The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems.

Microsoft says the security hole can be shut by setting the browser’s security zone to “high”, although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Speaking to BBC News, Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos said the warning applied to versions 6, 7 and 8 of the browser.

“This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week,” he said.

“The way to exploit this flaw has now appeared on the internet, so it is quite possible that everyone is now going to have a go.”

Microsoft traditionally release a security update once a month – the next scheduled patch is the 9th of February. However, a spokesman for Microsoft told BBC News that developers for the firm were trying to fix the problem.

“We are working on an update on this issue and this may well be involve an out of cycle security update,” he said.

Fix development

However, this is no easy task. Not only have the firm got to fix the loophole, but they have to ensure it does not create another one and – equally importantly – works on all computers. This is a challenge compounded by the fact they have to fix three different versions of its browser.

Microsoft said that while all versions of Internet Explorer were affected, the risk was lower with more recent releases of its browser.

The other problem facing developers is that the possible risk might not be prevented by anti-virus software, even when recently updated.

“We’ve been working to analyse the malware that the Chinese are using. But new versions can always be created,” said Mr Cluley.

“We’ve been working with Microsoft to see if the damage can be mitigated and we are hoping that they will release an emergency patch.

“One thing that should be stressed is that every browser has its security issues, so switching may remove this current risk but could expose you to another.”

By Daniel Emery

Serves: 6-8

Cooking and preparation

• Preparations time: 30 minutes
• Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz dark chocolate
• 5 medium free-range eggs
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 170g/6oz unsalted butter

• To serve

• 200ml/7fl oz creme fraiche
• 12-16 fresh cherries
• cocoa powder, for dusting

Method

1. Place a bowl over a pan of simmering water (the water shouldn’t touch the bottom of the bowl) and gently melt the chocolate in the bowl. Remove from the heat once melted and let it cool slightly.

2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Beat the egg yolks and most of the sugar together until creamy and pale in colour (keep two teaspoons of sugar to one side for the egg whites).

3. When it has cooled slightly, whisk the chocolate into the egg yolk and sugar mixture.

4. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat.

5. Whisk the melted butter into the chocolate mixture. If it gets too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of water.

6. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and the remaining two teaspoons of sugar with an electric whisk until they’re light and fluffy and hold a soft peak. Do not over-beat. The sugar will give them a gentle sheen.

7. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon.

8. Spoon the chocolate mixture into small teacups or ramekins and refrigerate for about two hours.

9. Just before serving, top each marquise with a dollop of creme fraiche and two fresh cherries, then sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Step by step

1. 
   

   Step 1

   Place a bowl over a pan of simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl) and gently melt the chocolate in the bowl. Remove from the heat once melted and let it cool slightly.

2. 
   

   Step 2

   Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Beat the egg yolks and most of the sugar together until creamy and pale in colour (keep two teaspoons of sugar to one side for the egg whites).

3. 
   

   Step 3

   When it has cooled slightly, whisk the chocolate into the egg yolk and sugar mixture.

4. 
   

   Step 4

   Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat.

5. 
   

   Step 5

   Whisk the melted butter into the chocolate mixture. If it gets too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of water.

6. 
   

   Step 6

   In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and the remaining two teaspoons of sugar with an electric whisk until they’re light and fluffy and hold a soft peak. Do not over-beat. The sugar will give them a gentle sheen.

7. 
   

   Step 7

   Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon.

8. 
   

   Step 8

   Spoon the chocolate mixture into small teacups or ramekins and refrigerate for about two hours.

9. 
   

   Step 9

   Just before serving, top each marquise with a dollop of creme fraiche and two fresh cherries, then sprinkle with cocoa powder.

By Lesley Waters

Researchers gave South American freshwater stingrays tests to evaluate their problem-solving ability.

The stingrays learned to use jets of water as a tool to extract a meal of hidden food from a plastic pipe.

It reveals that the fish, once thought a “simple reflex animal”, has cognitive abilities to rival birds, reptiles and mammals, scientists say.

Scientists from Israel, Austria and the US publish their study in the

journal Animal Cognition.

Freshwater stingrays, found in many tropical waters such as the Amazon river, are related to ocean stingrays. Like sharks, they have skeletons made of cartilage, rather the bony skeletons of less closely related teleost fish.

In the past, scientists have assumed that such cartilaginous fish have limited cognitive abilities, in part because they have been difficult to study, says Dr Michael Kuba from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel who undertook the latest study.

His team tested the ability of captive South American stingrays (Potamotrygon castexi) to solve problems, by setting them a series of underwater tasks.

A stingray uses jets of water to remove food stuck among plants

Using a plastic pipe with one end sealed and containing hidden food, researchers observed how the fish overcame the challenge of getting the meal from the container.

They also tested the fish to see if it could discriminate between black and white ends of the tube.

The stingrays not only performed the tasks well but also demonstrated a range of problem-solving strategies, including using water as a “tool” to obtain the hidden reward.

“Tool use in fish is far from anything seen in birds or mammals, ” explains Dr Kuba.

Dr Kuba says that the definition of tool use, using an agent to achieve a goal, was set by cognitive scientist Dr Benjamin Beck in 1980.

The stingrays meet this definition by using water as a tool, manipulating their bodies to create a flow of water that moves food towards them.

At least one other fish species is known to use water in a similar way.

The archer fish, a teleost, shoots spurts of water from its mouth to dislodge prey from leaves above the water’s surface.

“Archer fish use water as a projectile to hunt insects,” says Dr Kuba.

Like the archer fish, the stingrays also use jets of water to dislodge food stuck among plants on the surface of the fish tank, a behaviour caught on video by the researchers.

A stingray called Henry turns water into a tool

Previously, stingrays have largely been on the sidelines of cognitive research for a number of reasons, says Dr Kuba.

“Firstly, they are bigger and more difficult to study than other model animals such as zebra fish, guppies or mice,” he says.

“Second, they, like sharks, have often been considered to be reflex machines having very acute senses but limited cognitive capacities.”

“What our study shows is that stingrays are capable of problem solving,” he says.

Dr Kuba also suggests that research on stingrays may reveal important aspects of the vertebrate thought process.

“They are members of one of the oldest lines of vertebrates and to know more about their abilities will help us to learn more about the evolution of cognition in vertebrates.”

By Jody Bourton
Earth News reporter

Google said Tuesday the company and at least 20 others were victims of a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” originating in China in mid-December, evidently to gain access to the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

“Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective,” according to a statement by David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer for Google, operator of the most popular Internet search engine.

Drummond said that as a result of the attacks, Google has decided it is no longer willing to consider censorship of its Google site in China and may have to shut down its site and its offices in that nation.

“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” Drummond wrote.

“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.

“We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” Drummond’s statement reads.

A Google spokesman said the targeted human rights activists were in the United States, Europe and China.

Efforts by CNN to reach the Chinese Embassy in Washington Tuesday evening were not successful.

Google, perhaps best known for its search engine, also provides other computer services, including e-mail, online mapping and social networking.

It’s New Year’s again and for many of you that probably means resolving to lose weight, especially after the food-filled holiday season. This year, rather than focusing just on dieting and exercising, why not tackle a few issues that may be contributing to your weight loss struggles, or focus on eating healthy to save the planet, not just to shrink your waistline? Here are a few resolutions for 2010 you may not have considered.

Beat the Blues. While you may be suffering from a temporary bout of depression after stepping on the scale in early January, significant depression can not only make you feel miserable, research shows that it can negatively impact your health too. A 2008 study published in the journal Obesity found that women who were depressed had higher levels of CRP (C reactive protein), an important marker of low-grade inflammation in your body that has been associated with an increased risk of abdominal obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. If you think you may be suffering from depression, see your doctor. If you are just feeling a little down, you may want to consider nutrition-based approaches including getting a daily dose of omega 3 fatty acids, especially DHA which is found in high levels in the brain, getting plenty of B vitamins, especially B6, B12, and folate, and if you are still feeling a bit down, you may want to consider taking an herbal remedy such as St. John’s wort, which has been found to be almost as effective as some prescription anti-depressants. Be sure to let your doctor know if you take an herbal supplement as it can interact with prescription medications.

