HotSpot @ Home - T-Mobile's add-on service for $10/month
DOT.gov - File a complaint against an airline
Vanguard.com - Vanguard Star Fund

As the nation's fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile tries to one-up its competitors by being innovative and cheap.

Here's another example of that spirit: T-Mobile has a new add-on service called HotSpot @ Home, which allows your mobile phone to serve as your home phone.

HotSpot works with a special router that puts your calls through via an Internet connection. The call quality is nearly perfect. The cost? A mere $10/month add-on to your T-Mobile service – probably much less than you're still paying for a landline.

A whopping 97% of people who signed up for HotSpot went on to disconnect their landline and drop their monopoly local phone companies. That's very telling about how effective HotSpot can be. Another fringe benefit is that you no longer have any need for 2 phone numbers!

But beware, there's a serious danger if you disconnect your landline: You'll save hundreds of dollars every year! There's almost no reason left to have a home phone from a monopoly local company in today's world. Clark thinks about his 19 year old who certainly won't ever have a landline in her life.

Finally, Clark's Internet access glossary is now live.

A recent AARP poll found that 99% of people do not want to be in a nursing home during their senior years. That's because nursing homes tend to be very impersonal institutions. Sure, some offer great care, but that's more the exception than the rule.

Interestingly, the demand for beds in nursing homes is less than demographers predicted. Americans have instead made allowances to care for aging relatives at home. But such an arrangement is not always possible or practical.

So what's the alternative? The Wall Street Journal recently had a write-up on "Green Houses," a new vision for elder care being advanced by a man named Dr. Bill Thomas. These home-like facilities house only 10-12 residents -- instead of hundreds.

Thomas teamed up with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create more than 40 such Green Houses in a select number of states. The eventual goal is to have them in all 50 states.

As you can imagine, the nursing home industry is trying to block the Green House movement with the help of state regulators. They perceive it as a direct revenue threat. But when 99% of your potential customers don't want to do business with you, you know something is wrong!

Clark once served on the board of a non-profit nursing home, and he knows that the difficulties in running a facility are enormous. So he plans to follow the Green House movement with interest. Baby boomers are aging and there will be a wave of elders seeking nursing home care in the next 10 years.

While the price of oil has our attention, there's a renewed focus on finding cars that have the best fuel economy. Yet such vehicles are not necessarily the cheapest to own and operate.

For example, hybrids are hot right now. But they're not cheap to own. In fact, Edmunds.com has only 1 hybrid in the Top Ten on a new tally of truly cheap cars. (Editor's note: All picks are 2008 models.)

In addition to standard fuel costs, Edmunds looked at the purchase price; the rate of depreciation; the cost of insurance and more in making its selections. One word of warning: You can't draw any inferences about quality from this list; it only pertains to the raw costs associated with cars.

Without further ado, here are the 10 cheapest cars to own and operate:

1. Chevy Aveo
2. Hyundai Accent
3. Honda Fit
4. Toyota Yaris
5. Honda Civic
6. Nissan Versa
7. Kia Rio
8. Mazda 3
9. Toyota Corolla
10. Honda Civic Hybrid

As you can see, these are all smaller cars. They all get around 30 mpg (composite) for average fuel economy. But their true cost is so much cheaper than most of the hybrids.

Out of this list, several cars also come highly recommended by Consumer Reports. They include the Fit, the Mazda 3, the Versa and the Honda Civic/Honda Civic Hybrid.

Payday loans have grown exponentially in states where they're still legal. The Orlando Sentinel recently had a story about a lender who went way beyond what the law permits and charged 1,400% interest!

How can you know a payday lending operation if you see one? Well, they target people who are absolutely desperate for money. They're typically in well-lit storefronts and are staffed by friendly employees who work extended hours to loan money with no questions asked.

It's not unusual for a typical payday loan to have interest rates between 300% and 700%. That's a far cry from the 15% to 20% interest you may be paying on your credit card. The sad thing is that payday lenders aren't required to disclose their interest rates in states where their lobby has bought off legislators.

The military recently got Congress to protect soldiers from the threat of payday lenders; some servicemen and women had their finances demolished and weren't allowed to deploy. Now the rate on loans has been capped at 36% for military and their families. But Clark's heard anecdotally that certain payday lenders are ignoring this and sacrificing patriotism for profit.

Clark had the pleasure of testifying in a state legislative hearing when the payday industry was trying to get its practices legalized. He excused himself to the chairman several times and glared back at the audience, which was packed with payday lenders. Not that they cared. Payday lenders are sociopaths who financially kick you when you're down and don't care about the harm they visit to families.

So it comes back to you to be your own police officer, know the dangers and avoid them. Beware also that many payday lenders have migrated to the Internet.