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Clark has always said he will accept lower quality for a lower price. The one exception for him is his house. If you buy a poorly built house, you buy nothing but problems over time. Clark thinks people should pay extra to make sure their homes are structurally sound and environmentally efficient. In recent years, people have started paying more – about three percent – to ensure that it does meet those standards. It’s still a new concept, though. Most people buy based on the monthly payment and that is all they consider. But it’s clear based on recent news that building homes to certain standards pays off. Compare Hurricane Andrew, which struck Florida in 1992, with Hurricane Charley, the hurricane that struck the same state just a few weeks ago. Florida upgraded its uniform building code about three years ago. And according to emergency management types, homes that had been built to the new standards sustained far less damage than did those that had not been built to the standards. Clark thinks government should provide some kind of role here. Yes, it will cost additional money. But over time, cities and counties will recoup the cost. Not to mention the amount of lives that could be saved. It took a lot of courage and hard work for the Florida legislature to overcome the power of the building lobby to set up standards for builders. But it has paid off and it’s benefited everyone.

It’s been about one year since the mutual fund scandal broke. Companies were trading in and out of mutual funds after hours and committing all kinds of various abuses. But some companies are still ripping us off with the unbelievable expenses they charge. First of all, you’re charged huge commissions to go into a fund. Secondly, you are charged a 12B1 fee, which is a bogus amount charged every year by most commissioned brokerage houses. And, on top of that, there is an annual fee that all brokerage houses charge. It’s a triple whammy. But not everyone in the industry is playing it fast and loose with your money. One of the most respected companies out there is Fidelity Investments. Fidelity has always been a leader in the industry, but Vanguard has been eating them up in recent years. Vanguard’s charges are generally much lower than Fidelity’s. But Fidelity is changing that. The company is putting a number of its index mutual funds on sale. In fact, its expense ratio will be below what Vanguard charges. The company is cutting expenses down to one-tenth of one percent. That’s even less than what Vanguard charges. So, you can either pay 1.5 percent of your money to normal brokerage houses or one-tenth of a percent to Fidelity. Which one sounds better? The only hurdle is that Fidelity charges a $10,000 minimum investment. Other great companies are T. Rowe Price and TIAA-Cref. So, they are out there. There is no reason to put your money with the commissioned players in the market.

People who talk about investing and finance are frequently very wrong. For example, interest rates shot up over the last few months, which many people predicted. But then they came down just as quickly, which no one expected. In another turn of events, bonds have actually returned more money to investors than stocks have. But it’s a toss up. Investing in the short term is so unpredictable that you can never tell what’s going to happen. It’s a risky game that Clark doesn’t like to play. So, he does a mix of long term investments, including tax free municipal bonds, big company stocks and international stocks. He puts 75 percent of his money into stocks and 25 percent into bonds, and he didn’t change a thing when people predicted bonds were going to go down in value. Unless you have time to research this topic on a daily basis, put your money into a plan that will work for the long term.

Pharmaceutical companies are romancing key Republican politicians to get them to support the “closed market” on prescription drugs, several news reports say. Obviously, the drug makers think the only way to win this fight is to do it the underhanded, sleazy way. Even though the FDA can certify drugs from Canada as being okay, they refuse to. That’s because the agency is in the hip pocket of the drug companies, which charge the most of any country for prescriptions. The elderly and sick cannot afford these prices, and they desperately need a free market. Clark hopes that some of our politicians get a clue about the right thing to do. This issue of affordable medicines is not going away, and they need to take some action for their constituents. In the meantime, if your doctor writes you a prescription and you know you can't afford it, tell him or her. Ask for a generic or substitute.

If you pay your credit card balances in full, these are the best of times for you. On the other hand, if you only pay the minimum, these are not good times for you. Basically, the industry is splitting into three different business models. The first group is geared toward people who charge a lot and pay balances in full. The second group has maxed out their credit cards, can only pay the minimums and has outrageous interest rates on the cards. The third group pays more than the minimum, but can seem to pay off the cards. The industry used to abhor those people who paid balances in full because they didn’t make any money off of them. But now they are the favored group because they are making a lot of money off the charges they make through “merchant’s fees.” It’s led to an amenities war between cards from which you will benefit. The hottest amenity is the cash back rewards card. American Express has just introduced a new one that is, right now, only available to Costco members. It’s called the “True Earnings” card and you get 1 percent on anything you buy, 3 percent on dining and 2 percent back on any travel-related expenses. The target market for this is business people who travel a lot. Amex was worried how much this would cost the company, so decision makers capped the amount you can charge at $100,000 a year. That may sounds like a lot, but people who own businesses charge a lot on these cards. Another Costco/American Express card is the “Cash Reward,” which offers 1.5 percent on all expenses. Check out a full list of rebate cards at cardweb.com.

Clark has received many calls over the years from people who are stuck with a timeshare they just can't seem to sell. The truth is that timeshares are extremely difficult to sell no matter what you paid for them or when you bought them. Even if you love your timeshare, sometimes your circumstances change and you need to sell your week. The trouble is that there is no solid, active secondary market for selling timeshares because they lose about 80 percent of their value the moment they are sold. But there may be a new way to solve this problem. Clark read about the new option in the Wall Street Journal, but he wants you to keep in mind that it is very new. It’s a donation program called “Donate for a Cause,” and it allows you to donate the timeshare to a charity and claim a tax deduction of $4,900. There is no fee at all, and you don’t need an appraisal, according to the Journal. Clark wonders if there are any gotchas, and he wants you to know that you will be a guinea pig if you get involved. But he talked with the owner to find out if there are any gotchas, and he couldn't find any. Even the annual maintenance fees you have to pay are transfered with the donation. So, where does the timeshare go? When you transfer the ownership, you get a receipt for your donation and the proceeds go to a non-profit organization of your choosing. The Web site for information is donateforacause.org. The owner also recommends that you discuss the tax issues with your accountant before you deduct it.