I grew up in Miami. Yes, I was born and raised there and am under 40-years-old. One of the few. I love the city. I love the people. I love the Latin flavor of the town, its food and nightlife. I also enjoyed owning and selling a home there in the early 2000s.

Things are different now. Homeowners have been hit with the downside of a strong housing market and have seen prices snapback much greater than some other parts of the country. After seeing a pullback in net worth, Floridians have been tightening their belts this year in some creative and not-so-creative ways.

Today's Bloomberg has an article about how the changes in the Florida housing market are being dealt with by Dolphins fans. Floridians, and Miami residents in particular, are dining out less, seeing fewer movies, foregoing on travel plans, and in some extreme cases, drinking less expensive beer.

According to Bloomberg, Miami real estate prices fell 19.3% year-over-year in January, tied with Las Vegas for the largest drop among 20 metro areas. Some homeowners feeling the pinch are no longer drinking Guinness and Royal Extra beers, but instead buy something domestic and cheaper.

This change in net worth is real and is affecting consumption decisions. While it hurts everyone involved, the process of (trying!) to realign the split between assets and debts is ultimately a healthy one for our country and something, I believe, will help strengthen the U.S. dollar and regain respect for American ingenuity, strength and democratic values around the globe.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com ,a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund, and a proud former Floridian.

"Buy bonds," says income expert Neil George, adding "More and more folks are heading for the door on stocks and are moving toward quality."

The senior editor of Personal Finance explains, "This means bonds-but not just any bonds: government and upper-tier corporate bonds." Here's a trio of favorites.

"We start with AllianceBernstein Global High Income Fund (NYSE: AWF). This fund owns a collection of government and government agency bonds, along with some selected high-quality domestic and foreign corporates that add to our stability.

"We aren't just locked into the US and the US dollar; we have exposure to the best of Europe, Asia and elsewhere, too. The average duration (measurement of price against changes in yield) is a conservative but attractive 7.4 years.

"The fund generates a yield just shy of 8% and has given us a positive performance of near 100% during the past five years. It trades at a discount of more than 6% to meltdown value.

"Alternatives may not be an important source of electricity, but they are the fastest-growing subsector in the energy space," says energy sector expert Elliott Gue in Personal Finance. Here, he looks at wind power.

"The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that wind power will grow by more than 7%, encouraged by generous government subsidies. Compare that to just 1.5% annualized projected growth in total electricity demand.

"The world's largest wind turbine producer, Vestas Wind Systems (OTC: VWSYF), fell on hard times back in 2005. It priced some of its turbines too aggressively and saw a surge in warranty claims because of defective components.

"But the stock appears back on track. Warranty provisions are down to 5% of revenues. Profit margins surged 4 percentage points year-over-year because of more rational turbine pricing. Vestas' current backlog stands at EUR4.1 billion (US $6.03 billion), up more than 30% year-over-year.

The Associated Press reports that Congress has reached an agreement on an economic stimulus package. The report does not estimate the total size of the package, but it says that taxpayers will receive rebate checks ranging between $300 and $1,000 per household. Businesses will get tax breaks as well.

And the devil is in the details. Under the tentative plan, families with children would receive an additional $300 per child, subject to an overall cap of perhaps $1,200. Rebates would go to people earning below $75,000 and couples with incomes of $150,000 or less. Workers would have to have earned at least $3,000 in 2007 to receive the rebates.

Businesses would receive $70 billion in tax breaks to invest in plants and equipment, and the plan would give small businesses more generous expensing rules and allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim previously paid taxes. Furthermore, the plan would raise the size of the mortgages that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) could buy from $417,000 to $700,000.

So what does this all mean to you?

Want to save for college, but not sure what type of account to use? State-sponsored 529 plans should definitely be your first choice. You don't have to pick one from your own state, but tax incentives might encourage you to do so. If your state doesn't off good tax incentives for colleges savings, then look for the plan with the lowest fees. Kiplinger's gives you an excellent overview of your options, as well as a state by state run down.

These state-sponsored plans can give you shelter from both federal and state income taxes, as well as give your child's grandparents a good way to chip in for their grandchild's education. In fact a grandparent can contribute up to $12,000 a year without having to worry about federal gift taxes (a couple can contribute up to $24,000 without gift taxes). If one grandchild decides not to go to college, just switch the account into the name of another child that wants to go. The money in the fund grows tax-deferred and as long as you only use it for qualified educational expenses you don't ever have to pay taxes on the gains.

You also don't have to worry about saving too much. The federal financial-aid formula assesses parent-owned accounts at 5.6%, while student savings can be assessed a whopping 20%. But, if you want to avoid taxes you must use the funds for qualified education expenses, so you don't want to save more than you think your child will need for college.

