ProBargainHunter.com

It is hard to find a bargain in the communication industry. The growth of internet and VOIP is bringing tons of options at our hands. Yet, today I found that at the rate of 13 cents per minute I am overpaying twice when I call my parents in Ukraine with WDT (my current provider). So much for being a pro- bargain hunter!

If I were to stumble upon JustVOIP in my web browsing I would move on. The website design looks cheap and important pieces (like About page) are missing. I did not however. It was my friend who recommended the service to me today claiming he has been using it for some time and is happy with the quality. So I jumped right in.

To begin with, rates to Europe are really low. Many countries are on the free list (below) meaning it doesn’t cost anything to call if you use the computer for your part of the call. Rates to other countries are very competitive too. (Ukraine was €0.05 + call initiation charge of €0.05). Here are the free countries:

You need to install software to create an account. The program runs on Windows and is similar to Skype. You can use it for calling but you don’t have to. If you prefer the old-fashioned way of calling like I do then you can do it by initiating a phone-to-phone call from the web-page. Login to your account, enter where you are calling from and where you want to call to and JustVOIP will call both numbers and connect the call together.

In addition JustVOIP offers a US based call-in number that can act as a gateway for international calling but it didn’t work well when I tried it. I heard the prompt but dialing the number didn’t connect me to the party I intended to call.

After you create an account you can buy credits €10 a piece and enjoy the savings. Don’t buy credits if free service is all you plan to use. Ether way if you give it a try - please leave a comment and let everyone know how it has worked out for you.

Relevant reading:

• Save on your international calls with Jajah
• Calling to Russia and Ukraine - money saving tips
• Finding your way in free telephony (Poll)

Today I finally got my hands at something I have been planning to do for a long time - writing my Will. It is not a very pleasant topic to talk to and not very popular either. It is estimated that more than half of Americans don’t have a written Will.

I will go over things I found in the process and will summarize them in this blog post. Do you have a Will? Take the poll at the end of this blog post and leave your own tips in the comments. Thanks!

Do you need a Will?

The common believe among my peers is that you don’t need a Will unless you are filthy rich. It is true that a Will allows you to define how your assets will be distributed after you die but there is one more very important aspect that a Will serves. If you have small children, a Will allows you to appoint a guardian for them. If you do not have a Will, a court will decide who your children’s guardian should be. This become very crucial for first generation immigrants because their parents (who would normally become guardians) are often not in the US and sometimes don’t even speak English, which may complicate things a lot.

Before you start

Besides the Last Will there is also Living Will which defines things like whether you would like to be kept on artificial life support if you become permanently unconscious. A power of attorney is another important document. It gives someone you trust the legal authority to act on your behalf. Some websites offer these documents for an additional charge.

A joint Last Will by a wife and a husband is not common. Usually each spouse creates his/her own Will that mirror one another. A notary is not required in order to create a legal and valid Will and your Will does not need to be filed with a court or any other agency. You need two witnesses (three in Vermont) to make your Will into a legally binding paper.

Think about who you will appoint as a primary and alternate executor for your Will. It has to be a person you trust but should not be anyone who inherits from your estate.

Louisiana’s laws regarding Wills differ from the rest of the states and because of that it is not supported by some online tools.

Which website to use?

I have examined three websites, each offers an online tool that lets you compile your Will free and you only pay at the end when you are ready to order the actual document - very similar to how tax preparation tools work.

LegalZoom offers entire a range of legal documents with a Wills being one variety. Their online tool offers the most comprehensive solution among the websites I considered for the task. It is the only website that supports Louisiana state and offers extra clauses like for the case when both spouses die simultaneously, or for adding a shelter trust.

In addition when prepared at LegalZoom your Will will be reviewed by a the stuff for common errors and omissions. This is not a legal advice you will get if you go to a lawyer but still some peace of mind that you have not made a stupid mistake.

The price is $69.00 for a standard package, $99.00 for a package with unlimited revisions, and $119.00 will buy same-day preparation and express delivery via e-Mail.

BuildaWill was my second choice. While the number of options is not as extensive as with LegalZoom, the online interface is the best among the three. I loved the preview mode that allowed me to see how the information I enter is worded on the actual Will. The preview mode helped me understand the meaning of some of the forms I had to fill out.

BuildaWill doesn’t offer Living Will or Power of Attorney and you are out of luck if you live in Louisiana. However the price is much lower than that for LegalZoom, just $19.95 for the standard and $29.90 for the premium (with unlimited revisions) package.

LegacyWriter has very basic user interface with the least options offered for Will writing among the three tools I looked at. I do not recommend using it unless yours is no frills typical case. Writing your own Will is not very complicated but you do need some basic assistance to avoid common errors, something BuildaWill is not very good at.

The price is the same as with BuildaWill ($19.95 and $29.90) but you will get at the end a document that you can edit (versus a read-only PDF file for BuildaWill). In addition LegacyWriter offers Living Will and Power of Attorney for an extra change but I have not looked at these.

After you are done

Once ready, choose a place where you want to store your Will. It needs to be accessible by others - a safe deposit box is not a good choice. Make and sign more than one copy.

Go back and review your will whenever there is a change in your assets or in your family. Getting married or divorced may automatically revoke your will in certain states.

For more information go to Estate Planning Guide which is a very concise 13-page document explaining what is typically involved in preparing to write your Will.

Lastminute-Auctions.com is a tool for eBay bargain hunting that I somehow managed to miss. The website is not new (I found the first reference dated back to 2005) and the user interface is a bit awkward, but it does the job fine if you are OK with some rough edges (I know, I am a perfectionist)

lastminute-auction.com provides a new way to hunt for great bargains on eBay.com. We search current offers on ebay.com for auctions which meet our strict simple criteria:
1. The auction ends in 1 hour.
2. The price is currently 1 dollar or less.

Auction title, current price, expiration, number of bids, and shipping charges are crammed in a very compact list for the auctions that satisfy the criteria above. You can also narrow your selection by category or search stuff by title.

I gave it a try today and already found some “cool” stuff like this Atari monitor for $0.50 - pack 3 in a stack and you could use them as an artsy bar-stool. Seriously though, for the most part the auction details are accurate when clicking through to eBay and the only problem I potentially see with the site is that a reserve price if set can throw a monkey wrench into your bargain hunting efforts.

Are you an eBay junkie? What tools do you use to find your treasures?

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