Up your Zzzzzs. In the 1960s, Americans slept eight to nine hours per night. In 1995, the average sleep duration dropped to seven hours per night and today, more than 30 percent of Americans report sleeping less than six hours per night. Short sleep duration, defined as less than seven hours per night, is associated with an increased risk of obesity and diabetes because of its negative effect carbohydrate metabolism. Short sleep can also increase hunger and decrease metabolism, which can lead to obesity. So if your goal this year is to lose weight and improve your health, sleeping better should be a priority. In addition to scheduling at least seven hours for sleep, make sure to build the best sleeping environment possible including limiting noise, light, and controlling temperature (many experts recommend 68 degrees as optimal). In addition, try to limit computer use for a couple of hours before going to bed as some experts believe that the computer screen lights may negatively impact sleep hormones. Establishing an evening ritual can also be helpful, including going to bed and waking up at about the same time each day, taking a hot bath before bed, or having a light snack such as yogurt. If you still have problems with sleep, you may want to try an herbal remedy such as melatonin or valerian, or see a sleep specialist for evaluation or cognitive behavioral therapy. There is a relatively common condition called sleep apnea that could be significantly impacting your sleep and is important to treat for optimal health.

Eat Green. Not only will eating a greener, more plant-based diet improve your health by decreasing your intake of saturated fat and increasing your intake of fiber, eating green will also have a profound impact on the environment. First, limit red meat. Not only does red meat contain cholesterol-raising saturated fat, raising cattle for human consumption takes a large toll on the environment. Going meatless several times a week can make a difference. Next, try to buy local. Not only do local farms often practice sustainable farming, buying local can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions from decreased transportation requirements and decreases the use of packaging materials and preservatives necessary to keep food fresh. Finally, buy organic when you can. Organic food can be a bit pricier, but it contains far fewer pesticides and hormones and is better for the environment as organic farming uses about 30 percent less fossil fuel than conventional farming. If you can’t buy everything organic, try to emphasize organic fruits and vegetables, many of which are more likely to contain pesticide residues than meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy. In particular, focus on the “dirty dozen,” a list of produce created by the Environmental Working Group that contain the highest amounts of pesticides. On the list: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes (imported), spinach, lettuce, celery and potatoes.

Finally, the best piece of advice that I can give you when it comes to New Year’s resolutions is to lose the all-or-nothing mentality. Whatever your resolution is, set smaller, incremental steps to achieving it and don’t let a few setbacks throw you completely off track. Small changes over time really do add up to big results.

Happy New Year!!

Diet and Fitness Expert Dr. Melina Jampolis Physician Nutrition Specialist

It’s all part of his new mentality, and so far that mindset has helped him go from 344 pounds to 218 pounds in about a year.

Name: Tyler Weeks, a 24-year-old freelance Web designer, from Columbia, South Carolina.

Background: Until last year, he had terrible eating habits, he says. He was 30, and then 50, and then more than 150 pounds overweight.

He looked at himself in the mirror last January. He had just devoured fast food French toast sticks — a standard breakfast he estimated at 1,500 calories — and he was, in his words, “not very pleased” with what he saw in the mirror. So he ordered a scale off the Internet, knowing he knew he was too heavy for an ordinary scale. He changed the way he looked at food and weight loss.

How much he lost: A little more than 125 pounds. On January 15, 2009, he weighed 344.2 pounds. On December 30, he was down to 218.8 pounds. His lowest weight was 212.6 two weeks earlier. He wants to lose about 25 more pounds.

How he lost it: Weeks makes one thing very clear; he still eats the things he loves. Instead of chowing down on a couple of dozen wings, he stops now at 10 — well, most of the time. There are times when he still enjoys an all-out, greasy, fatty, calorie-laden meal. The key is not doing it as often as he used to, he says.

