Cost To Drive helps drivers calculate the price of road trips
3:26pm Wednesday, December 3, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright

If you're contemplating a road trip but want to know first how much it will cost, the Web site Cost To Drive is a great resource.

You enter your starting city and destination, as well as the year, make and model of your vehicle.

For example, Cost To Drive says it would cost me $153.90 to drive from Vancouver to Boston in my 2001 Honda Civic. And it would take almost 46 hours, so I'd probably be better off flying.

The site calculates average fuel prices in various cities along the route to predict cost. It does not, however, allow you to enter driving style, which affects fuel efficiency. If I'm driving 75 mph or in stop-and-go traffic, I'll use more gas than if I'm going a steady, more moderate speed.

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Recession Survival Guide
12:41pm Wednesday, December 3, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright

Yahoo! Finance has posted a Recession Survival Guide courtesy of U.S. News and World Report.

With the holidays coming up, it's important to keep spending in check, the guide says. If you are still paying for purchases made in 2007, go easy this Christmas. Use cash or debit card because you're likely to spend less than if you use credit. The guide also suggests taking advantage of layaway programs, where you pay for an item in installments before you take it home, avoiding the high interest rates of credit cards.

This is good advice even in flush times, but the goal should be to have six months of income in savings in case of an emergency such as a layoff or pay cut. But don't get overwhelmed by that lofty goal; even one month of savings is better than none.

For people with steady jobs and cash reserves, now is a good time to buy a house, according to the guide. Nationally, home prices have fallen more than 20 percent from their 2006 peak. However, don't take on more debt than you can handle. We're seeing now with all the foreclosures what that can lead to.

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Manage calories on Thanksgiving Day
11:39am Tuesday, November 25, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright

Nutritionist Joy Bauer was on "The Today Show" this week helping people plan ahead for the gluttony of Thanksgiving.

She offered a quiz where people can guess which treats are least detrimental to the waistline. Looking at appetizers, for instance, did you know that four pigs in a blanket have fewer calories than one-half cup mixed nuts or three whole-wheat crackers with two ounces of cheese? Or that a slice of pumpkin pie is a smarter choice than the apple or pecan varieties? How about that you can save yourself 100 calories by cutting off the outer edge of the pie crust?

The average person consumes 4,000 calories during Thanksgiving dinner. Even one cup of homemade stuffing alone has 450 calories and would take a 150-pound woman 90 minutes to walk off.

The important thing when it comes to the holidays, Bauer said, is to plan ahead by choosing small portions of a few of your very favorite treats, and to compensate with plenty of exercise.

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Calculate how long it will take to be debt-free
9:31am Thursday, November 20, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright

CNN offers a debt calculator that allows you to see how long it will take to pay off your credit card debt, and how much interest you'll incur.

For example, if you owe $2,000 on a credit card with a 10-percent interest rate and pay $100 a month, it will take five years to pay it off and you'll pay $336.40 in interest. But that is assuming you stop using the card and don't make any new charges.

The tool also lets you work backwards. You can plug in when you want to be debt-free, then it tells you how much you have to pay every month to make that happen. If you want to be debt-free in six months, for example, you'd have to pay $340.29 a month but you'd only pay $41.72 in interest.

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When retailers fail, gift card holders often lose out
10:28am Tuesday, November 18, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright

There's an interesting story on USA Today's Web site about precautions to take before buying gift cards as presents this holiday season.

When stores file for bankruptcy, as is happening more frequently in the present economic downturn, people with gift cards have little protection.

When Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy, for example, people had to spend twice the amount of the gift card in a single purchase in order to redeem it, the article notes. In the case of the failed Bombay Co., gift card holders were paid off to the tune of 25 cents on the dollar.

The article does list some useful tips for smart gift card giving and receiving. Among them are:

1. Know the financial health of the company. Avoid buying gift cards for businesses that are on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

2. Look for gift cards with flexibility. Consider a mall gift certificate, which can be used at any number of stores, or a gift card offered through a major credit card company. There may be fees attached to these "open loop" gift cards, but at least you're not limited to a particular retailer.

3. Use 'em or lose 'em. Try to redeem gift cards promptly, say by Jan. 1. The longer you wait, the more likely the retailer will go out of business and your card will lose value.

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