People who lost income and are struggling to make mortgage payments thought they had come up with a way to save both their homes and their good credit scores: a mortgage modification.

But it turns out that a mortgage modification, even a temporary one, can hurt your credit score, sometimes as much as a foreclosure or short sale.

In January we all feel fat, so fast-food purveyors are rolling out new diet menus to keep us coming back despite our New Year’s resolutions, USA Today reports.

Some are also likely inspired by menu-labeling mandates contained in the proposed health care reform legislation -- requirements the restaurant industry supports, according to The Washington Post. Better to cut the calorie counts of menu items before we can all see them in a “clear and conspicuous” place.

• Bing: Calories in fast food

But aren’t fast food and healthy food mutually exclusive?

Here’s what’s on the menu:

This Deal of the Day comes from Sarah Morgan at partner site SmartMoney.

Fans of “House” and “American Idol” got a reprieve on Friday when Time Warner Cable and News Corp. reached an agreement that kept Fox shows on the air for Time Warner subscribers. Details of the Time Warner deal haven’t been made public, but they likely included a new fee for Fox broadcasts paid by Time Warner per subscriber, per month, analysts say.

• Bing: The most hated companies

So consumers shouldn’t get too excited -- Time Warner also raised its rates that same day, and further increases are likely, according to an analysis conducted by The New York Times.

This post comes from Chris Illuminati at partner blog Wise Bread.

Despite the high unemployment rate, online job listings seem to be at an all-time high. According to The Conference Board, online job demand was up 106,500 in November, and job demand has averaged an increase of 32,000 per month since an April 2009 low.

That doesn't mean every online job posting is a winner. Anyone can post jobs on Monster or Craigslist. The real jobs often get smothered by disingenuous offers of awesome work, work-for-free opportunities, and even online scams.

How does a person weed out the contenders from the pretenders? Here are five red flags in job postings that should make you think long and hard before applying.

This post comes from James Limbach at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.

We've all seen those products advertised on late-night TV infomercials that promise to solve problems like scrubbing baked-on crud from cookware, mopping up gallons of spilled milk and falling off ladders when cleaning gutters.

But -- surprise, surprise -- Consumer Reports' tests of 15 such products reveal that many of them are not worth buying.

Fed up with your bank? From the reaction to yesterday’s post about sneaky bank fees and a threat to free checking, we’d say many of you are.

Arianna Huffington has a solution: Change to a community bank. In a post written with economist Rob Johnson at The Huffington Post, she advocated that people close their accounts at the big four banks and open accounts at small community banks.

Hey, let’s go for a ride! Where do you want to go? Nowhere? OK, we’ll just drive around aimlessly and hope we accidentally end up somewhere interesting. Hop in!

That’s the way most people plan their lives, financial or otherwise. They may have a vague idea of a destination, like paying off debt, for example. But they’re not really sure how to get there or how long the trip will take. So they waste time driving in circles and wondering, “Are we there yet?”

This Deal of the Day comes from Kelli B. Grant at partner site SmartMoney.

Keeping a New Year’s resolution to get in shape is no easy feat. The first hurdle: finding a gym membership that’s fiscally fit.

Half of consumers who don’t belong to a gym say the costs are the primary deterrent, according to a 2009 survey from market researcher Mintel. Factoring in initiation fees, the median annual cost for a new gym member is $775, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, a trade group. (Ongoing members pay slightly less than $43 per month for an average $511 annually.)

• What’s your game plan for 2010?

But many new members can cut their costs by as much as 50%. Here’s how: