Financial Planners Give Advice on Saving Money
WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, face to face with long time entertainer Debbie Allen. The icon does it all, dance, act, direct. She even has a skill few people knew about.</s>WHITFIELD: What are your specialties?</s>DEBBIE ALLEN, ACTRESS: I make great honey-baked lamb. My husband likes that. I make great ginger garlic lobster rice. I make really good fried chicken. I make a really good lemon pound cake. I make great vegetables. I can almost taste anything and make it.</s>WHITFIELD: She's one of the chefs that just throws things. Her husband and son are there. We're in her kitchen with her in her Santa Monica home with Debbie Allen. And we sit down and we talk about a whole lot of things, her enduring career, including her time on the hit TV show "Fame." We also see what keeps her busy these days between television productions and dance performances. But first, it is the number one issue in American homes, getting your financial house in order. Today in our weekly Financial Fix, five easy ways, easy, to save money. Ken and Daria Dolan joining us now. Good to see you all.</s>KEN DOLAN, DOLANS.COM: Hey, Fred. Fred, I want to talk about Debbie Allen's fried chicken.</s>WHITFIELD: I woman can burn, I mean she can cook.</s>KEN DOLAN: Absolutely.</s>WHITFIELD: She made some incredible smoothies there for us while we were at her home. But you'll hear a lot more from her. You two teach us so much about how to save money, so let's begin with how people can save a little money especially as it pertains to the phones, the landlines they may have in their house.</s>DARIA DOLAN, DOLANS.COM: Yes. First of all, get rid of that landline. Hello, we all have cell phones now.</s>WHITFIELD: But sometimes you have to have one, right, for your home alarm, et cetera?</s>DARIA DOLAN: Well, for your home alarm, but you certainly don't need to pay for the long distance service. If you don't have -- we live in a condo, so we have security, we don't need that extra alarm on our place. And so consequently by getting rid of a home phone line, which costs us regularly 63 bucks a month, we can save over $700 a year. That's some real savings.</s>WHITFIELD: That's a big savings. And you say you can also save when you make purchases for airline tickets. It's a certain time of day and day of the week in which should you do it, right?</s>KEN DOLAN: Now, listen to this, Fred. Many people know that the airlines post their sales Monday night at 8:00 and they run until Thursday night at 8:00.</s>OK, 8:05, 8: 10, I'm on the phone to the airlines because they just opened the sales. No. Don't do it.</s>DARIA DOLAN: First off, don't be on the phone. Do it online, because you pay more by phone.</s>KEN DOLAN: That's another story. Because here's why, Fred. On Tuesday morning when all the sale prices start floating around either on the airlines who didn't offer sales or even the ones that did, a price war can begin. So we say, some people disagree, Tuesday at 3:00, Fred.</s>DARIA DOLAN: It's at 3:00 p.m., not a.m.</s>KEN DOLAN: All the price wars have settled by then and you might get a better price than 8:00.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, fantastic. And then a lot of us got gift cards for the holidays, and you say if you're not that satisfied with it, you need to sell it? That sounds so ungrateful.</s>DARIA DOLAN: Well, the fact of the matter is hopefully you were gifted the card because somebody cared enough to think that maybe you would enjoy it. But, to be perfectly honest, what am I going to do with a home depot card except make work for him? So consequently, if there's no reason to send him off there because they've asked me not to allow him in the store anymore --</s>KEN DOLAN: All right, we don't need to hear all this.</s>DARIA DOLAN: It's just smart to get the cash take evolved in that card so that you can spend it on something that you will appreciate, and then say to the person, look what I got with your wonderful gift.</s>KEN DOLAN: Two good websites -- GiftCardGranny.com and PlasticJungle.com. They're both very good.</s>WHITFIELD: And number four and five we can't get to because we're running out of time. But raising your auto deductibles, then you save on your overall premium. And then you say consider withholding federal tax all year long. Ken and Daria, thanks so much. We're out of time. And next year, we have to make plans for our Valentines weekend to have you all involved because you all have had this incredible working relationship and loving relationship for so long.</s>KEN DOLAN: It's been 40 years.</s>DARIA DOLAN: And we're both alive.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, good to see you. Thanks so much. Of course more money tips, maybe relationship tips, too. You want to sign up for the Dolan's free newsletter, go to Dolans.com.