WalletPop

Preposterous Products: the talking vodka bottle

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-14T13:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Food, Home

Life used to be so simple. If you drank a lot and found the bottle talking back to you, you know you've had enough, and that it's time to stop. Conversely, if you were a bartender, and you saw one of your patrons having a conversation with the bottle, you knew it was time to call a cab and send the lush home.

That may change. Or at least in Russia, bickering with one's bottle of booze will no longer be considered odd.

As BBC News recently reported, in Russia, where drinking vodka is a national pastime, they've come up with the world's first ever talking vodka bottle top.

Every time you remove the cap off the bottle, which BBC News refers to as a vodka genie bottle top, a voice starts talking, offering a series of popular Russian toasts. The voice also encourages people to drink up.

And then proving that Russian scientists and vodka marketers have a sense of humor, every time you remove the top from the bottle, the vodka genie's speech becomes more and more slurred.

And I used to think the Hallmark talking cards were clever.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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Beat the postage increase: Print out your own stamps!

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-13T17:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Bargains, Budgets, Entrepreneurship, Home, Technology

Well, it's happened: postage has, once again, gone up. If you're like me, you probably send a letter through the mail once or twice a month, which means that the postage rate increase is now burning a massive 2¢ hole in your pocket. On the bright side, I generally pick up any pennies that I see on the sidewalk, so I should be able to make up the difference with about a half mile of walking.

I'm joking about this, but there was a time when the postage change would really have upset me. For a while, I used to sell a lot of items on eBay. One of the ways that I set myself apart from my competitors was by offering a standard fee for shipping and handling. If my buyer lived in the next town over, I made a fair bit of money; if he lived in Montana, I ended up losing dough. When the Postal Service used to up its rates, I had to up my rates, which made my flat rate fee seem a little less like a deal.

My fellow Walletpoppers have suggested some solid ways of undermining the postage increase. For example, Tom Barlow noted that, currently, "Forever" stamps are outperforming numerous stocks, and that buying large amounts of them is a nifty way to save a lot of postage money. However, as Tracy Coenen noted, it really doesn't make that much of a difference for "casual postage users" such as myself. Moreover, as my daughter has a tendency to affix stickers to the cat whenever she gets a chance, I prefer to minimize the number of stamps that I have laying around the house.

Another solution that neither involves a long-term stamp commitment nor a postage-laden kitty is electronic postage. Basically, you open an account with a company that is licensed to sell electronic postage; among others, this includes Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes. You buy the company's proprietary machinery and begin printing out your own stamps. Although electronic postage carries a startup cost, it certainly pays dividends in terms of time and effort, particularly when you consider how long the average post office visit takes (in my neighborhood, it's about an hour).

The postal service is also working to sweeten the deal. Express Mail users who print their own postage save 3% off the price of sending a package, while Priority Mail users will save 8.2%. Beyond that, even regular stamp users will save money by minimizing postage overpayment. Obviously, electronic postage isn't for everyone, but if you send out a lot of mail, it could help you save a lot of money.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. His favorite stamp was the one for National Proctological Awareness Month. He bought a couple hundred and used them to mail all his bills.

Three tips for buying a home on shaky credit

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-13T16:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Borrowing, Debt, Home, Real Estate

It's a buyer's market, they say. You can get a house for a really low amount of money, they say. In fact, they say, it's a wonderful time to purchase a home.

(Who are they? I'm not sure, actually. But I know that they say this sort of thing a lot, and besides, it's a useful device we writers employ when we don't quite know how to begin writing.)

Anyway, I've been wondering -- with banks tightening their policies for lending and being reluctant to give anyone a loan, is it really a buyer's market if people aren't given home loans so they can buy?

Ernestine Crews is the founder and president of eCrews Enterprises, which is what she calls a wealth building academy and opened last month. And Crews, who hosts "The Road to Wealth and the Guide to Financial Freedom" on KLSX-FM in Los Angeles, says, "The easy lending with low FICO scores -- the party is over. If you don't have prestige 700-plus credit, you're going to have a difficult time."

Well, sure, tell me something I don't know.

