Take Vacation By Exchanging Home

April is the cruelest month but summer is not far away and probably this
is the time to prepare for a vacation with your family and especially kids.

In recent years, swapping or exchanging homes located throughout the
world is gaining more and more popularity as an attractive part of taking
vacation.

For an annual membership of around $50, you may enlist your home on
an exchange site. If someone is interested in your home, they will email
you and when you come across anything that you like, you email them.
Finally you decide to cut a deal depending on mutual preferences and
options. Some people even go beyond to exchange their cars too. You can
even agree to take care of each other's pets.

Three leading (and Big too!) house-swap sites are: HomeExchange.com,
Intervac.com, Homelink.org .
Besides that there is SinglesHomeExchange.com for swapping apartments
and also some quite interesting ones like TeacherHomeSwap.com which
provides the specialized service of finding other teacher swappers who are
very likely to search for houses for similar vacation dates.

Even with so many websites available, it might not be very easy to find an
exchange home of your choice. Vacation is precious and you may not
afford to spoil it by a hurriedly-made choice by you. So, start early, plan
properly, have a talk with the exchangers and take about three months to
decide how your summer home should be. Many people who did that say
that they want to do it again. It's worth the trouble and time.

Rising Prescription Drug Price

Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons (AARP) , an
association for people to promote the welfare of senior citizens says in a
recent report that American consumers need to start stashing more money
away (especially for retirement) to pay for their prescription drugs.

Following a 7% jump in costs for brand name drug in 2003, prices rose a
further 7.1% in 2004. That is 2.5 times the rate of inflation. It was the fifth
straight year in which inflation in drug price outpaced the regular US
inflation rate.

The AARP survey interviewed Americans over 50 who used 195 different
types of prescription drugs, and found 185 of them rising faster than the
rate of inflation. As an example, for older patients taking three different
drugs, the increase in price has resulted in an additional annual medical
bill of $154.

Only good news, if any, is that prices for generic drugs remained flat in
2004 - but do not forget that it already had an ugly 13.3% jump in 2003.
You must feel lucky if you do not take any medication.

Follow-up Posting: Free Internet Service

On Monday we introduced to our readers an internet provider company
called "Access4free" in our posting about free internet access.
Unfortunately, that company has announced a transformation of their
business and they are stopping to provide internet service from May 1.

Helplines for Elder-Care Issues

You may be old or young, but you may need help regarding care issues of
your elderly relatives. You may approach the folowing organizations for
various kinds of help and information:

Support: Children of Aging Parents 800-227-7294
The Family Caregiver Alliance 800-445-8106

Government Programs: The Elderly Locator 800-677-1116
The National Council on The Aging

Legal Help: The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys 520-881-4005

Financial Advice: The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
800-366-2732
The Financial Planning Association 800-282-7526

Estate Planning: American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys
800-846-1555

Time to Get a Flat-Screen Television Set?

42" Grand WEGA™ LCD Rear Projection HDTV $ 2,499.99
If you are planning for a long time to upgrade your living room into a
virtual home theatre, probably you can take a peek at what is in store for
you from Sony. Sony Televisions (at SonyStyle.com) is offering select
Grand WEGA™, Plasma WEGA™, LCD WEGA™ or FD Trinitron®
television with price drops up to $1,000. Shipping is included on all
televisions and, if you need financing, it is currently offering 18 Months No
Interest Financing on Sony Hi Scan or Integrated TVs $499 and Above
(on approved credit).

We think it is a good deal only if you care for or die for brand names like
Sony, Panasonic. Otherwise, we believe that names like JVC, Zenith, RCA,
Sharp, Samsung, Fujitsu, Loewe, Pioneer may also offer you something
good at good price. We donot put too much money on things like
Television. Technology is changing rapidly and if you wish to catch up with
the most updated versions of the most famous brands, you will loose
money too often - which you can afford to do if you have lots of money.
By the way, you may know about all Television manufacturers by
clicking here.

Free Internet Access

If you are in Southern California you can not only enjoy beaches,
mountains, deserts and Hollywood, you can also get free internet access.
SoCal Free Net is a great organization which is offering free dial-up
internet access to so many households across Sothern California - Los
Angeles, San Diego, Orange County etc. This is a Truely Free Unlimited
service and we donot know of any other organization in USA who are
providing that.

