Potentially Interesting Web Sites

Here are some links a smart friend recommends, and that I may include in the next revision of my book.

I hope you profit from one or two of them. (Please let me know if you think any are particularly useful or useless, or disagree with any of his descriptions.) Thanks!

INSURANCE

www.insureme.com is a quote service to find the least expensive health, automobile, homeowners, and life insurance policies.

www.insuremarket.com is a Quicken site with a well-written introduction to the different types of insurance a person may want to consider, and some tools for choosing good policies.

www.insure.com is another terrific site that teaches the ABCs of insurance and annuities.

TAXES

www.el.com/elinks/taxes has links to most of the very best sites on taxes, with informative descriptions of each site. This is the place to start.

www.owlsoftware.com is offering a free Roth IRA calculator to help in the decisions of which to fund and whether to convert.

www.irs.gov/formspubs/ is the place to get tax forms and instructions.

www.irs.gov/taxedu/faq/ is the extremely useful IRS taxpayer help and education site.

LOAN RATES

www.hsh.com is a good source for locating the best rates for home and auto loans, with additional assistance available for contacting lenders and starting the application process.

www.microsurf.com goes the extra mile in removing lenders from its database when they don’t honor information provided to it, and is also an excellent source for quotes on moving expenses and information to locate good realtors in your area. They are adding many other services, such as insurance quotes and apartment rental information, on a regular basis.

www.bankrate.com covers some larger lenders that don’t participate in the other database surveys.

www.banx.com provides information on other types of loans, including home equity lines, auto loans, and personal loans.

SPENDING

www.homeshark.com helps every step of the way for people who are looking for a house, including price information on homes and neighborhoods and, once again, more information on loans and rates.

www.housenet.com is all about home maintenance, repairs, and improvements, and ways of reducing all the costs of a home other than the mortgage payment.

www.classifieds2000.com is an online national forum for private party and dealer listings comparable to what you find in the newspapers and Pennysaver publications. There is a reasonably priced escrow service available to protect both the buyer and seller in transactions.

www.travelocity.com is a good source for airline prices, car rentals, and hotel information.

www.travelweb.com is another good site with similar information and the ability to book hotels directly for most chains.

www.teleworth.com provides help in choosing among all the long distance companies and plans available, based on your personal calling habits.

PERSONAL FINANCE

www.smartmoney.com is an interactive site created by Smart Money magazine, with many interesting worksheets and information on debt management, retirement planning, and other personal finance topics.

www.usatoday.com/money is the USA today money page and is becoming a very impressive start page for links to useful information.

www.forbes.com is the home of Forbes magazine’s site, with many useful tips for people who have accumulated enough wealth to worry about estate planning, and a large number of useful ideas on personal finance for people in all wealth categories. They also offer a toolbox with many useful financial calculators.

www.kiplinger.com is another excellent site along the same lines, sponsored by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

LEGAL

www.nolo.com provides a great deal of useful and, just as important, accurate information about legal matters that will enable you to know when you need a lawyer and when you can do it yourself, as well as what fits in between those two extremes.

www.legaldocs.com lets you prepare some legal documents online and download them for a minimal fee. This is definitely worth considering for simple agreements that you want to make with others where the primary concern is avoiding misunderstanding rather than making sure you’ll be able to sue!