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"Value Added" Links, Sites and Information
Please click on the links below
for interesting and useful information.
Recommendations Occasionally, someone does some work for you that is just so "right" that you want to tell others about it. This section will evolve into a repository of those whom we think do such a good job at what they do that you should know about them. By the way, (shameless request coming . . .) if you like what we do for you, please tell your friends. We can always use more good clients. I recently had several trees that needed trimming and
some taken down. I had several estimates to do the work and was planning to
call one of the tree services to do the cutting. Then the city of Portsmouth
hired a contractor to take down some old trees in my neighborhood and I ran
into Shane. I noticed that Shane was being very careful in his pursuit of
felling a giant oak tree - and he obviously knew what he was doing. During a
break in his work, I hailed him to come look at my work and give me an
estimate. I was careful not to interfere with his on-going labor, but he
took the time to really inspect what I wanted done. He did not give an
off-handed quote but really studied the situation.
I have known Paul and Terri Karlsson for many
years and my wife and I have stayed in their Bed and Breakfast many times
since they built it in 2006.
If you ever need or want a getaway week or weekend in the beautiful Blue
Ridge mountains, call them. You will not be sorry. They live on the top of a mountain near Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania
County, North Carolina. Their home is near the town of Brevard, NC, the home of Brevard College and
the unrelated Brevard Music Camp, a slightly smaller version of Wolftrap.
The summers bring in internationally recognized musicians to work with younger
developing talent who are on their way to becoming the stars of tomorrow's classical
stages. Brevard is also known for its unique white squirrels - no kidding, they
Aging Issues  Center for Eldercare Information Social Security Administration: The "safety net."
Whether seeking money to finance a home improvement, pay off a current mortgage, supplement their retirement income, or pay for healthcare expenses, many older Americans are turning to “reverse” mortgages. They allow older homeowners to convert part of the equity in their homes into cash without having to sell their homes or take on additional monthly bills. In a “regular” mortgage, you make monthly payments to the lender. But in a “reverse” mortgage, you receive money from the lender and generally don’t have to pay it back for as long as you live in your home. Instead, the loan must be repaid when you die, sell your home, or no longer live there as your principal residence. Reverse mortgages can help homeowners who are house-rich but cash-poor stay in their homes and still meet their financial obligations. Click here to access the Federal Trade Commission's Reverse Mortgage Information web site. AARP has a very informative and readable web site that explains the fundamentals of reverse mortgages. After learning all there is to know from the AARP site, go to the National Center for Home Equity Conversion web site for more details. The NCHEC is not affiliated with any lender organization and are "militantly independent" in the views they present. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association has a web site explaining Reverse Mortgages and has a directory to their member lenders.
Baby Boomers Born 1946 - 1964
I refuse to put Baby Boomer information under "Aging Issues." Denial is everything. Can you afford to take a 40% pay cut? Read this. Boomernet is the oldest "Boomer Site" having been launched in 1995. This site, like many others, want you to "join" to be able to take advantage of all it has to offer. Boomernet has lots of interesting information for free, but other similar sites seem to want you to join primarily so they can market products to you. Be careful which sites you ""join." Here is a cool blog for us "Boomers." The latest addition, BoomerGirl.com is the place for women born during the Baby Boom to find news, information, fun and community. Here you'll find everything from magazine-style profiles of accomplished women and health news to time-saving tips and daily Spanish lessons. Launched on Jan. 1, 2007, BoomerGirl's goal is to give women in midlife a voice. Boomers International has a good selection of reading material links. Again, you are invited to join, but there is much information available without joining. You decide.
Economics
Freakonomics:
Who says the "Dismal Science" can't be fun? A bright and witty young
economist has written a best-seller to prove otherwise. Take a look. If you like
sports and appreciate economics, then the
Sports
Economist is for you.
Tired of "standing in line" in corporate telephone voice mail
systems? Who isn't? An unusual site offers a
cheat
sheet for getting around Interactive Voice Response systems. The site
is constantly updated with information supplied by users.
Do you have domestic workers in your home? A maid? Gardener? Handyman?
Don't get into trouble for failing to withhold Social Security and taxes. See
IRS
Publication 926 for guidance.
