By KATHLEEN PENDER, San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO -- If you're shopping for a loan, it's good to know your credit score. The question is, what score?

You have to go back many decades -- to the early 1970s, at least -- to find a year that started as miserably for the economy and the markets as 2008.For the first half, which ended Monday, most of the vital signs are looking somewhere between anemic to appalling.

Growing paranoia about identity theft is creating a boom for companies that provide credit monitoring, fraud alert and other services that purport to protect you from this crime.Each of these services typically cost about $60 to $200 per year.

SAN FRANCISCO -- These are uncertain times for investors in municipal bonds, which are loans to government entities.Many cities, states and other entities issue municipal bonds to finance schools, roads and other public projects. They're facing lower revenue as a result of the slowing economy, which could affect their ability to repay their bonds.

The owners of sport utility vehicles and other gas hogs are feeling particularly squeezed these days. While the cost of filling their tank is going through the roof, the value of their cars is falling fast.

With summer driving season approaching --if anyone is still planning to travel with gasoline at $4 a gallon -- it's time to make sure you know what to do if you are involved in a car accident.

Back in 2003, Congress lowered the capital gains rate for people in the two lowest federal tax brackets to zero -- but only for 2008 through 2010.

My son graduated from college in May, and that has had me thinking about things young people should know when Mom and Dad cut the purse strings.

Forget location, location, location.The three most important things in real estate are duration, duration, duration.If you bought a home in the last two years, it's very probably worth less than you paid.But if you bought four years ago, you're probably still above water.

As wedding season approaches, brides- and grooms-to-be find themselves obsessing about things like limos, honeymoons, bachelor parties and -- for those with wealth or a previous marriage -- prenuptial agreements."Right now I'm probably doing four or five prenups for June weddings," says Tanya Prioste, a family law attorney in Palo Alto, Calif.