Consumerist.com is one of my favorite financial blogs. The site provides witty and down-to-earth commentary on personal finance issues and it's one of a handful of sites I try to read everyday.

But I found myself disagreeing with their post 'For those of you who are broke, 5 expenses you can't afford if you have credit card debt'. According to The Consumerist, people in this situation must cut out cable, eating out, recreational shopping, gym memberships, and expensive cars.

Here's why I disagree: If you're in debt and broke, you need to find ways to keep your costs down so you can pay off your debt and start to compile some savings. The best way to do that depends on who you are, and what kind of things give you pleasure and the ability to stay in the fight. Saying that everything should cut back on certain things is akin to saying that Jackson Pollock should have cut back on art supplies when he was broke.

Would any college student pass up a "free lunch" these days? Most of them probably do not know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and instead would line up enthusiastically if one was offered. In prime fashion though, the latest example was hidden in front of the real deal: a prerequisite to a free Subway sandwich was filling out a credit card application at the head of the food line.

I understand the credit card companies and bank operations -- each has internal profit and customer growth targets to hit, so anyone and anything is game. From 10-year-olds to college students, credit card offers not only kill a load of trees each year, but they introduce the absolute worst financial way to purchase goods and services for consumers.

Unfortunately, most of us have to learn the hard way about credit cards -- paying those mounting balances. When taken fundamentally, credit cards are an abhorrent stain on personal finance strategies. Moral of the story: If you can't pay cash, don't buy on credit (save for bigger purchases like autos and homes). In this instant gratification society, this happens less and less frequently.

The demographic that should not be worrying about credit card balances are college students. I thought college was for developing a set of learning and networking tools, not slapping the plastic down for those Junior Mints? Although many universities are banning the marketing of credit cards on campus grounds, the snaky solicitors are, of course, finding ways to circumvent that prohibition. In this case, be wary of visiting a Subway location for a free sandwich if you're a college student.

Though August's market volatility is now a distant memory for some investors, it could be a spur to seek out assistance from financial planners. How can financial planners advise clients to deal with volatility, both from a psychological and portfolio standpoint? What does volatility actually indicate about underlying economic fundamentals (apart from fear and uncertainty)?

In my view, financial planners need to be honest about what they know and what they don't know. And they should advise their clients to prepare themselves for volatility through a combination of balancing their life – the psychological part -- and portfolio contingency planning – the portfolio perspective.

From a psychological perspective, I don't know if financial planners have a role – beyond recommending psychologists who specialize in helping people deal with psychological pressures related to money. But one thing financial planners can do is to be honest about the limitations of their knowledge:

Are you meticulous about closing out old bank accounts? Diligent about reclaiming utility deposits? Always cash your refund checks promptly? Sorry, this post probably isn't for you -- for once, the hopelessly complacent among us are more likely to come out on top (finally!).

On Tuesday's Good Morning America, contributor Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capital Management discussed options to track down your share of the nation's $32.8 billion in unclaimed assets, chiefly citing www.unclaimed.org.

Unclaimed.org, run by the non-profit National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, explains how to search for left-behind assets, and offers links to individual state databases of outstanding cash and property.

Money has a list of 47 quick and easy steps to get yourself on the path to a better financial future. Some of the tips include switching your savings to a high-yielding online bank, haggling down your interest rates on credit cards, putting together a "forever portfolio", and checking how your salary compares to the industry average.

What's interesting about the list is how easy most of these things are to do -- and how few people will do them. It's indicative of the serious financial literacy deficit that exists in our country, and people are literally throwing money away because of their ignorance.

Print out Money's list and give it your adult children. If you have college-age kids, I'd be surprised if they've done more than 5 of the 47 smart things.

Marketwatch's Chuck Jaffe recently conducted an interview with the greatest friend the individual investor has ever had: John Bogle.

Bogle banged the drum for the cause he has made famous: Active investing generally leads to poor returns, and the best thing an investor can do is buy index funds and rely on the long-term returns generated by businesses to create long-term portfolio success.

Jaffe asked Bogle for his reaction to the numerous market gurus who have suggested that the future returns of the market will be lower than in the past. Bogle explained that lower dividend yields and slower earnings growth will lead to an average annual return of around 7%, more than 2% less than the historical yield of the market. What should investors do about that? They just have to save more money, according to Mr. Bogle.

Bogle remains a big supporter of traditional index funds, and isn't too impressed with ETFs or hybrid funds. As he said in a recent column, "Mama, what have they done to my song?"

All of his books are terrific, but an absolute must-read is his tome on corporate governance, The Battle For the Soul of Capitalism.

