• quicken.com - help with money planning
• claims.org - help with bills
• billadvocates.com - help with bills

Say you get pre-certified from your health care plan to have an elective surgery or procedure. You probably think your out-of-pocket costs aren’t going to be that much. But then you get a bill for thousands of dollars. Now, it can be a simple mistake. But it also may be a lack of homework on your part. When you’re having surgery, you want to make sure the surgeon is on your plan first. Usually people do this, but they don’t make sure the anesthesiologist is on their plan. Another possibility is that the in-plan doctor brings in someone else in his or her absence. You could be out thousands of dollars. What it boils down to is you have to make sure everyone involved in the procedure is in your plan. You have to have this additional conversation despite the hassle to you.

Clark has gotten a steady increase in calls from people who think they’ve won the lottery. This hoax is so bad right now that The Dallas Morning News has a story about the “Unlucky Seven” worst scams out there, and lotteries are – without a doubt – No. 1. Spain, Germany and Holland are just three of the countries that supposedly have lotteries. An 86-year-old woman featured in the story ended up giving more than $88,000 to these crooks. She was told upfront she needed to cover “administrative costs.” Then, each time, it was something more. She never recovered her money, and the crooks were never caught. When you get these e-mails, you want to believe they are real. They certainly look it. But if they ask for money – even a little – to get you your money, it’s a scam. Throw the paperwork in the trash. The second biggest scam is home repairs. These people get upfront money and then do shoddy work or no work at all in some cases. Work-at-home scams are in position No. 3, and phony charities are No. 4. These scams often affect seniors more than others, but everyone is at risk. Fraudulent “living trusts” come in at No. 5. You need a living trust in only a few circumstances, so most of the people are just trying to sell you insurance products. No. 6 is e-mail phishing scams. And, No. 7 is probably the ugliest of the “Unlucky Seven.” It’s when you’ve already been scammed and a service offers to help you recover your money. The very same people who took your money the first time are the ones behind this, and you give them more trying to get it back.

Clark was on a plane pulling into the airport gate recently when a man using the walkie-talkie feature of his Nextel phone started screaming into his device. Everyone started looking and commenting on how inappropriate and annoying it was. Of course, the guy had no idea. And that is par for the course. A University of Michigan study found that 60 percent of people find public cell phone use a major irritation. Clark would like people to use better manners when they are on the phone or using devices. It's unlikely to happen, but we all know it can be a major distraction in meetings and other situations. Other countries have caught on to the importance of cell phone etiquette. In Hong Kong, most restaurants require that you leave your cell phone at the front of the restaurant before you sit down. Furthermore, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that using a headset with your cellphone in the car does not make you safer. You are four times more likely to get injured using a cell phone than if you were driving without the cell phone. So, try to stay off the phone in the car and when others are around. You will pay less in bills and others will thank you for it.

John Hopkins did a study on worldwide health care spending and found that the United States spends gobs more money on health care than other developed countries. The average cost of health care in developed countries around the world is $2,000 per person per year. The average cost in the States is $5,000. Worse yet, the United States has a smaller number of hospital beds, a smaller number of doctors, and an even smaller number of nurses. The study showed that while we spend more money, we actually have lower quality of care than the rest of the world. So where is our money going? It's not going to malpractice suits. Medical malpractice payments for the States are a tiny fraction of the entire pie. The truth is that a lot of health care money goes into insurance expenses and administrative costs. Clark believes we need a modern health care system that fits the needs of our citizens. We change jobs every couple years and are an entrepreneurial bunch. Yet our current system is based on the employment trends of the 60s, when people still worked for one company their entire lives.

Did you know that there are tens of billions of unclaimed dollars floating around the United States? This money ends up in the hands of your state when it is not claimed by its rightful owner or beneficiary. But thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reporting law, also known as SOX, more people have been able to claim what is rightfully theirs. The law basically requires companies to be honest with their books and more forthcoming about money owed to customers. Many companies were hiding money that they should have been giving back to customers. All you have to do is go to missingmoney.com or unclaimed.org. Clark visited the site and found money for himself.

The Federal Reserve is trying to figure out what to do about credit card disclosures because the print is so small and hard to read. Even lawyers get confused when they try to explain the disclosures. The Federal Reserve is trying to figure out if the disclosures should be written in layman’s terms, and, of course, banks are furious about it. A reporter at bankrate.com wrote a story on balance transfers from credit card offers and the small print explaining them. He analyzed the process step-by-step and found twelve ‘gotchas’ in the explanation. Obviously, the Federal Reserve is on the right track. Clark believes the banking industry has a major problem with greed, especially when dealing with credit card portfolios. You should not have to go through a twelve-step test in order to figure out your balance transfer. Clark wants you to go through any disclosures for credit cards you have and find the gotchas that may get you!