This is something I hadn’t heard about until recently, but it’s intriguing - the steadiness of gold, plus the investability of IRAs and 401k accounts. Simply put, a gold IRA is an IRA account that includes gold bullion as one of the investments. When you buy gold bullion and put it in a gold IRA account, it’s a nice way to offset paper stocks because the market price of bullion tends to rise as paper stocks fall. So you can buy bullion in an IRA as a traditional investment method, or to offset other investments you have. Given the current economic climate, it’s something worth discussing with your broker or investment advisor.

Gold has always been a hot item, remarkable in its ability to hold its value regardless of the economy. Historically, this ability to hold its value is a reason that so many countries used gold coins for so long. Gold has been around for a while–England’s first gold sovereign was issued in the 1400s–and still forms the backbone of most economies, including those that have moved from the gold standard.

Understandably, there has been a resurgent interest in gold lately, in particular gold bullion. You can buy gold bullion as a way to supplement an existing investment portfolio, or as a standalone investment.

According to GoldCoinsGain.com, when you buy bullion you are buying an asset that moves against paper investments, sowhile your stocks are tanking then your bullion will remain a solid–sorry, bad pun–investment.

Ever since I bought my first home, my mom has been politely goading me into letting her help spruce up the house with some plants. I’m black-thumbed, but she’s always been great around plants. Here are some of the things I’ve looked into doing:

• Paving the area on the side of the house and decorating it with outdoor planters. I’d love to use cacti but I don’t think our mailman would appreciate it.
• Putting another outddor planter or two on our back patio. There’s a dearth of color back there so I’d want it to be bright — oranges and reds, maybe?
• Inside we’ll have indoor planters with low-maintenance plants. Can I get away with putting cacti in every single indoor planter, even though we don’t live in the Southwest?

I’ve been browsing the online selection at EPlanters and getting a lot of fantastic ideas. I love that they show their planters actually being used; I really need a visual when it comes to making the most of the flowers and plants on our property, so it helps to see what looks good. I especially like the jazzy, modern-designed planters. Also, the colored planters. Time to go shopping!

The Car Connection is one of the most thorough car review websites I’ve come across. I’ll browse through their site to highlight why I love the site.

Looking at the page for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class you’ll see that they have over 11,000–yes, really–pieces of content about this model. The content ranges from in-depth reviews and photos to all the specs. The sheer volume of the information available is incredible.

So let’s look up another popular model. The main page for the Hummer H2 lists the most recent news for that model. The site is unbiased–everything from recall information to shopping guides are there for every concievable car model.

Take the Mini Clubman. Even though it is by no means the most popular car on the market, The Car Connection agregates 11 expert reviews and nearly 150 user reviews. This is a great “Rotten Tomatoes”-type effect: By bringing in a volume of information, the opinions will level out and give an accurate picture of how the car ranks, on average. (In the case of the Clubman, it’s an 8.4 out of 10.)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favourite feature of the site, which is the 360 degree views. Want to check out the Kia Rio but don’t have time to visit the dealership? The 360 degree view feature gives you a virtual walkaround of the car’s interior and exterior. I don’t know how they did it but again, the depth of information is awesome. The next time I’m car shopping (or even dreaming of my next car, which happens a lot), The Car Connection will be my first stop.

Chances are you’ve used a locker many times throughout your life, from pinning your class schedule into the door of your school locker to using lockers at work and at the gym. MoreLockers.com has over 30,000 locker solutions for every purpose imaginable, in scores of shapes, sizes and colors.

The site is ideal for school administrators or project managers tasked with redesigning locker rooms and storage areas. There are solutions for every budget, from wood lockers made from fine cherry, mahogany and maple finishes, to more basic steel school lockers. Many of these options are available in multiple colors, so they fit into your existing color scheme.

When you’re shopping for such a specialty item, using a knowledgeable supplier is of the utmost importance. Rather than choosing from only a few options out of a catalog, you have thousands of locker solutions to choose from here. They stock a wide range of accessories too, with locker room benches, locker panels, shelves, locks and keys, screws, add-ons, ID plates and more available. And, like all good e-stores, the site has a Knowledge Base with FAQs, plus an extensive Help Center that answers all the essential shipping, returns and warranty questions you didn’t even know you had. What more could you want from a specialty locker retailer?