Snopes.com - Urban legends reference page
RangeRoamer.com - A cell phone that works in 140 countries
Telestial.com - Wireless solutions for travelers
FisherHouse.org - A charity that builds "comfort homes" on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers
Clarkhoward.com - Clark's list of work-at-home opportunities
Jelly - Telecommuters meet on a semi-weekly basis to work together
ZabaSearch.com - Free people and public information search
DinkyTown.net - Free financial calculators

Well, it seems like Clark has overestimated human behavior again! Several weeks ago he told you that the British band Radiohead made its new album available for download at a pay-what-you-want price point. Clark guessed that people would pay the standard download price of $10 because they appreciated the gesture so much. It turns out that 6 out of 10 paid absolutely nothing and took the music for free. Maybe people are so conditioned to steal music on the Internet that the idea of paying has become very alien. Of those who did pay, people in the United States forked over an average of $8, while people elsewhere shelled out the equivalent of $4.50. Keep in mind that Radiohead still made money on this new business arrangement because they released the music without the help of a record label. So they earned the full amount of what people paid—minus any costs they had to absorb for setting up digital delivery—instead of just earning royalties that might amount to a few pennies per record. But Clark is still stunned by the results and feels that he must be naïve. On a related note, a music and culture magazine called Paste is now offering subscriptions for as little as $1. Subscribers are once again being encouraged to pay what they want, but with the caveat that it has to be at least a buck. How much do you think people will pay for a subscription?

With Christmas fast approaching, Clark wants to tell you how to manage your holiday shopping list without going over budget. But first he has a dirty little secret to reveal: Half of all holiday shopping you do when they're supposedly shopping for others is actually for you! While this isn't true of everyone, this is a very typical pattern. So be honest with yourself and come up with a holiday shopping list that includes everyone you want to shop for and yourself. How much money can you afford to spend on yourself and others for Christmas? Decide what the total dollar amount is and stick to it. That way you'll avoid that January hangover effect when the credit card bills come due. Once you have your list and the grand total, you've got to put a dollar amount down for each person. When push comes to shove, you may have to drop people off the list or reduce the dollar amount by each name—including yours—until it fits within your intended budget. Bring this list with you when you shop. Consult it when you make a purchase. If you overspend one on person, cut somewhere else. If you spend less than you anticipate on someone, you have more money left to spend on somebody else. Clark loves it every season when people come up to him in the stores and show him their lists! One last hint: You may also want to purge the plastic from your purse or wallet and try paying for holiday shopping with cash only. When there's no cash left, there can be no more purchases. Clark recently spoke to a credit counselor who sees tons of clients by March because they can't handle their holiday bills. Don't let this be you!

Orphan subdivisions are a topic that Clark spoke about frequently in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Now there's reason to be concerned about them again. Throughout most of the country, developers buy up land and put in streets and utilities before selling off to builders or developing new homes themselves. People often wanted to be early buyers in these burgeoning developments when the housing market was going strong because they could get better deals. But now the danger is that builders are going broke and abandoning developments midstream. Clark's fond of saying that you should only live in a swim or tennis community if you can swim in the pool and play tennis on the courts. Anybody can woo you with a four-color brochure that has pictures of a pool, a clubhouse, and other amenities that are supposed to be built. But it's all smoke and mirrors until you see it for yourself.

These orphan subdivisions will be a problem especially in the South and West as developers go insolvent and dump their projects. Nothing good comes of it even when the lenders come in and take over. Lenders really aren't in the real estate development business. One of the worst scenarios that Clark has seen involved a large development of more than 1,000 high-end home that were two-thirds of the way built when the builder went belly up. The insurance company that took over sold the land to the highest bidder, who in turn built townhouses and starter homes. That made the home values of the existing owners plummet. Now imagine the lender can't find anyone to step in at all. You could be living next to scarred earth that's been homogenized for development and looks awful. So Clark has a simple rule when it comes to orphan subdivisions: Buy at the tail end of a build, never at the start of a development. Don't be a speculator -- unless you get an absolutely phenomenal deal.

With more and more people telecommuting, workers who spend most of their time at home are facing feelings of isolation and need outlets for collaboration. Now there's a new online community called Jelly that hopes to address those needs. Jelly offers telecommuters the opportunity to meet at someone's home on a semi-weekly basis and do their work. Clark loves the networking aspect of Jelly, and he even wonders how many marriages will come from this! Clark sometimes goes to Panera Bread to get a bagel with his son and he sees salespeople taking advantage of the free wifi. The amusing thing is that the telecommuters slyly peer over their laptops to check out fellow workers. It seems wifi spots are like what bookstores were to meeting people back in the '90s. But at least back then you could strike up conversation based on what books people were reading!