At last, a Web site for all the cheapskates, tightwads, and skinflints of the world. Originally inspired by the Tightwad Gazette, Frugal Corner features a plethora of advice on stretching your dollar, from home canning to gardening to secondhand shoes. Primarily, however, it offers an extensive collection of links to other miserly sites on the Web (producing original content probably costs money). So, if you're one of those people who thinks its wise to invest 12 hours a day trying to save ten bucks, drop by and check out the tips, which range from the creative to the freakish. - Mike Hase
Yet more advice on personal finance from a bunch of people we've never heard of. Sound Money, a call-in program on personal finance that can be heard on public radio, has gone online with the transcripts from its programs as well as occasional columns from the show's talking heads. With advice on topics ranging from investments to taxes to college financing, the site attempts to cover the entire spectrum of personal finance. While I found the articles moderately informative and the advice useful, I still don't understand why Sound Money hasnt archived its shows in RealAudio format. - Mike Hase
The online version of Barron's magazine touts itself as "the most sophisticated financial online publication in the world"; it then proceeds to back up these bold words. After going through the free registration, you'll have access to the slick, complete financial Web site that one would expect from Barron's. Articles, interviews, editorialsall of the magazine's features are here, along with a few that are unique to the Web, such as current market data. Now for the bad news: the service probably won't be free by the time you read this, as Barron's has torn a page from the pusher's handbook by freely offering its wares for a limited time only. - Mike Hase
You might think that a weekly economics column out of Stillwater, Okla. would be neither entertaining nor enlightening. You would be wrong. Mr. Economy, a.k.a. Orley Amos, answers economics questions in a light-hearted manner while simultaneously managing to provide a complete education on the topic at hand. The Web site contains an archive of the questions and answers, as well as a very complete glossary of economics terms. A few hours at this site could easily substitute for a few months of poring over arcane, dry economics texts. - Mike Hase
DBC Onlinea Web site for people with money. Setting itself apart from the slew of Internet financial data providers, DBC has created a place for anyone with some spare change. Here youll get the usual market data, as well as the convenience of acting immediately on that data by using the onsite links to several online brokerages. More proletarian gamblers can visit one of DBC's odds makers before placing an online bet at the World Sports Exchange. Financial data and services, sports-betting data and services, and links to Wine Spectator and Cigar Afficianado combine to make this an outstanding site. - Mike Hase
A television show from north of the border, Street Cents shows teens how to make money and how to keep from getting it ripped off. Lying somewhere between Consumer Reports and MTV, the show focuses on such consumer affairs as truth in advertising and product quality. While much of the site is dedicated to informing you about the show and its personalities, the informative meat of the site rests in archived transcripts of the shows. The shows are opinionated and informative and cover a wide variety of products, which makes the site worthwhile despite the rest of the fluff. - Mike Hase
Straight from Americas heartland, Lincoln Benefit Life brings the world Money Forum, a Web site designed to give people a better understanding of their financial and investing needs. The site is not geared towards high-rolling investment bankers; rather, it aims to help average folks trying to save for housing, college, and retirement. If you fit into this category, youll find the articles, calculators, and discussion groups here extremely useful. The site is well laid out, and while the information is as exciting as foot fungus, it is the stuff which makes up most of our pathetic, bourgeois realities. - Mike Hase
Sponsored by several investment product peddlers, LifeNet wants to reach an affluent crowdit uses such phrases as "wealth accumulation" in place of "investing and saving. The calculators drive the site and help you dodge the tax man, decide whether to rent or buy, and choose how much life insurance you need. Amuse yourself by comparing the results of these calculators with those at the more middle-class Money Forum (www.moneyforum.com); I didnt bother, since Im not currently accumulating wealth. - Mike Hase