Ken & Daria Dolan’s Smart Money Moves

•	Our Questions for the Candidates
•	Credit Cards in Congress
•	New Investing Tool on Dolans.com!

Most people – thanks to insurance agents – are over-insured. You can save at least $75 instantly just by canceling insurance coverage you don’t need.

You can start by calling your insurance agent and canceling accidental death coverage and child life insurance. You can also drop credit card life insurance.

FDIC Insurance

Here’s an excellent example of why you should never keep more than $100,000 at any one bank:

We told you on Friday about the Feds shutting down NetBank, one of the first and largest Internet-only banks, due to subprime mortgage defaults. Since the FDIC only insures bank deposits of up to $100,000, those with less than that amount were completely covered, so the shutdown was mostly just a hassle… but customers with more than $100,000 were left out in the cold without protection. You can’t predict when a bank will suddenly fold, but you can guard your money by keeping no more than $100,000 in any financial institution and by making sure that institution is FDIC insured.

By the way, if you missed our video on the safety of Internet-only banking, you can check it out here.

Weigh In on the Great Gift Card Debate!

Ken and I disagree over whether gift cards are a cheap excuse for not putting thought into a present or a surefire way for your loved one to get what he or she wants. More than $26 billion in retail cards are expected to be sold this season. So we want to know … will you be giving any gift cards this year?

	Yes
	No

Let us know, and stay tuned for the results in next week’s Smart Money Moves.

In The News
Our Questions for the Candidates

Is it just me, or have there been a LOT more presidential debates this year? Ken and I saw two just in the last week, and I’ve got to tell you, we’ve had it with the whole lot of them. Can we please get beyond mudslinging and one-liners and have some serious debate about the big obstacles our next president will face?!

To help the conversation along, Ken and I put together a little video message for the candidates with our list of the pressing concerns that we’d like to see discussed in greater depth. After all, many political policies affect your wallet, as well as the future of this country. If you get the chance, we hope you’ll ask your candidate about their proposals to resolve these topics… you may even get a straight answer!

Check out our questions for the candidates here.

Credit Smarts
Credit Cards in Congress

We’ve been talking ourselves blue in the face for years about the sneaky tricks credit card companies use to bilk consumers. Now Congress has actually started to take notice of the problem. They held hearings this month over a disturbing practice: credit card companies raising interest rates even if customers paid their balances on time. Why? Because their credit score had fallen.

Unfortunately, attempts by Congress to block this practice have been met with heavy opposition from the fat-cat banks.

This is just one more reason to monitor your credit rating and clear up any blemishes. This isn’t as hard as it sounds!

Click here to learn how to clean up your credit rating in four easy steps.

bankruptcy image Dolan’s Resource Library
Our Latest Investing Tool:
The Dolans.com Glossary

Have you ever read a personal finance article and thought to yourself, “Is this even English?”

It’s true, the financial world comes with a language all of its own that can make understanding money matters difficult. But as part of our promise to help make handling your finances as painless as possible, we’re here to turn the mumbo-jumbo into plain English.

That’s why we’re proud to announce our special Dolans.com glossary! It’s chock full of the most common financial and investment phrases in easy-to-understand definitions that will make you an expert in no time. From annuities to zero-coupons bonds, anytime you read or hear a term you don’t understand, check our glossary first. Chances are you’ll find what you need! And if you don’t, let us know – we’re adding new entries all the time!

Survey Says…

We know, we know... we’ve been asking you guys a lot of questions lately. But we love hearing your opinion! Now we want to share how your fellow Dolans.com members have responded to our surveys:

In last week’s Smart Money Moves, we asked about how much shopping you are doing online this holiday season. This one was a close contest, with 33% not doing any online shopping, 30% doing “a little” online, and 28% saying they would take care of about half their shopping through the web. Only 9% said they would do all of their shopping online.

Staying on the holiday theme… in light of this shaky economy, we wanted to know if you planned to spend more or less on holiday shopping this year. We have to admit this one surprised us – a whopping 82% of you plan to spend more!

Can’t wait to see how the votes come in on the great gift card debate (see the survey to the right)!

Sincerely,

Ken & Daria Dolan

P.S. Thanks to all of you who have emailed me (Daria here) your favorite book of 2007! I have loved checking out all your suggestions and can’t wait to share the top picks with everyone on Dolans.com. Here’s your last chance to get your reading recommendations in if you haven’t already! Simply send an email to dolans@dolans.com and tell me what’s on your list.