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"Your check is in the mail" is widely known as one of the top lies people tell. But in this case it's true.

Passed by Congress, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 directs the Internal Revenue Service to give taxpayers rebate checks to spend. They are intended to help get the economy get back on track.

It's no fortune, but every little bit helps these days.

So how much are supposed you get? $600 if you're single, $1,200 if you're a married couple, and another $300 for each eligible child under 17.

So, Where's My Check?

By now, most of the stimulus payments have been electronically deposited or mailed as checks. So what if yours is missing in action? Here are the steps:

• Verify that the IRS has your current address. If you've moved since you filed your 2007 return, you'll need to notify them of the change.


• Check to see if you ever received a notification that your payment was being processed. If not, you may have a problem.


• Check the IRS schedule for sending out money. It's based on the last two digits of your Social Security number.

If the IRS has your direct deposit banking information on file from your 2007 tax return, you should have received your stimulus check by May 16th.

If you don't have direct deposit information on file, then you probably should have gotten a check in the mail. Here is the schedule:

00 through 09: May 16
10 through 18: May 23
19 through 25: May 30
26 through 38: June 6
39 through 51: June 13
52 through 63: June 20
64 through 75: June 27
76 through 87: July 4
88 through 99: July 11

Okay, so you've confirmed that you should have received a check, but none has arrived.

Now what do you do?

Go to http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=181665,00.html and click on the link called: "Where's My Stimulus Payment?". And be prepared to answer a few simple questions such as:

• What is your Social Security number?
• What is your filing status (Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately and so on)?
• How many exemptions show on your 2007 tax return?
• The IRS site warns you not to fall for e-mail scams about your stimulus payment because says the IRS never initiates e-mails.

Bridge Loans

Some people are turning to payday loans to bridge the gap. A payday advance is a small short-term loan without collateral usually repaid on the borrower's next payday.

Typically, a customer uses a payday loan to cover small, unexpected, expenses between paydays to avoid expensive fees on bounced checks, penalties on late bill payments, overdraft charges and other less desirable short-term credit options.

According to Cypress Research Group, nearly 65 percent of payday loan users are women and most are married. Six out of 10 payday loan customers are middle class homeowners and 65 percent have household incomes between $25,000 and $75,000 a year.


Industry analysts estimate that more than 22,000 payday advance locations across the United States extend about $40 billion in short-term credit to millions of middle class households that experience cash flow shortfalls between paydays.

Credit conscious young people new to the workforce are also discovering payday loans. Faithful repayment of cash advance loans can help those with limited credit histories — recent college graduates for, example — establish their credit worthiness.

PayDayFinder.com, the leading Web site for payday loan lender information, is expanding today by including exclusive content and information about personal loans, banking and financial matters. This new service features informative articles, advisory alerts and encourages user feedback and interaction.

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About PayDayFinder.com

PayDayFinder.com is a national online directory where consumers can find and choose among a wide range of brick-and-mortar payday loan centers, get directions to them and access other helpful information.

Is the nation's economic stimulus package working? It's hard to tell.

The idea of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 passed by Congress you may remember is that the Internal Revenue Service gives taxpayers money and they spend it on stuff — iPhones, Guitar Heroes and vacations. That helps the economy get back on track.

So how much do you get? It's $600 if you're single, $1,200 if you're a married couple and another $300 for each eligible child under 17.

Nice.



But, again, is it working?

According to the National Retail Federation it is. The trade group says retail industry sales for May jumped 3.8 percent unadjusted over last year and 0.9 percent seasonally adjusted month-to-month. And, these numbers don't include automobile sales, gas stations and restaurants, so you can't blame soaring gas prices.

According to the NRF, many consumers are focused on groceries and other necessary items while others did splurge. Sales at electronic and appliance stores increased 0.7 percent seasonally adjusted month-to-month and a solid 4.4 percent unadjusted year-over-year. Clothing and clothing accessory stores sales increased 0.5 percent seasonally adjusted from April and 2.4 percent unadjusted from last May.

It may be less scientific, but if you pick up a daily newspaper in cities across the country you'll find story after story about people who are using their stimulus checks to pay bills, to reduce credit card debt and to buy gas or food.

And, there's another indicator that may be even more telling even if it's more difficult to verify.

An informal poll of some people in the payday lending business shows a 10 percent decline from April 24 through May 15 this year as opposed to the same time frame in 2007.

Payday or cash advance loans are considered an economic life-preserver for many people with sub prime credit ratings or those recovering from mortgage foreclosures or other money problems.

A payday advance is a small short-term loan without collateral usually repaid on the borrower's next payday.

Typically, a customer uses a payday loan to cover small, unexpected, expenses between paydays to avoid expensive fees on bounced checks, penalties on late bill payments, overdraft charges and other less desirable short-term credit options.

Industry analysts estimate that more than 22,000 payday advance locations across the United States extend about $40 billion in short-term credit to millions of middle-class households that experience cash-flow shortfalls between paydays.

Sites like PayDayFinder.com allow people to find nearby brick-and-mortar locations so they can comparison shop for the best payday loan rates.

Whether or not you chose to pay bills with it, go on a spending spree or save your stimulus check, you should know when to expect it. The chart below explains.

Checks
If the last two digits of your Social Security number are:	Your check should be in the mail by:
00 – 09	May 16
10 – 18	May 23
19 – 25	May 30
26 – 38	June 6
39 – 51	June 13
52 – 63	June 20
64 – 75	June 27
76 – 87	July 4
88 – 99	July 11

Hollywood fiction would have you believe that most criminals are evil geniuses who mastermind their plots with fail safe logic and clockwork precision. Bunk. As a cop once told me, "If crooks were so smart, our jails would be empty, not full."