“Something in January just clicked,” he says. “Instead of trying some fad, some quick diet gimmick, I decided to change my lifestyle. I decided to count calories and to be more active.”Weeks says that as he has traveled his weight-loss journey, he has talked with a few trainers and some nutritionists. He thinks they are well intentioned, but for him a lot of their advice is irrelevant.

“The problem that I have is that they do a lot of good and they help people,” he says. “But their advice isn’t very practical.

“If someone had told me in January that I had to stop cold turkey and eat salads, grilled chicken … all day long, I wouldn’t have lost this weight and to gradually have progressed into a healthier lifestyle.”

How he is keeping it off: He doesn’t always. During the Thanksgiving holiday Weeks gained weight; he also gained at the end of the year. He feels like that’s OK, because he will more than make up for it in subsequent meals.

And healthy eating habits are starting to infiltrate his meals. He says he is starting to pay more attention to sodium and fat and other items on nutritional labels. He also drinks more water and selects more vegetables and lean meats.

He might still crave French fries or potato chips, but he says as he eats better he is starting to crave bananas or grapes.

Advice to others: Eating pizza is not cheating. Not even if you eat half a pie.

“There is no diet,” he says. Don’t get upset if you have a 2,000-calorie meal at your favorite restaurant. Just get up the next day and start over, he says. Eat a good breakfast and don’t kick yourself.

“If you want to go crazy a couple of times a week, then fine,” he says. “Just eat well most of the time. It all comes down to calories.”

It also helps to find a fun physical activity. If you hate running on a treadmill at the gym everyday, don’t do it.

Weeks plays basketball. Playing with a regular group of guys gives him a support network and a group that he has to be accountable to several times a week.

His blog, www.344pounds.com, offers another measure of accountability. He says that the attention it gets makes him feel like he needs to stay on track. The desire to please his readers impacts him when he goes a few days without eating well.

He suggests that people who want to lose weight find a few people to report their calorie and food stories to. It doesn’t have to be through an Internet posting, it can be a few friends or relatives to call or e-mail, folks who will take a interest in the person’s success.

“Just someone to keep it in your head that you need to keep going,” he says. “It’s a long process, but it is so worth it.”

I didn’t need to read the findings of a recent Australian research study to know that most women who live with their mates have more body fat than those who don’t.

For 10 years, researchers studied nearly 6,500 women, age 18 to 23, and found, according to one of the study’s authors, Dr. Wendy J. Brown, that “Women with no partner and no baby averaged 11 pounds over 10 years. With a partner and no baby they gained about 15 pounds, and if they had a partner and a baby they gained 20 pounds.” (The findings appear in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.)

Researchers can speculate on the reasons for this, but it’s not news to me.

Of the thousands of women I’ve met who are desperately seeking to reshape their bodies, almost all are living with — or just moved away from — a partner.

While I have heard many voices, their story is the same: They lust, then love. With lust comes starvation; with love, over-consumption and under-exercise. Their love transforms from the physical to the emotional, and this usually happens after they decide to live together.

But once they lift their heads above the fog of love, they look down to find that their butts are sagging, bellies are bulging and thighs have taken on interesting new shapes!

Come to think of it, many of the men who knock on my door looking for their abdominal muscles also deteriorated soon after moving in with their mates.

Think about your man. Does he have the same waistline measurement as when you first signed the lease or mortgage papers? Probably not. In fact, it probably got even worse for both of you after your first child, didn’t it? (The new Australian research references an earlier study that showed an increase in obesity in men once they’d had children.)

Like the smokers I know, the overwhelming majority of whom hate to smoke, many women develop unhealthy patterns (like snacking on junk food at home) that lead to unhealthy bodies, which lead to a seriously unhealthy lack of self-esteem. We become “less desirable,” a phrase I hear far too often. Once we arrive at this place, the frantic search begins.