Among all other providers, we feel the best deal is from Access4free .
For one time set-up fee of only $4.95, each month you get 10 hours free
internet. For each additional hour, a charge of $1 will apply. The
maximum you may be charged per month is $10 for unlimited Internet
access.

All other companies usually provide first 1 or 2 months free and some
of them give that only if you sign up for at least 1 year.

Should You Close Your Unused Credit Cards?

Having a good credit score is good for so many things: getting a lower rate
mortgage, getting good deals on credit cards and also for your hunting a
job.

Some people tend to cancel their old unused credit card accounts under a
wrong impression that getting rid of fat in your wallet might improve your
credit score.

Instead of closing out old accounts, leave them be. The FICO calculator
looks at your credit utilization which is measured by the ratio between
your credit limit and the amount of balance on your cards. This should be
a fraction less than 1. As it approaches 1, you max out your cards. So,
closing a old credit card reduces the amount of your available credit
without paying down the amount of debt you have. This makes it appear
that you are getting closer to maxxing out your cards and hurts your
FICO score. For example, if you have $10,000 of available credit on
several credit cards and owe a total of $1,000, you have used 10 percent
of your available credit. However, if you close accounts with $9,000 of
available credit, you now have used 100 percent of your available credit,
and that isn't good for your credit score.

Sometimes, consumers seek to close out old unused cards with high
interest rates just to avoid the possibility of using them. This is called 'a
smart consumer point of view' but not a 'smart credit point of view'. Even
if you want to cancel (may be just to have a lighter wallet or less number
of things to worry about), you might be better off to close the newer
cards which is not carrying your long-time credit history and thus are
less important from the point of view of the FICO scoring system.

World's Best Airports

Summer is coming. Are you planning a vacation? Do you select your
destination by quality of its airport? Sounds weird? Well ... some people
seriously consider that - at least that is one of their consideration.. may
be in their subconscious mind.

Skytrax, a London-based airline and airport passenger research firm,
recently released the results of an annual survey that ranks the world's
best airports. Skytrax does not take into account elements like on-time
performance, lost baggage or customer complaints. Rather, this survey on
more than 5.5 million responses asks passengers about 31 criteria,
including airport access, public transit availability, terminal comfort,
ambience and cleanliness, immigration wait times and service, terminal
signage, friendliness and language skills of airport staff, ease of
connections, entertainment, shopping and dining options, and Internet
options. And here is the ranking:
1) Hong Kong International Airport 2) Singapore Changi International
Airport 3) Incheon International Airport, Seoul 4) Munich Airport 5) Kansai
International Airport, Osaka 6) Dubai International Airport 7) Kualalumpur
International Airport 8) Amsterdom Schiphol Airport 9) Copenhagen
Airport 10) Sydney Airport

As you can see Asia's airports with all kinds of 21st century facilities
dominate the rankings. Also worth noting is the fact that no U.S. airports
cracked the top ten. In fact, they barely managed to appear at the top 20.
Minneapolis-St. Paul came in a No. 20 worldwide and No. 1 in North
America. It is unfortunate that, just like its airlines, service at U.S. airports
also has fallen from its standard and is remaining far behind some of the
most modern ones in Asian countries.
... So? Where are you going for your summer vacation?

Fix Your Diet: Visit MyPyramid.gov

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a useful website
MyPyramid.gov where you will be able to know the amount of each food
group you need daily. You need to enter your information like age, sex,
activity level etc and you will be able to find out and receive a customized
food guide.

You can receive an estimate of what and how much you need to eat and a
detailed assessment of your food intake and physical activity level. This
also will help you make smart choices from every food group, find your
balance between food and physical activity, and get the most nutrition out
of your calories.

The above-mentioned website is managed by the Center for Nutrition
Policy and Promotion, an organization of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture which was established in 1994 to improve the nutrition and
well-being of Americans. Toward this goal, the Center focuses its efforts
on two primary objectives—
1. Advance and promote dietary guidance for all Americans, and
2. Conduct applied research and analyses in nutrition and consumer
economics.

The Center's core products to support its objectives are the following:
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, MyPyramid Food Guidance System,
Healthy Eating Index, U.S. Food Plans, Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food
Supply, Expenditures on Children by Families.

Internet & Cellphones: Where does USA stand?

April 2004 issue of MIT's magazine of innovation "Technology Review"
gives some interesting information and charts for the global technology.