We would all agree that the quality of health care is critical. As always, the federal government is an important and free source of generally reliable information. For health issues, the federal agency is the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mayo Clinic and WebMD offer similar sites with health and fitness information. In finding health care providers useful information can be found at the American Medical Association's DoctorFinder and Administrators in Medicine DocFinder. For Virginia residents, The Virginia Board of Medicine offers the opportunity to find out about your doctor's education, honors, disciplinary and malpractice record, but the information is largely self reported by doctors. Worst Pills.org, a watchdog research group, offers safety information on prescription medicine and dietary supplements. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, offers information on alternative medicine. Clinical Trials.gov provides a list of thousands of clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Clinical trials offer new, cutting edge treatments that are yet unproven. Hampton Roads health care system sites including Sentara Healthcare, Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System, Chesapeake Health and Riverside Health present health care information and listings of health classes that are often free. Through nonprofit groups, government agencies, drug companies and specialized portals, the Internet has become a prime source of medical information. The issue most users face is how to make effective and reliable use of an increasingly cluttered resource. Help can be found in a new and growing list of specialized search engines, such as Kosmix, Healia, Healthline, WebMD and Mamma Health. What happens in a medical emergency if you are unable to provide critical information to providers? You can install software on your cell phone that will show medical information which the owner might be unable to convey. Also, a useful site from Microsoft called Health Vault allows you to store and share personal medical information with health care providers.
Flu Gearing up for another flu
season, there is much talk of "pandemics' and other diabolical consequences of
the flu. To see who is offering flu
shots in your area and when, go to this
clinic
locator. All of a sudden we are hearing
about bird flu and flu pandemics. For a responsible report, see the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) site on Avian
Flu. Other references include one from
World
Health Organization, current updates from The
Wall Street Journal Online and the science journal
Nature.
By the way, what do the futures markets have to tell us about
flu
epidemics? Surprisingly, a lot more
than you might think. Take a look at our
Derivatives
page to explore this and other unusual applications of futures trading
techniques.
Internet Internet Security is a very serious matter. When
home computers were used primarily for gaming and e-mailing friends,
information security was not an issue. Now that very large amounts of personal
information are stored on your personal computer, protecting that information
— and your privacy — is of paramount importance. Every PC that is connected to
the Internet MUST have antivirus software installed. There are several
developers of this software application, some of the the more well known being
Symantec (Norton),
AVG (Grisoft)
and McAfee. While we cannot endorse any
particular brand for your use, in our offices, we use Norton by Symantec.
There are several free versions of anti
virus software. Whatever brand you decide to use, USE IT TODAY! In addition to protecting your computer and its contents from virus attacks, everyone who stores any information that is important and hard to replace should backup that data regularly. It's easy enough to do by copying to a CD but who actually does that everyday? One sure-fire method is to have the backups done for you all the time you are connected to the internet. We use a service called Carbonite. It works in the background and backs up constantly. Click here for a free trial. SPAM no more. Virginia's Attorney General's office offers suggestions on how to curb SPAM and how to detect and report other Computer Crime. NCSA (at UIUC) Beginner's Guide to HTML: An academic -- and very good -- introduction to HTML. HTML Goodies: A decent beginning explanation of how to use HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language. After struggling with web designers for many months, I began to learn how to do it myself. You can, too. Our web site has some sensitive areas that I do not want strangers (hackers) to see. I needed to "hide" or encrypt the code behind those pages. I found and use a product called HTML-Protector. It works for my purposes and I recommend it if you need to hide your code. Go here to see their web site. The amount of free and
valuable software available on the Net is surprising, but where do you find
it? Two good places to look are
Download.com
and
Tucows.
Also, the ubiquitous Microsoft Office is hard to beat but it isn't cheap. Is
there an alternative worth considering? Take a look at
OpenOffice.org.
If you have suffered Identity Theft or if you want to avoid it, we recommend your first stop be the Federal Trade Commission. The American Bankers Association, Better Business Bureau, National Consumer Law Center, Identity Theft Resource Center and the Virginia Attorney General's office all have advice on safeguarding your financial information. You don't remember getting a summons, yet the jury duty coordinator is on the phone asking for your personal information. Go here for the real scoop. So you want to steal identities but don't feel like dumpster diving? No problem, just go to your local Court Clerk's office and ask to see public records. Oh, you don't want to be seen in the Court building? Even easier, go to the Clerk's web site and download millions of full names, signatures, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, mothers' maiden names, addresses, children's names -- you name it, and it's almost free! There is a watchdog organization trying to get the Legislature to change the law that makes it legal to post our private information on the Internet open to anyone. Go to The Virginia Watchdog. Tired of so many telemarketing
calls? Equally tired of receiving so many credit card offers? Go here to Opt Out of being offered so many. Get your name off the target list. People are growing increasingly
worried about privacy issues and providers of Internet based protection services
recognize a potential market when they see one. Among the companies
offering identity theft protection services are
Intelius,
Intersections,
MyPublicInfo
and
UniPrivacy.
All of the services are for a fee and require the disclosure of private
information that in itself may prove risky. Consequently, great care must be
taken as you attempt to shield yourself from danger in the electronic age.
Safety Got kids? Grandkids? The Virginia State Police Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry program requires the registration of all convicted sex offenders. Check here for those who may be living in your neighborhood. Do you have a parent, grandparent,
relative or friend who is getting a bit too old to drive safely? How about
yourself? Can you recognize and admit when it may be time to protect
others on the road and stop driving? Both the
Virginia
Department of Motor Vehicles and The
Virginia
GrandDriver Program offers some
insightful information. Read it for all our good.
