Being self-employed has its benefits and drawbacks. Some of the benefits are obvious: you can set your own hours, choose your own clients and run the business how you wish. The drawbacks include a lack of unemployment insurance, paying full price for health insurance, having to find clients and not being able to take a day off in the middle of a project.

Who doesn’t like the original Mini? It’s cute, but not girly. Sporty – but not overbearingly macho. A six foot man can drive it – and not look (or feel) silly driving it. So can his five-foot-five daughter. Or her 65-year-old grandmother.

Most people know it’s important to get the oil/filter in their vehicle changed at least every once-in-awhile – if they care at all about the longevity (and efficiency) of their vehicle’s engine. But there’s more to a vehicle than its engine – and there are other filters (and other fluids) that are arguably just as important – because failure to change them out at least every once-in-awhile can lead to failures and repairs that can be just as expensive as neglecting to provide your vehicle’s engine with regular fresh oil and a clean filter. For starters:

Women can handle trucks as well as any truck driver can. However, according to askthetrucker.com, they do face some additional challenges. Trucking can be physically demanding, and some women may find the necessary heavy lifting to be difficult. Women accustomed to letting the men in their lives handle difficult driving and vehicle repairs will find themselves in unfamiliar territory when they make solo drives and are fully responsible for their own trucks. Safety, children and spending are also special concerns of women.

I guess everyone gets to that point in life where they start to say, “I remember when… . ” Here’s some from me:

Should I be charging sales tax when I sell online? If you’re assuming this answer should be a simple yes, or no, then think again — there is not much about this question that is clear-cut, much less uncomplicated.

The struggling economy is hitting today’s businesses hard. While reports indicate that things might be getting better, to the average business owner it is business as usual, and that is far less profitable than in years past. For many companies, downsizing is simply a matter of survival. Sadly, it is often the employees who suffer when cuts have to happen. Yet, there is a solution that allows employees to keep their jobs while still giving businesses a little breathing room; that is downsizing the office rather than the workforce.

Safety still sells — problem is, everyone’s selling it — not just Volvo. That’s why Volvo’s gone sporty to an extent that’s truly startling in the context of Volvos-gone-by.

The days of hastily arranged business flights to foreign cities are not exactly over, but they are numbered with the advent of video conferencing. Once a favored tool of sci-fi authors, the technology is now real and being pushed by the likes HP and Cisco. The major selling points are a combination of convenience and environmental awareness, but does video-conferencing really make it possible to forgo the traditional face-to-face meetings?

Buick sells a lot of cars – but mostly (historically) to people who might be buying their last car.

If you’re really serious about saving money on transportation, the very last thing you should do is buy a new car. Particularly a new hybrid car. It’s as counterproductive as trying to lose weight by ordering a diet Coke with your triple Angus Thickburger.

Here’s an example of the importance of cross-shopping:

The 2012 Infiniti G37 coupe – rear-wheel-drive, standard 330 hp V-6, seven-speed transmission and 0-60 in 5.6 seconds – starts at $37,800. For about the same money you could buy a Mercedes C250 ($37,220) and take home four cylinders, 201 hp and 0-60 in 7.4 seconds.

A reader [of Inflationomics.com] recently posed an interesting question:

“What is the point of having our dollar backed by something physical such as gold? Ron Paul always talks about this.

The 2013 Chevy Malibu is the first “normal” car to come standard as a hybrid car. Two non-hybrid versions will be arriving later this summer, but for the moment, if you want a Malibu, you’re looking at a hybrid Malibu Eco.

America has millions of unemployed people. As Fox News pointed out on April 6, the official unemployment rate, currently hovering at a bit over 8 percent, radically underestimates the real number of unemployed Americans.