The divorce rate in the U.S. fell 4% last year, according to a report released last week by the National Marriage Project. The news might cheer family advocates, but the lousy housing market is probably the cause, as couples with depreciated home values wait to split until the market rebounds.

Right now, home values are down substantially. According to Moody’s Economy.com, 31.8% of owners with a first mortgage currently owe more than their house is worth. Couples who decide to get divorced are splitting liabilities instead of assets.

“It used to be that couples fought over the house because of continuity and stability for the children,” says Fadi Baradihi, president of the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. “That’s not happening anymore. Now everybody wants to run from it.”

But when a property has lost significant value, running isn’t so easy.

When it comes to the dilemma of selling or keeping the family home, the issue is if either spouse can actually qualify to refinance the home as a single, one-income household. With negative equity so prevalent, it’s virtually impossible to refinance, says Leslie Thompson, a certified financial planner and partner at Spectrum Management Group in Indianapolis. That doesn’t leave a divorcing couple with many good options. Here are a few to consider.

Wait it out: Continue joint ownership with an agreement to defer the sale of the house, in the hope that home values will rise down the line. Under this arrangement, one spouse usually moves out.

If both spouses are on the mortgage, the one who moves won’t be able to get another mortgage, since banks are unlikely to lend to someone whose assets are tied up. When the house sells, each spouse gets half the proceeds at the time of sale (not at the time they got divorced). If one spouse has been making mortgage payments, he or she should get credit for the amount of the principal paid since the split.

Rent it out: In this increasingly popular arrangement, both spouses move out and rent to someone else. This setup also makes it difficult to buy another house, because both spouses are stuck with the house and the payments for a long time.

Just get out: Sometimes it’s best to sell at a loss and move on, says Ms. Thompson. The couple negotiates with the lender to pay the difference between the sale price and the amount they owe or a lesser amount — in which case they will have to determine how the debt will be paid. The lender also might agree to take the entire loss.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2010 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

• 50 cents per mile for business miles driven
• 16.5 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

The new rates for business, medical and moving purposes are slightly lower than last year’s. The mileage rates for 2010 reflect generally lower transportation costs compared to a year ago.

The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs as determined by the same study. Independent contractor Runzheimer International conducted the study.

A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) or after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle. In addition, the business standard mileage rate cannot be used for any vehicle used for hire or for more than four vehicles used simultaneously.

Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

Revenue Procedure 2009-54 contains additional details regarding the standard mileage rates.

Buffett cites this piece of advice from his mentor Benjamin Graham: “You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right-and that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else.”

There is a guy named Mike Rowe who goes on camera to share stories about some of the dirtiest jobs you will ever see. His show is actually called Dirty Jobs, and appears on the Discovery Channel.  In case you haven’t seen it, on the show he profiles every type of job you might consider disgusting – from garbage collectors to gastroenterologists to port-a-potty cleaners … the show gives you the inside story on jobs that you (or I) would probably rather not think about.

The way Rowe describes the significance of his show, however, isn’t just in terms of the individual jobs he focuses on. Back in April in an interview published in Fast Company magazine, he shared the following observation:

I believe the majority of people in this country are deeply disconnected from the Americans who still make our stuff. Forty years ago, it was easy to buy American. Not just because our stuff was better than theirs. We bought American goods because we actually knew the people who were making them. It was a powerful and personal connection that tied us to the products we bought … we no longer celebrate the way things get made. In this global economy, we focus only on the finished product, which makes the Americans who still make them largely invisible.

Think about this idea for a moment. How much of a connection do you let your customers have with the people who actually make your products?  Depending on the types of products you sell, do you even know who makes them?  In general, marketers talk a lot about telling a story when it comes to promoting a business, but it is easy to forget just how much of this story comes from the product itself and how it is made. And this is just one of the “dirty” secrets about your business.

If you were able to tell your real “dirty” story, what might the components be?  Here are a few ideas to help you think about injecting a bit more reality into the marketing story you are telling to your customers:

1. Skip the fake “signature.” We have all seen the little sticker on a new piece of clothing that tells you it was inspected by “Inspector #29.” Of course, few of us actually believe that there was a real person behind this, or even that it was the same person each time. The first step to sharing a more authentic story about where your stuff comes from is losing the fake label and signature.  Even not having it at all is better than having one that looks fake.
2. Admit your mistakes. Sometimes the most humanizing thing in business can be to admit when you screwed up. This may take the form of an honest apology for something that goes wrong, or more of an open admission about something in your business that may not be ideal today … but that you are working on improving.
3. Share what you don’t do. It’s easy to describe your business as an “end to end solutions provider.” The problem with that sort of lingo is that it defines your business as being everything to everyone, when we all know that no one can do this.  Instead, why not be up front about the type of work that you’re not great at, or things that someone may want to go elsewhere to get done. Instead of losing business, you may find that this helps you to convert the right kind of business that you truly want and increase your sales in the process.