Traffic, Travel and Weather
Commuting? Check out the traffic where you are heading using these live
traffic cameras mounted at many intersections. Use
VDOT for the Commonwealth and
TrafficLand both locally and in other areas of the country. The VDOT
site does not work with IE 7; TrafficLand does. Here's
a link to
The National Weather Service forecast for Hampton Roads or here for
The Weather Channel's video forecast. Foreign travel involves working with unfamiliar currencies. For help, try
Xe.com.
Mapping sites are among the most innovative and useful on the Internet. Among
the best are Ask.com Maps & Directions,
Google Local,
Mapquest,
Windows Live Local and
Yahoo!
Maps. Two software giants are experimenting with satellite viewing:
Google
Earth and Microsoft's
Street Side.
High gas prices crimp your travel plans?
MSN's Gas Prices, a particularly good site for locating the best gas
prices by zip code, might help. Note that you will have to be registered
with MSN, but that's easy and free. Going fishing? Check out the
Avalon Pier
in Kitty Hawk.
Unclaimed Assets and Cheap Goods
Is your name listed as an owner or beneficiary of assets you didn't even know
you had? I was and found I owned several shares of a good old stock I had no
idea I owned -- maybe from parents or who knows what. Read on to see if you
are one of the fortunate ones.
It's estimated that nine out of every 10 people
in North America have unclaimed money.
This is because it's easy to lose money. Maybe
you've moved to a new house and forgotten about
a refund or a security deposit the utility
company owes you. Maybe an account in your name
is receiving dividend payments on a stock you
never knew you owned.
Unclaimed money sits in bank and corporate
accounts all over the United States. Bank
accounts are the most common source of unclaimed
money... but it could come from any source.
Unredeemed money orders, automatic payroll
deposits, refunds, or mineral royalty payments
are other common sources.
The law protects these "forgotten" funds. When a
company or bank identifies inactive accounts, it
must contact a state official. The state
official will then try to locate the owner of
the funds or the owner's heirs. States will hold
the funds until they find you. You simply
present proof (ID), and they'll give you your
money back at no charge.
State officials work hard to return abandoned
money to its rightful owners. They've created
website databases. They put on events to raise
public awareness, and they've even formed a
National Association of Unclaimed Property
Administrators (NAUPA).
MissingMoney.com is the latest initiative by the
states. MissingMoney.com is an umbrella database
of all the state missing-money programs. This is
an official database, endorsed by NAUPA,
containing the collective records from most
state unclaimed-property programs.
To find out if you have any unclaimed money in
your name, first search
www.MissingMoney.com. Don't worry about
entering your name in www.MissingMoney.com's
search engine. It's private. Your name is only
used to generate the results of your search.
It's not saved or used for anything else. We did
our searches on www.MissingMoney.com.
Once you type your name into the MissingMoney
website, the database will bring up every entry
in the country that matches it. If you have a
common name, you can filter by state to reduce
the search results. Along with your name, you'll
get an address, state, and the name of the
company that reported the balance. MissingMoney
will also tell you whether the amount owed to
you is more or less than $100.
The unclaimed-money law says companies must send
lost funds to the state of the owner's last
known address. This means you could potentially
have unclaimed property in every state you've
lived in.
After you've checked www.MissingMoney.com, go to
www.unclaimed.org.
One more thing: You should never pay anyone to
search for your missing money. Nor should you
ever give anyone a finder's fee for tracking
down your money.
Several businesses use the state databases and
the Freedom of Information Act to obtain your
missing money information. Some of these
businesses are fraudulent. They use this
information as bait. They either want you to pay
for a search or pay them a commission for
finding your money. You have free access to the
same databases these companies use. There's no
need to pay them. If you're unsure about a
business saying it will help you recover
unclaimed funds, check with the Better Business
Bureau (search.bbb.org).
Some federal agencies also hold unclaimed funds.
The IRS holds 92,000 undeliverable tax-refund
checks. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. holds
lost pension funds. The FDIC may owe you money
if you've lost funds in a bank closure. The U.S.
Department of Housing may owe you a refund on
your HUD/FHA mortgage insurance premium. The
Bureau of the Public Debt holds $15 billion in
lost savings bonds and funds from matured
savings bonds.
If you think the federal government might owe
you money, you can find the unclaimed property
contact details for these agencies here:
http://www.nast.org/NAUPA/Othersourcesup.htm.
The main reason people lose money is they change
their address without alerting companies they do
business with. Whenever you change your address
or marital status, you should contact your bank
and any other institutions that hold your money.
Notify these institutions in typed writing.
