Wesabe: Your Money. Your Community.

Looking for a great, inexpensive gift for your mother or someone special in your life? Following are 11 sure-fire winners. The catch? You’ve got to channel your sensitive side and put a little time in, but the results will be a gift people can’t stop talking about.

1. A Book Of Quotes. During my senior year in college, I was virtually penniless but wanted to give my then boyfriend, now husband, an amazing, thoughtful gift. He always loved my habit of collecting quotes on note cards. So, I bought a journal and filled each page with quote I loved and water-colored over each. He absolutely loved it.

You could make this gift cheaper by buying a bunch of index cards and hole punching the right corner. Paint each card (nothing fancy, just wipe some paint or paste colored paper to get rid of the index card look), write a quote on each and then loop a ribbon through the whole thing to tie all the cards together.

2. Personalized Memory (or Clutter) Boxes. This is something I did a lot as a kid. I would go to Michaels and buy a number of cardboard boxes. I would spend time collecting photographs, quotes, and images that reminded me of the person. I would then shellac these over the box. These can be used as display or simply put on a shelf or in the closet as a place to save memories or hide clutter.

3. Make your own recipe book. Does someone you know have a shoebox filled with cut out recipes from magazines, newspapers and the web? Steal the box and paste all of them into a journal. Voila! You have just made them their very own personal cookbook filled with all of their favorite recipes.

I did this for my mom one year… she loved, loved, loved it. And yes, I got some serious tears.

If you know someone who loves to cook but lacks a shoebox full of recipes (or you lack access to it), you can also browse recipe sites on the web, print out your favorites, and build the recipe book yourself.

4. A Positivity, Productivity or Inspiration Box (or any other theme that might fit). Here how it works:

Find a cardboard box with a lid. Find a few pieces of pretty paper or construction paper. Cut these up into one inch by two inch squares or rectangles.

On each write, something that has to do with your theme. If it’s productivity, put a tip on each (you can find some great ones by browsing Zen Habits or Dumb Little Man). If it’s positivity, put a happiness tip on each (browse the Happiness Project for some great tips). If it’s inspiration … well, you get the idea. Fold them in half and toss them in the box. Aim for somewhere between twenty and forty of these.

You can either wrap it up and tie a bow around it, or you can theme your box by cutting out images and quotes and pasting them over your box.

5. Personalized Stationary. With the amazing amount of templates provided by most Word and graphic programs, this is almost too easy. However, you can make it a bit more personal by taking a manila folder and using craft glue to cover it with fabric. You’ve now made a personalized folder to hold all that personalized stationery.

6. Coupon books. To make this work, you’ve got to whip out your inner artist. Here are some ideas (these are really good for kids to make for Mom or Dad):
- A car wash
- Spa day by you (manicure, pedicure, facial, lunch, Sex and the City viewing party, etc.)
- Dog walking services
- Two hours of complimentary house cleaning
- Ice cream sundaes
- A homemade dinner

Check out this Wesabe discussion “What Makes You Feel Rich While Being Frugal” for coupon ideas. All are things people love to do – transform them into a coupon and you’re giving a wonderful experience as a gift.

Think about any talents or special skills you have and use these as a gift. After you’ve brainstormed what you want to do for your friend or family member, cut up construction paper to coupon size and then write/draw your gift of time.

7. Make your own frames. You can pick up cardboard frames at craft stores for less than $10. Shellac pretty paper, quotes or pictures over them and slide in a good photograph.

8. A Music Book. Have a friend you care about who plays an instrument? Head to the music store and buy a book of blank sheet music. Write a letter to them on the first page telling them how much they mean to you and urge them to start writing their own music.

9. A Personalized Journal. If you don’t have the $10 to buy a journal, buy a black and white notebook from the drug store and shellac with pretty paper (link), magazine cut outs, photographs, newspapers (this can make for a really cool look), or quotes. Write a little note in the cover and then wrap that bad boy up.

If you want to get even more personal, you could write a quote or unfinished sentence every few pages or so, to prompt some inspirational writing.

