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If the spirit of the holiday season moves you to be charitable, Clark has a word of advice: You may be giving money the wrong way! Most of us give by check, cash or credit card. But if you are an investor, you are better off from a tax perspective giving successful stock, mutual funds or index funds. When you donate shares instead of dollars, you get a double tax advantage. Normally you have to pay tax on investment gains when you sell. But if you donate your shares to a charity, you are exempt from the gains taxes and you get a full charitable deduction based on the value at the time you donate. So say you bought stock for $3,333 and it's now worth three times that amount. When you donate it, all the gain is tax free and your tax deduction for charitable purposes will be $10,000.

What if your favorite charity isn't hip to stocks or you don't know which charity you like best? You can do a donor-advised fund. This kind of fund was pioneered by Fidelity Investments, but now Schwab, Vanguard and others have them too. With a donor-advised fund, you give the money to Fidelity, Schwab or whatever financial organization you choose and you get the tax benefits right then and there. Then they hold it until you decide down the road which charity or charities will get your money. You can usually arrange disbursement via the Internet. If your selected charity is already in their system, the charity will receive your money in a few hours. If the charity has to be vetted to make sure it's legit, there will usually be a 1-week delay. Remember that you won't get a tax deduction again when you disburse the money, only when you set up the fund initially. One final caveat: The IRS prohibits you from using donor-advised funds to match a pledge you made to a charity. That's because in the eyes of the IRS, the money isn't coming from you but rather from the company that set up the donor-advised fund.

People tend to stop looking for work between Thanksgiving and the first week of January. They believe that no one is hiring during the holidays. Not true, according to Clark. December is one of the best months for job hunting. So how can you maximize this supposed downtime? First, go to holiday parties and network. Tag along as the guest of a friend who works at a specific company of interest to you. People hire people they know or they know of, Clark says. Networking is the key. The payoff is miniscule when you apply for jobs online. Second, during December the "gatekeepers" are away and the real decision makers are more likely to answer their own phones. Direct contact with key hiring managers is the way to go. And finally, this is the best month for job hunting because there's less competition out there right now!

Clark used to run a program called Career Action that taught job-interviewing skills, among other things. He was stunned at how rare it was for an applicant to research the company they were interviewing at. Now it's so easy to do research with the Internet. Be informed when you go to an interview. Don't be a know-it-all, but learn to ask targeted questions.

Clark does not drink coffee. Yet he's fascinated by people who spend a lot of money at Starbucks. Clark's wife now has their 8 year old daughter hooked on going to Starbucks for non-caffeinated Frappuccinos. But the Seattle-based java giant is for the first time ever experiencing declining sales. Why? Are they too expensive? Not really, according to Clark. This is a classic case of imitation being the sincerest and cruelest form of flattery. Starbucks is facing competition from some unusual suspects like McDonald's! Years ago, Clark went to an experimental McD's in Raleigh, N.C. The store was divided into a McCafé and a standard McD's. The McCafé had bistro tables, a fountain and fancy coffees and pastries on the menu. Clark wondered, "Is this really going to work?" Today there are about 800 McCafés across the nation. They offer vanilla lattes, Café mochas, caramel cappuccinos, iced coffees and other frou-frou drinks -- all cheaper than Starbucks. Look for national TV advertising from Starbucks to fight back against its new competitor. Starbucks had a great infancy, but they're poised for a tough adolescence.

Even Consumer Reports says McD's coffee is the best from any chain -- better than even Starbucks. But Clark's executive producer Christa still thinks coffee from Dunkin' Donuts is tops. She's been buying big packs of D&D coffee at the warehouse clubs. If you're not a member of a warehouse club, you're better off buying your bagged D&D coffee in bulk at a D&D location, not a grocery store. Meanwhile, Christa has some homework. Clark has asked her to figure out the cost per cup when you buy it in bulk at a warehouse club vs. purchasing it cup-by-cup at a store.

People with damaged credit have a new bull's-eye on their backs. The nation's banks are doing mailings for MasterCards and Visas that are just awful. They're offering cards with low credit limits of a few hundred dollars. The catch is that they charge fees to get the card that nearly equal the credit limit they've given you. This tactic has been called "fee harvesting" by the National Consumer Law Center. That's because there's a multitude of subtle fees that they load on. These can include an annual fee, a setup fee, a program fee and a participation fee. The New York Times reports that Capital One and CompuCredit are some of the worst offenders. Except for the annual fee, all of these other fees are completely bogus. You think they're doing you a big favor by taking you on as a customer. But they eliminate all their risk by hitting you upfront with huge ridiculous fees. Clark thinks practice is diabolical but pretty clever in a sad sort of way. So beware if you're suddenly getting an offer for a card and nobody else has wanted you -- it could be a fee harvesting ploy coming your way.