But then she did.
Tip #1
If you have credit as low as 580 and are having trouble convincing a bank to give you a home loan, sometimes you can offset your low score if you have enough in reserve in your 401K. (I'm not saying it's a great idea to use your 401K as a way to pay for your house, and Ms. Crews isn't either. Just that it's an option and possibly a bad one. I can just picture my fellow blogger and ultra-responsible accountant Tracy Coenen starting to write me a stern note right now.)

Tip #2
Ms. Crews also says that if you can offer a large down payment, of at least 20% down, and verify your income with W2's, "there are hard money lenders who are non-traditional and their guidelines are more lenient, but may accept lower FICO scores." But she warns that by taking out what is literally called hard money loans, you'll walk away with a higher interest rate, a prepayment penalty and a choice between interest only or a fixed rate loan. In other words, an option, but again, not a great option.

So what can you do, if you have shaky credit, but a good job, and you really want a home? You're probably not going to like it, but...

Tip #3
Wait it out, suggests Ms. Crews, adding, "This is a good time to spend time now, learning how to enhance your credit."

Her advice is a wee bit self-serving, since that's what eCrews Enterprises does. They offer classes on wealth management and teach people how to improve credit scores. Still, self-serving or not, it's probably the best advice out there for someone who is almost, but not quite, ready to buy their own home. After all, not waiting to improve their credit is how a lot of people got into this mess in the first place.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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House in foreclosure? Set it on fire!

Tracy Coenen — 2008-05-13T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Insurance, Ripoffs and Scams

News reports say that as the number of mortgage foreclosures increases, so do the number of "suspicious" fires. When the fire occurs mere days before a homeowner will be forced to leave their house due to foreclosure, it obviously creates suspicion.

Some homeowners do it to get revenge on the mortgage company or bank. Others do it thinking that they will collect insurance money that can be used to prevent the foreclosure. Check out this video on setting houses on fire, especially in areas with higher rates of foreclosure.

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.

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Depressing: Self-storage unit auctions on the rise

Zac Bissonnette — 2008-05-11T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Real Estate

When I was about 10 years old, I went to an abandoned property auction at a local self-storage place with my mother. We thought it would be a fun end to a long day of yard-saling. It was anything but. It was cold and rainy, and it was one of the more depressing experiences I've ever had. An old and sickly auctioneer went from unit to unit, auctioning off the contents by the lot, with no time for any kind of inspection. People bid $10 or $15 for a chance to acquire someone's property because they couldn't pay the $50 a month to keep it. Notably, a large collection of Jackson 5/Michael Jackson memorabilia went to auction after the family failed to pay its storage bill.

With foreclosures hitting record rates around the country, many former homeowners are packing their life's accumulations into storage units. But the financial woes that made it impossible for them to keep their homes are making it tough for them to keep their stuff in storage.

According to a self-storage center manager quoted in a New York Times piece, an increasing number of people are also trying to (illegally) live in their storage units.

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Dear neighbor: Thanks for the magazines!

Zac Bissonnette — 2008-05-11T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home

My extremely generous neighbor whom I've never even met -- his name is Michael -- has given me subscriptions to two of the hottest celebrity gossip magazines. When I go down to my lobby to check the mail, I always give a quick glance into the recycle bin. Every Friday for the past two months, I've found the latest issues of OK Weekly and US Weekly -- at the top of the bin, mailing labels still in-tact.

I can only speculate about why Michael doesn't even bother reading his magazines. Perhaps they were a gift that he didn't want. Perhaps he gets multiple copies because of some clerical error. Or maybe he has a new live-in girlfriend, and admitting that he actually spends money to keep up to date on celebrity news would make him feel like less of a man. Whatever the reason, I get both magazines at 100% off the weekly newsstand price of $7.98 -- plus the fistful of change I'll get for writing this post.

If you live in a big building, it might be worth a quick -- and discrete -- look through the recycling by the mailboxes every once in awhile. And I have a request for the USPS: each post office should include a magazine rack where people can place anything that they receive but don't want.

OK, I'm going back to reading "Britney & Jamie Lynn at Home: OK World Exclusive!"

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Fake skylights for claustrophobic homeowners

Josh Smith — 2008-05-10T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home

Have you ever wished for a big picture window or a skylight for an interior room in your house? Maybe your basement office or your first floor, middle of the house kitchen could use some livening up. You're in luck, The Sky Factory, sells fake skylights and fictitious windows to brighten up even the most central locations in your house. The system works by inserting pictures of the outdoors into window frames or skylight settings which are then backed by LED or fluorescent lighting to improve the aesthetics and livability of any location. You can even pull in outer space or underwater images to customize your living space.

