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The study says 44.2 percent of consumers will go online to shop at some point during this holiday shopping season, about the same as in 2007. On average, consumers will make one third — 33.6 percent — of their holiday purchases online, up from 30.2 percent last year.

Perhaps a sign of poor economic times, each shopper is expected to spend $832.36 on holiday merchandise, a paltry 1.9 percent increase over the $816.69 spent last year on average.

Maximize your spending power:

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The notice at the bottom of every advertisement for a 529 savings plan includes the warning: “Accounts may lose value.” Millions of disheartened parents are now all-too-aware of just how accurate that statement is as they open their September account statements and see that their 529 savings accounts have, in fact, lost money.- advertisement -

The stock market swoon of recent weeks has not only caused account values to drop but in many cases has created losses, as balances drop below original contributions.

So what are parents to do as they fret about losing money in their college savings accounts at the same time that college costs continue their relentless rise? Here are some suggestions, based on the current age of your child.

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If money and relationships are an uncomfortable mix, then credit and romance are downright strange bedfellows.- advertisement -

“You may say you know everything about a person, but you probably don’t know anything about his credit record,” says Adam Levin, founder of Credit.com.

Now, a frequently aired TV commercial featuring a forlorn young husband forced to live with his in-laws because he was clueless about his bride’s abysmal credit is aiming to spur young lovers to share credit scores.

Of course, the commercial’s sponsor, the Web site freecreditreport.com, is hoping to rev up its credit information sales, too. Romantic partners are a big, untapped market.

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As foreclosures continue to pile up, so do unpaid property taxes. That’s an opportunity if you’re willing to wade into the arcane world of property tax lien sales. Before you do, however, understand the risks that come with these little-known investments.- advertisement -

“Every year, $7 (billion) to $10 billion in property taxes go delinquent,” says Howard Liggett, executive director of the National Tax Lien Association in Pensacola, Fla., a trade association of investors, tax collectors and service providers involved in tax lien sales. “The subprime mortgage crisis has spiked those numbers. For example, four of the 67 counties in Florida saw spikes of 30 percent to 33 percent in the number of tax liens offered for sale last year.”

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She published her autobiography, “Danica — Crossing the Line,” two years ago, and this year became the first woman to win an IndyCar race, bringing home first place in the Indy Japan 300.- advertisement -

At 26, professional race car driver Danica Patrick is now playing with the big boys, finishing 5,894 seconds ahead of fellow race car driver, Helio Castroneves, and joining the gender-crossing ranks of drag racer Shirley Muldowney.

Growing up in the Midwest, Patrick was a high school cheerleader before first tasting racing success when she began local Go-Karting in 1992 at Sugar River Raceway in Wisconsin, later moving on to win national Go-Kart titles.

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Have you checked your home equity line of credit lately?- advertisement -

If not, you probably should. Even if you’ve never used a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, it’s a good idea to check your three credit reports (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to make sure identity thieves haven’t opened one in your name.

According to the FBI, canny con artists are increasingly draining the equity of unsuspecting homeowners by tapping into their home equity lines of credit. The more equity you have in your home, and the less vigilant you are about monitoring your finances, the greater the risk that thieves could drain the equity from your home — or worse, sell it out from under you.

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About a year and a half ago, Tom Runge and his wife, Cathy Woods, put their Auburn, Wash., home up for sale. Woods had taken a new telecommuting-friendly position and the couple planned to move to Portland, Maine, where they could more easily afford some investment property.- advertisement -

The situation seemed ideal, but there was just one problem: Their four-bedroom Washington house didn’t sell.

That was no surprise in this tough market. According to the National Association of Realtors, the rate of existing home sales in June 2008 was 15.5 percent lower than it was in June 2007, while median existing-home prices fell by about 6 percent compared to the previous June.

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