• southwest.com - look for DING specials
• svdpusa.org - donate your car to needy family
• autosafety.org - lemon law info
• fidelity.com - cheap mutual funds

The travel industry has had us right where they’ve wanted us for awhile now, with prices at the highest level they’ve been in years. Airlines have just continued to increase prices and people have paid them. But that is about to change. People have reached the end of their rope, and airlines are cutting prices. We’re in the slow travel time of the year to boot, so there will be even more opportunities to save this fall. Hotels are also getting cheaper. Clark has found numerous deals online already, not to mention all the new hotels being built around the country. Airlines and hotels will be going in on deals together, trying to win over customers without other companies catching on. The most popular is Southwest’s program called “Ding.” So check it out.

Are you aware of the responsibility you have to protect your family? It’s called life insurance. Now, if you have no family and no one who depends on you, you can stop reading now. But if you have dependents and you have no life insurance, you’re putting your loved ones in a tough spot. Almost half of Americans either have no insurance or are woefully underinsured. So, this being “Life Insurance Awareness Month,” Clark feels compelled to remind you to buy life insurance. What kind of insurance should you buy? Well, you don’t want “permanent insurance” and that is what the salespeople will try and sell you. The three kinds you want to avoid are whole life, variable life and universal life. You want to buy the kind of insurance that is not considered permanent. It’s called “term” insurance and it’s based on the length of time you want to provide for your survivors. Usually ten times your income is the right answer. The good news is that term life insurance is cheaper than it’s been in a long while, so it’s also a deal.

Clark has gotten a few calls over the years from people who believe that American money is fake. They think paper money is not worth anything and gold coins are the only real currency. That leads Clark to a story he saw in USA Today about people using what are called “liberty dollars” to pay for things. A company called “Norfed” manufacturers the coins and claims to have the backing of silver and gold kept in a vault in Idaho. Well, the government disagrees, and the U.S. Justice Department has issued a warning to the public. If you try to use these coins, you will be arrested and could go to jail. So, don’t try it.

When Clark was in graduate school, he worked for IBM. One of the great perks of the company was that there was an on-site doctor at the office. It was very convenient and affordable, not to mention that it kept Clark “on-the-clock” for longer each day. That was more than a decade ago, and other companies are finally catching on. In-house clinics save companies a ton of money because referrals are reduced and emergency hospital visits drop dramatically. Companies are taking more money out of our pocketbooks and paychecks because companies cannot keep up with medical care and its costs. So, getting more creative with medical care is a necessity. Companies aren’t doing it to be nice but you both can benefit.

Clark has heard a lot of buzz lately about hedge funds. What is a hedge fund? A bunch of people get together, put in a heavy upfront fee and then invest in a product without any normal government filings. They are popular among the wealthy because they are unregulated. And for some reason they carry a cache that implies a person has “made it.” Really, they are terrible for your wallet. If the hedge fund company makes money on the investment, you make money but they take a big cut. And if they lose money, the participants eat all the cost. So, it is a stacked deck against you. One recent hedge fund group chose the natural gas industry and tried to guess whether the cost would go up or down. Well, investor organizers guessed wrong and lost $5 billion. Stay away from hedge funds!