EvaluateLifeInsurance.org - Estimates "true" investment returns on any cash value life insurance policy
Sites.Google.com - Google's free web-building tool
The American Enterprise Institute's loan cheat sheet - Know the basic facts about your mortgage
The American Enterprise Institute's definition of terms - Familiarize yourself with mortgage terms
Mint.com - Free online budgeting tool
Wesabe.com - Free online budgeting tool

CLARKONOMICS: Is this the best of financial times or the worst of financial times in the United States? Arguments could easily be made on both sides. Clark wants to share his thoughts amid all the campaign rhetoric you'll be hearing about the economy.

The average American family is living so much better than just a few years ago or a generation ago. Now, before you say this is a trite assessment on Clark's part, hear him out. If you go back 2 generations, nobody had air conditioning or dishwashers -- now they're taken as an article of faith in the modern American home. Clark and his wife recently bought a foreclosure that had 2 dishwashers, 2 laundry rooms and 2 ovens. Meanwhile, the average size of the American home in 1 generation is up 40% (even though family size is shrinking). We have all kinds of electronics at our disposal. We make more than we did a generation ago. The average family income, adjusted for inflation, is up over 20% in a generation.

But the "shop 'til you drop" mentality causes us unnecessary harm and anxiety. A decade ago, the average American bought 33 items of clothing during the year. Today, we buy 48 items, a whopping 50% more. Yes, they're less expensive and semi-disposable thanks to places like Target and Wal-Mart. But the disposable nature of buying and wracking up debt is what has us all bent out of shape. One generation ago, Americans saved 11% of what they made. Now it's 0 or a negative number when they overspend.

We are in the midst of a debt disease that has clutched us with a death-grip. So, yes, overall we're wealthier, but we are pulling the rug out from under ourselves by living above our means and taking on debt. Clark likes to say that we're seizing defeat out of the jaws of victory. So what can you do to make a change? You could buy a smaller home; keep your old car that's been paid off; or look in the closet and see that you don't need to buy any more clothes. You can't do all of these at once, so just pick one and try it out. Christa and her family are actively involved in a consumer cleansing. They're taking better care of what they have instead of accumulating more. Read about all about it in her new blog.

Many people would like to have a website, but it's either too expensive or they're techno-idiots like Clark professes to be. Well, now Google has launched a new website -- Sites.Google.com -- that allows you to easily build a website for free. Google's new tools can be used for non-commercial purposes or as a shared internal resource in a small business. They provide all the servers for free and store all your information offsite. Some people may get creeped out by that, but increasingly this is how things will be done.

This business model really takes us back to how networks used to be built, where you had a computer hooked up to a mainframe. Google is playing the role of the mainframe. The neat thing is that economy of scale becomes possible so they can provide you with a webpage for almost nothing. There's always the chance that Google may just be yanking Microsoft's chain with Sites.Google.com. Microsoft launched a similar initiative, but it isn't free. So the competition between the 2 leaves you as the ultimate beneficiary.

Are you a Countrywide borrower who fell delinquent? Are you worried that they may have cooked the books about how much you owe? A federal judge has ruled that an investigation of Countrywide on this allegation can continue. Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are among the states probing the nation's largest independent mortgage lender. There's a lot of smoke surrounding Countrywide on this one, so Clark thinks there's got to also be some fire. But really this is just a sideshow with what's gone on in the mortgage marketplace.

A recent Wachovia internal memo leaked to the media claimed the bank would discontinue its option-payment loans program. Such loans -- also called negative amortization loans -- were being pushed under the Pick-A-Payment tag. But the internal announcement now seems to have been premature. You should avoid the Pick-A-Payment choice at all costs because the balance on the loan actually rises over time. Here's how it works: If you borrow $100K at 6%, the bank only calculates the interest as if it were at 1%. The other 5% goes straight to your balance every month. Wachovia has been pushing the Pick-A-Payment plan, but that hasn't been a smart business move; negative amortization loans only increase the likelihood of default. This really highlights the lack of common sense in the housing market.

Clark is amazed that the federal government has not pushed for meaningful disclosure in mortgage lending. There were proposed rules about 3 years ago to demand full, plain English disclosure when you sign a mortgage. But the banks and brokers went berserk and showered Capitol Hill with money to get the proposal stifled. Don't hold your breath waiting for a change in policy -- instead check out a disclosure form developed by the American Enterprise Institute. We got into mess because so many people did the wrong thing. What we need is somebody to stand up and make sure we do the right thing going forward.

Budgeting is a topic that's front and center again for many Americans. Many people think of budgeting like being in prison, but Clark thinks it's freeing. Budgeting lets you reduce your financial insecurity and gain control back. There are great, free budgeting tools online like Mint.com and Wesabe.com.

A Journal of Consumer Research study shows that budgeting annually is better than doing it monthly. That's because there are expenses that pop up over the course of a year that you can't account for on a monthly budget. Data shows that people are far more accurate when they budget annually vs. monthly.

Clark doesn't usually carry any debt, but he still uses budgeting tools to see what happened with his money over the course of a year. Christa, meanwhile, likes to track her finances using a spiral notebook and some online monitoring. Others like to go back to basics using the envelope method. There's no one right answer, but you have to find what works best for you. Do you have a system? Are you doing anything at all to monitor your money? Give it a try.