The potential for these products is huge! Think of the retention rates when everyone in the office has a virtual corner office due to the luminous virtual windows. Adding a virtual skylight with a summery scene to your house could be the ticket to fighting Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or claustrophobia. If so you might even be able to write pass the improvement off as a health benefit. Additionally these fake windows may be just the thing for your exhibitionist side! Now you can enjoy the feeling of relaxing or partaking in other activities wearing only your birthday suit directly in front of the window without the pesky threat of public indecency!

People have long used mirrors and other illusions to make a room appear bigger or brighter but this solution from The Sky Factory seems a little more elegant and high tech. It isn't as high tech or nerdy if you will, as my goal to procure several HD cameras and large LCD monitors to make a wall in my office reflect one of several locations worldwide but I think it will suffice. If you are simply looking for the sunlight benefits of a skylight without the fantastic view check out our previous coverage, how to light your home for free.

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Diabetes danger: Back away from the Burger King!

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-08T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Food, Home, Health

My wife and I are thinking about moving. As we've been looking at various apartments, we've had to consider the standard questions: how close is it to the subway, what is the nearest hospital, do the drug dealers seem friendly, what's the homicide rate, how many pairs of shoes are dangling from the nearby power lines...

You know, the standard Bronx questions.

One issue that we've never considered is the distance between our home and the nearest McDonald's. However, a recent study has revealed that our proximity to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores might be among the most important considerations when we choose our next home.

Apparently, neighborhoods in which junk food joints outnumber grocery stores exhibit much higher levels of obesity and diabetes than areas where the opposite is the case. This, by the way, is true for all people, regardless of race, social class, and economic position.

The study, conducted by UCLA's Center for Health Policy and a pair of nonprofit health advocacy groups, proposed a new environmental measure: RFEI, or "Retail Food Environmental Index." Basically, RFEI is the total number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores in an area, divided by the the number of grocery stores, supermarkets, farmers' markets, and other fresh produce vendors in the area. The average RFEI in California was 4.5, which means that, for every produce retailer in a Californian's neighborhood, there are 4.5 junk food palaces.

The study showed that California adults who lived in an area with a RFEI of 5 or higher had a 23% greater chance of having diabetes and a 20% greater chance of being obese than those living in an area with an RFEI of 3 or less. Needless to say, junk food purveyors quickly got up in arms, proclaiming that individuals are responsible for their food choices and that "[Suggesting] that living near a quick-service restaurant is a health threat akin to living next to a coal plant is ludicrous."

Personally, I'm not so sure. I used to work near a coal plant, and the filters on the stack meant that I rarely had to deal with any nasty smells or evil particulates. On the other hand, the McDonald's that I had to pass on the way home consistently put out the tantalizing scent of bubbling fries, a health threat that I found much more dangerous. More to the point, my daughter already recognizes the distinctive Dunkin' Donuts logo and she's only two and a half. Like Pavlov's dog, she starts drooling whenever we get within sight of one.

I wonder if I can find an apartment near a farmers' market...

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He carries a portable cattle prod to "gently" remind himself that fast food is bad, bad, bad!

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Home owner's insurance tip of the day

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-08T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Insurance

About seven years ago, shortly after my wife and I moved into our house, it started raining, and the roof began leaking. We hadn't been in the house a year, and so naturally we wondered if the previous owners of our home knew anything about this. But I hardly had time to dwell on the dampness of our new dwelling. About two months after filing a claim to have some roofers make some repairs, a lightning strike took out our sump pump in the basement in the middle of the night, and when I came downstairs in the morning, I was stepping onto a wet, mushy carpet underneath about two inches of water.

