Get out there and do stuff for free. Walk around your city, go to public parks, swim in the public lakes, swim at the beach, climb the mountains, camp in our gorgeous free national parks, hike in our parks, mountain bike in our parks, go to museums, go to free exhibitions in your city, go to free concerts, go to free public parks, ride your bike, if you live in an apartment or condo that provides free gym equipment – use it for free, go to free exercise classes at gyms you may already belong to, go to free classes and seminars, use your cities free public services, watch HD TV for free by simply buying a antenna to stick on your TV (yes, you can get HD on many channels for free), go to your public library for free, go to Google and type “free things to do in [insert your city name]”. You will absolutely not believe the results from this search on how many free and awesome things there are to do in every city! I think you get my drift, FREE IS GOOD!!!

When I was applying to college, my biggest fear was how the heck I was going to pay for it. The cost of college education is skyrocketing. According to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing, the 2007-2008 average total costs (including tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and other expenses) was $13,126 for students attending two-year public colleges, $17,336 for students attending four-year public colleges and universities, and $35,374 for students at four-year private colleges and universities. Out of state students attending public colleges and universities pay an average total cost of $27,791. These costs are projected to continue to rise 5% to 8% per year. That’s a lot of money. In Chapter 2, Sticking to the Basics is Good; various different college savings programs are discussed. But what if you could get a college education for free? Well, for the right students, this is possible through Grants. Grants are free money giving to qualifying students to pay for their college. They never have to be paid back, unlike student loans. 

The common sources of grant funding is:

(1) Federal and state governments;

(2) Colleges & universities and

(3) Public and private organizations. 

Because of the emphasis being put on the “No Child Left Behind Act”, more grants then ever before are being awarded. The best website for information pertaining to grants is www.collegescholarships.org. The government encourages you to apply for a grant. Remember, the only way for sure you will know that your not getting a grant is to not apply. So apply! Here you will find detailed and useful information on all types of Federal and State grant programs such as:

(1) The Pell Grant – focuses on funding millions of low-income students;

(2) The Academic Competiveness (AC) Grant – focuses on undergraduate freshman and sophomores with outstanding academic records and with demonstrated aptitudes for leadership and service;

(3) The National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (SMART Grant) – for undergraduate juniors and seniors studying computer science, engineering, mathematics, or sciences;

(4) State Grants – for resident students based on merit, need and even area of study;

(5) African American Student Grants – focuses on black colleges and universities all around the country offering top notch programs and grants for these programs;

(6) Hispanic Student Grants – Need based grants for Hispanic students;

(7) Native American Student Grants – need based grants for Native Americans;

(8) Asian American Student Grants – grants that are commonly sponsored by ethnic organizations or available as general ethnic minority grants through the government or colleges and universities;

(9) First Generation College Student Grants for Disadvantaged Backgrounds – both Sallie Mae and Coca Cola provide these grants;

(10) Grants for Women – these are designed for women to promote their participation in underrepresented degree programs such as sciences, mathematics and business;

(11) Non-traditional Student Grants – students outside the traditional college age of 18 through 24;

(12) Low Income & Disadvantaged Students Grants – Need based aid awards for the most financially disadvantaged students;

(13) Graduate & Doctoral Student Grants – usually available from colleges and universities and private organizations, and colleges are quite competitive in offering such grant awards to the right candidates;

(14) Grants for Military Students and Families – The Army, Air Force and Naval ROTC offer full tuition to qualified students;

(15) Subject Specific Grants – given by professional organizations for their fields;

(16) High Need Fields Grants – healthcare (especially nursing) and teaching have the most grants in this area;

(17) Nurses and Med Student Grants – numerous federal and state programs available for this;

(18) Teacher Grants – numerous federal and state programs available for this; and (19) Numerous other grants and scholarship information available on this site. Again, the site is www.collegescholarships.org.

Also, many colleges and universities today offer free courses online in the form of podcasts, lectures, tutorials and full blown online classes. Many of them are totally free. Most of these wont award college credit or degrees from these course, but they will sure make you smart.

The government does have amazing resources available for public use. The government has a fantastic website that explains all the programs available for individuals, businesses, non-profits and government agencies. Go to www.cfda.gov. This is the mega site of government freebies This website (called The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (C.F.D.A.), is an on-line catalog lists of almost every government public assistance and incentive grant program available. However, the best part is that it also tells you in plain English what the programs are for, who they’re for, what it takes to be eligible, how much money is allocated to the agency managing the program and (most importantly), who to contact to apply for a grant.