New evidence points to the possibility that criminals are getting even dumber than in previous eras. And it seems that technology is probably dumbing them down faster than ever before. Here are some examples from an ABCNEWS.com story ("Dumb criminals caught on tape"):

• A 15-year-old girl allegedly posted a video of herself viciously beating another girl on MySpace.com.
• A young man allegedly posted a video of himself busting church windows and harassing people at a drive-through window on YouTube.
• A man broke into a surveillance camera store — and got caught on (duh) a surveillance camera.

One thing criminals might want to consider: It seems that the police have caught on and are starting to post their video-captured crimes on YouTube. They say it's taking on a life of its own and is giving people a chance to view the tapes repeatedly at their leisure, making it more likely that someone will ID the person who committed the crime.

None of this tops my favorite true story, though, about the wannabe bank robber in San Francisco who handed a "Give me your cash — I have a gun" note to a teller. Not so slow on the draw herself, the bank employee said, "I'm sorry we don't honor these. You'll have to take to the bank across the street." Naturally, when Einstein showed up there, police were waiting for him.

With gas and food prices spiraling higher, more middleclass American are coming up short between paychecks.

Many are turning to payday loans to bridge the gap. A payday advance is a small short-term loan without collateral. It's repaid on the borrower's next payday.

Typically, a customer uses a payday loan to cover small, unexpected, expenses between paydays. The money is often used to avoid expensive fees on bounced checks, penalties on late bill payments, overdraft charges and other less desirable short-term credit options.

Industry analysts estimate that more than 22,000 payday advance locations across the United States extend about $40 billion in short-term credit to millions of people.

A new report by the Center for Financial Service Innovation — a non-profit affiliate of ShoreBank Corp. that facilitates financial services industry efforts to serve underbanked consumers — says payday lending is going mainstream.

Credit unions and banks are beginning to recognize the need for payday loans and the size of this underserved market.

Several individual credit unions, the report says, have begun to offer cash advance loans. These offerings acknowledge the growth of payday loans and aim to give credit union members a valuable service.

According to the report, one of the largest credit unions in the nation, the North Carolina State Employees' Credit Union, now offers salary advance loans. This cash advance features a savings component with 5 percent of the advance placed into a credit union cash account as collateral.

Dating back to 2001, the North Carolina cash advance loan program has served nearly 100,000 members with loans totaling more than $1 billion.

The Savings Bank of Wakefield, Mass., has a small-dollar loan product it offers as a payday loan alternative — and makes it available to non-customers as well as current customers. These are closed-end, simple interest loans ranging from $300 to $1,000. They are available at an 18 percent APR interest rate, the same as their unsecured overdraft line of credit. Repayment terms range from 18 months for a $300 to $500 principal to 36 months for a $501 to $1,000 principal. A credit report is processed for all applications.

Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank now offer cash advance loans. Both charge borrowers $2 per $20 advanced, equivalent to an APR of 120 percent. Wells Fargo's Direct Deposit Advance service allows account holders who receive a monthly direct deposit exceeding $100 to access the advance line of credit through an ATM.

In offering small-dollar loans to non-customers, banks and credit unions hope to gain access to new client prospects

It used to be that home schooling was a rarity. No more.

According to a Harris Interactive Poll of 2,435 U.S. adults surveyed online, one-third of Americans know someone who is home schooling a child.

Eight percent of the households who reported having children who were old enough to attend school said that their child had been home schooled at some point. Here are some of the study's findings:

• U.S. adults that say their main reasons for home schooling their children are dissatisfaction with academic instruction (65 percent), to provide religious or moral instruction (60 percent) and concern about safety at school or on the bus (53 percent).
• Forty percent of Republicans report knowing someone who home schools their child; Democrats report 29 percent.
• More Republicans (69 percent) than Democrats (56 percent) cite religious or moral instruction and student behavior problems (Republicans 50 percent, Democrats 43 percent) as the main reasons behind home schooling.
• Democrats were more likely than Republicans to cite schools being too crowded to provide individual attention (44 percent vs. 35 percent) and educating special needs children (42 percent vs. 33 percent) as the main reasons for home schooling.
• Twenty-five percent of adults rate home schooling as excellent or very good as compared to 17 percent who rate public schools this highly for elementary education; secondary education was rated 23 percent vs. 14 percent respectively.
As economic factors like skyrocketing gas prices put increasing pressures on businesses and families, home schooling, like telecommuting, may see more growth in 2008

A startling new report from The Commonwealth Fund, "Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem," reports that one in five working age adults is paying off medical debt, that nearly 60 percent of uninsured adults skip medication because they can't afford it, and many are ending up in emergency rooms and require hospitalization.

Forty one percent (that's two out of five) working-age Americans whose incomes are between $20,000 and $40,000 were uninsured for at least a portion of the past year. Working families constitute the vast majority of the uninsured. There was an estimated 48 million working-age Americans uninsured during the year—67 percent of that number was families in which at least one person was working full time. Here are some other findings:

• More than 44 percent of all working-age adults with medical debt reported that it was $2,000 or more.
• More than 82 percent of uninsured adults had been without insurance for one year or more.
• Sixty-three percent were solo business owners or working for firms with fewer than 100 employees.
• 51 percent of uninsured adults reported medical debt or bill problems. Of those, nearly half (49 percent) used up all their savings to pay their bill, and two of five were unable to pay for basic necessities.
• Just 41 percent of uninsured adults had a regular doctor or other health-care professional compared with 86 percent of insured adults.
With soaring food prices and gasoline averaging well above $4 a gallon, more and more people are likely to find they can't afford health insurance.