Don't let accounts become dormant. Cash all
checks as soon as you receive them. Keep
accurate records of your accounts and deposits
you've paid. If you keep a safety deposit box,
let a trusted relative have the bank's name,
address, and box number. Finally, make sure you
file a will.
Where to Buy Stolen Jewels… Legally!
How would you like to buy 15 bicycles for $70?
Or an iPod for less than $50? At Property Room,
you'll find pages and pages of ridiculous
bargains. I scrolled through three pages of
diamond rings… and all of them were selling for
less than $100.
All over the country, law enforcement agencies
have rooms full of stolen or forfeited goods.
When the prosecution no longer needs these
stolen goods as evidence, they must dispose of
it. Founded and operated by former police
officers in 1999, Property Room (www.propertyroom.com)
is the website 1,100 police departments all over
America use to sell stolen or seized goods.
The Department of the Treasury also holds about
100 auctions each year to sell goods seized from
drug dealers, money launderers, and other
convicted criminals. The Department of Justice
holds auctions of forfeited assets. For more
information on these auctions, see
www.bid4assets.com and
www.cwsmarketing.com.
When people lapse on their annual
safety-deposit-box rental fee, after a certain
time the bank will drill the locks and return
the contents to a state administrator. Since it
is impossible for the states to store all the
contents of these safety boxes, most states hold
periodic auctions. The funds they raise at these
auctions may be held until claimed by the owner
of the box or donated to state programs. For
example, in Florida, the proceeds from
safety-deposit-box sales support the school
system.
There's something sad about buying the contents
of safety deposit boxes, but you can find
incredible bargains if you know what to look
for. I went to an auction in Jacksonville,
Florida, two years ago and found numerous gold
coins trading at or below their melt value.
There were thousands of items... including
jewelry, coins, and foreign currency.
Some states use eBay to sell the contents of
unclaimed boxes. Other states hold physical
auctions in several large cities. You should
search for unclaimed-property auctions in your
state using the Internet or check your local
newspaper listings.
Here's another place to look for bargains:
The airline industry loses hundreds of pieces of
luggage every day. Unclaimed luggage ends up at
the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro,
Alabama. A million people visit the center each
year to look through the contents of lost
luggage for bargains. The Unclaimed Baggage
Center also runs an online store at
www.unclaimedbaggage.com. You'll find
50%-80% discounts on brand-name clothes,
electronics, and miscellaneous airline cargo.
In September 2008, the government nationalized
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie and Freddie
owned and guaranteed half the mortgages in
America. This makes the federal government the
world's largest property owner.
When homeowners default on Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac mortgages, the government kicks out
the homeowner and assumes ownership of the
house. The government does not want to be a
landlord, so it sells these houses at big
discounts to market prices.
You can search Fannie Mae properties for sale by
going to
www.fanniemae.com and then clicking on
"Homes for Sale." You can browse property for
sale from Freddie Mac at
www.homesteps.com.
The United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) also makes loans to
homeowners. If these homeowners default on their
loans, HUD assumes ownership of these properties
and auctions them on its website. Prices average
two-thirds of their appraised value. You can
browse HUD homes for sale at
www.hud.gov/homes. Also, HUD offers special
deals to teachers, firefighters, police
officers, and emergency medical staff. They call
this the "Good Neighbor Program."
Finally, many federal agencies auction
confiscated and surplus property. You can find
residential, commercial, and raw land here.
Check out
https://propertydisposal.gsa.gov for the
full listings in your state.
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He
then quoted me a price significantly less than the other estimates I had
received. Needless to say, since I had already observed his quality of work
-- and that he cleaned up after himself and his workers so that at the end
of the work day, you could not tell they had been there -- I gave him the
"green light" to do the work as soon as he could. He trimmed my trees exactly as
I had asked in a very short time, cut the very large pieces into firewood
length as I requested and left me with enough wood for a couple of years of
burning. I highly recommend Shane to anyone in the greater Hampton Roads
area who needs to take down or trim trees. He has a large bucket truck,
mulching truck and stump grinder, so any size tree can be accommodated. If
you need tree service, call Shane at 757 465 8395 or e-mail him here:
are white. Memorial
Day brings with it the White Squirrel Festival. Quaint shops in a
quaint town is a welcome change from the urban malls we are so accustomed
to visiting. The mountains are
beautiful all year round; lush green in the summer, flowers abound in the
spring, stark beauty in the winter and, of course, brilliantly colored in the
fall. The mountains alone are worth the trip. You can sit on your own private
porch or walk out to the stone patio just to soak up the ambience. Usually
the only noise is birds chirping, tree frogs at night and maybe some turkeys
calling from the brush. Transylvania County has the most and the tallest waterfalls of any place east of the Mississippi. Of course, Transylvania County
also is home to the town of Bat Cave. No kidding! Please go to their
A consortium of medical journal publishers, the
American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the American
Heart Association, has unveiled a site,