As if that wasn’t good enough, to make things even easier, all the above information is searchable on the site by using a keyword search utility located at the bottom of the welcome page. Just plug in the information you’re looking for and their search engine finds links to details on programs relevant to that subject. For example, in the search by keyword field, I typed ‘Women and Business. 14 program links came up. Each link takes you to an information page with complete details on the specific grant or program. The search utility is fast, easy to operate and very accurate.

The bottom line here is that the government has provided a free resource to access information on just about any federal grant program. However, as with any data resource, you must spend the time to do the research to find what you want. Another great government free site is www.usa.gov. This site even shows the Government’s sales of surplus and seized property.

In my humble opinion (backed by many scientific tests and studies), tap water (in most jurisdictions in the U.S.) is as good as bottled water, if not better. Many experts argue, in fact, that it’s more then fine; it’s actually safer and better for you then bottled water. I’m sure there are exceptions to this somewhere. But in most places in the U.S., your basic tap water is absolutely fine. Save your self a bundle of money, and drink tap water. For some great information on this go to www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org 

Also, John Stossel of 20/20 did a great piece on this in May of 2005. I think you will be shocked 20/20s findings did on this subject. ”20/20″ took five bottles of national brands of bottled water and a sample of tap water from a drinking fountain in the middle of New York City and sent them to microbiologist Aaron Margolin of the University of New Hampshire to test for bacteria that can make you sick, like e. coli. There was actually no difference between the New York City tap water and the bottled waters that we evaluated,” he said.

Many scientists have run tests like that and have consistently found that tap water is as good for you as bottled waters that cost 500 times more.” See the full details of this study and this article at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/Story?id=728070&page=1

There are so many banks that charge for banking. I can’t figure out why anyone would bank for a fee when you can bank for free. I mean totally free. This means no minimums, no charge for your checks, no charge for internet banking, no charge for using any ATM (not just your banks ATM), no charge for writing too many checks, free checks and deposit slips and many even pay you interest on your checking. After all, when you deposit your money into a checking account, you’re giving that bank an interest free loan. It’s only right that they give you something back. My favorite free bank is through Charles Schwab. Their customer service is unbelievable, and it’s totally free, not to mention there are Charles Schwab branches all over the country. For more details, go to www.schwabbank.com I promise, no hidden fees. It’s just a totally free checking account, with no minimums, free checks, free over draft protection, FDIC insured up to $250,000, etc… – free, free, free.

This is a list of ways you can travel for free. It includes free cruises, free airline flights, free accommodations and free vacations.

Free Cruises Are Good

Did you know that cruise lines are always looking for guest lecturers and speakers to entertain their guest? What you may not know, is the time required by you as one of these lecturers may be very minimal and you get to enjoy all the same benefits received by the other guest on the cruise. Participants exchange their expertise for a vessel’s “working vacation”. For a great article on this and to see how to apply to be a cruise lecturer, or other service provider for a free cruise, go to http://www.lynnseldon.com/article312.html. Also go to www.compassspeakers.com. Here, you will see the type of speakers they are looking for. My dad cruised for years for free as a Bridge Director (Bridge – referring to the card game). He would set up Bridge games for 1 or 2 hours per day, and give tips to the players on board. He cruised totally for free just for doing what he enjoyed, playing bridge with the passengers and giving them tips. You may have an expertise that they need. You can also go to Google and type “How to take a free cruise”. You will get a slew of sites that offer you information on how to cruise for free by offering the cruises services that they need, likely requiring very little of your time.

Free Airline Flights Are Good

The most obvious method of obtaining free airline travel is by accumulating a massive amount of frequent flyer miles. But as you probably are aware, there are a limited number of frequent flyer seats available on any given flight, and therefore it is very difficult to use your miles for a free flight. Many times, they only reserve 1 or 2 seats for the lowest mileage redemption category (usually 25,000 miles) and require you to use double miles to redeem. If you are using a frequent flyer credit card, this is usually a terrible deal for obtaining frequent flyer miles. A cash rebate card is a much better choice of reward cards to use (a discussion in Chapter 2 – Sticking to The Basics is Good). Think about it, in order to obtain 25,000 miles by using a credit card, you likely had to spend $25,000. Assuming a ticket has a value of $250, this is a 1% rebate on your spending (1% of $25,000 is $250). Many credit cards give much higher cash rebates then 1%. But even worse is that in most cases, the airline won’t have any of the 25,000 mile tickets available, and will require you to redeem 50,000 miles. This is then only yielding you a .05% rebate on your spending (that’s terrible, as most credit card cash rebate reward programs offer you at least 1%). So, using your credit card to accumulate frequent flyer miles is not a preferred Woody’s Goodies method for obtaining free airline travel.