10. A Memory Collage or Scrapbook. I made this for my best friend my senior year in high school and then for a boyfriend in college. I made a list of special memories we had together and found pictures, pamphlets and quotes to describe them. I think each book was about ten pages. I wrote my memory of the event and then added pictures, quotes, stickers, movie/airline tickets.

11. Frame A Favorite Quote. This one is super easy. Take a favorite quote of a friend or family member. Buy a cheap frame. Or if you don’t want to buy a frame, you could take a piece of tag board and cover it with nice paper. Use your best handwriting or favorite font on the computer to write it up. Put in the frame or paste on the tag board. Wrap it up. My best friend framed my favorite line from Robert Frost’s poem Birches when I was 12 years old and gave it to me for Christmas. It still sits on my desk today.
Still stumped? Check out these discussions on Wesabe for great gifts that won’t break the bank.

Ideas For A Frugal But Wonderful Holiday
How To Get Friends/Family To Agree On A Spending Cap This Season

Inexpensive Holiday Gifts

Please feel free to share your ideas here!

As any college grad will tell you, the job market is tough. Plunging headfirst into the market with little to no experience when people are getting laid off in record numbers is not exactly an easy thing to do.

Internships often equal stuffing envelopes, filing, and other mind-numbing tasks. I’ve had plenty of internships and have fortunately been quite lucky in escaping that fate. A lot of this probably has to do with where I worked – I never applied for an internship at a big company. Looking back, I don’t think this was as much intentional as it was closely reading the descriptions and wanting to work in an environment where I got do cool stuff and had a chance to showcase my skills.

I’ve had a number of people ask me how I got an internship at Wesabe and how I turned that into a full-time job. Here are my top 12 tips for doing just that:

Consider Applying at a Start-Up
While working at a new company may not have the same name-brand appeal as working for an established company, start-ups are a lot leaner and chances are you’ll get to do much more “real” work. Also, because the company is trying to get its feet off the ground, the work you do makes an impact and the “big bosses” can see it. During my Wesabe internship, I interacted with the CEO (and most everyone else in the company) nearly every day, and attended company-wide meetings.

Be Crazy-Anal about the Details
After I was hired for the internship, Debbie (our head of communications) told me that one of the reasons my resume made it to the top of the initial pile was because I followed directions. When she filled out the intern request form at UC Berkeley (where I went to school), she could ask for just a resume or a resume and a cover letter, and asked for both. Believe it or not, she said that out of 25 candidates, I was the only one that sent both. Everyone else just sent a resume. She also told me that she didn’t really care about the content of the cover letter – she just did this to see who was paying attention to her request.

Do Your Homework
Prior to your interview, research the company you want to work for (spend time on their web site or see where their product is at in a store, read up on competitors, etc.). Takes notes and keep all this information in one notebook. During your interview, give some thoughts or feedback that shows you know how to do research and have analytical skills. Ask your interviewer thoughtful questions and try to transform the interview into dialogue. This can be really, really hard, often because you’re so nervous.

To ease those nerves and help with prep, I would suggest brainstorming and then making a list of questions you have about your prospective position and the company. Keep these questions in the same notebook you’ve compiled your research notes in. Bring that in during your interview and ask those questions! You can also reference your research notes in your chat about the company and its competitors.

Go Beyond the Facts
So you’ve researched how many people work at the company and their main products and services. Now, get curious about this company. What makes them special? Why are people passionate about working there? What problems do they solve and where do they want to go? Pretend you’re the CEO or the founder of that company; why do they want it to succeed, why are they so passionate about it? Tap into to this vision and speak from it at your interview.

Be the Go-to Person at All Times
Once you’ve landed your internship, aim to be that responsible, go-to person who can efficiently and quickly accomplish any task.

On my first day as an intern at Wesabe, the CEO left me at my new desk and said he’d email me my first assignment. I sat nervously anticipating the email and then one new message popped up. The subject line read: “Competitive Matrix.” I opened the email. The contents: “Please use this list as the basis for your model.” Attached was a list of the competition.