It is interesting that United States leads in per capita spending on
information and communication technology but it comes third in the
category of internet use per 1000 people. Sweden leads in internet use,
followed by South Korea. Our neighbor Canada follows US and Denmark
takes the fifth spot.

What about cellphones? You may get continuously disturbed by people
talking at airport, in restrooms, while driving cars and you may think of
escaping to some other country to take a vacation to get rid of these
people continuously talking to others by cellphones.

But you will be surprised to know that United States does not get a place
in the list of top 5 nations with highest level of cellphone use per 1000
people. In that category the ranking is as follows: 1. Luxembourg 2. Israel
3. Italy 4. Iceland 5. Sweden

By the way, which country has the highest cost of internet access? Note it
down: Central African Republic.

Latitude X1 ultraportable Laptop unveiled by Dell

On March 30th, following the trend started with its original
ultraportable offering, the Latitude X300, Dell introduced the Latitude
X1. It is smaller than its sibling but is equally fully featured. The
Latitude X1 offers a widescreen display coupled with light weight and a
broad range of features whilst also carrying on the legacy from the X300
in omitting any sort of internal optical drive solution in order to keep size
and weight to a minimum. Its weight starts from 2.5 pounds.

It is powered by a 1.1 GHz Intel Pentium M733 processor. The Latitude
X1 offers from 256 MB to 1.28 GB of DDR2 RAM and a choice of either
30 or 60 GB hard drives. The X1 boasts a 12.1" display with WXGA
(1280 x 768 pixels) resolution. The display is considerably shorter than
that of X300. Also, the LCD back has been reinforced to counter external
pressure which was a known issue with the Latitude X300 series.

By look and by Specifications, it seems Latitude X1 has arrived to win
hearts (or laps?) of many soon!

Tax 2004: Can You NOT Finish By Midnight Today?

Many Post Offices throughout the country will remain open until
midnight today to accept tax returns. Call 1-800-ASK-USPS to know
which post offices in your locality will remain open.

To help people finish tax filing in time, the Internal Revenue Service
joined forces with H&R Block, Turbo tax and other private companies to
offer free online tax preparation and e-filing, which has contributed to
huge jumps in electronic filing to some 61 million taxpayers last year.
These utilize simple software packages that walk taxpayers throught the
process.

If worse comes to worse and you can't can't really finish the job by 11:59
p.m. on April 15, you know that you can file for an extension. To do that
by computer, access form 4868 online from IRS Website and e-file it.
Anyone who filed a return last year can use the form as a worksheet and
may also request the extension by phone toll-free at 1-888-796-1074.

The IRS expects about nine million taxpayers to file for an extension.
The tax agency automatically grants one extension for four months to any
taxpayer who asks. not a free lunch though. More time to file doesn't give
a person more time to pay. Whether requesting an extension electronically
or on paper, a taxpayer must estimate the total tax liability. If the IRS
later finds this estimate to be unreasonable, the extension will be
considered null.

If you're owed a refund, the IRS gets to keep your money until you file. If
you owe taxes, better estimate the amount and send a check off to the
IRS. Otherwise you'll be liable for late-payment penalties. To avoid
interest and penalties, make a tax payment by check, credit card or direct
withdrawal from your checking account.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRA Reminder Again:
By The Way: If you have not yet contributed fully ($3000 for qualified
people; Details here) to your IRA account, you may like to do that by
Today by taking the money to the Bank/Brokerage Company that holds
your account during their working hour. No extension for that!

Lexus' Luxury Hybrid Car (RX 400h) Rolling Out Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day! Lexus will roll out its new RX 400h Hybrid model.
Lexus' new luxury RX 400h is essentially a hybrid version of its
gas-powered model, RX 330. It will have a suggested sticker price of price
of $48,535 - about $10,000 more than the price of 330 model.

Lexus is planning to sell about 27000 cars annually. 400h has all-wheel
drive and 268 horsepower engine, a navigation system and a number of
high-tech gadgets. Acceleration? 0-60 mph in 7.3 seconds! Mileage? 27
miles per gallon on the highway and 31 miles per gallon in the city.

That is 67 percent improvement over RX 330 and looks good in luxury
car category but for truely Green people it does not sound too good in the
overall category of hybrid cars which is led by Honda Insight [61 mpg in
city, 66 in freeway] and Toyota Prius [60 mpg in city, 51 in freeway].