In today's world, people rarely carry large amounts of cash on them. People have credit cards for large purchases or even debit cards to access their checking accounts. ATM machines are on every urban street corner in America. But what happens when you're not at home in that urban setting? What do you do if you're on vacation?

I recently went to the Caribbean with my wife. We knew that most places would accept our cards but we questioned the exchange rate. Eastern Caribbean money isn't that strong in comparison to the U.S. dollar ($2.60 EC to $1 U.S.) and we knew that our credit cards would charge a service fee for purchases made in EC dollars. My wife, whom I consider a "world traveler," has always gone with the traveler's checks and prepaid card route. She would cash the checks in at the hotel and use prepaid cards so she wouldn't put her personal accounts at risk. I always used my credit card on vacation. Before our trip, I was sent to the bank to pick up a pair of prepaid cards and some traveler's checks.

The July issue of Money magazine has a great article regarding the best way to keep exchange costs to a minimum with today's weak dollar.

I found out she was completely wrong - a month too late.

The practice that involves people "renting" credit history to improve their own credit score will come to an end, according to Fair Issac Corp (NYSE: FIC), the company responsible for FICO credit scores. The change will occur in a new version of its credit score system, the sixth generation, this September.

The move ends the ability for a consumer with poor credit to be placed as an authorized user of another person's credit card, who has great credit. This person would then benefit from having the payment history of the primary cardholder on their own credit report and improve their credit scores.

The practice has grown more common with internet companies popping up offering money to people with good credit to take on those with bad credit as an authorized user, then collecting fees from those consumers for the act.

This is fraud people; plain and simple.

It's hard to believe this practice still exists in the world we live in today. In a nation where state attorney offices and the U.S. attorney's office go after anyone and everyone who looks like they participate in fraud, including UBS Financial Services, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and the one that started it all, the Enron case.

This was considered the "first great scam of the new millennium" by Terry Savage of TheStreet.com. She highlighted that people with poor credit could "borrow" good credit for 60 days and then apply for a mortgage at a lower rate. Maybe that's one of the many reasons why this month's
foreclosure rates rose a whopping 90% year-over-year.

What do you think of this new move from Fair Issac? Do you think this is fair to the people with poor credit? What's your opinion?

American Century Investments recently gave a 10-question "quiz" to more than 680 Americans 18-41 years old, and found some pretty disturbing information about the state of America's financial literacy. Less than 20% of respondents understood the meaning of the term "asset allocation" and less than half seemed to understand the idea of diversification. The numbers get worse as the respondent gets younger, but the news is pretty bad across the board.

This got me to thinking: I'm often critical of the idea of hiring a financial adviser, because I think that people can do just as well themselves for a lot less money. But if people are really this uninformed, maybe they do need hired help?

But then you enter into a classic Catch-22. If you don't have at least a basic understanding of personal finance, you are probably poorly equipped to evaluate and hire a financial adviser. Many of them don't provide quality service, charge high fees, or will stick you with mutual funds that have very high-expense ratios. So some knowledge is probably a prerequisite for hiring an adviser. But if you have some knowledge, you probably don't need one.

So now the question is Where shall wisdom be found? As Issac Asimov has said, self-education is the best education. But how? Millions of Americans have turned to charlatans like Robert Kiyosaki in search of financial salvation, and I strongly believe that following his advice can lead to disaster. So here is my quick and dirty list for the non-financially inclined who want to know just enough to manage their own finances:

• Andrew Tobias's The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need
• The Boglehead's Guide to Investing
• Personal Finance For Dummies

I really believe that if you can read and understand the concepts outlined in those books, you probably don't need to hire outside help.

Financial services industry, look out. The boys of Bentonville are moving in, partnering with ShareBuilder, to offer low-cost investment services to customers. If you're not familiar with ShareBuilder, it's become a pretty big player in the discount brokerage industry by targeting a market most companies don't: people who might only have a few hundred dollars to invest. They offer a program that is ideal for dollar-cost averaging with small amounts of money. By combining thousands of orders for numerous stocks into a few big orders every Tuesday, the company is able to offer investors an opportunity to invest a little each week (or month) without facing prohibitively high transaction costs.

I haven't been able to get a lot of details on the plan, except that the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) service will offer customers a small discount from ShareBuilder's usual costs, depending on the number of trades per month. Wal-Mart describes the ShareBuilder partnership as a pilot project.

I like this a lot -- perhaps by advertising the program in-store, curious shoppers will take the company up on the offer to put a few dollars into shares of companies they're familiar with. By bringing the stock market into Wal-Mart, I believe we could see a lot of first-time investors starting to save for their future, and I think that's the goal here -- I doubt Wal-Mart thinks it can siphon off business from Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

I went into my local Wal-Mart the other day and couldn't find anything on this. Has anyone checked it out? Any thoughts on it?