Before the water even receded, we filed another claim, foolishly thinking that that's what a home owner should do. What can I say? We were young and stupid. Almost needless to say, we were told that our policy wouldn't replace the soon-to-be-molding carpet and received a check for a few hundred dollars to replace my damaged fax machine and other random items in my home office. Then, as anyone experienced in this sort of thing can predict -- our insurance dropped us. Our crime? Filing too many claims. Two in about six months, in fact. I still sometimes lie awake at night, feverish and guilt-ridden for having the temerity to use my home owner's insurance.
But then, for a magazine article, I was recently interviewing Scott Simmonds, an insurance consultant in Maine who advises Fortune 1000 companies, and he told me something really interesting, an aside that I thought I'd share with WalletPop readers. And forgive me, for any of you who read this and think, "Duh--doesn't everyone know this?" Not me. I had no idea.

"In some states," said Simmonds, "when somebody goes to buy your house, they'll try to insure it, and generally about three days before the closing, the insurance company, if they see that there have been claims on the house, they may not sell your buyer home owner's insurance."

As if people selling their homes need any more good news. What might happen in that case? The buyer may back out, of course, or they may end up convincing you to shave off a serious chunk of income before signing those papers.

So the lesson to take away from all of this? To never file a claim on your house?

Almost, but, no, says Simmonds. "Don't turn in small claims. You should have a big deductible and 'eat' small claims. If your roof leaks, and there's a little damage to your ceiling, don't even call your agent, just fix it yourself," advised Simmonds, not knowing my backstory or that just a week earlier, I filed another claim for our roof, which still leaks. And, sure enough, my home owner's insurance, an obviously different one than what I had years ago, seemed pretty cranky that I had called.

Simmonds recalls a tree once falling on his own house. It bent up some gutters and tore some shingles off the roof. He never called his agent. He just put a little paint on his home and, in his words, "moved on," something I wish I had known to do.

"Insurance should be for the big stuff, like a fire," says Simmonds. "It should be for the things we can't handle on our own."

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale). He is wondering if his home owner's insurance covers nervous breakdowns that are caused by having home owner's insurance.

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Go green with a battery powered lawn mower

Josh Smith — 2008-05-06T16:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

High gas prices don't only affect your vehicle; for many homeowners mowing your lawn is getting more costly each week. Fortunately for the frugal and eco-conscience home owner, there is a battery- powered lawn mower which claims to provide a cheaper and quieter home landscaping solution.

The Neuton company sells two different models of its battery powered mowers, both with an optional trimmer, starting at just under $400. The Neuton company estimates close to $250 in savings over a three-year period when switching from a gas-powered mower due to fuel and tune up costs. Additionally if you live in any of five counties in Southwest Ohio, you can currently get the mower for $289 through a special program at the local waste department.

The Neuton mowers are much quieter and lighter than conventional gas powered mowers, which for many users will be a huge positive, but these benefits do not come without a few trade offs. The Neuton 5.2 mower, which is the lightest it offers, does have a smaller mowing area than most gas mowers and some users have complained of poor power. The newer Neuton 6.2 mower provides a wider mowing base and more power for a better mowing experience, but gains back some weight for these strengths. It would be well worth noting that I haven't had a chance to use either of these mowers, so you might be wise to seek out someone with experience before forming any final judgments.
I have had the pleasure of mowing my in-law's lawn the past several weeks due to a recent surgery and recuperation, it took me back to my days mowing lawns in high school and over college summers. I forgot how unwieldy and loud some mowers can be. I had to max out the volume on my mp3 player just to hear it over the roar of the mower.

Cornering a heavy mower with a recently recouped knee has also proved more challenging than in my younger days. The Neuton mowers also start with a squeeze rather than an elongated series of pulls and grunts, which should be joyous news to anyone dealing with a mower a few years old. When we purchase a home in the near future, I would love to check out the Neuton 6.2 mower, but I would want to see a demo before I purchased it outright. These mowers may also be very useful elderly homeowners who enjoy cutting their own grass.

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Home Depot closing 15 stores

Tracy Coenen — 2008-05-05T16:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Shopping

Last week, Home Depot announced that it would be closing 15 stores that it considers "underperforming." The closures will affect 1,300 employees. On the flip side, Home Depot said it will continue with plans to open 36 stores that are already under development. Another 50 stores were "in the pipeline," but those plans are being scrapped for now. Consider this a move to weed out the bad stores, and open ones that are expected to do better.

The closings are mostly in Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey, and Ohio. I took a look at the list of stores in my area, and never realized that there are eight Home Depots within about a 20 mile radius of me. It's no wonder they're closing one of them. Even with metro-Milwaukee's population of something around 1.3 million people (city and suburbs together), eight stores still sound like a lot to me.

