As one of the 10.3 million unemployed people in America, I'm having trouble getting on board with the $775 billion stimulus plan that President-elect Barack Obama is proposing to Congress to help stimulate the economy and get people back to work soon.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, as Obama has called it, would add 3 million jobs over the next two years and is a good start, but somewhat shortsighted. Spending billions immediately on public works projects and infrastructure such as renovating roads, bridges and schools is a good way to get some people employed again, but it won't meet the long-term employment needs of the nation once those roads, bridges and schools are finished.

And while I and many other former white-collar workers aren't averse to picking up a shovel, it doesn't look like his plan for "shovel ready" construction projects has much job help for people outside the construction trade.

The Internal Revenue Service has put out some helpful tips for those who are still waiting to receive their economic stimulus checks. There are tons of reasons why you might not have gotten yours yet, and it's a safe bet that no one really knows how long it will take for you to get it.

But the IRS was kind enough to point out a few of the most common reasons why taxpayers haven't received their checks. See if you fall under one of these:

• You filed your tax return more than once because you thought that would help. (No, it just makes things worse and delays your payment even more while the IRS figures out why you filed twice.)

By now you may have heard about help for first-time home buyers in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. I'm not a big fan of this legislation in general, but I still think it's important for consumers to know what it offers and how they can benefit.

If you're a first-time home buyer, the federal government is essentially offering you a $7,500 loan, interest-free, to be paid back over 15 years. Not a bad deal at all!

To be eligible, you must meet the following requirements:

• Be buying your first home (rental properties and vacation homes purchased in the past don't count against you, but if your spouse owned a home before, that does count against you)
• Purchase the home between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009
• Not have income greater than $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (married)

In case you haven't ever watched the news, listened to a radio, or picked up a newspaper in the last several months, you should know that the Internal Revenue Service is sending out lots of checks to lots of people. But in order to get one of these checks via the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, you have to file a tax return, even if you have no tax liability and otherwise wouldn't need to file.

More letters are going out, as the IRS estimates that 5.2 million people are still eligible to receive a check but haven't filed a tax return in order to qualify. All along, I've figured that if people didn't know by now that they need to file, they just shouldn't get a check. Someone disagrees with me, and the government will spend a bunch of money to tell people for about the 80th time that they need to file to get a check.

About 112 million taxpayers have received checks totaling $91.8 billion so far. The IRS thinks the 5.2 million people who haven't received checks are retirees and veterans, and wants to give them one last chance to file. Anyone who may be eligible for a check has until October 15 to file a personal tax return. After that date, they forfeit their right to receive a check.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

What do you know? The check really was in the mail.

After a long wait for my economic stimulus payment, the check appeared in my mailbox yesterday, June 23.

After all the confusion about when we'd be getting the money, and in what form, I wasn't exactly holding my breath June 20, when the paper check was due, according to the IRS website. And indeed, the day came and went and there was nothing but junk mail and catalogs in the afternoon mail.

I am so sick of hearing about the economic stimulus checks, also dubbed tax rebate checks. Our government has been doing its level best to spend many billions of dollars on this endeavor. In addition to the $150 billion or more that is projected to be sent out, the IRS spent millions to send out letters to everyone and create advertisements about the program. They wanted to make sure that no one missed out on their check.

Does it come as any surprise that some people still haven't filed a 2007 tax return, and therefore haven't gotten a check? That's the biggest catch. You have to file (even if you have no income) in order to cash in.

The IRS is so worried about all these people who didn't file their returns even though the IRS thinks they would be eligible for a check. And they want to spend more taxpayer money sending another letter to those people. Honestly, who in this country hasn't heard about the checks and how you get one? They literally must never watch television, listen to the radio, open a newspaper, or have any contact with civilization.

Those who don't know yet that they could get a check deserve to not get one. Stay informed, or miss out, I say. If they didn't get the hint from that first letter they got, why waste more money to send out a second letter?

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Retailers are reporting that consumers shopped more in May, and if you believe the experts, it's largely thanks to the economic stimulus checks that started showing up in May. Sales were stronger than expected, with the best numbers shown by discount retailers like Costco and Wal-Mart. Some of the spending is also believed to be related to "staycations" planned by consumers... Staying home instead of going on a costly vacation, and using some of that saved money for electronics or items related to home improvement.

Of course, the media is all about telling us how bad the economy is, no matter what happens. I'm no fan of rising food prices and increased fuel costs either, but there comes a point at which consumers just have to find a way to deal with it. Those who ran up their credit cards with frivolous purchases over the last few years will probably find it harder to tighten their belts since the credit card bills aren't going away.

