Happy 2007

We wish all our readers a very happy and safe 2007! We sincerely thank all of you for your continuous support.

Holiday Travel Tips

Christmas travel is going to be rough this year with bad and snowy or foggy weather in some of the states disrupting airline schedules. We can expect more delays and other airport annoyances. Here are a few advanced tips ... just in time before you start your well-deserved break from work:

Know what you can carry
It's worthwhile going through the website of the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and getting familiar with the new security procedure in order to avoid your frustrations after arriving at the airport. In particular, it's important to go through the list of prohibited items (click here) and make sure what you can and can't carry in your carry-ons.

Get the traffic report
Find out what's happening at the airport on fly.faa.gov, which lists real-time flight delays. For security lines, check out waittime.tsa.dhs.gov, which lists security line wait times by hour for any terminal at any U.S. airport.

Park online.
Airport parking lots fill up fast during holidays. Book a spot early at parknflynetwork.com . Most lots give a 10 to 25 percent discount to online bookers.

Safe Holiday Celebration

Attention to safety can go a long way toward keeping your holiday celebrations festive. Whether you're installing decorations or planning to do so, following these tips can help prevent injuries and damage:

Keep sidewalks and walkways clear of decorations. Repair any cracks in walkways or loose steps and make sure walkways aren't slippery.

If you host a party, serve plenty of appetizers and provide juices, non-alcoholic mixers, and sodas for designated drivers and non-drinking guests. Stop serving alcohol an hour before the party ends. Arrange alternate transportation for any guests who has had too much to drink.

At holiday gathering, remember that dogs pose risks for small children and may make some adults uncomfortable. Consider confining dogs to areas that won' t be used by guests. If you're visiting a home with a dog, don't leave your child alone with the animal.

Check each set of decorative lights for frayed wires, broken bulbs, or loose connections. Discard damaged sets. String no more than 3 sets of lights per extention cord. Never place cords or lights behind drapes, under carpets, or across walkways. Always turn off the lights before you go to bed each night.

Use a screen to keep embers in the fireplace. Extinguish candles when they burn down to 2 inches above the holder.

If you're buying a cut tree, check the needles to make sure it's fresh, and water it daily. Keep the tree away from heat vent and the fireplace.

Vacation & Home security

The winter holiday season is the peak period for U.S travel and also for break-ins, with about 400,000 burglaries each year. But there are simple steps you can take to boost your defenses.

Delete old voice mails and call home while you're away to collect messages. If your voice mail gets full, that's a sign you're traveling.

Advertise your alarm system. Yard signs are far more effective than window decals. Burglars can't see decals from the street, and once they approach your house, they're far more likely to attempt a break-in.

Never put your home address on luggage tags. You're announcing the location of yur empty home to everyone in the airport. Use a business address or P.O. Box number instead.

Don't stop deliveries. Information left with the post office may fall into the wrong hands. Instead, enlist neighbors or friends to collect the mail -- and to take out the trash. You may not beieve it but would-be intruders really look for garbage cans that aren't by the curb on collection day.

Last but not the least, count your children before boarding an aircraft. Make sure you are not leaving one of them in 'home alone'!

Travel: Dollar Exchange

If you are going abroad in the forthcoming holidays, here are 6 tips for getting good exchange rates for dollar:

First for credit cards and checks:

1. Before you go abroad, check out what fees your credit-card company will charge you for international transactions.
2. For traveler's checks, try to exchange them at a branch of the bank that issued them.
3. Check the back of your ATM card or credit card for symbols of international ATM network companies like Cirrus and Plus. If those are on your card, then your cards will be accepted at their international ATM networks. You can get very good exchange rates --sometimes even the best rates -- simply using your credit card or debit card.

Then for actual Forex dealing to be done by you:

1. Foreign exchange dealers in USA tend to charge more than those in other countries. So, it is better to make most of your exchanges at your destination country.
2. Change only enough money for your immediate expenses (i.e. taxi fare, coffee and snack, tips, etc) either in USA or at your port of entry to the country you are visiting. Some of the worst exchange rates are usually found at airport and train-station booths.
3. The best rates are usually found at banks and post offices. For example, in France, you will get the best rate with almost no exchange fee at La Poste. The worst are hotels and the "tourist" exchange bureaus found on every street of Europe.

