Are you as tired of seeing those kinds of ads on the internet as I am? (Not even counting tv and other places.) My apologies if some show up on this post…AdSense only lets me block so many ads.

Anyway, as the year is winding down, I was taking a look at our banking and preparing for our *dread* taxes. As I looked through our ING accounts, I couldn’t believe how much money we earned just on savings. It’s not thousands or millions or enough to raise a family, like those ads promise, but it’s still a lot of money when you consider that I put little or no effort into it.

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There’s a lot of nervousness this year surrounding gift cards. What if the location near me closes? Will the store go out of business? If they declared bankruptcy, can I use my gift card?

Before Christmas, I recommended giving cash instead of gift cards to cut out some of the worry and increase possibilities for you redipient. But in some cases, gift cards feel like the right choice or in others they’re just what you got. So should you be worried?

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Wachovia customers affected by fraudulent telemarketing practices due to an arrangement Wachovia had with several telemarketing companies are now receiving settlement checks.

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For some reason, Christmas Eve has always meant more to me than Christmas. Perhaps that’s because it’s when my immediate family always held our Christmas celebration.

I realized this year how much the tradition meant to me, when I had to figure out whether I wanted to a) work on Christmas Eve or b) take it off without pay and not get paid for Christmas Day and the day after. Apparently if you take unpaid leave the day before a vacation, that’s how it works in our system (and being a new employee, I have no annual leave).

It wasn’t even something I hesitated over. Between my blog and consulting and Micah’s income, we’ll be fine for the three days anyway…but even if it was a stretch I doubt I’d hesitate.

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It’s nearly Christmas and every year people exchange millions of dollars in gift cards. Billions? And of that, millions goes unclaimed. I’m a big proponent of giving cash if you’re going to give money and dressing it up if you like the presentation of a gift card. Including notes if you have intentions for where it’s going to be spent.

But, of course, you can’t control what other people give you. So if over the Christmas holiday (or for your birthday or any time) you end up with a gift card you have no way of using it, or know you probably won’t get around to using, here are some ideas for other things you can do with it:

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