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Clark Howard's Tips

May 2, 2008

It's no surprise that people are becoming more careful with their money. Research shows that folks are more interested in what people like Clark have to say. He's like a firefighter and the economic house is on fire -- they want him to put it out.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a chart that detailed what's "in" and what's "out" when it come to your finances. These are classic examples and you may already be doing many of these. It's "in" to save, eat in, take a staycation, fix your old car, work past 65 (!), go to the library, drink tap water, take public transit and patch up your house. It's "out" to borrow, dine out, take an expensive foreign trip, buy a new car, retire early, go to the book store, drink bottled water, drive and remodel your home.

Clark recently read another story about a remodeling company that catered exclusively to wealthy clientele. This company is pink-slipping 25% of its workforce because even the rich folks are scaling back on remodeling. Likewise, the volume of laser eye surgery is declining because of cost. Maybe wearing glasses isn't so bad after allÉ

There's one area where Clark doesn't think you should cheap out. Waiters and waitresses are reporting that their tip income is down. The reason isn't only attributable to a decline in traffic. Rather, people are becoming stingy tippers. But you shouldn't take the tip income out of your server's pocket because you lived it up with fancy wine and lush desserts. Tip fairly based on service.

Consumer advice courtesy of