Toy Safety

On Monday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) took a long overdue first step toward banning lead in children’s metal jewelry. It is known for decades that lead can cause permanent developmental damage in children or even death. The CPSC voted to move forward with a ban on any children’s metal jewelry containing more than 0.06 percent lead by weight.

The holiday shopping has already started and it's time to take proper caution to avoid paying for such harmful items for your children. Most toys carry safety labels, but it's still important to be aware of such hazards when shopping children's gifts. Toys can pose different risks depending on the age of the child, according to the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups. Here are a few noteworthy points:

Small parts and cords pose choking and strangulation risks for young childern.

Make sure the sound level of toys and audio products doesn't exceed 85 decibels; higher levels can cause loss of hearing.

Consider how kids might actually use a toy. If it shoots or launches an object, determine if children could substitute items such as pencils or nails, which would make the toy hazardous.

Check girls' cosmetics sets for hazardous chemicals such as propane (found in glitter hairsprays) and xylene or dibutyl phthalate (common in nail polish).

Supervise kids if they use polymer clays to make crafts and jewlery. If inhaled or ingested, the clays can expose kids to harmful chemicals.

Stop Catalogs in Mailbox

Holiday season is approaching fast. Malls and stores throughout USA is showing the start of another shopping spree! And with the holiday season come lots and lots of catalogs to your mailbox. Some people enjoy it but many of you may not! Want some relief from the more than 18 billion catalogs that overload U.S. mailboxes each year? Here are some tips for what to do:

The best way isn't to call the companies; you're better off sending a request by mail. Web sites like Junkbusters.com provide template letters for free that you can print out and sign.

The Abacus Alliance, a database used by mail-order catalogs, will remove you from it's listings upon request (abacusalliance.com). The Direct Marketing Association, too, will add your name to a "delete" list for direct marketers (free by mail; $5 online at dmaconsumers.org).

As last option you may pay the pros to do this job for you. For $20, StoptheJunkMail.com lets pick which catalogs you want to keep receiving; it then contacts the others repeatedly until you're removed from their lists. for good.

Important Insurance for Travel Abroad

This time, like all other time before, bears uncertainty in all aspects of life. So, if you are planning a vacation or tour abroad, it is good to have an insurance that can bring you back home in case of any emergency. In case of an emergency your regular health care insurance may provide only the medical cost but they donot bear the cost of bringing you back to the comfort of your home or hometown.

Even though you go on a vacation with a round-trip ticket, in case of an emergency, you may not find any seat in the earliest possible flight. This may sound too panicky but in these days of terrorism or tsunami and frequent break-outs of things like bird flu you never know what you might need.

"International SOS" (internationalsos.com) is the world's leading evacuation and assistance company for business and leisure travelers as well as expatriates. It provides at a reasonable price international medical assistance, emergency services, healthcare, evacuation and repatriation services. The company basically offers an international 911 line by providing critical medical and security help to those in need while away from home. Their emergency and day-to-day medical, security, personal and travel assistance services are globally supported by their staff at service throughout the world with the help of a global infrastructure and 20 years of expertise. So, next time you go abroad, you may seriously consider carrying their membership card in your wallet.

Disclaimer: 'LiveInUSA' does not have any kind of relationship whatsoever with the company mentioned in this posting. This information is provided because we think it may benefit our readers.

Job & Credit Score

Even before you face the interview board for a new job, there is a strong possibility that the interviewer has already formed an opinion about you – through information contained in your credit report. Increasing numbers of companies are requesting credit reports to assist them in the job hiring process.

Essentially, your credit report is your financial resume and employers use it as an indicator of your personal integrity and how you conduct your life. With that in mind, it's alarming that 79% of all credit reports contain errors. In the competitive job market, an accurate credit history may turn out to be the decisive factor in gaining a job interview. Inaccurate credit reports can negate the most impressive of resumes, and you won't have a second chance to make a first impression.

Many companies are more interested in your financial patterns than your employment background. They want to know if you pay your bills promptly and lead a normal life ... whether or not you would come to work with lots of anxieties inside. So, credit report gives them an idea of how the individual might be expected to behave, if hired.

Rather than getting worried about it, you must try to utilize this recent trend of employer credit checking to your advantage by repairing and/or maintaining a clean credit history and wait 'fully prepared' for jumping into the dream job you are aspiring for.