That was it. I friggin’ freaked out. What the $%#* was a competitive matrix? There was nothing else, no direction, no how-to, no example. What did I do? I got resourceful, I started Googling, I called everybody I knew about that might have the slightest tidbit of information about a competitive matrix. I checked out the competition. I tried to piece things together. When I had a grasp of what this competitive beast thing was and what our competition looked like, I headed back to the CEO’s office and asked if I was headed in the right direction. Turns out I had some things right and some things wrong. But my research made me look capable, responsible and like a self-starter.

Be Innovative: Think Before You Ask
I cannot stress how important this is. Before you say, “I don’t know” or “I need help,” really ask yourself, “Where could I find this answer? What else could I do to find resources?” Every single time that I stop and think before asking a question, I almost always find it’s something I could answer myself.

Additionally, instead of saying “I don’t know,” your answer is always better when you pose it as, “In response to X task, I checked A, B, and C resources and found D. Is this the direction you’d like me to follow?”

Think Like the CEO
I know I mentioned this before but I think this is the best piece of advice I’d ever gotten. When in doubt, think about what action you could do that would help the company succeed and how your work on your current project matches with the greater company vision. Go above and beyond without direction. Really think, brainstorm, about how you can expand your duties in the best direction for the company, and then do it without being asked.

Take Notes and Always Have Your To-Do List
Whenever you meet with your boss, bring a pen and notebook and take COPIOUS notes. After your meeting has finished, recap the major points, tasks and deliverables to your boss to make sure you both are on the same page.

Often after a meeting, I will brainstorm or summarize the contents of my notes and then try to think creatively. What other tasks are here that I am not thinking of? Given these priorities, what else can I do to help the company succeed? Again, critically think about this. If it’s a big meeting, I might even email my list and subsequent brainstorm over to my boss afterwards, titling the email “Recap of ______ Discussion.”

Do More than You are Asked
Showcase your skills. For example, Wesabe has an amazing community of users that share advice and tips in our Groups forum. Even though no one specifically asked me to, I knew the community aspect of Wesabe was key, so I jumped in and started asking questions in the Groups section and sharing my experiences. I think this level of participation really helped me get my job and my responsibilities as community manager (and it also gave me some great advice!). Along these lines, volunteer for extra assignments. Lunch with a member? Count me in! We need new copy for a web page? I’ll do it!

Constantly Ask for Feedback
When you finish a project, ask if you met the requirements of the assignment and what you could have done better. When you get feedback, such as “there was a typo in your email,” be sure to listen carefully and be certain not to make the same mistake again. Don’t be afraid to ask your boss how you are doing. During a quiet, non-stressful time, ask if he/she has a moment; if they say yes, then respond, “I just wanted to check in about how I am doing.” List off the major things you are working on, then ask if there’s more you could be doing. I try to do this about once every month.

Think about the Future
Be preventive, proactive and maintenance-level-driven rather than crisis-level, reactive, response-driven. This means you look to and work not just in the present but the future as well. Think about how your work can benefit the company in the coming months, anticipate and prepare for future challenges, and keep in mind the company’s priorities.

Be Interested! Be Curious! Be Grateful!
The last and most important advice I have is: Be INTERESTED! Be CURIOUS! Be GRATEFUL!

Maybe you end up with grunt work. The way out? Thinking creatively. Doing more than you are asked. Look around you, listen and really think about what you could do to benefit the company and to expand your job. If you don’t want to do grunt work, then you can choose to complain and ask for more interesting work (which will make you look ungrateful and entitled) or do some critical thinking and have a heavy brainstorm. What else could you do? Make a list, then start checking it off while still completing the grunt work. Show your boss you can do more interesting work without asking for more interesting work. Chances are, your responsibilities will increase!

(Note: A version of this post first appeared on Wisebread, which featured me on their site in the “Women of Personal Finance” forum. Thanks to Wisebread for including me in this series and for getting me thinking about this topic.)

In August, I wrote a post detailing the benefits of the 401k, one of the best ways to begin building wealth at early age. The other? The Roth IRA. Like the 401k, if you start contributing to the Roth IRA at an early age, you will have a big ol’ chunk of change by the time you’re retirement ready.
The difference between the two types of retirement accounts? Remember how the money you contribute to your 401k is pre-taxed (which is what makes the 401k such a money-making machine), coming off the top of your paycheck? Well, the money you save in a Roth IRA is income that has already been taxed. Thus, you don’t have to pay any taxes when you withdraw it. You may remember that this is the downer with the 401k – because your money gets to grow tax-free for decades, when you finally withdraw it, it’s slapped with taxes.