If you are flexible, you can strategically book flights that you know are busy flying times, and be willing to give up your seat. Here is a great website to scope out how many seats are left on a given flight. The fewer seats available, the better chances they will overbook and ask for volunteers to give up their seat. (http://www.flyaow.com/classamex.htm) The airline will typically give you a voucher to fly another time for free without restriction, and put you on the next available flight. You have to plan carefully. Make sure there are numerous other available flights after the flight you give up your seat on. These days, with Wi-Fi available at most airports, this isn’t such a bad deal. You give up your seat, relax for a while longer (maybe a few hours), catch up on your emails and work via your Wi-Fi connection, and arrive at your destination a few hours late. You can even tell the party you are visiting to expect you on the later flight time so that they aren’t inconvenienced for your planned delay. Another great article on how to master this is at http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/03/free-airline-vouchers-by-reserving.html

I found a great article on ehow.com related to flying for free. If you’re willing to serve as an air courier to destinations outside the U.S., this is a great method for free international airline travel. You will have to pack light, as they will only let you take a carry on bag on board because they will reserve your check in luggage space for the item you are couriering. For more details, see http://www.ehow.com/how_111981_fly-free.html However, I have heard that flying for free by serving as an air courier is getting harder and harder to do. These days, you are more then likely to simply receive a discount off your fare, and only if the air courier service providers cant fulfill the airline needs in this area. But it’s worth a try, as it’s just another way to possibly get a free (or heavily discounted) flight.

Free Accommodations Are Good

Believe it or not, there is actually a fantastic website that list people from all over the world that are willing to accommodate people for free. It’s a huge growing directory, and it’s safe, reliable and free. It’s ingenious, I must say. A young traveler from Australia set up this amazing directory. It’s a “give and take” type of service. If you want a free accommodation, you have to be willing to provide a free accommodation for a similar duration as to what you are requesting. It can be as simple as providing a mattress (no frills is the usual). You will have an opportunity to speak wit the person you are accommodating or that is accommodating you. Most people have had an amazing experience with this directory, and in fact learn a great deal more about the place they are visiting since their accommodation hosts is usually a native. The website is www.Globalfreeloaders.com

There are of course the normal methods of obtaining free hotel stays like the various hotels frequent stay programs. But again, this is not my preferred method as it requires you to be loyal to a particular hotel that doesn’t necessarily have the best rates for your particular time and destination needs. Therefore, the best and most reliable method I have found for free accommodations is www.globalfreeloaders.com.

To get incredible discounts on commercial hotels, without having to make far in advance reservations, I find www.roomsaver.com to be a great source. Also, www.hotwire.com is a great source. You can even use a few hotwire tips and tricks to get the best deals on Hotwire and even know which hotel you’re booking on Hotwire (even though Hotwire says you won’t know that for sure until you pay). A great website for these tips and tricks is www.betterbidding.com . In summary, here is how to know which hotel you are getting on hotwire: (1) Go to www.hotwire.com and click on packages; (2) Select hotel & car package; (3) Enter your arrival and departure date and destination, and then hit search; (4) Print the information provided. Notice it gives you the name of the actual hotels; (5) Now go back to hotwire and click on hotels, and enter the same search criteria you used above; (6) You will be able to now match the general results this search gives you against the information you printed from the package search, and you will see you will be able to actually figure out which hotel this data in the hotel search relates to.

I am also a big fan of www.VRBO.com and www.homeaway.com. I have used both of these “rent by owner” sites many times. You often get even nicer accommodations then any hotel could offer you at a far less price. Remember, owners will negotiate, especially in these tough economic times. I also list my vacation rental properties on these sites and have never had a problem with the guest that stayed at my places.

Free Vacations Are Good

There are a slew of scams as it relates to free vacations. Many are not free at all. But, there are some that actually are free. You have to usually sit through a time share presentation or some type of sales presentation. But if you’re willing to give a few hours of your time, you can get a totally free vacation. My suggestion is to research this carefully, and to see if others had a good experience with the free vacation offer at www.ofree.net

Free Travel Dobb Kits are Good

By the way, did you know that you can get a free travel Dobb kit from almost any hotel you check into? Today, with all the security restrictions on airlines, I never travel with tooth paste, tooth brush, deodorant, mouth wash, razor, shaving cream or shampoo. I’ve stayed in 1 to 4 star hotels, and every single one, without exception, has always provided me with a free Dobb kit when requested at the front desk. Just tell the front desk that you forgot this stuff, and they will supply it all to you for free.

