• clarkhoward.com - Clark's VOIP and Internet telephony list
• tiaa-cref - help with teacher retirements
• vanguard.com - move your retirement money

A few years ago in Clark’s TV work, he had people test all kinds of water – from tap to bottled. These were people who claimed they never drank tap water because of its taste. Yet, people on the panel selected tap as the best water in the bunch. Now ABC News has done the same thing. They tested all kinds of waters and talked to experts from Yale and the University of New Hampshire. The tap water was absolutely fine on all accounts. And, you may not know it, but bottled water is actually tap water in disguise. Read the back of one of the bottles and you’ll see it from some municipal water source as the origin. The only reason to drink bottled water is because you don’t like the taste of tap.

The average car loan has gone from 48 months to 63 months just in the last few years. So, instead of being in debt for four years, people are in debt for five years. And some people are taking out six- or seven-year loans. In addition, the people who are buying these cars are often upside down in their current loans. So, you’ll end up owing money on the old car even after you’ve traded it in. It’s a recipe for disaster. If you learn your car is worth less than you owe, keep it. Even if you hate the car, you have to keep it. Kim, one of Clark’s producers, bought a truck a few years ago when finance charges were 0 percent. She was very excited about the deal at the time, but now she hates the vehicle. However, she’s sticking with it, even thought it has a five-year loan. Sometimes you just have to eat it. And if you’re looking at a car you really want but there is no way you can make the payments, you have to chose another car.

We say all the time how great people are who become teachers. These individuals work overtime to teach our children and very often get little in return. But teachers have been taken advantage of for as long as Clark can remember, especially when they retire. First of all teachers don’t have access to the same retirement plans that other workers do. Instead they are forced into 403b plans, which are inferior in nature to 401k plans. Even worse, they’re offered very few choices and most of them are horrible annuity plans. In the worst cases, teacher’s unions are handling the retirement plans and are taking kickbacks for putting teachers in a certain annuity. In New York, for example, the New York State United Teachers union gets a $3 million kickback to put teachers in these plans. If you’re a teacher, you need to know about this and take action. You can transfer your money tax free to two low-cost companies. The companies with the lowest costs are TIAA-Cref and Vanguard. TIAA-Cref is cheaper than Vanguard, but both are much better choices than any kind of annuity your union is pushing on you. If you have friends who are teachers, please let them know. Click here for the full story (free registration may be required).

Over the years, Clark has taken issue on the air with people who try to “sell” others on the idea that they don’t have to pay income taxes. Every time it happened, Clark got more complaints from people who believed it. Just because some presenter in a hotel ballroom tells you that income taxes are voluntary doesn’t mean it’s true. If you get involved you can get in serious trouble and maybe go to jail. It happened to one woman that Clark has mentioned on the air named Lynn Meredith. She has made millions of dollars selling her kits on avoiding income tax. She was very flamboyant about it, shamelessly driving around in a Mercedes convertible. Well, now she’s going to be riding in a prison bus. Meredith was sentenced to more than 10 years for defrauding the IRS and failing to file her income taxes. She’s one of many people making money off your willingness to believe that you don’t have to pay. So, when someone starts telling you about laws you don’t have to follow and then offers you a solution that involves paying them for a solution, run the other way!

How do you pay for things these days? Most people use either a debit card, a credit card, cash and some people still use checks. But a new way of paying is on the horizon. Paying with your fingerprint or thumbprint is growing like gangbusters. It was developed by a company known as “BioPay,” and it allows stores to verify that someone is really who they say they are. It’s popping up in supermarkets and convenience stores. People in Germany are even accessing their bank accounts with a fingerprint. The Washington Post reports that supermarkets in South Carolina are experimenting with this program. It’s already going on in 80 supermarkets in Georgia and South Carolina. Clark is fine with the idea of using these systems as long as it's voluntary.

eBay is starting to get hurt a lot by its FREE rival classified site, Craig’s List. So, what did the company do? It bought the company. Craig’s List, the popular local classified site, has grown so much in popularity that the concept is spreading all over the world. KnightRidder, the newspaper chain, is making its advertising free online because it was getting crushed by Craig’s List. eBay has also started a free advertising site outside the U.S. known as kajiji.com. With these free local sites, there is no protection against fraud or other crimes. But prospective buyers can check out goods before they buy because everything is local. We’ll see how all of these pan out.