Updates Blog

To save money this Christmas, you might adopt one or more of these ideas:

Gifting:

You can almost always find lower prices online than in retail stores. You’ll also save on auto expenses of about $0.25 to $0.50 per mile if your local retail destination isn’t nearby. On the other hand, shipping costs will raise the price of online shopping by about 5-10%; however most online stores offer free shipping with a minimum amount of purchase, and most people can avoid paying sales tax by ordering from out-of-state locations. Most online shopping is safe, but it’s wise to observe at least some of the following precautions when shopping online:

Store selection:

Some people shop only at well-established online stores like Amazon.com, Buy.com and Target.com. Some sites are fake knock-offs of other sites, so make sure your browser’s address bar contains the domain name (e.g. it contains “amazon.com/”).

Don’t buy anything from someone you don’t know who emails you. Even if you think you know the source, remember that spammers are often “phishers” who can fake a fairly realistic-looking web site in order to get your credit card number.

If you’re suspicious of a store, visit sites such as Bizrate, Complaints.com and the Better Business Bureau to make sure they’re legit and consumer-friendly.

Make sure the Web store lists contact information, including a street address.

Smart browsing:

Most online stores have a security program in place, which is detected by spotting closed padlock icon on the lower bar of the browser window and an “https://” in the address bar rather than “http://”.

Don’t use a shared computer if it’s used by anyone you don’t know or don’t trust — they might be able to get enough of your personal info to commit ID theft.

Maintain good computer security, including an always-on firewall, antivirus and antispyware protection, and security patches for your operating system.

Type site addresses yourself (or use your Favorites menu), rather than clicking on links which may be phony. Before buying, check that the URL in the address bar has a reputable domain name.

McAfee’s Site Advisor plug-in can help tell whether a site is dangerous or safe.

Use Consumer Radar to shop — it will help you save money, find product reviews, track your shipments and more.  The Radar Help Page has more on that.

Use consumer guides such asConsumer Reports, Consumer World,
Consumer Search, Amazon.com, Epinions and ConsumerGuide to decide which products are best.

Saving money:

Shop early online, to have the best chance of finding good deals and free shipping. They tend to disappear as Christmas gets near.

Check which states the store charges sales tax:  this info may be on the store’s policy page, or you can test for it by adding an item to the shopping cart without giving out your credit card.  Some online stores are located in states where there is no sales tax, in which case nobody has to pay them any sales tax.

Use shopping agents like Froogle,PriceGrabber and MySimon to compare prices for you.

Coupons for $5 to $10 or even more are common at many online stores. Use coupon sites such as FatWallet, DealCatcher and MyCoupons in addition to the shopping agents.  FatWallet has a nice added benefit:  it pays you rebates when you shop at scores of popular sites such as Amazon.com. 

Shop for private-party deals at EBay, CraigsList and your Local Newspaper, which sometimes offer new products at very low prices.

When completing your purchase:

Pay by credit card, definitely NOT by debit card.  This helps ensure that the maximum you’ll lose is $50 by federal law.

If you dedicate one credit card to online shopping only, you can more easily track your purchases and limit your vulnerability.

Use Paypal if possible, especially on eBay:  you’re protected from fraud up to $1,000.

You can track the progress of your packages using UPS, Federal Express and/or the Post Office whenever you’re given a tracking number for a product you ordered.

After receiving the goods, check your credit reports regularly and your credit-card statements as soon as you receive them, to catch fraud problems early.

Picasa is a frew Windows program from Google that can scan your entire hard drive for photos and videos, and even orgnize them into folders. Editing features include many additional functions including red-eye reduction and labeling. You can import your images from your camera, send photos to your web printing services, make photo CDs, print photos or upload them to blogs or instant-messaging programs.

There are quite a few places on the Web that allow you to request a free calendar through the mail.  We tried about five of them, hoping to pass on the opportunity to our readers, but we never received the goods.  But you can still print your own calendar:

• You can print your own Consumer SmartCalendar every three months.  We recommend that you fold it three ways, stick it in with your bills and glance at it every week.  The advantage of the SmartCalendar is the great tips for home maintenance, investing, shopping, taxes and college planning.  Fairly soon, we’ll add sections for kids, health & safety.
   
