• angieslist.com - get ratings on contractors
• myshape.com - design and buy your own clothes online

Have you heard of “economy class syndrome?” It’s the condition people often get on airplanes from sitting for a long time. Sometimes, people will get a blood clot and may even die from blood not reaching their heart. Well, a new study from New Zealand shows that sitting at a desk job for long periods of time can cause the same health problems. If you sit for a long time at a desk, make sure you’re getting up and walking around every so often. You’ll do a better job if you give yourself a break every now and again. Take care of yourself.

Hiring a home renovator or builder can be a tough task. When something goes wrong, you have some recourse, such as picketing. But you have to be careful with that too. When customers picket, builders almost certainly send people by with hidden microphones to try and find them saying something slanderous. Then, those builders are able to hit that customer with a “slap,” a lawsuit that builders file against customers. As a result, more and more picketing is done online these days. There are tons of gripe sites that allow consumers to find great feedback on everything from hotels to builders. You should take these with a grain of salt because some people are pretty particular and are much more likely to post when they are angry or upset. So, make sure that you read numerous postings and that you form your own opinion. One popular site is angieslist.com, which rates home service contractors. Some builders have taken out lawsuits against people writing reviews on these sites, so you must be careful and state only the truth. Clark hopes this doesn’t deter people from expressing their opinions. Just be sure to stick to the facts. The truth is the greatest defense.

Brokerage houses are facing more and problems with criminal rings hacking into brokerage accounts. The latest involve criminals from offshore sites, including Lithuania, Latvia, the British Virgin Islands, India and others. The criminals use the money in your account to buy a stock and run up its value, or they wire money out of your account to use however they please. There are technologies available that help protect your account such as an electronic key. You simply plug it into your computer wherever you are, and then you enter your user name and password. It proves that you are authentic and no one else can get into your account without the key. Current technologies are too vulnerable. In addition, brokerage houses are under no legal obligation to repay you what you lost if someone breaks into your account. So, check your brokerage account often and check for pending sales or changes in your balance information.

A new study out from an economist at Merrill Lynch found that women are getting clobbered on costs when they shop. An economist ran the numbers and found women pay 18 times the rate of inflation. Men don’t pay nearly that much. Although it may not sound like a good thing, it’s actually a sign of success that women are paying more Women are earning more money than they have in the past and supply is not keeping up with demand, so women are paying more. Take shoes, for example. Women buy a ton of shoes and still never feel they have enough. So, shoes, jewelry, clothing and cosmetics are all going up in price. The one scary caveat is that single women are much less likely to save for the future than men. That is concerning because women live much longer than men, and women are likely to have a child during their lives. That interrupts working and earning years and can, therefore, take its toll on retirement savings. You also may want to check out myshape.com? It’s a site where women can build their own clothing based on their size. It will save you time and money.