Home Depot has had a strategy of adding more stores to an area in order to increase total market share in that area, even though additional stores may cut into the sales of Home Depot stores already standing. This latest announcement suggests that the chain is going to be a bit more strategic about its store openings.

Obviously, new store openings are very expensive, so management wants to put its expansion dollars into those stores that will bring the best returns. Sounds good to me. I love Home Depot and have had nothing but good experiences with it. I like the idea of changing things up in order to be more profitable and protect the brand.

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.

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Art prints: The (relatively) inexpensive way to start an art collection

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-03T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Home

Given the current economy, most people probably aren't thinking about buying art. However, as savvy investors often point out, going against the prevailing current can be quite profitable. Besides, President Bush has told us that we are supposed to pour our tax refund checks back into the economy. Buying art is a great way to do just that--after all, you buy the art and the artist spends the money on booze, drugs and cheese. This, in turn, makes it possible for the breweries, distilleries, dairies and drug dealers to hire more employees, leading to economic recovery and a bright, shiny future. Best of all, you end up with a beautiful piece of art to hang on your wall!

If you've looked at art prices recently, you've probably noticed that most art pieces are really, really expensive. Unless you plan on visiting one of those "starving artists" shows that feature a lot of boring, uninspired landscapes, you're probably going to pay at least a few thousand dollars for a decent painting, and the prices go up quickly when you start looking at work by well-known and well-regarded artists. On the other hand, artists' prints tend to be an outstanding value. They cost a fraction of the price of paintings while offering a good investment opportunity.To learn a little bit more about investing in art, I decided to talk to an expert. Jennifer Watson is the former director of the Washington Printmakers Gallery and currently works in the New York art scene. She agreed to spend a couple of minutes teaching me a few key points about artist's prints.

Who collects art prints?

Almost everybody! Wealthier investors who collect paintings often collect prints as well, as they sometimes want to own as much of an artist's work as possible. Artists are also another major group that collects prints, as it enables them to get a feeling for the other artists who are out there. Besides that, famous people from Edgar Allen Poe to Phil Collins to Sam Waterston have collected prints.

What should I look for when buying a print?

The first consideration should always be whether or not you like the art itself; regardless of whether or not a print goes up in value, your appreciation of it will make the purchase worthwhile. Ultimately, even the most sophisticated art collectors often base their buying decisions on their enjoyment of a particular artist.

If you're looking for a print that will go up in value, you will want to consider the artist's potential to appreciate. While this is very difficult to predict, there are a few variables that you can research in order to narrow the field. One of the first is the question of whether or not the artist also does paintings. While prints are a popular medium, they are nowhere near as volatile as paintings. To put it bluntly, artists who paint are much more likely to be seen, to be appreciated, and to be sold. Similarly, artists who enter major events like the Basel Fair and the Whitney Biennial are also more likely to increase in value.

Another way to determine which artists are likely to appreciate in value is by reading ARTNews, Artforum, and other trade magazines. These resources will tell you who is represented by the blue-chip galleries, like Pace Wildenstein, Gagosian, and Paula Cooper. Similarly, you might want to look at the artists that are being shown by the top auction houses, like Christie's or Sotheby's, or smaller, prominent houses like Phillips dePury, Doyle, and Bonham's. By basing your investments on the choices of major dealers, you can benefit from their expertise, as well as their efforts on behalf of the artists.

Once you get a feeling for who is currently hot in the art world, you can do some further research to ascertain their potential for growth. Again, this is an area in which galleries and auction houses can help you out; these companies are invested in increasing the popularity of their artists, so they are often willing to give you all sorts of useful information, including artists' bios, lists of present and upcoming commissions, and awards that the artists have received. This can help you predict which artists are going to break.

Can you give me an example?

Sure! Elizabeth Murray was a dramatic and revolutionary post-minimalist painter who achieved considerable renown in the art world, but was not very well known in mainstream society. In the mid-1990's, she accepted a commission to install a mural at the 59th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station in New York City. It was a beautiful, bold work, and it really captured the attention of non-collectors. Suddenly, her popularity exploded and she became famous outside of the art world. In terms of collections, her earlier work quickly went up in value.