Toyota (parent of Lexus) , with its popular Prius model, owns about 60
percent of the hybrid market. The share of Hybrid in total car market is
currently under 1 percent in the United States and may approach 3
percent by 2010.

Use Online Dictionary to Learn Correct Pronunciation

Can you pronounce words like "connoisseur" or "entrepreneur" correctly?
Do you know how "desert" and "dessert" sound differently?

If you feel uncomfortable sometime (especially if you are new in USA and
probably coming from a non-English-speaking country) the best way to
improve your pronunciation is to visit the website of Merriam Webster
dictionary and click on such word or any word you like and hear and
practise the correct pronunciation!

Dictionary.com also provides similar service but you need to sign up and
login each time you want to use the dictionary. Merriam Webster, on the
other hand has kept the access very simple for any user.

YourDictionary.com is a virtual directory of many dictionaries of many
types in many many languages. If you know or are just interested in many
languages, this website is a very useful one.

Car Maintenance: Flushing Automatic Transmission

What is the difference between a manual and an automatic transmission?
The manual transmission locks and unlocks different sets of gears to the
output shaft to achieve the various gear ratios and so a wide range of
speed. The automatic transmission also does the same job by allowing the
engine to operate in its narrow range of speeds while providing a wide
range of output speeds. But unlike in a manual transmission, in an
automatic transmission, all of the different gear ratios are produced by
the same set of gears.

The center of attention in an automatic transmission is the planetary
gearset which makes it possible to create the different gear ratios that the
transmission can produce. It is about the size of a cantaloupe. Whatever
else is there in transmission are there to help the planetary gearset do
its very important job. It is also known as torque converter.

The torque converter does not require any regular maintenance or
adjustments. However, it produces a tremendous amount of heat which
turns out to be the enemy of transmission fluid. Your car manufacturer
may recommend to change the fluid at regular intervals. It is possible to
change the transmission fluid through draining but even after that much
of the fluid may still remain inside.

That is why flushing the automatic transmission system is often
recommended by service centers as a routine maintenance item. But most
manufacturers nowadays say it's not needed until at least 60,000 miles.
Also do not forget the filter in your transmission. If you have one in your
car, check the owner's manual for when it should be replaced.

Tax Filing & 2004 IRA Contribution: Friday Is The Deadline

We want to remind our readers: The deadline for making your 2004 IRA
contribution is same as your deadline for tax filing - April 15th. You can
contribute $3,000 ($3,500 if you're 50 or older) in your IRA (Roth or
Traditional) for the 2004 tax year.

We also want to remind our readers that for 2004 taxes, the requirement
for the adjusted gross income (AGI) limit has increased.

Some taxpayers fund traditional IRAs with 'before tax' dollars because
either they do not meet Roth IRA guidelines (whose contribution is made
with after-tax dollar but grows without any tax burden for future) or they
simply love the tax deduction. However, this deduction is phased out at
certain income limits if the contributor is covered by a retirement plan at
work.

For 2004 taxes, single and head-of-household filers covered by a company
retirement plan and has AGI not exceeding $45,000 will get a full IRA
contribution deduction. For married couples filing jointly, this amount limit
is $65,000. A partial deduction is allowed if the AGI falls between $45,000
and $55,000 for single and head-of-household and between $65,000 and
$75,000 for married couples filing jointly.

By the way, in 2005, you can contribute upto $4000 ($4500 if you're 50 or
older) to your IRA account if you qualify.

Internet Resources for Your Child's Education

Today we present some FREE internet resources that may help your
children in their homework and improve their general level of learning
a lot.

For English grammer, Merriam Webster provides several PowerPoint
presentations within the Guide to Grammar and Writing. You may get
those here .

PinkMonkey offers free online chapter summaries, notes, book notes,
study guides, chapter plot notes for hundreds of titles and authors.
These are essential for understanding complex literature.

SciFair is the premiere resource for help with science fair projects,
science fair ideas, tips on carrying out science experiments, and creating
winning science fair projects.

PhysicsClassRoom is a very good resource for High School Physics topics.
One can learn basic physics concepts and review them in the Physics
Tutorial.

Car Purchase: General Motors' Generous Give-Away

From April 11 through May 31 General Motors will give away 1,000 new
vehicles and offer $1,000 cash back on any new car and truck purchases!
This is a revival of its "Hot Button" marketing blitz of year 2004.

