The current economic crisis is slowly whittling away at Americans’ retirement plans which have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months – about 20 percent of their value according Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office. Within the past year, o ne in five workers 45 years old and up are no longer investing in their 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account and nearly one in four workers have increased the number of hours spent working according to a new AARP study. Also, the report states that more than one-third of these older workers are considering delaying their retirement plans and more than half face difficulty paying for basic necessities such as food, gas and medicine. As the cost of these basic needs rise many more Americans will be facing financial hardship in their golden years if they don’t have properly funded retirement savings.

The recent loss in retirement account value has fueled the debate on whether it is fair to shift the risk and responsibility of retirement totally to employees, who often have little or know understanding of investing.

A Loan Modification is a permanent change in one or more of the terms of a homeowner’s loan. It allows the loan to be reinstated, and results in a payment the homeowner can afford.

The homeowner must reach an agreement with the lender to modify the loan. Generally the lender will be a little reluctant to agree for a loan modification as modification typically results in less interest.

The lender will accept a percentage of the payments that the homeowner is behind as a down payment (generally 50%), then take the difference and either apply the difference over the total number of payments left on the mortgage or add a few months extra payments.

Common loan modifications include:

1. Adding missed payments to the existing loan balance
2. Making an adjustable-rate mortgage into a fixed-rate mortgage
3. Extending the number of years homeowner has to repay

A loan modification program allows the homeowner to change the terms of the existing loan to any other product the lender offers. The lender does not require new title work, new appraisal, or new credit documents. The loan modification process is simple, fast, and easy. With loan modification, the homeowner can save significant time and costs involved with a traditional mortgage refinancing. Additionally, since the terms of the loan are merely modified and a new loan isn’t created like in a refinance, the loan still has the same maturity date.