What if you want to buy art from an artist who hasn't been discovered yet?

This is a lot harder and requires a lot more analysis. One method for finding great undiscovered talent is looking at schools. For example, several prominent artists, including Brice Marden, Chuck Close, and Nancy Graves, all studied Art at Yale in the early 1960's. If you were able to find a lesser known Yale student from that period, you might be able to get prints or paintings that would appreciate considerably. Of course, they also might not do very much at all!

If you're looking to spend a little bit of money on a lesser-known artist with the potential to become more valuable, one good place to go is regional printmaker's galleries or collectives. Often, these galleries feature artists who aren't as well known, but are ambitious and skillful. Also, galleries and collectives sometimes host juried competitions, like the Washington Printmakers Gallery's National Small Works Show. By attending these events, you can benefit from the expertise of the jury members, who are often well-known figures in the art world.

Another option, of course, is to go for a longshot and visit showings at art schools. You will sometimes find art that is beautiful from artists who have real potential. At the very least, buying student art is a great way to encourage the next generation of artists!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He didn't have the heart to ask if his "limited-edition" Rat Fink posters are ever going to go up in value.

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A recession fantasy

Beth Wechsler — 2008-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Kids and Money, Simplification

At the risk of branding myself as a Pollyanna (does anyone still know what that is?), I think there may be a silver lining to a recession. No one wants to see people lose their homes or suffer the stresses that come with a downturn in the economy -- but some of our values are in desperate need of recalibration. Hard times can do that.

I have a fantasy. For those of you who have read my posts before and know where I come from as a child therapist, the fantasy probably won't surprise you. Imagine this.

The parent(s) have reviewed their financial situation and decided they will have to make some changes. Last summer the kids went away to camp for a month and the other month took three lessons each. The rest of the time, they mainly fought over the computer and ate cupcakes and cereal in front of the television.

They sit down with their children -- who are in this fantasy eight and 10 years old -- and break the news. It might go something like this:

"We're going to be making some changes this summer. We hope they're going to turn our really well, but you may be a little taken aback at first. We are going to be spending less money than we usually do and it's just possible that it will turn out to be a lot of fun.

"Here's the plan. You won't be going away to camp this summer. We're also going to cut back on lessons from June through the end of August. Your sixteen year old cousin will be coming to stay with us and she is going to take care of you when we're at work. She'll take you to the park and swimming when the weather is good. Sometimes she'll also take you to the kids' club and to community activities and to places like the library. You'll be taking public transportation and bringing lunch with you. You'll spend lots of time just hanging out and playing with the kids in the neighborhood. Your cousin likes to do arts and crafts, she plays soccer, and she likes boardgames. You'll be able to sleep in and - as long as she tells us you've been cooperating with her - you'll be able to stay up late.

We'll make sure there's always ice cream in the freezer and ice cream cones. Over the weekends, we'll be taking day trips together. We'll spend a week on a family vacation in August. We won't be flying anywhere, like we did last year, but we'll all decide together on something that will be fun. We hope that's good news. We don't think you're going to like the next part though. We're discontinuing cable television for the summer. We'll reconsider it for the winter though."

How does that sound to you? How do you think your children would react? If you - or they - worry about being bored then they're probably over-scheduled.

I'm not the only one wishing for a simpler, (and cheaper) summer experience. Check out Michelle Turk's and Julie Tilsner's posts on the topic, too.

Ask the Dolans: Should we take out a home equity loan to pay off debt?

Ken and Daria Dolan — 2008-05-01T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Banks, Budgets, Cards, Debt, Home, The Dolans

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Dear Ken and Daria,

My husband and I have $7,000 in credit card debt. Should we take out a home equity loan?

Lyndajoy

Ken and Daria Dolan offer advice on all of your debt concerns at their Credit Resource Center.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

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Recession watch: Repo Men are reaping benefits

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-01T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Debt, Home, Recession

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

I've had a couple close calls over the years, but happily, I've never had the experience of having anything repossessed. But if anyone reading this has had something hauled away, if it makes you feel any better, you're obviously not alone.