From what I have found, this seems to be what makes the Roth IRA a better deal than the 401k. Both are plans that allow your money to grow tax-free, however, because the money you put into the Roth IRA is after-taxes, you don’t have to pay any money upon withdrawal, a time when you’ll likely have more assets. Having more assets means you’d have to fork over more money in taxes upon withdrawal. By saving part of your already-taxed income into mutual funds, stocks, bonds, or whatever investments your heart desires, it gets to grow rapidly and you won’t have to pay taxes on it when you take the money out.

One very important thing to note. If your company has a 401k match, meaning they contribute money to your 401k as you contribute money to your 401k – yes, true story, your company may give you money for your retirement – then a 401k is definitely, absolutely, the best choice. If your company matches your 401k contributions, make sure you max out the amount they match prior to opening a Roth IRA.

Back to the Roth. Ramit of I Will Teach You To Be Rich made the benefits of the Roth IRA crystal clear in an article called “The World’s Easiest Guide to Understanding Retirement Accounts” (you can bet I liked this guide) when he wrote:

Here’s how it works: When you make money every year, you have to pay taxes on it. With a Roth, you take this after-tax money, invest it, and pay no taxes when you withdraw it. If Roth IRAs had been around in 1970 and you’d invested $10,000 in Southwest Airlines, you’d only have had to pay taxes on the initial $10,000 income. When you withdrew the money 30 years later, you wouldn’t have had to pay any taxes on it. Oh, and by the way, your $10,000 would have turned into $10 million.

Think about it. You pay taxes on the initial amount, but not the earnings. And over 30 years, that is a stunningly good deal.

No Credit Needed posted a very short article titled “A Fully-Funded Roth IRA At Age 18 Could Net You 3.5 Million Dollars” with a very convincing graph that will help you visualize the benefits.

Now of course there are exceptions. If you make more than $95,000 a year, you’re not eligible for a Roth IRA. The maximum you are allowed to contribute in 2008 is $5,000 if you’re 49 or younger, and $6,000 for people aged 50 and above. It’s a very smart idea to max this out (meaning contribute the whole $5,000), but if you can’t, every dollar still counts.

As Ramit put it, “Even waiting two years can cost you tens of thousands of dollars… don’t care where you get the money, but get it. Put it in your Roth and max it out this year. These early years are too important to be lazy.”

And yes, I recognize that talking about investing at a time of economic turmoil may sound foolhardy, but remember – this is your retirement money. The magic of dollar-cost averaging means that when the market is down, such as now, you’re able to get more for your investing dollar.

Rock star Wesabean CymbidiumKelly kicked off a great discussion in Groups last week:

We are gearing up for a NO spend month.
We have worked really hard over the last few months, but our resolve is slipping, and we have virtually erased our EF [emergency fund].

So as a means of replenishing it, and saving up for the Christmas holiday (and 3 of our kids have birthdays in the winter), we are cutting out ALL spending for one month.

My goal is to start on 10/25 so we can end it right before Thanksgiving and enjoy a big Thanksgiving feast!

Basically we would only spend money on essential bills. Mortgage, credit card min. payments, life and auto insurance, car payment, school for our daughter, utilities, gas to get back and forth from work, and to our son’s school, and our cable “bundle”.

So no food, eating out, clothes, odds and ends, craft supplies, etc.

A lot of people seem to like the idea, and are joining CymbidiumKelly in her project. They’ve also added some fantastic tips for making it work. Think of it like a crash diet for your wallet — but with a difference. Instead of going back to your old habits at the end of the month, taking a break from your discretionary expenses can give you a real sense of just how discretionary they are! When my wife and I did something similar a while ago, we found that we were having a lot more fun and eating a lot better by cooking at home each night, rather than going out to eat so much.

