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• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just keeps on going (though it’s down to a smaller leak ^[3])… it’s been spilling since the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 21st. Since then, oil has been “leaking” out at a staggering rate. These pictures are just sad. ^[4] The effects of this disaster will be felt for decades. In Alaska’s Prince William Sound, where the Exxon Valdez spilled millions of crude twenty years ago, the herring have yet to return ^[5].

In other news…

• Jeffrey Lee is the sole member of the Djok clan and senior custodian of Koongarra, an area in Australia with 14,000 tonnes of uranium. Instead of selling it to an energy company and becoming a billionaire, he donated it to the government ^[6] to be included in the national parks system. We can all learn a lot from this story.
• Should you listen to people who are bad with money? ^[7] Brad at Time posed that question to me, I’m curious what you think of my answer, it’s the last one in the article.
• We face a ton of fees nowadays. Jorgen Wouters at Wallet Pop takes a swing at ten annoying fees ^[8], some of which are unavoidable. My personal nemesis… Ticketmaster.
• Kiplinger shares 71 ways to cut your 2010 tax bill ^[9], many of which Bargaineering readers will be familiar with. However, familiarity does breed a bit of contempt
  so give it a quick scan to see if there are any things you’re missing. One thing I didn’t know was that vacation home mortgage interest is deductible… I blame that on the fact that we don’t have a vacation home.
• Fraud alerts on your credit score will not hurt your credit score ^[10], according to Ron Lieber of the New York Times. The NYT then backed it up by asking industry experts, including spokespeople for credit unions, and they were all in agreement – no affect on your score. It will add a little hassle in getting credit because creditors will demand more, which is, after all, the point of the alert.
• I track our net worth because it’s the easiest way to get a handle of how we’re doing financially, but that’s only one of the many reasons why you should track your net worth ^[11]. It’s like knowing your body weight, it’s not the most important number but everything else rolls up to it.

How many of you saw the Lost finale? What did you think? How about these unanswered questions?

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!