In this almost-but-not-quite recession, repo men have some enviable careers. Newspapers around the country have been publishing stories about local repo men raking in the bucks, taking away mostly vehicles, from cars to campers, and motorcycles to motor boats. According to KHOU, a Houston TV news station, 1.5 million vehicles were repossessed last year, a 15-percent increase from 2006. 2008 is expected to jump 10 percent from 2007.

But you can't really blame the repo men. They didn't create the current economic conditions, and they are just doing their job, and while I'm sure they're glad to be making extra money (who wouldn't want that?), I doubt these guys are getting their kicks off another person's misery. Besides, somebody's gotta do it.But what is a little creepy is what Cesar Dias, a California real estate agent, is doing, no offense meant to the guy. Obviously, he's a capitalist, and that's great, but it's not like his money-making venture was something the world was clamoring for. In any case... every Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., he takes three sold-out full-sized buses of interested buyers on a tour of all the repossessed homes in and around Stockton, California.

Meanwhile, Dias has been consulting other real estate agents at $5,000 a pop, so they can make an informed decision whether they should rent or buy a bus and get listed on his Web site, RepoHomeTour.com.

But it seems like it would have to be one of the saddest bus rides and money-making ventures going, if you really consider it. Owning a home is supposed to be the American dream. The people on the bus will be easier able to fulfill their American dreams because a lot of others failed to make their own come true.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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How to light your house for free

Josh Smith — 2008-04-29T16:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I have long been jealous of any home or office with a skylight. The thought of enjoying sunshine even when indoors and hard at work is giving me energy right now. Unfortunately most skylights are large windows, which can also be a thorn in the side of your heating bill. Thankfully there is a innovative solution which uses "a series of tubes" to deliver sunlight to several rooms.

This lighting system is made by Sun-Tek and come in several configurations depending how you want to use sunlight in your house. The Sun-Tek tubes can even be outfitted with an additional light so you don't need to install other fixtures to use the room at night. According to the Sun-Tek website the smallest tube they offer, 10 inches, is equivalent to two 100 watt light bulbs, sure to brighten up your home.

I'm not sure that any studies have linked sunshine to productivity, but I know sunshine bumps mine up. I would love to have a skylight in the shower in order to harness the sun's energy as part of my morning wake up routine. I don't know how far these tubes can carry the sunlight, but how cool would it be to light your basement man-cave with sunlight? You know: for those times you need to be sure just how many troops you have in Australia before you launch your quest for world domination.

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Welcome to the future of TV: Here's your bill

Bruce Watson — 2008-04-29T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Home, Shopping

Every now and again over the past couple of years, some media source or another has run a story about the impending switch to digital TV. As of February 17, 2009, all television signals will be broadcast in digital, as opposed to analog, format.

This was mandated by Congress, which justified it by stating that digital broadcasting will clear up frequencies for public-safety communications. I'm sure that this decision had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it would ultimately require millions of Americans to buy new televisions, which would pour tons of money into the coffers of various manufacturers. I can't help but wonder how much money Sony has contributed to Congressional election funds over the last decade or so.

On the one side, this is really pretty irrelevant. If you receive your television signals through cable or satellite, then you will not be affected. In fact, this will only be an issue for people who use television antennae, a technology that is almost out the door.

While the National Association of Broadcasters has estimated that 70 million people will need to buy new TVs, I feel like they're exaggerating the situation somewhat. After all, it seems like cable and other non-traditional broadcast methods have more or less cornered the market on media content. Beyond that, many of us are now getting our entertainment and news from our computers, where CNN updates the news instantaneously and sites like Hulu and Netflix provide television shows and movies, often free-of-charge.

Still, for those of us who still rely on the old rabbit ears, things are about to get even worse. Although the government has provided a coupon to defray the cost of the new converter boxes, they are still going to cost $20 apiece. Moreover, as the Associated Press recently reported, at least two of the new converter boxes will require users to manually program settings for each of their television shows. Otherwise, the shows are likely to appear either much smaller or much larger than the television screen.

One more time: why, exactly, are we doing this?

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. If you want him, he'll be sitting in the corner, reading a book, and grumbling about the government.

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Consumers changing spending habits: No big deal

Tracy Coenen — 2008-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Budgets, Food, Home

An article in the New York Times this weekend detailed some of the changes consumers are making in their spending habits in light of tighter economic times. But I'm not feeling sorry for Americans. We are one of the richest countries in the world, and even our "poor" have luxuries beyond what could be imagined in many countries.