Congrats to CymbidiumKelly and everyone joining her on a great project. We’re pulling for you! If you’re interested in joining in, drop by and add your name to the list. Ideas and support from others are a great help in making a project like this work. Add yours!

I’m not about to add fuel to people’s fears about the economy — there are plenty of other places where you can get your daily panic on if that’s what you really want. I don’t believe in that. I like having plans ready. Come what may, if you have a plan in mind, you’ll know how to handle it.

Original photo by Skakerman.

When Jason’s son was born with health problems, it was pretty quickly obvious to me that Jason was in a very tough spot and that he might need to leave Wesabe to take care of his family. I didn’t know for sure, and I knew it would take time for Jason and his family to figure out what they needed and how best to handle it. But, I knew his departure was a possibility. Since things were up in the air, I tried to get ready for whatever might come. I had a mental image of a shelf of three-ring binders, each with a label on the spine: “Jason takes leave,” “Jason departs,” “Jason’s son recovers,” and so on. Mentally, I prepared a plan for each of those scenarios — what I would do personally to help my friend, what we would do as a company, and so on. When Jason decided what he had to do, I simply pulled down the right binder of plans, and put them into place. I think Wesabe was able to recover and grow from a very tough situation — the loss of our first CEO — as a result of us having those plans prepared. (Fortunately, Jason’s son is doing well, too.)

You can take the same approach with your household finances. Depending on your situation, the changes to the economy may have you worrying about a lot of parts of your finances. You may have no idea exactly how things will turn out — I certainly don’t have any way to predict the future of the economy. (If you do, please post the future to Groups so we can all make better plans! Instead of worrying, plan out what steps you would take if something bad were to come about. You might have one plan for “Loss of job,” another for “5-year recovery of retirement account value,” and so on. Make a plan, do what you can do now, and plan out what you will do if the scenarios that worry you most do in fact come about.

Here are some concrete ideas for steps you can take today to prepare for some of those outcomes. I’ve tried to make this list ideas beyond the standard personal finance advice — we should all know already to have an emergency fund and pay down debt. Those are great steps, but very general; the following are more dramatic, and hopefully more helpful for today, ideas for making it through a downturn.

1. Go through your house and sell everything you don’t need now. Don’t wait for things to get really bad before selling off belongings that are gathering dust on the shelf. For one thing, people have more money to spend on used things today, so you might get more offers. Also, selling now when you don’t yet need the money will let you be patient and wait for a better price, instead of compromising on a quick, undervalued sale. This is a great time to get comfortable with Craig’s List, eBay, and Amazon Marketplace, if you aren’t already. Of course, these are all great sites for buying cheaply, too.
2. Delete your credit card from Amazon. Amazon (just to use them as an example) makes it very easy — as easy as they can make it — for you to order impulse items at the click of a button. Amazon is a great merchant (in my view) and offers a lot of ways to save money on things you want or need, but right now the last thing you need is impulse buys. Delete your credit cards from their records, and re-enter and re-delete them each time you buy, and that will slow you down considerably. Think of it like putting up speed bumps on your discretionary spending. (As a less drastic measure, you can also turn off one-click purchasing and resign from Amazon Prime to make it harder to spend impulsively, too.) You can always add your card back in later, when you have more to spend.
3. If you need to buy stuff, try not to buy the stuff itself — instead, try to buy stuff to make that stuff. For instance, since I’m preparing a baby’s room, I bought some furniture, but now I’m cutting that back, and instead buying some woodworking equipment to make some furniture for us myself. (Don’t worry, I’m not trying to make a car seat out of plywood!) Buying a sewing machine, some cooking equipment, or something for your particular needs or interests can be a big help, and good cheap fun, too. An up-front investment (at a reasonable level) might make it easy for you to save a bunch of money over a period of time by joining up with the Do-It-Yourself team. (If you get really good at a DIY skill, try selling what you make on Etsy to supplement your income.)
4. Build a list of all your subscriptions and monthly charges, and figure out how you can get rid of as many as possible. Do you really need both cable and Netflix? (Netflix is probably cheaper.) Aren’t most of those magazines available for free online, or at the library? Do you need both a landline and a cell phone? Any chance you can get WiFi at a local cafe or your work instead of at home? Did you get caught in the “free”creditreport.com trap? Find those monthly fees and kill them dead — you don’t need ‘em. (When you’re making plans, maybe draw up two or three lists: one for subscriptions to cancel today, one for a pretty bad situation, and one for drastic measures.)
5. Find a way to freelance your skills — online if you can. This is a great time to create a profile on a freelancing site, and start to get some ratings for cheap, great work. Try Elance or Guru.com if you have skills that are easy to contract out online. If you’re a graphic designer, try Authentic Jobs. If you are willing to do phone customer service work from your home, try LiveOps. If you’re a programmer, build a free iPhone app and get some great ratings at the App Store. Whatever you do, you may be able to get contracting work, possibly online or at night or on the weekends, to supplement your income now, and sustain you through job loss if that were to befall you. (Tip: incorporate as a business to protect your personal assets from business losses when you freelance.)

