers have replaced bridal showers as the blowout du jour; American women today have an average of three. The accompanying baby registries have mushroomed into a $240 million business. In upscale urban areas and tony suburban enclaves, where luxury families are flourishing, that can translate to $800 a week for child care alone. So-called high-end nannies (those who hail from licensed agencies and come equipped with working papers and even driver’s licenses) can cost more than $50,000 a year on the books.

Most families simply can’t afford all this. And surely it can’t all be necessary.

Criminals Have It Too Good In America

Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy.

At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison.   If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone. A Rhode Island proposal would allow inmates to deduct up to 12 days from their sentence for every month they follow rules and work in prison. Even some violent offenders would be eligible but not those serving life sentences.

In California, where lawmakers have taken steps to cut a $16 billion budget deficit in half by summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed saving $400 million by releasing more than 22,000 inmates who had less than 20 months remaining on their sentences. Violent and sex offenders would not be eligible.

So where exactly are the savings extracted from? Laying off prison guards and making it more difficult to send parole violators back to state prison would account for part of the savings. To curb spending, lawmakers have offered a bill to make about 7,000 drug offenders in prison eligible for parole. A second proposal would allow the parole board to release inmates convicted of selling marijuana and prescription drugs after serving just a quarter of their sentences. Currently, they must serve 85% of their terms before release.

Law enforcement officials and Republican lawmakers immediately criticized Schwarzenegger’s proposal, which would apply to car thieves, forgers, drunken drivers and some drug dealers. Some would never serve prison time because the standard sentence for those crimes is 20 months or less.

Gov. Steve Beshear has said Kentucky must review its policies after the state’s inmate population jumped 12% last year — the largest increase in the nation. Kentucky spends more than $18,600 to house one inmate for a year, or roughly $51 a day. In California, each inmate costs an average of $46,104 to incarcerate. I now favor death sentence for the extreme crimes. These are cheaper.