• wherifywireless.com - find your kids
• angieslist.com - find a contractor for hire
• dinkytown.net - financial calculators

If you want to know exactly where someone is, there is now a way. Maybe you’re a parent wondering where your teen is, or you’re an adult trying to keep track of aging parents. The “Whereifone” may be for you. It’s a cell phone with GPS in the phone. As long as the person has the Wherifone with them, you can check online and find out where he or she is within 200 feet. If you check frequently, you will be poor. But checking occasionally won’t hurt you too badly in the wallet. The Wherifone is now for sale on Costco’s site for $99. The service starts at $20 a month. Just remember that the main purpose of the phone is to find people and it’s great for families. Clark asked users recently in a poll what age youngsters should be when they get their first cell phone. The largest group - 43 percent - said kids should be at least 16. Also, 44 percent think parents and kids should split the cost. What do you think?

Home Depot is trying to woo women these days, in an effort to compete with Lowe’s for female customers. Home Depot is now offering a number of workshops to empower women. They are called “Do-it Herself” classes and one is entitled “Empower Yourself: Basic Home Repair and Home Safety.” Women will learn how to use power tools, build a deck and install lighting. If you attend the class, you will get a discount on products in the store. Christa, Clark’s executive producer, plans to attend a class with her friends. We’ll tell you how she did.

People have lamented to Clark over the years about how much home renovations cost. Last year alone, people spent $215 billion on home remodeling projects. The boom took off in the late 90s and hasn’t stopped since. But a number of factors have changed, and renovations are about to get a lot less expensive. People have gotten nervous about he values of houses, with the number of homes on the market rising dramatically. Plus, people who were making a living building new homes are suffering because those homes have stopped selling. So, the whole supply and demand has reversed. Now, contractors are looking for customers and sending notes, asking if people need any work. They are even showing up the next day to do work, and going above and beyond to get projects right. New homebuilders are becoming renovation and addition contractors, according to the New York Times. The result is that the cost of remodeling is declining. Materials cost less and people need work. So, margins are reduced. Just make sure you see thorough lists of jobs that the contractor has done in the last 18 months. If there is a gap in projects, ask why. There may be some people who didn’t like the contractor’s work. Also, make sure the contractor has insurance or you could wind up paying twice for the project. You want to talk to those folks and be choosy about who you hire. A good price doesn’t necessarily mean a good contractor.

This year, we are experiencing the greatest oversupply of wine ever. At the same time, wine is getting better. So, if you like wine, you are loving it right now! Wines are much less expensive and of much better quality these days. There is a twist you need to know about though. Vineyards that normally sell expensive, high-quality wines don’t want to lose their cache or the reputation of their good name by selling their bottles for much cheaper. But they need to make money. So, they are rebottling and relabeling these expensive wines and selling them for much less. Bottles that normally cost $100 are being repackaged and sold for $10 or $15. So, try something new these days that costs much less. It could actually be a fine wine concealed with a different label.

Clark was checking out the financial calculators on dinkytown.net, and he couldn’t believe how useful and plentiful they are. Then, he saw a story in Newsday about how little people are saving early in their working careers. About 75 percent of people in their 20s are not saving a nickel. And, 60 percent of people in their 30s aren’t saving a dime. You must know by now that the later you wait to save the harder it will be to meet your financial goal. If you have younger folks in your family, let them learn from your experience. Tell them to start early!

Did you know there have been 788 incidents of lost information on the part of the federal government? Federal workers at 19 agencies have lost information on the general public and on federal employees. The Commerce Department alone has lost more than 1,000 laptops used by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is scary stuff and right now there is little we can do about it. The one thing you can do is freeze your identity. Right now, it’s possible in about 23 states, and Clark suggests you freeze your credit even if nothing has happened. To check the list for your state, click here and then view the information on consumersunion.org. Clark hopes that someday soon people in all states will be able to freeze their credit.