Free Language Translation

http://www.google.com/language_tools – This is an absolutely amazing site that will translate from hundreds of languages to hundreds of other languages, absolutely for free. It will translate websites that are in foreign languages, items that you type in one language and want translated to another language, etc… Imagine if you’re traveling in a foreign country, and need to translate something quickly into that countries native language. You can pull up this website on your PDA, type what you want translated and in seconds, it will translate it into any language you want. Other similar translation services are extremely expensive, and this is of no less quality and reliability. In fact, I have never seen another translation site or service translate into or from as many languages as this Google tool. Google hit it out of the park with this amazing free service.

Free Personal Travel Assistant

 WWW.YAPTA.COM – This innovative and useful site tracks airfares on any flights that are of interest to you, or that you have already paid for. Yapta constantly monitors the prices on those flights so you don’t have to. Yapta alerts you when the airfare drops so you can buy at the airline at the optimal time. Yapta can also alert you when award seats become available so that you can use your frequent flier miles to book a flight. If you have already purchased a ticket through an airline and the price drops, Yapta will give you explicit instructions on how to claim your travel credit. Yapta will email you letting you know that the price of your ticket has dropped. Yapta assures you that they don’t use your email for anything other then letting you know what’s happening with your flights.

Transcribe your voice into notes, reminders, calendar appointments, emails, text messages and much more

 WWW.JOTT.COM – This truly is incredible technology. It’s like Startrek – Your words turn into actions. You won’t believe all this can do for you just by speaking into your phone. No more driving and typing text messages and emails. With Jott, you just speak, and it will convert your words into text and emails for you, and send them, without you ever touching your keypad. Jott makes sure you stay on top of everything. With a simple phone call to 866-JOTT-123, you can capture notes, set reminders and calendar appointments, stay in touch with friends and family, and interact with your favorite web sites and services…all with your voice! They can even transcribe your voicemail. Simply call Jott and tell them where you want your message to go. They capture your voice, turn it into text (very accurately I might add), and send it to the destination of your choosing.

Visual Voicemail – online, in e-mail, or on the phone
Voice-to-Text Transcription – read your voicemails as text messages or e-mail
Voicemail Filtering – goodbye telemarketers and ex’s
Smart Greetings – different greetings for family, friends and clients - www.youmail.com – This is so cool. When someone calls your cell phone, it will automatically say Hi (and their name), and then your greeting will play. You can use their standard greeting, record your own unique greeting for each caller or choose from thousands of greetings they have in their inventory. It saves all your voice messages on line where you can email them to others, transcribe them, etc….

Free Legal Forms

 www.ilrg.com – The Internet’s largest collection of free legal forms — 2,000+ and growing! Includes forms in the following categories: basic agreements, buying and selling, credit and collection, employment, leases, loans, assignments, personal and family, and divorce. State-specific forms also include last wills, living wills, medical directives, and powers of attorney.

Find what you’re looking for on EBay, Amazon, Google Base & More

 www.uatuh.com – Rather then you having to search through all these sites for the item your looking for, this will do all the work for you. You simply specify an item to look for, and they will notify you when its find, and where.

Post your classified ad for free to hundreds of sites at once

www.oodle.com – Truly awesome. Just post your add to this one site, and Oodle will spread it across their growing network of sites (currently over 200 different sites).

Compare prices on over 150 million books for sale

www.bookfinder.com – BookFinder.com is a one-stop ecommerce search engine that searches over 150 million books for sale – new, used, rare, out-of-print, and textbooks. They save you time and money by searching every major catalog online, and letting you know which booksellers are offering the best prices and selection. When you find a book you like, you can buy it directly from the original seller. They never charge a markup.