• It’s fairly easy to print customized calendars from TimeAndDate.com for a number of months or an entire year. You can also select which day starts the week, whether to show moon phases, and different sets of holidays for different cultures.
   
• Online calendars include Calendars Net, AOL Calendar and Yahoo! Calendar.  You can print it and/or add appointments and events that can be made visible and printable by others you want to allow to see it.

A WebMD article 10 Lifestyle Tips for Cancer Prevention recommends these dietary and lifestyle actions to reduct the risk of cancer:

1. Be lean, but not underweight
2. Be physically active
3. Avoid or limit sugary and/or high-calorie foods
4. Eat a variety of vegetarian food
5. Limit red meats and avoid processed meats
6. Limit alcohol to two daily drinks for men and one drink for women
7. Limit salt consumption
8. Don’t use supplements protect against cancer
9. Mothers should exclusively breastfeed their babies for up to six months
10. Those who survive cancer should follow these and their doctor’s recommendations

The article goes on to give details, and says the most important by far is to be as lean as possible within a healthy weight range, followed by (2) staying active and (3) replacing meats with vegetarian foods. The one recommendation that may be mistaken is the one about not taking supplements:  in particular, Vitamin D supplements may lower risk of some cancers.

A RealAge.com article 8 Hours To Healthier Cells reveals that your body does important healing while you sleep.  If you have trouble sleeping, this article shows some ways to get better sleep. The RealAge doctors say “getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night can make your RealAge as much as 3 years younger.”

A SmartMoney.com article 5 Ways to Save on Child-Care Costs suggests some interesting ways to cut costs on child care:

1. Tax credits of up to $3,000 for one child, or up to $6,000 for two or more children
2. A Dependent-Care Flexible-Spending Account makes such expenses tax-free
3. Ask your employer if they’ve negotiated any discounts with child-care centers
4. Adjust your work schedule with your spouse so someone is at home more often (ask your employer for “flex time”)
5. Share the costs of a babysitter with another family
6. Cut your babysitter’s pay, or barter goods instead of paying cash

A BankRate.com 8 tips for investing in hard times outlines eight principles for investing while the economy is sliding.

1. Pay down loan balances
2. Be prepared: Get a line of credit
3. Look beyond the headlines — recovery may be very near
4. Stay the course with good investments
5. Find your “sleep number” (the risk level you can accept peacefully)
6. Start looking for “value play” stocks
7. Keep money in stocks
8. Don’t chase “yield”: the bond market has its own problems

You can read the article to better understand these principles.

Sometime before Thanksgiving, look for a brand new site from the CFA called “1Friend2Another.org”. The basic idea is to encourage friends to spread the word about two very helpful, consumer-friendly infoproducts that people can download:

1. The Book Of Time, a compilation of time-saving tips. “Time is money” as they say. You can read it in just half an hour, and it will help you gain hundreds (or even thousands) of hours of free time.
2. The Consumer SmartCalendar. It magnifies the power of an ordinary calendar by adding tips on finances, health/safety, home maintenance, shopping/spending, and taxes. People can take a minute to print it out and stick it in with their bills. It’s very easy to use, you just look at it like a regular calendar and read the tips. Optionally, people can add their own reminders to it.

People will be encouraged to “spread to the word” to their friends in two ways:

1. They’ll be reminded of the good that friends and loved ones can do for each other by staying connected.
2. They can “plant a flower for a friend” to help build an online garden of a million flowers. They can pick between 6 to 7 flowers of various colors, click to plant it in the field of flowers, and watch it grow over 10 seconds with a sweet, pretty mini-movie sequence. They can leave a short message too for anyone else they send to this site.

The site will also help charities. People will be given a chance to donate to the charity of their choice in several different places on the site and the infoproducts they can download.

A WebMD.com article What’s Zapping Your Energy? lists 11 drains on your energy, some of which you may not even be aware of.

1. Sugar
2. Caffeine
3. Exercise (too much or too little)
4. Dehydration
5. Lack of sleep
6. Poor attitude
7. Disorganization
8. Not enough food
9. Stress
10. Low self-esteem
11. Saying “yes” too much

Read the article for explanation and tips on how to zap these energy-zappers.