1. First: Here’s something that really works nicely: Get an unlocked smartphone (I like the Nokia 5800) and sign up for AT&T prepaid GoPhone service. Put about $100 on the prepaid account, or less if you want to test reception first. Then as an option to your GoPhone account, buy the Feature Package that gives you 100MB of data for $19.99. Now, do this:

• Use free WiFi service for Internet wherever you can — at your local coffee shop, or your home if you have a wireless router, for example.
• When you’re away from WiFi, use your AT&T GoPhone internet service.

Then, check on your data usage. If you’re like me, you won’t be using the AT&T Internet all that much. Finally — this is important — before your unused data expires in 30 days, buy another 1MB of data for $4.99. This rolls your unused data from the 100MB plan over for another month. Continue renewing for $4.99 a month until you need more MB of data.

For more on this plan, see what Hook has to say.

2. Second: And, for something really inexpensive, take that same unlocked smartphone and get T-Mobile Prepaid. Use free WiFi whenever you can. When you’re out of range of free WiFi, try this very inexpensive substitute for having Internet service:

Use Google SMS. Example: I was headed toward Roanoke, Va., on the Interstate but concerned about the weather, so I texted weather roanoke to 466453 (“GOOGLE”) and got back the weather summary via return text message. You’d be surprised how much information you can get that way (restaurant search, movies, air travel updates and more) — see http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sms.html for details.

For more on this approach, see my earlier post.

But is there anything to watch if you don’t have cable? In most of the U.S. there’s quite a bit. In fact, you’ll find that cable subscribers often spend much of their time watching content that’s available over the air. It takes some work, but you may get excellent results with a rooftop antenna.

The final piece of the puzzle is a DVR, or digital video recorder, to record things for later viewing. I can now recommend the DTVPal DVR for this purpose. It has been out for a year now and most of the bugs are worked out.

Here’s how it works: Just hook up the DTVPal DVR to your antenna lead-in, and then to your TV. A simple setup routine finds channels and then you’re in business. Here’s my more detailed review of the DTVPal DVR.

You can save hundreds of dollars every year by “cutting the cable” and switching to antenna TV. And with Redbox or Netflix, you can easily get all the movies you’d like to replace cable movie channels.

Finally, what if you end up watching less TV because there’s less available? For most people that would be a good thing. Go outside and play, spend more time with others, or volunteer to do something good. It all starts with “cutting the cable.”

• Here’s a link for buying a DTVPal DVR
• And here’s a link to the antenna page

• Unlike old VCR or DVD-based recordings, newer digital recorders play back in quality equal to the original broadcast.
• You don’t have to worry about changing tapes or disks.
• The digital TV transition has resulted in some good movie content being available on subchannels.

For some time, to get these benefits you had to come up with the dollars for a TiVo — an excellent solution, but somewhat expensive. There is now a much less expensive solution I can recommend: the DTVPal DVR (catchy name, huh?)

When you connect a DTVPal DVR to an external antenna and your TV, after a short setup routine you’re in business. You can browse content and choose what to record. Your recordings are stored in a list (by folders if you’d like).

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing with my DVR:

• Recording and viewing classic movies, such as “The Magnificent Seven” from MyNetwork TV
• Recording and viewing newer fare, such as “The Polar Express” from ABC
• Catching football games at my convenience

A little more on this last point: On Sunday afternoon I like to ride bikes with my son — but NFL games start at 1 p.m. I start them recording on the DVR, go ride the bike, and then catch the game in the second half. But by starting at the beginning of the recording and fast-forwarding through commercials in the first half, I can catch up with the fourth quarter live. It works great with that DVR’s 30-second skip feature, going from play to play.

Finally, the warnings:

• This DVR is not as smooth as a TiVo, even though it’s way better than your old VCR. If you have the money or lack patience, TiVo is a better bet.
• This DVR records over-the-air content only, and not cable.
• This DVR was released buggy, but gets automatic updates over the Internet. The currently updated version is fairly smooth, in my experience.

For the current $299 price, though, this DVR delivers a lot of jollies per dollar. And there’s a great discussion group over at AVSForum to help you work through the bugs. (The first post in that thread is super.)

Wouldn’t it be great if we had an insurance program that would pay for windshield wiper blades for your car? When you needed new blades, you could get them installed and fill out a form and file a claim. An administrative office would process the claim and send your participating auto repair shop a check. They’d then bill you for the remaining balance.

Crazy, you say? Not worth the effort? Well, that’s what we do with health care. The health-care equivalent of wiper blades — say, a simple strep test on someone with a sore throat — generates back-and-forth paperwork, followed eventually by claims and payments.

What’s the lesson? Just as our car insurance doesn’t cover wiper blades, our health insurance shouldn’t cover routine expenses either. Instead, true insurance covers you for large losses that are hard to handle.

And how is this related to the cost issue? Trust me, if we had a wiper blade insurance program it would raise costs throughout the system.

Our current version of health insurance too often means collecting high premiums for totally foreseeable and small expenses. We can squeeze costs out of the system by turning this into true health insurance, covering large risks while making the small stuff more like a true consumer market. Why don’t our leaders talk about ideas like this instead of trying to score political points or scare the wits out of people?

But what if your employer’s 401k doesn’t have index funds? Two answers: (1) Invest in the most broadly diversified mutual funds you can choose from. They’ll perform about like index funds. (2) You may have increasing opportunities to invest in index funds. This article in the Wall Street Journal points out that more companies are insisting on having index funds available to their employees.

I got a T-mobile Pay as You Go account with its associated SIM card and put enough minutes on it to qualify for Gold status. Now my minutes don’t expire if I keep renewing the card. I then bought a Nokia 5800 unlocked smartphone from Dell for $228 (after rebate and coupon) and put the SIM card in. The phone works great with T-mobile. All calling features, plus my contacts’ phone numbers from the SIM, came over just fine. Text messaging is a breeze too.

The Nokia’s standalone music player, camera, and other bells and whistles work just fine.

When I want to surf the web or check email, I’m usually within range of a Wi-Fi network, which the Nokia handles very easily. No charges there.

But what about those times when I want to use the Nokia smartphone and I’m not in range of a Wi-Fi network? Well, that’s when it would be nice but expensive to have a data plan. Even then, I can get the information I want by using Google SMS. Example: I was headed toward Roanoke, Va., on the Interstate but concerned about the weather, so I texted weather roanoke to 466453 (“GOOGLE”) and got back the weather summary via return text message. You’d be surprised how much information you can get that way (restaurant search, movies, air travel updates and more) — see http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sms.html for details.

There you have it: Smartphone music and camera features when you want them, web browing and email free whenever you’re in range of Wi-Fi, cellphone calling and easy texting from anywhere — and Google SMS for travel data from the web. And all this for far less money than, say, an iPhone with a data plan.

I’m sure Apple has security problems with iTunes. The fraud possibilities are endless. Still, it seems there should be a way around all this.

No tunes for you, new customer

The problem is that no one knows when a bottom or top occurs until long after the fact. Therefore, when the stock market rallied in March, unless you were already holding stocks you were too late to buy in at the bottom. How do you react to all this? My favorite strategy is “buy and hold.” If you don’t try to sell out at the top you don’t have to worry about when to get back in. My prediction: Within two years, the stock prices of March 2009 will look extremely attractive. “Market timers” will kick themselves for not having gotten back in then.

One warning: If you “buy and hold,” there will be times when you wish you had sold out. It’s not for the faint of heart. However, for those willing to stay in the market long term, the rewards can be substantial.