If filling your tank with gas or your toddler with milk is tapping you out, Kiplinger.com recently provided a welcome list of things that are absolutely free. Looking for some new tunes for your iPod? Check out the free choices on Download.com
. As you might expect, the choices are mostly limited to less familiar bands. So, if you want to hear the hits check out Internet radio at Slacker.com
, where you'll find a wide variety of music stations. You can even customize stations to exclude certain artists or play only your favorites. You can't download music from Slacker, but you can listen for free.
You'll find everything from free clothes to free furniture on craigslist
(click on the city closest to you and then look for the free section under "for sale") and the Freecycle Network
(after you join you can see who's giving stuff away or give some of your own stuff away). At KidsEatFree.com
you can find nearby restaurants that offer free kids meals with the purchase of an adult meal. And free guides for home repair/improvement projects, some of which are video-based, can be found on the web sites of Home Depot
, Lowe's
, and the PBS TV show This Old House
.
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The article also mentioned that a number of universities now offer some of their courses online for free. Here's a list
of such universities from around the world. Some universities offer just the course syllabus and reading list. Others provide audio and even video lectures online. You won't get credit, but you'll get to learn. Also check out iTunes U
.
With all of the online calculators available you'd think it would be easy to figure out how much to save for our later years. But with lots of calculators come lots of different answers, which is why MarketWatch.com recently kicked the keys on several popular retirement calculators. While the article didn't rave about any of them, it seemed to favor AARP's Retirement Planning Calculator
.
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There are a lot of variables involved in calculating our future financial needs, and a lot of assumptions that need to get made. But studies show that people who at least attempt to calculate their retirement needs save more than those who don't. For that reason alone, it's worth giving one of the online calculators a try. One of the simplest online number crunchers is offered by Fidelity. Go here
and search for "myPlan Snapshot." After you run the five-question calculation, if you'd like a more detailed analysis, click on "create a plan."
Okay, so you've made all the right moves in planning your next car purchase. You've kept your current car until it's a borderline antique. You've come up with two or three viable options of cars that don't just look good; they also get good gas mileage and have good safety ratings. The cars you're considering are a couple of years old and you've done some comparison-shopping among used car dealers and private parties. All set? Not quite. There's more to consider such as the projected cost of maintenance and repairs. A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that with some cars even minor fender benders could lead to big repair bills, which impacts the cost of insurance. It reported on low-speed crash tests conducted by the Institute for Highway Safety on 11 luxury cars--the cars you would think are built the best. The total repair costs from four minor accidents ranged from $5,200 for a Saab 9-3 all the way up to a whopping $14,000 for an Infinity G35.
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One of the best online tools for figuring out how much cars really cost is the Edmunds.com True Cost to Own calculator
. Since you, of course, pay cash for your vehicles, you can just ignore the financing figures and compare different vehicles based on the estimates for maintenance, repairs, fuel, and other factors. You can get separate fuel estimates along with information about greenhouse gas emissions here
. And call your insurance agent to get a better feel for how much insurance will cost.
Coming soon to an ATM near you: no deposit envelopes. And no, they didn't just run out, as is often the case. According to the Detroit News, the newest ATMs allow checks to be fed into special slots without envelopes. The machines then spit out receipts showing images of the checks. Cash can be inserted the same way.
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It'll take some people a little while to get used to depositing checks without envelopes, but hey, those of us who pay bills online have learned to live without writing checks, addressing envelopes, and licking stamps.
