BankRate.com - Assess the general health of a bank

It's been 28 years since Clark checked in a suitcase when he was traveling on a plane. That was 1979. Clark doesn't like the process of watching the carousel go 'round and 'round and hoping to see your bag. He was recently on a flight where the attendant had a sense of humor and announced, "You can claim your bags on carousel whatever and they should be there by tomorrow." The loss rate of baggage has more than doubled over the past few years. In fact, people now ship their luggage via UPS in advance of their trip to ensure it gets to where they're going. Some ultra high-end hotels now are used to getting UPS packages with people's belongings; they even hang their clothes up in the closet before they arrive. Clark and his wife both used carry-on luggage when they went to Montana recently. His wife was able to fit her cowboy boots, several pairs of shoes and eight days worth of clothes in her carry-on. If you do decide to check in luggage the next time you travel, be sure you don't pack anything the airlines deem to be valuable or they won't cover it in the event of a loss. So don't check in jewelry, electronics, computers or medication that you need on a daily basis. Always keep one change of clothing in your carry-on in the event that your luggage is lost. And bear in mind that you're also allowed to bring a computer bag or purse in addition to a standard carry-on case.

Wal-Mart is taking a pre-emptive strike against protected sluggish holiday sales by lowering the price on toys very early in the game. As the world's largest retailer and the largest seller of toys in the United States, Wal-Mart is really putting the heat on fellow retailers such as Target with this move. There's no one toy that's a runaway hit this season, so price is really going to become the key seller. One recent favorite, the Nintendo Wii, is back on the market after a serious shortage. Clark thinks the Wii is really interesting since it gets users up and out of their seats when they want to play a game. Now is the time to grab a Wii, which goes for the suggested retail price of around $249; don't wait until it becomes scarce again. For adults, the holiday sales season will be very promotional. The prices of hi-def TVs are set to drop precipitously. Clark recently saw Fry's selling a 32-inch hi-def TV for $397 -- so much less than a year ago. Plasma TVs will also be extra cheap, but DLPs remain the best deal if you have the space for them. One word of advice: don't buy a hi-def DVD this season. Wait until the format wars between HD DVD and Blu-ray get sorted out and then buy the winner.

There is an unpatriotic segment of the population that has been thriving by ripping off members of our military with usurious loans. Clark thinks it's disgusting that the soldiers who lay their lives on the line for our freedom are being taken advantage of by scum. This issue directly impacts our national security when military personnel can't deploy because they're burdened by mountains of debt and can't get security clearance. Some of these locust payday lenders have been stationing themselves outside of military posts and making loans with interest rates beginning at 390 percent! Many military recruits have fallen for this because they're young and not sophisticated in the ways of finance. Congress previously outlawed these sickening loan practices, but only now has the Pentagon formalized rules to protect the young men and women in our military. It is now a federal crime for a payday lender to rip off a soldier. The rules also extend to loans offered to the spouses of soldiers. Other provisions of the new rules ensure that soldiers will soon have access on their posts to financial advice 24/7 and extra low-cost loans.

The recent collapse of online bank NetBank has left a lot of people jittery. After all, it is the biggest bank failure since the early '90s. While the cost to taxpayers is unclear, the FDIC should cover everything. Many people wonder exactly what happens after a bank collapses. When the federal regulators walk in, they try to package the bank's assets and get them in somebody else's hands. That's what happened in this case when the feds sold many of NetBank's assets to ING Direct, which has most of the collapsed company's customer base and money. The transition from NetBank to ING has generally been smooth for customers. Be sure to check your ING statement to verify that all your money came along with you if your money made the jump. Those who were most at risk of losing money were people with more than $100,000 in NetBank accounts. It's always better to be safe and only invest $90,000 in any bank. That way your principal and interest are always protected. And if you're just generally scared of seeing a repeat of this collapse, go to BankRate.com and shop CD rates to see the relative health of a bank. But keep in mind that the best deals in savings are still being offered by the banking arms of mortgage lenders.