Amazing free websites to locate anyone

 www.wink.com (In their own words: Wink is a people search engine that makes it easy to find and connect with people online. Wink.com is the largest online people search with more than 200 million people profiles from across the Web, including social networks and other online communities.,

www.reunion.com (In their own words: In the ever-evolving world of social networking, Reunion.com is the leading website for the grown-up social-network user to reconnect and keep in touch with family, friends, lost loves, and colleagues as life changes. With more than 50 million registered users and membership increasing on average by 1 million per month, Reunion.com offers the fastest and most comprehensive way to rediscover and stay connected with people from your past.)

www.123people.com, www.spock.com (In their own words: See where your friends are on the web. Find pictures, blogs, social networks and web links for over 500 million people on the web)

www.yasni.com (In their own words: yasni is a free search engine dedicated to finding people on the web. It pulls together all the publicly available information and search results, including images, videos, social networking profiles and posts)

www.spokeo.com (In their own words: Want to see something juicy? Spokeo searches deep within 42 major social networks to find truly mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers)

www.isearch.com (In their own words: iSearch provides data from different aspects of a person’s life, some information you may find from different sources include: email, news blogs, professional data, etc),

www.usernamecheck.com (This is a website that you’ll find useful if the person you’re looking for has some unique alias…you can search for his username here and see if he is registered on different social networks. In their own words: Check if your username is registered),

www.whozat.com (In their own words: Whozat is the first interactive semantic people search engine. It focuses on people and offers wider coverage of information sources: search engines, social and professional networks, and more)

 www.peekyou.com (In their own words: PeekYou profile helps other people find your websites, social-networking pages, photos or anything else about you online. You can also create a profile for friends or relatives to ensure that they may also be easily found online)

 www.classmates.com (In their own words: The company’s online social networking Web sites enable users to locate and interact with acquaintances from high school, college, work and the military)

www.peoplejar.com (In their own words: PeopleJar provides many ways to promote yourself to the world. Whether it’s for business, a hobby, friendships, or networking, we provide the tools for you to be found. Add relevant profiles so others can find you. Attach media to show off your work)

www.zoominfo.com (In their own words: ZoomInfo delivers quick and easy access to fresh, comprehensive, and accurate information on industries, companies, products, services, people and jobs – all on a single Website)

www.whitepages.com (In their own words: WhitePages.com is the No. 1 online People Search destination, with more than 200 million people searchable in our databases. Our goal is to bring you the most comprehensive, relevant people search experience possible)

www.zabasearch.com (In their own words: The #1 People Search and Public Information Search Engine),

www.anywho.com (In their own words: All of the residential and business white pages listings are public information obtained from local telephone records for published telephone listings. These listings can range from three months to six months old and are updated every three months. Since erroneous information comes from local companies, errors must be corrected through those local companies)

www.infobel.com (In their own words: Published under the trademark Infobel, Kapitol provides to the end consumer as well as to businesses, Directory Products & Solutions that fits everybody’s needs in people and Business search. From SME’s to multinational companies, from end-consumer website to telco operator platform, for each situation Kapitol has a cost effective solution)

www.criminalsearches.com (In their own words: Do you really know who people are? Start a FREE Criminal Search on anyone today!)

www.people.yahoo.com, www.pipl.com, http://www.pimall.com/nais/SKIPTRACE.HTM

SHARE FILES, DOCUMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHS & VIDEOS that are too large for email and other content with family, friends, clients and colleagues for free – www.box.net

Free 24/7 Conference Call number and account

www.freeconferencecall.com - Your teleconferencing line is available to you 24/7 and there is no need to schedule or make reservations. Each conference call account accommodates 96 callers on an unlimited number of 6 hour free conference calls.

Free Information for Income Investors (corporate bonds and preferred stocks)

Many investment professionals use this as their primary source of information for fixed income investments. Information on fixed income investments such as corporate bonds and preferreds is very difficult to find in one place. This resource is unbelievable and loaded with data and screening tools. Hard to believe it’s free. www.quantumonline.com

Free Goods And Services

This site gives you a list of a massive amount of other free goods and services that are available.  It’s constantly updated and expanding.  They even have a newsletter you can subscribe to so you are constantly updated on other amazing free stuff that is available.  www.thefreesite.com

We have been brain washed by advertisements, marketing, and boom times (where we are convinced that “money grows on trees”) to believe that the best things in life have to cost the most. We have been jaded to think that the more expensive something is, the better it must be. We chase brand names, current fashions, and latest technology only to find that as soon as we think we have the hippest and greatest, it’s onto the next thing, resulting in spending more money. 

I find that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I believe the best things in life are free. As an investment advisor and CPA at Capital Investment Advisors, I believe it is important to counsel and advise clients as it relates to their spending habits. The best spending habit is to not spend at all. Don’t get me wrong, I like the finer things in life. But you don’t have to spend the most or anything at all, to have these finer things. You will be amazed to discover what is available in this world for absolutely free. 

Do you have free things you want to share? Email me at Woody@yourwealth.com.