Do you have suggestions for additions to this list? Add them in the comments below.

You could drive yourself crazy making too many plans for a rainy day — but then again, you could drive yourself crazy with no plans at all, either. Don’t wait for something hard to hit you before you think through how you’d get on your feet again. Choose two or three scenarios that worry you most, and build out plans for each of those. This isn’t a time to panic, but it is definitely a time to put some plans on the shelf, and take the steps you can to shore up your finances today.

Wesabe members have been asking a lot of questions about the financial industry news in the US today, and how it might affect consumers. The situation today is a huge amount better than it was in the 1930s-era photo above, as a result of changes to the financial services industry after the bank failures of the Great Depression. Still, it’s good for consumers to be informed and to be safe with their money using some simple precautions. I tried to get some official answers, and then also talked to a customer who had all of his funds in NetBank, a bank that failed and was acquired by ING Direct last year, and have some advice based what I’ve found.

In general, US banking customers are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). From the FDIC web site, here is a brief description of what protection is provided for FDIC-backed institutions:

An independent agency of the federal government, the FDIC was created in 1933 in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s. Since the start of FDIC insurance on January 1, 1934, no depositor has lost a single cent of insured funds as a result of a failure.[...]

Savings, checking and other deposit accounts, when combined, are generally insured to $100,000 per depositor in each bank or thrift the FDIC insures. Deposits held in different categories of ownership – such as single or joint accounts – may be separately insured. Also, the FDIC generally provides separate coverage for retirement accounts, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Keoghs, insured up to $250,000. [...]

The FDIC insures deposits only. It does not insure securities, mutual funds or similar types of investments that banks and thrift institutions may offer.

As long as you have less than $100,000 in a deposit account, then, and your bank is FDIC-backed (you can find out if it is here), then your funds are protected. There’s a lot more practical information and detail at the FDIC’s “When a Bank Fails” page.

(It’s a good thing the FDIC has a fairly comprehensive web site. I called them today to talk through some of the questions I’ve heard from Wesabe members, and they said today was the biggest day of call volume they ever remember having, and asked me to call back later. Today’s financial news has definitely brought a lot of people to the FDIC with questions.)

What really happens, though? I spoke with a Wesabe user who had almost all of his funds at NetBank at the time it failed last year. ING Direct acquired NetBank, so he was able to get access to his funds through that new account once it came online. His experience was instructive:

• For two to three weeks after NetBank closed, he had “no real access” to his money. At the time, he had all of his liquid funds in NetBank accounts, so in order to get by, he relied on his parents and his fianceé, and a couple hundred dollars he happened to have in his wallet when the bank failed.
• He got one note from the FDIC saying that NetBank was failing, and after that, all of his communication was with ING Direct. (He had less than $100,000 in his accounts, so all of his funds were protected.)
• The first message from ING Direct said (paraphrased), “In a few days, you’ll get read-only access to your account so you can confirm the funds are present.” As he put it, “Oh, great, a web page with some numbers on it. When can I actually get that money!?”
• He had direct deposit set up to his NetBank account, and had one direct deposit payment “vanish into nowhere.” He had to get his employer to resend that payment to his new ING Direct account. (Note that the FDIC site says this won’t happen.)
• Several automatic payments from his NetBank account were not processed, but since he was able to get the new ING Direct account set up within a few weeks, there was no real harm from this.
• Overall, the experience was a big shock. “If I didn’t have very, very nice parents and a very, very understanding fianceé, I’m not sure what I would have done,” he says. He now has accounts at three separate banks in order to provide better access in the time of a crisis.

