I just ran across a relatively new book on estate planning called “Crash Course in Estate Planning : The Essential Guide to Wills, Trusts, and Your Personal Legacy” by Michael Palermo. It’s published by AARP, so it may end up being targeted more toward retirees than to people like me (particularly the young kids angle), but it looks like it may be good background reading if nothing else. If anyone has read this, I’d love to hear your feedback. If not, it looks like my local library has a copy. I’ll report back once I’ve had a chance to look it over.

Update: Here’s my review of Crash Course in Estate Planning.

If you’re anything like me, you do a lot of online shopping. You might also be as impatient as I am. So, have you ever been tempted to pay for upgraded shipping at a site (such as Amazon.com) when their free shipping will do? I’m not talking about upgrading to overnight shipping because you need it the next day. I’m talking about simply going from the free “Super Saver” shipping (or whatever the site in question happens to call it) to the standard shipping that’s billed as being one notch better. Well, I’m here to tell you that you probably shouldn’t bother. [more]

I’ll be out of town on vacation for about a week, so things will be slowing down a bit around here. I have, however, scheduled a few new items for publication in my absence, so please check back regularly to see what’s new.

I just ran across what looks like a really nice offer from Blockbuster.com over at Growing Money. Assuming that you are currently a Netflix/Wal-Mart customer, you can get a free two month trial plus a free (to own) new release DVD. Read on to find out how… [more]

As a followup to my previous post on the world’s most costly cities, I thought I’d mention another article that I recently ran across in Reader’s Digest — this time it’s a list ranking America’s fifty largest cities in terms of cleanliness. These rankings are based on air and water quality, industrial pollution, the presence of Superfund sites, and sanitation. Interestingly, the country’s most expensive city (New York) is the second dirtiest, and the second most expensive city (Los Angeles) is ninth from the bottom — who says you get what you pay for? Read on for the full list… [more]

Based on a survey of 144 cities worldwide, Tokyo is the world’s costliest city. These rankings are based on a comparison of the costs of more than 200 items including housing, public and private transport, food, clothing and entertainment. In terms of U.S. cities, New York is the only one in the top 25, coming in at #13. Looking for a cheap place to live? Try Paraguay — the city of Asuncion ranked as the cheapest in the survey. Not interested in moving so far from home? Then try Ottawa, which is the cheapest North American city on the list at #122 (this isn’t say that it’s truly the cheapest in North America, just the cheapest one on the list). Read on for the top 25. [more]

I reported previously about improvements to the Citi Driver’s Edge credit card rewards program but, at the time, I was unsure as to what they meant by being able to earn money for the miles that I drive… Well, I just received another mailing from them, and this time they provided details. [more]

To all of the dads out there, Happy Father’s Day! You know, it’s interesting… While Mother’s Day was accompanied by proclamations of what moms are worth, Father’s Day comes complete with a news story about what a big deal the day isn’t. [more]

Coming on the heels of other recent reports of wayward credit card data, MasterCard International has reported that a security breach at CardSystems Solutions, Inc. exposed more than 40 million credit accounts of all brands to potential fraud, including nearly 14 million MasterCard accounts. The data theft, which apparently occurred on or around May 22nd, included names, banks, and account numbers, but not social security numbers. Thus, the compromised data could be used to steal funds, but identity theft is less of a risk. American Express reported that a “small number” of customers were affected, whereas Discover wouldn’t confirm or deny whether or not its customers were affected, and Visa wouldn’t return calls.

As a followup to my earlier post about needing a will, I ran across a list of tips for preparing your estate plan. Among the twelve easy steps are… [more]