The people who have been more budget-conscious over the last couple of years, likely are having an easer time dealing with the higher cost of necessities. But whichever group you fall into, I sure hope you're willing to be proactive in living within your means and saving a little money for the future. The economic climate is uncertain, and it's not a bad idea to keep playing it safe for the near future.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

If you, like me, haven't received your economic stimulus check yet, then you might have spent part of the past few weeks contemplating all the possible ways you could spend your little gift from Dubya.

After all, when the President puts a couple of bucks in your pocket, pats you on the fanny, and tells you to buy yourself somethin' purty, you don't want to just rush into a stupid purchase. Maybe you don't want to buy a TV or a stereo that was produced in a Communist government by people who make two bucks a day. Heck, maybe you don't even want to save that dough as a hedge against the inevitable day when gas will go to $8 per gallon and there will be shooting in the streets.

Perhaps you want to spend your money locally. Maybe you even want to use it to see clearer, further, and better.

I've been a bicycling fool for many years, but the recent few years have been unkind; carpal tunnel surgery, two rotator cuff repairs, and an arthritic back have forced me to hang up the old two-wheeler. Thanks to the government's largess, however, I'll soon be back on the road on my new ride, a deSantis recumbent bicycle from Actionbent.

A recumbent looks like a head-on collision between a conventional bike and a recliner. The rider sits in a relaxed position on a chair-like seat. The pedals are out in front of him, rather than beneath, and the handlebars can either be mounted below the seat or above, much like the handlebars in the old one-speed Schwinns many of us rode as children.

The recumbent has an advantage in a headwind, since the rider is in a more streamlined position. It also has some downside; less visible to traffic, more challenging to ride in a straight line, and slower to accelerate from a stop. Nonetheless, for me, it's a grand compromise that should allow me to get on the road again. Thanks, Congress!

I wanted to spend my stimulus money (all $600 of it) on something foolish. I really did. But common sense usually wins in my house. So I promptly took my $600 and put it into my Scottrade account. I immediately invested the money in Chico's stock. Chico's is a women's clothing store that has been hit hard, like many retail stores have. Just under a year ago, the stock was at $27.70. Today it's been floating between $7.38 and $7.95 a share. Why did I invest in that stock? I'm not terribly scientific about it, but I do have a feeling that the company is strong enough to come back from the hard times.

So I bought the stock on May 14, and today I promptly sold it for a 5.8% gain. I know, I know. I only made just under $35 on the trade. But think of it this way: That's almost twice as much as I would have made putting the $600 into my savings account (which is currently paying 3%) and letting it sit there for a year. I made 5.8% in 5 days, and I don't think that's a bad deal.

And no, I'm not spending my $635. I've invested it in another stock and will hopefully turn a quick profit there too. I'm a complete amateur when it comes to the stock market, but I do alright and I have fun doing it. Give it a try... only $7 a trade with Scottrade.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Some have asked me what's the best use for the $1,200 tax rebate (families with kids get more). That was an easy answer for me personally -- I paid extra on my mortgage principal.

You probably realize that each time you make the payment on a 30-year mortgage only a small portion goes toward actually paying off the principal, while a much larger share of it goes toward paying interest. For example, I calculated the payment for a $200,000 mortgage loan at a 5.5% rate using a mortgage calculator at Bankrate.com. The payment for a 30-year loan would be $1135.58. When one makes the first payment on that loan $218.81 goes toward the principal of the loan and $916.67 goes toward interest.

I then used that calculator to determine how much I would save if I put an extra $1,200 toward the mortgage. The mortgage would be paid off five months earlier and I would save a total of $5,677.90 in payments. You can do the same calculation for your mortgage at Bankrate.com and see what that unexpected $1,200 could do for you.

Personally I've made the commitment to be totally debt free before I start retirement. I've found the best way to eliminate debt is the Money Merge Account (TM) system and I've been working with Theresa Bolton Lynch, who introduced the system to me after I wrote about the snowball effect for paying down debt. I've dubbed this system the snowball effect on steroids.

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Credit Score.

As millions of Americans are waiting to see that sweet sweet stimulus rebate appear in their bank accounts, many banks are feeling the pressure. My boss reported that as he was trying to manage his parent's finances last week he couldn't get into the local bank's online service. A phone call later and the problem was revealed to him by a friendly bank employee. The online banking system couldn't handle the repeated refreshes it was getting which could only be attributed to the throngs of people eagerly awaiting their HDTV allowance from the government.