(Thanks much to this former NetBank customer for providing so much information for us.)

In many senses, the NetBank failure was the best possible scenario, since a well-funded and -equipped bank immediately acquired the accounts. Of the 38 bank failures since 2000 FDIC currently shows on its Failed Bank List, 34 of them resulted in the failed bank’s accounts being acquired by another bank. While the FDIC delivers insurance checks to consumers in the event that no other bank acquires the accounts, promises to do so “as soon as possible,” and says payments “usually begin within a few days after the bank closing,” I could imagine that situation might be even more stressful and confusing, since an acquiring bank is probably better-equipped to handle new customers’ service issues. I would be especially concerned if these sorts of acquisitions became impossible because the failing banks became too large, or failures too widespread.

So, looking at the FDIC guarantees and one Wesabe member’s experience with a bank failure, what should consumers do to protect themselves? My advice:

1. Never keep more than $100,000 in any deposit account. If you have more than that much to save in deposits, distribute it over several different banks.
2. If you maintain an emergency financial fund (which is always a good practice), consider housing it at a separate institution from your primary account.
3. Always keep essential deposit accounts at FDIC-backed institutions.
4. Check your bank’s stability using Bankrate’s “Safe & Sound” ratings, or another rating system if you prefer.
5. As part of a standard home emergency kit, keep some cash in the house in a safe place — several hundred dollars, if you can. Storing your savings in your house doesn’t make sense, but having some cash to get you through in the event of any kind of trouble — bank trouble, natural disaster, or otherwise — is smart.
6. Be an informed consumer! Keep up with the financial news, and of course we believe Wesabe Groups are a huge help as well. Financial topics are overwhelming and can be hard to follow, but the more you learn, the better-off you’ll be.

Hope this helps. I’ll be talking about this topic tomorrow night on CNBC’s “On the Money” personal finance show, with host Carmen Wong Ulrich. If you have questions you think we should cover on the air, leave them below or drop me a line at marc@wesabe.com.

A lot of Wesabe members bank at and highly recommend USAA — including me. The biggest frustration I hear from people about USAA is that they aren’t eligible to open an account there. So, some of you might be happy to see that USAA has widened its eligibility requirements. From their announcement, people in the following groups may now join USAA:

• Military retirees who served honorably, regardless of when they retired
• Military personnel honorably discharged on or after Jan. 1, 1996
• Widows and widowers of military members killed in action while eligible

USAA estimates that adding those groups will allow three million new people to become members. The full list of eligibility requirements is here.

My friend Matt Haughey and his cofounder Paul Bausch just launched Fuelly, a site for people who want to track their fuel usage and figure out ways to save on gas. Matt is a wizard at designing social sites — he’s the guy behind MetaFilter, and he gave me a ton of great feedback about Wesabe when we launched — and he and Paul have done a fantastic job on Fuelly. The site features tools for easily tracking how much you spend on gas and how many miles to the gallon you’re getting, tips on how to save money on gas and use less of it overall, and a forum for people to discuss fuel and transportation issues.

Gas spending comes up all the time as a topic in personal finance these days, including in Wesabe Groups. I’m really psyched to see what Matt and Paul have built. Go sign up, or learn more about it from the review on Lifehacker. Congrats, guys.

(By the way, they’re planning on adding an API, and when they do, we’ll look to integrate it with Wesabe.)

I wrote a post for CNBC’s “On the Money” blog about commuting for free with Casual Carpool, a great system for sharing rides and saving money that’s very active in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Washington, D.C./Arlington, Virginia area. I’ll be contributing posts to their blog regularly but will cross-post them here and on Twitter.

Does anyone know of Casual Carpool-like systems in other areas? I saw reports of rides organized in Houston and Seattle, but I couldn’t find web sites listing pick up locations. Anyone know?