GM's Showroom visitors across the U.S. will have the opportunity to win
one of 58 different models of cars by pushing the OnStar "Hot Button" in
certain designated vehicles. Last year, this same campaign drew almost
two million people to dealerships.

This year General Motors has sold 5% fewer cars and trucks in the United
States during the first quarter than it did last year. So, in GM's latest
attempt to spur sales, this year they are adding the lucrative offer of
$1,000 cash on the hood of already discounted 2004 and 2005 models.

General Motors, the world's biggest automaker, thus is expecting even
more visitors this year to their dealerships across the country.

Income From Credit Cards

Throughout 2004 some people earned $100-$200 per month simply by
transferring money from some of their credit card accounts offering 0%
interest for 6months to 1 year or more to a savings accounts (like
IngDirect bank) where it earned interest at around 2% or to some CD
account.

Many others availed this opportunity of having huge interest-free cash in
their hand but alas they just spent it! These are the customers which were
targetted by credit cards. These are the customers they love to have -
These customers will now pay interest on their piled up credit months after
months and the interest rate will go on increasing as Fed hikes the short
term rate more in coming months.

0% interest seems to be fading away as a story of the past. Some Credit
cards are now offering 1.9% APR for life to their customers - which are
very good deals especially if you have car loans etc at higher interest and
you can pay those off. For some other smart fellows even 1.9% for 1 year
offers some opportunity of more income - by keeping the money in
savings account of say Emigrant Direct which offers whopping 3.25% APR.
Of course, they need to deduct tax from this extra income of course. Also,
beware that their credit score suffers due to these high balances. So,
avoid this practice if you are applying for a job or relocating or buying a
home or doing anything that needs your credit check.

However, looking from above, it seems you can be called smart if you
have hard cash in hand but you control your temptation of spending it off!

Gmail: Inbox Can Store 2GB now!

Have you got a Gmail account? Google's Gmail is still in a test, or beta,
phase, and isn't generally available. To obtain a Gmail account, some
existing account holder needs to invite you and if you ask around, you
may easily locate a few among your friends. Each current user has 50
invitations to give.

Last week Gmail increased the inbox storage of its Gmail webmail service
from 1GB to 2GB, and it will continue to raise this in coming months.

The main advantage with so much storage is that probably you need not
spend time in deciding which mails you would delete and which one you
should not. You just keep everything and Gmail takes care of the
management part ... like bunching a series of email exchanges together.
These are some cool features which make Gmail standing high above its
competitors like hotmail or yahoo or aol.

Some people object to another feature of Gmail - Google puts text ads
that are served up to users with each email they open. These ads are
based on the content of the message. Critics were concerned that the
privacy of Gmail users would be invaded by Google. Google's response
was that their text scanning technology is automated and is performed
without human intervention.
We from 'LiveInUSA' feel Gmail is just secure and safe to use!

By the way, other email providers have also reacted to Gmail's generous
offer of inbox storage capability. Microsoft's Hotmail or msn service,
Yahoo and aol or netscape now offer 250MB for their free services. Both
Yahoo and Microsoft offer 2GB inboxes with their fee-based email
services. Yahoo plans to begin offering 1GB free storage starting in late April.

iPod Mini : Another cool Gadget from Apple!

Apple has come up with
another market killer iPod. The new 6 GigaByte iPod Mini costs $249
and allows more storage for digital music than its predecessor. The
maximum capacity is about 1500 songs. The battery life has improved
to nearly 18 hours and a cool feature, like with so many other Apple
products, is that the mini now charges directly through a USB 2.0 port,
eliminating the need for a separate power adapter. Sometimes, we
wonder where and how Steve Jobs get all these fine ideas!

It works with Mac OX as well as Windows and comes in four attractive
colors: Blue, Pink, Green, Silver (only 2 are shown above).
Weight? - Only 3.6 ounces - smaller than many cellphones.

Time to forward your time again this Sunday!

"Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too
have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun. We've
learned to save energy and enjoy sunny summer evenings by
switching our clocks an hour forward in the summer."
-Benjamin Franklin

Daylight Saving Time begins for most of the United States at 2 am
on the first Sunday of April. So this Sunday we'll move forward in
time and so we need to wake up an hour in advance starting this
Monday morning

The Daylight saving time remains in effect until last Sunday of
October.

By the way, if you need to adjust your clock accurately, what do
you do? The best is to visit US Government's official site for time.