Put a penny in the old man's hat

Did you notice I added a new link a few days ago? No? Well, look to your right, run your eye down the column till you see Financial Calculators. See it?

Use it. It's free. And how much stuff do you see that's absolutely free nowadays? You don't even have to give them your fake email address.

I found that link last week while I was doing research for an article I want to write on children's savings accounts. I'll share some of the other free sites I found with you as I'll probably never finish the article and you might as well profit from my research. (Profit - that's a play on words. Get it?)

You need to bookmark the Annual Credit Report site if you haven't already done so. From this site you can request one free credit file disclosure a year from each of the three national consumer credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. If you stagger them, you can get a free credit report every four months. That's handy for checking on any activity that would indicate identify theft.

Check out Oprah's Debt Diet. It has some interesting tips for whittling away debt. For example, you can put $10 a day towards your debt (or in your savings) if you just give up unnecessary items like fancy coffees, cigarettes, sodas, kid's lunches .... Yeah, that's what it said. Kid's lunches. I know the little darlings are expensive, but that's a little extreme, don't you think? Even if you're averse to starving your kids to save a few bucks, Oprah has some fun calculators that will help you figure out how to manage your money.

Investopedia is a good site for learning about investing your money. If you don't believe me, just ask them: "Investopedia is your complete, unbiased, and easy-to-understand educational guide to investing and personal finance. The site has the biggest financial dictionary on the web, hundreds of articles and tutorials, and an investing simulator where you can practice managing a portfolio without putting your money at risk." You can play the stock market here without risking any money. Of course, you can't spend your profits either, but it's a fun way to learn how fast you can make and lose money on Wall Street. Let your kids play. When they get good at it, they can invest their own money and buy their own lunch.

Please put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny, then a ha' penny will do.

If you haven't got a ha' penny, then God bless you!

.... Mother Goose