We already received our stimulus package but today as a I tried to check the status of several automatic bill payments I was confronted with an error page. It's not that I don't understand the load that these requests are having on banks, I am just surprised that that many people are refreshing their bank websites in the wait for government cheese. It seems the many economic stimulus sales may be inciting consumers to spend spend spend.

If you haven't received your rebate yet and your social security number's time has come and gone be sure to check out several reasons your rebate may have been delayed. If you don't fit any of those categories and you still haven't received your money and you bank anywhere other than Citi or Chase do me a favor -- WAIT -- don't check your bank account like a meth addict in need of a hit. Some of us have important banking matters to attend to, like seeing if the PayPal transfer for selling my toilet paper roll collection went through!

Last week, fellow WalletPop blogger Julie Tilsner clued everyone in to this little known delay in receiving your economic stimulus money: "If filing or preparation fees were deducted from your 2007 refund, or you received a rapid refund, you will be receiving a check instead of a direct deposit."

Now word is out that a second group of taxpayers will be disappointed: those with spouses who do not have Social Security numbers will not receive any rebate money. The economic stimulus package was set up with this provision to prevent illegal immigrants from getting rebates. And I can't say I disagree much with this detail. While illegal immigrants probably would have put the money into the U.S. economy, it just wouldn't make any sense to give this money to someone who's not in the country legally.

But what about those foreigners who are here legally, and just don't have Social Security numbers? Unfortunately, they aren't eligible for this little perk received by those who do. Even the spouses of those without Social Security numbers won't receive a rebate check if they've filed their taxes jointly.

There are probably about 1 million legal residents of the U.S. who have green cards, but are waiting for paperwork for their spouses. It's hard to know how many others will be affected by this detail. Lawmakers have to continuously balance interests of many people when making their decision. This detail was an unintended consequence, and I think it's a small price to pay in order to make sure those in the country illegally don't benefit.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

I hate sitting by the phone, so to speak, but my mail carrier came and went today and there is no sign of my economic stimulus check.

I was a loud and bitchy critic of the economic stimulus plan from the start. It always seemed more politics than fiscal responsibility (but then when was this Republican administration ever about smaller government and fiscal prudence?). What's $600 going to do for the average debt-burdened consumer? Buy a month of groceries? Notch down one credit card? Yeah, I rolled my eyes and ranted and raved.

And then I figured out that I would be getting $1,800. That's $1,200 for being married and filing jointly, and $300 for each kid. My husband and I looked at each other sheepishly. Then we launched into the Happy Happy, Joy Joy dance.

Did you receive your economic stimulus check yet? These companies are offering you something extra if you will spend those bonuses with them.

SUPERVALU, nationwide chain of 2,500 grocery stores.
The deal: For every $300 gift card purchase purchased with a stimulus check, Supervalu will add an additional $30.
The catch: Good 5/2/08 thorugh 7/31/08

Staples, nationwide office supply chain.
The deal: $150 off $1,000 of furniture: $40 off purchase of $300 or more (except computers).
The catch: Expires 5/18/08

Sears, KMart and Land's End, retailers of fashion and home goods.
The deal: Convert your check to a Sears, K-Mart, or Land's End gift card and they'll give you another gift card worth 10% of that value. For those receiving a full $600, that's a free $60.
The catch: The offer begins May 14th and expires 7/18/08, and is only good for in-store purchases.

Home Depot, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: discounts on environmentally-friendly items.
The catch: None noted.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer of home, fashion and food products.
The deal: Will cash checks free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's bulk sales membership-required retailer.
The deal: Free membership for non-members or a $40 gift card for existing members with purchase of selected items. Free cashing of the stimulus check.
The catch: May 18-31.

Lowe's, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: Will cash checks for free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Meijer, retailer of home goods, clothes, and groceries.
The deal: $30 gift coupon for every $300 Meijer gift card purchased with rebate
The catch: Valid 5/2/08 to 5/31/08

RadioShack, nationwide vendor of electronics.
The deal: 10% off purchases over $50, with the balance of the check put on a Mastercard gift card.
The catch: Valid May 4- July 12, 2008.

Kroger, national grocery chain.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

Shop 'N Save, Cub Foods, Albertsons, Acme, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco, groceries owned by SuperValu Co., grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

CVS/pharmacy, pharmacies.
The deal: For loyalty club members, $5 off a $30 purchase.
The catch: None noted.

Food Lion grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: None noted

Safeway grocers.
The deal: shoppers that cash their check at Safeway will receive a coupon good for 10% off groceries purchased within two days.
The catch: Good May 14- July 19th.

Menards, construction and home supplies, in the Midwest.
The deal: 5% bonus tacked onto store credit when you cash your check at Menards.
The catch: None noted.