There is really no hardship when consumers are "forced" to eat at home instead of restaurants or to buy generic foods instead of name brands. It's not a big deal when they have to cut back on expensive meat, in favor of more "fillers" in their meals like pasta or inexpensive vegetables. We're not malnourished, and buying name brands is not our God-given right.

I'm not saying that rising food costs are a good thing. Of course no one wants to pay more, and certain staples are getting ridiculously expensive. But I am saying that a little more strategic budgeting and cost-saving isn't a hardship. Eating in more and going for economical choices over convenient ones is not a bad thing either.

As consumers, we've been spoiled for a long time. Low prices on many goods allowed us to be a bit careless with our money. Now many are in a position in which they have to be more selective and thrifty. Sure, it's more fun to spend without looking at the price tag. But as consumers, we'll weather this storm just fine and find new habits to replace the old in an ever-changing economy.

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.

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Decorate your home at the dollar store?

Zac Bissonnette — 2008-04-28T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Bargains, Home, Shopping

I know you're probably skeptical about this. Decorating a home at a dollar store? What's next? Wedding gifts at the Salvation Army?

But Marlene Alexander who runs DollarStoreStyle.com shows readers how to do just that -- with candles, dinnerware, fake flowers, soap dishes, etc. all purchased for $1.

I've also become a big fan of dollar store decor: after buying a Pearlessence SpaMist, I headed over to DollarTree and found very good-quality liquid potpourri in tons of scents -- 33.6 fluid ounces for $1, 1/3rd of what it would set you back at Jo-Ann Stores (when it is in stock).

If you're Marlene Alexander and you're interested in writing about dollar stores for WalletPOP, leave a comment and I'll be in touch!

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Little kids need iron, but Iron Man?

Geoff Williams — 2008-04-25T19:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Home, Kids and Money, Simplification

Nothing like feeling righteously indignant.

I read this morning in MediaPost that the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is asking Burger King to stop a promotion where it gives away Iron Man toys with its Kids' Meals. And at first, since I had just woken up and hadn't had my cup of caffeine yet, I thought, "This is a good thing. Iron is important to a child's nutrition."

Then half a second later I remembered the 43,000 commercials I've seen for Robert Downey Jr.'s upcoming movie Iron Man and got with the program.

And then I thought: Good for the CCFC.

Now, I'm a realist. I know that if you're going to live in the real world, and if you have TV, you're not going to be able to keep your kids away from commercials, and I don't think you should, frankly. Part of childhood is practicing to be a grownup, and I figure if somehow my daughters got through life without seeing any commercials, someday they'd be 24-years-old and defenseless when watching TV. I imagine them suddenly one night going on a $35,000 infomercial shopping spree with their credit cards, buying up items like George Foreman Grills and Ron Popeil's Rotisseries & BBQs.

When my kids -- currently 4 and 6 years old -- watch children's channels like Nickelodeon and the commercials come on, whether it's for a toy or just showing scenes of a vacation spot, they're often chanting, "I want that, I want that, and, Daddy, I really want THAT."

And it's up to me to usually say, "No, no -- and where would a dolphin sleep in our house, anyway?"

And, indeed, several times, my daughters have gotten all excited about Iron Man, which they know all about because Nickelodeon runs the ads about every 11 seconds, and I've told my girls that they can see the movie -- when they're older, in about 10 years when we rent or are buying movies on our hologram DVD player.

But whether asking Burger King to pull the toys is realistic or not -- and I don't think for a second that the fast food giant will bend on this -- I think the goals of the CCFC are noble. We need groups like this to point out when corporate America is being idiotic, and no offense to whoever greenlighted this promotion, but geez, what were you thinking? You're not a parent, are you? No, it's not like you came up with an idea to have Kids Meals with action figures from Saw or The Exorcist, but you're not making it any easier for moms and dads when you try to get preschoolers and elementary school kids all hyped up on a movie more suitable for hormonal, action-oriented 17-year-old boys.

And, geez, and now listen to me! I sound like one of those uptight grown ups that I snickered at when I was 17 . Thanks A LOT, Burger King!

Geoff Williams is a business journalist, a concerned dad and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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