I ran across an article today that asks whether people who currently pay their mortgages are dumb. My primary answer is: Perhaps, but you should do it anyway, for both moral and practical reasons.

As a follow-up to my post the other day about free stuff you can get on election day, I am reminded today that some people get a day off work on election day, which could be considered another freebie.

While browsing the Slickdeals.net forums today, I found people giving everything from Starbucks coffee to beer to free laser tattoo removal service to anyone who votes on Tuesday.

But my question is: Does this really entice people to vote? Or does it just entice people to say they voted?

I got an e-mail today from ShareBuilder. Awhile back I had opened a number of accounts to take advantage of some free-money deals, but they each required purchasing a stock. Since ShareBuilder's real-time trade fees are relatively high compared to some other brokers, I have simply left my purchases where they were, earning small dividends appreciating – and then depreciating. (Yes, the stocks are actually worth less now, even with reinvested dividends, than they were when I bought them – good thing I bought them with free money.)

I have been meaning to start education savings plans for my two daughters now for some time. I have approximately $2,000 saved up for one and $1,300 for the other, just sitting in a high-yield bank account earning interest.

I've been making use of a 30-day free trial of TransUnion's TrueCredit 3-credit-report monitoring service. Each day (almost) I've been pulling a new report and see updated FAKO credit scores. I even used it to help get two baddies removed from all three of my reports.

I hate Jim Cramer. Mostly, because he's a socialist, but also because – no, actually, that's pretty much it.

Here are ten articles illustrating why he's dumb.

Here's a public service reminder: Never click on links in an e-mail. Ever!

Now, let me say that I don't always heed this advice myself, but I should. And today, I'm glad I did.

I got an e-mail today with the following subject:

I was catching up on some of my personal finance blog reading when I came across a post by Meg at All Financial Matters about whether and when spending money is good or bad (which itself is a reaction to this post at Living Almost Large). Meg's conclusion is basically that, of course spending itself is not wrong, but spending excessively is definitely wrong. In her words:

Yesterday I mentioned that I got a 30-day late payment removed from my TransUnion and Experian credit reports. Today, Equifax capitulated and removed it as well.

Which means my credit reports are now all clean – yea!

I'm tired. I'm going to bed.