In a “regular” mortgage, you make monthly payments to the lender. But in a “reverse” mortgage, you receive money from the lender and generally don’t have to pay it back for as long as you live in your home. Instead, the loan must be repaid when you die, sell your home, or no longer live there as your principal residence. Reverse mortgages can help homeowners who are house-rich but cash-poor stay in their homes and still meet their financial obligations.

Click here to access the Federal Trade Commission's Reverse Mortgage Information web site.

AARP has a very informative and readable web site that explains the fundamentals of reverse mortgages.

After learning all there is to know from the AARP site, go to the National Center for Home Equity Conversion web site for more details. The NCHEC is not affiliated with any lender organization and are "militantly independent" in the views they present.

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association has a web site explaining Reverse Mortgages and has a directory to their member lenders.

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Economics

Freakonomics: Who says the "Dismal Science" can't be fun? A bright and witty young economist has written a best-seller to prove otherwise. Take a look. If you like sports and appreciate economics, then the Sports Economist is for you.

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A consortium of medical journal publishers, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association, has unveiled a site, patientINFORM, to help consumers navigate the bewildering world of health research. Other sites that provide trustworthy access to medical research are the National Institute of Health and its National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus, along with the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Patient Page, the Journal of the American College of Physicians, Annals of Internal Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the University of Maryland' s Consumer Health. 

We would all agree that the quality of health care is critical. As always, the federal government is an important and free source of generally reliable information. For health issues, the federal agency is the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mayo Clinic and WebMD offer similar sites with health and fitness information.

In finding health care providers useful information can be found at the American Medical Association's DoctorFinder and Administrators in Medicine DocFinder. For Virginia residents, The Virginia Board of Medicine offers the opportunity to find out about your doctor's education, honors, disciplinary and malpractice record, but the information is largely self reported by doctors.              

Worst Pills.org, a watchdog research group, offers safety information on prescription medicine and dietary supplements. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, offers information on alternative medicine. Clinical Trials.gov provides a list of thousands of clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Clinical trials offer new, cutting edge treatments that are yet unproven.

Hampton Roads health care system sites including Sentara Healthcare, Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System, Chesapeake Health and Riverside Health present health care information and listings of health classes that are often free.

Through nonprofit groups, government agencies, drug companies and specialized portals, the Internet has become a prime source of medical information. The issue most users face is how to make effective and reliable use of an increasingly cluttered resource. Help can be found in a new and growing list of specialized search engines, such as Kosmix, Healia, Healthline, WebMD and Mamma Health.

What happens in a medical emergency if you are unable to provide critical information to providers? You can install software on your cell phone that will show medical information which the owner might be unable to convey. Also, a useful site from Microsoft called Health Vault allows you to store and share personal medical information with health care providers.

Flu Gearing up for another flu season, there is much talk of "pandemics' and other diabolical consequences of the flu. To see who is offering flu shots in your area and when, go to this clinic locator. All of a sudden we are hearing about bird flu and flu pandemics. For a responsible report, see the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) site on Avian Flu. Other references include one from World Health Organization, current updates from The Wall Street Journal Online and the science journal Nature. By the way, what do the futures markets have to tell us about flu epidemics? Surprisingly, a lot more than you might think. Take a look at our Derivatives page to explore this and other unusual applications of futures trading techniques.

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Internet

Internet Security is a very serious matter. When home computers were used primarily for gaming and e-mailing friends, information security was not an issue. Now that very large amounts of personal information are stored on your personal computer, protecting that information — and your privacy — is of paramount importance. Every PC that is connected to the Internet MUST have antivirus software installed. There are several developers of this software application, some of the the more well known being Symantec (Norton), AVG (Grisoft) and McAfee. While we cannot endorse any particular brand for your use, in our offices, we use Norton by Symantec. There are several free versions of anti virus software. Whatever brand you decide to use, USE IT TODAY!

In addition to protecting your computer and its contents from virus attacks, everyone who stores any information that is important and hard to replace should backup that data regularly. It's easy enough to do by copying to a CD but who actually does that everyday? One sure-fire method is to have the backups done for you all the time you are connected to the internet. We use a service called Carbonite. It works in the background and backs up constantly. Click here for a free trial.

SPAM no more. Virginia's Attorney General's office offers suggestions on how to curb SPAM and how to detect and report other Computer Crime.

NCSA (at UIUC) Beginner's Guide to HTML: An academic -- and very good -- introduction to HTML.

HTML Goodies: A decent beginning explanation of how to use HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language. After struggling with web designers for many months, I began to learn how to do it myself. You can, too.

Our web site has some sensitive areas that I do not want strangers (hackers) to see. I needed to "hide" or encrypt the code behind those pages. I found and use a product called HTML-Protector. It works for my purposes and I recommend it if you need to hide your code. Go here to see their web site.

The amount of free and valuable software available on the Net is surprising, but where do you find it? Two good places to look are Download.com and Tucows. Also, the ubiquitous Microsoft Office is hard to beat but it isn't cheap. Is there an alternative worth considering? Take a look at OpenOffice.org.

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If you have suffered Identity Theft or if you want to avoid it, we recommend your first stop be the Federal Trade Commission. The American Bankers Association, Better Business Bureau, National Consumer Law Center, Identity Theft Resource Center and the Virginia Attorney General's office all have advice on safeguarding your financial information.

You don't remember getting a summons, yet the jury duty coordinator is on the phone asking for your personal information. Go here for the real scoop.

So you want to steal identities but don't feel like dumpster diving? No problem, just go to your local Court Clerk's office and ask to see public records. Oh, you don't want to be seen in the Court building? Even easier, go to the Clerk's web site and download millions of full names, signatures, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, mothers' maiden names, addresses, children's names -- you name it, and it's almost free! There is a watchdog organization trying to get the Legislature to change the law that makes it legal to post our private information on the Internet open to anyone. Go to The Virginia Watchdog.

Tired of so many telemarketing calls?
Register your home, office and cellular phone numbers with the Federal Trade Commission's National DO NOT CALL List.

Equally tired of receiving so many credit card offers? Go here to Opt Out of being offered so many. Get your name off the target list.

People are growing increasingly worried about privacy issues and providers of Internet based protection services recognize a potential market when they see one. Among the companies offering identity theft protection services are Intelius, Intersections, MyPublicInfo and UniPrivacy. All of the services are for a fee and require the disclosure of private information that in itself may prove risky. Consequently, great care must be taken as you attempt to shield yourself from danger in the electronic age.

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Safety

Got kids? Grandkids? The Virginia State Police Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry program requires the registration of all convicted sex offenders. Check here for those who may be living in your neighborhood.

Do you have a parent, grandparent, relative or friend who is getting a bit too old to drive safely? How about yourself? Can you recognize and admit when it may be time to protect others on the road and stop driving? Both the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and The Virginia GrandDriver Program offers some insightful information. Read it for all our good.

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