Amazon.comIf you want to save money online, read this: here are a few sneaky ways retailers get you to purchase their products.

Amazon: How does this e-tailer win us over? By becoming our default. According to Dan Ariely in Wired, we would rather shop at a place that has our address and credit card information on file than at one where we'd have to enter this information-even if it means paying more. As consumers, "we have a marked tendency to take the path of least resistance."

Netflix: Because the movie-rental giant charges no late fees and lets you create a queue of what you want to watch, writes Ariely, you'd assume customers are getting their money's worth. This model actually exploits the gap between what people want to do in principle and what they want to do right now. Typically, you watch fewer movies for your monthly fee than you order.
PLUS: 6 Oddball money making tips >>

Groupon: By making a limited number of coupons available, this free-subscription, deal-of-the-day website makes us

By Katie Little, CNBC.com

Americans are seeing more zeros in their bank accounts these days - and not the good kind.

Only a quarter of those surveyed have squirreled away sufficient savings for six months or more As Americans struggle to put the economic downturn behind, many appear to be going the wrong way. In one key measure of security, the number of Americans with no emergency savings rose to 28 percent of Americans, slipping from 24 percent of the year before, according to a new Bankrate.com survey.

Only a quarter of those surveyed have squirreled away sufficient savings for six months or more, the amount that financial advisors suggest to have on hand in the event of an emergency.

"We have a long and storied history in this country of spending and keeping up with the Joneses and not making savings a priority," said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com's CEO. "I mean, look, this is not confined to emergency savings. Same is true when we look at retirement savings."

Stagnant wages and creeping household expenses have not helped the savings rate, McBride told CNBC's "Closing

By Meghan Casserly

This week JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon apologized for the losses that cost the company more than $2 billion and as much as $5 billion, citing a failed strategy that he said started as an advantageous hedge that would make the firm a lot of money in the event of a credit crisis.

"This particular synthetic credit portfolio was intended to earn a lot of revenue if there was a crisis. I consider that a hedge," Dimon told the Senate Banking Committee. "What it morphed into, I will not try to defend."

Will he be held accountable? Will he be fired? Probably not: He said sorry. Sorta.

"I'm sorry I've taken up so many people's time with this loss," he said. "Because it is not significant in the global scheme of things."

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But apology or no, Dimon's reputation, which my colleague Nathan Vardi notes was partly earned by successfully guiding JPMorgan through the credit crisis, has taken a serious hit. Dimon now is telling

Friendly competition?

A heart-warming photograph circulated the Internet recently. It pictured Meghan Vogel, a high school junior, stopping and helping a fallen teammate cross the finish line of their 3,200-meter foot race. Beautiful image. Lovely sentiment. Pure baloney.

According to a survey of 1000 adults by Shine and Fitness magazine, most people are a lot less altruistic than the young Ohio track star. When it comes to work, intelligence, athletic ability and even hobbies most men and women fiercely want to beat out their competition, even it that means besting a friend.

Life is just a game

About 80% of adults acknowledge that they are at least somewhat competitive. Young men (ages 18-34) are the most cutthroat over all-64% say they are "very" or "extremely" competitive. Even at play they want to be the best-about 49% of guys say they are competitive about their hobbies (vs. 38% of women). Don't think that women aren't in it to win it, though.

Smartest gal/guy in the room

Interest rates are at an all time low, and it is natural to want to take advantage of them. However, what do you do when you don't qualify for a typical refinance option? For example, what do you do if you owe more on your house than it is currently worth? There is a solution.

Enter the HARP refinance option. This is a refinance loan that was developed by the government, although the loan itself does not come from the government, and not all lenders participate in the program. Essentially, the HARP loans are available to help people who would otherwise qualify for refinance take advantage of the low interest rates.

The Obama refinance option was put into place to help home owners in a poor economy, to try to head off another round of foreclosures. However, you still have to have good credit and a mortgage in good standing in order to qualify for the refinance program. The only difference between a HARP loan and a regular refinance loan is that the value of your home does not

"Ranchero" by Rick Gavin
Reviewed by David Marshall James

A repo man, making a house call over a plasma TV, gets knocked upside the head with a fireplace shovel by a tag-team couple of Mississippi Delta crackers.

Worse yet, Mr. and Mrs. Saltine make off with Nick Reid's bad ride, a 1969 Ford Ranchero, with a calypso-coral (read: tropical pink) paint job.

Even further and worse yet, the slap-happy-mobile is a loner from Nick's landlady, Pearl, by way of her deceased husband, Gil. Not that Pearl sexes out on the flat Delta roads in the Ranchero; no, she prefers a very staid Buick.

She's loaned the Ranchero to Nick on account of his aged Chevy Nova's having a bad day.

Pearl is a real Zen kind of lady. She wouldn't care if she never saw her late husband's car again. After all, it's been sitting on blocks in the garage under Nick's apartment for so long that the tarp has rotted.

However, Nick sees recovering the Ranchero as a point of honor-- and an escape from the monotony of the