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Clark remembers when making a long distance call in college cost him $3.55 for the first three minutes. A stamp was about 6 or 8 cents at the time. Today, most long distance calling is free as part of cell phone rate plans and Internet calling. So, long distance calling has no economic value anymore and people communicate electronically in so many different ways. So, the news that stamp prices are going up again really doesn’t matter to anyone. You may have not even heard about the increase to 39 cents. Paying bills is a totally different thing today, as electronic bill pay grows. It used to be a huge deal when the cost of stamps went up. But come Jan. 1, 2006, a 2-cent jump is not going to affect many people. If it’s still affecting you, maybe you should jump into the 21st century.

You’ve probably gotten at least one phishing e-mail since they became the hot target of crooks. They claim to be from your bank or some other institution and tell you that you need to verify your account information. About 2 million people have gotten taken by phishing scams, and one of the first ones involved a fake eBay e-mail. The eBay e-mail claimed to be about PayPal and asked members to update their information because it had been comprised. Tons of people took the bait. One English man, David Levi, had a gang that started this scam. He stole tons of identities and now is going to prison for four years. The rest of the members of the gang were sentenced to two years. Identity theft is a huge problem in the U.S., much worse than in England. So, it’s good to see people paying for their crimes.

The housing market is in a holding pattern in many areas of the country. There is no crystal ball to predict what will happen. But Clark read a very clear story in USA Today, detailing what’s happening in different areas of the country. The reality is that the era of very large increases in home prices is almost certainly over. Now, that doesn’t mean that prices will decline. It just means they won’t gallop like they have been doing. Prices have gone up way too much in certain areas. Phoenix, the area with the biggest increase, went up 47 percent; Cape Coral, Fla. – 45% ; Palm Bay – 45%; Orlando – 36%; Sarasota - 34%; Reno - 32%; Miami - 32%; and Daytona Beach – 31% Those are not sustainable increases because they outstrip people’s incomes. It doesn’t mean you need to panic sell either. The number of homes on the market in Phoenix has increased 220 percent in the last 20 days, so people are clearly thinking they need to cut their losses and get out. But if you’re not a speculator and you just own a home because you want to live there, relax. You are fine. People in many markets will lose faith in real estate. But it was overdone to begin with. We're moving into a new cycle, but long term real estate will be fine.

People are getting more worried about lax security in the banking world. More than 40 percent are doing fewer online transactions and more than 50 percent are concerned about their financial information being compromised online, according to USA Today. And about 80 percent of people are now afraid of ID theft occurring online. Add to that the fact that only one of the eight largest banks has moved to cooperate with federal guidelines to use better online authentication. Only Bank of America has adopted real security measures, while 99 percent of banks only require a user name and password. It’s in excusable and unacceptable, and it’s happening at J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo. People can easily access your account and steal your identity with just the user name and password setup. In Europe, there is very little account takeover because they are required to have very tight security features. There are many ways to do this in the U.S., and it would save banks a lot of money in the long run. Instead, banks are undermining people’s faith in our financial institutions. It would behoove everyone if banks would wake up and set up more secure service.

Should you go to work when you’re sick? About 75 percent of people do. Sometimes it’s okay to go to work and sometimes it isn’t. For instance, if you’re sniffling, but you’re not achy, it’s probably an allergy. It’s okay to go to work. If you are sniffling, achy, feverish and you probably are coming down with something and should not go to work. If you’re coughing but nothing’s coming up, it’s okay to go to work. If nasty stuff is coming up, don’t go to work and go see a doctor. You don’t want to go to work if you are contagious. To read the rest of the checklist, click here.