• economy.com - delinquency mortgages are up
• hotwire.com - NYC airport hotels
• biddingfortravel.com - priceline bids
• priceline.com - travel bids
• annualcreditreport.com - get your free credit report
• msnbc.com - study on waiting in lines
• sunrocket.com - cheap VOIP for traveling overseas
• feedthepig.org - teaching adults how to save money
• consumerfed.org - value your insurance policy

The book business is a brutally competitive one. Many of the regional book sellers haven’t been able to make it, but the independent shops that are very service-oriented have hung in there. What about the big boys? Well, one of the biggest book sellers – Barnes & Noble – is having trouble because people aren’t finding the deals they want at B&N stores. More heavy readers are gravitating toward online sites, which offer huge deals. Plus, warehouse clubs sell best sellers for dirt cheap prices, and B&N is suffering because of it. Well, B&N is stepping up to the plate and finally offering deals that come closer to the deals at Wal-Mart and Costco. If you join the B&N book club for $25 a year, you’ll get a 40 percent discount on hard-cover best sellers and 20 percent off hard covers that are not best sellers. Those are actually decent deals.

Clark recently tried to explain the new passport laws when traveling to Canada, Mexico and some spots in the Caribbean. Evidently he did a shoddy job because people have been asking about it ever since. The rules are changing in January, so you’ll want to pay attention. People travel to Mexico and Canada by air, sea and most often land. If you plan to drive to Mexico or Canada, you won’t have to worry about this for awhile. The Feds haven’t been able to put into place the new system for land travel. What about cruise passengers? They too have been given a break. Cruise personnel were supposed to turn away people without passports, but that has also been delayed until further notice. The only exception is if you’re traveling by air. If you are thinking jetting down to Cancun or up to Canada to ski after the holidays, YOU NEED A PASSPORT. The new law is supposed to go into effect January 8, so you will need one. Very few people apply for a passport this time of year, but you may need to be one of them.

The housing market continues to be all over the news, and it’s not a happy topic for many. The drop in home prices has been dramatic. In fact, some accounts say prices have dropped to the lowest level ever. That is true in some areas including, Naples, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Washington D.C. and New York. Even if you’re not in one of these areas, there is a condominium bubble that is much more widespread. Many people bought condos before they were constructed with the hopes of flipping them. But more condos were built than could be occupied. In addition, a lot of apartment owners converted to condos to make money, resulting in an even bigger oversupply. People buy condominiums as a transitional buy – after an apartment and before owning a home. But condos should be a more long-term purchase if it’s going to be worth your while. What about delinquencies? Detroit, Dallas and Atlanta have the highest number of mortgages in delinquency than any of the 27 markets. None of these are bubble markets, so it’s a bit of an enigma why these areas are suffering. So, have we hit bottom in the housing market or do we have further to go? Clark is guessing, but he doesn’t think we’ve hit bottom.