Many of us will do anything to recover what was once our youthful body. Sadly, many waste time and money on fad diets, pills and potions. They end up doing the yo-yo thing, torturing their bodies through obsessive experimentation with an endless list of exercise programs, almost all of which fail them, because the will to really change behavior is not yet there.

So, what can we do?

First, we must think about the quality and standards of our everyday behavior more than the end result. If we can just focus on gradual improvement of our diet and our exercise programs, we will likely regain our healthier, slimmer form. But more important, we will also build our self-respect.

So, taking intelligent steps (i.e., coming up with a rational workout plan or shopping for fresher and healthier foods and eating them, not impulse snacks), carrying the steps out consistently — more frequently and for a longer duration — will have a huge net benefit on our bottoms and our bottom line: love.

Next, we should include our mates in our process. In my experience, for example, couples who work out together have greater success in achieving their health and weight loss goals. They also seem to get along much better and stay together longer. Transform your personal physical development time into “date time,” doing something as simple as taking regular after-dinner walks together.

Finally, cut back, but don’t cut out the fun stuff. When we are consistent with our diet and exercise programs, there is no need for maniacal starvation. We don’t need to sit at the dinner table with a radish on our plate, while our children and mates enjoy full meals. A healthy diet should not be some kind of intruder in our relationships, it should be a natural part of our lives. Besides, fun foods are what make our love lives more interesting and memorable.

So eat! But only if you do the work on the other side of those calories.

Having a healthy, fit and feminine physique and a deeply loving emotional relationship are not mutually exclusive. You can have both; and it can be done in a fun and positive way.

For those of you about to move in, heed this advice: Start your program now, before your belly and your mate’s interest start to sag! I promise: if you don’t quit, you’ll have a body that won’t quit!

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tracy Anderson.

By Tracy Anderson, Special to CNN

She took her daughter to a nutritionist, who said her dietary habits were good. So Lemire decided not to push the issue. “I have spent my whole entire life dieting and feeling like my worth was attached to my weight,” says Lemire. “I wasn’t going to tell her she has to change who she is. But we’re going to encourage healthy behaviors [and] not worry about translating that into a size that’s ‘OK.’ That message is not going to come from me — she’ll get that enough from other people.”

Lemire also happens to be president of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, a group that advocates that people can be healthy at any size. Her group is just one of several in a growing trend sometimes called the fat acceptance movement.

From the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which portrays underwear-clad women who tend to be larger than the average model, to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, which fights size discrimination, many organizations and businesses are championing a new definition of beauty — one that is not dictated by waist size.

Although most people agree that promoting super-skinny models as the feminine (or masculine) ideal isn’t healthy, will the opposite — accepting that being overweight or obese is fine — undermine the progress being made toward heart health?

Health.com: Top 10 overrated health foods of 2009

In fact, experts have recently found that the decades-long efforts to limit one serious heart risk — smoking — is expected to pay off with longer life spans. Unfortunately, the rise in obesity will likely undercut that progress.

Can you be fat and fit?

Expert opinion is pretty much unanimous: Being overweight is bad for your health, particularly for your heart.

“Obesity is probably the only risk factor that has such a global negative impact on so many risk factors for the heart,” says Barry Franklin, Ph.D., the director of the Cardiac Rehab Program and Exercise Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Obesity’s heart disease risk factors include high blood pressure, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and trouble with blood-fat levels, such as higher triglycerides, low HDL (good cholesterol), and high LDL (bad cholesterol). Obesity is also associated with sleep apnea.

Health.com: How to look 10 years thinner

However, research conducted by Steven N. Blair, a professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, suggests that some people can be overweight and healthy. In a 2007 study, he and colleagues found that unfit people over age 60 who were of normal weight had higher mortality rates during the 12-year study than people the same age with higher body-mass indexes (BMIs) who were fit (as measured by a treadmill test).

And a 2008 study found that the location of fat deposits on the body is a big factor in the health risks associated with being overweight. (Belly fat and fat deposits in the liver are bad news.)

Franklin says that studies have indeed shown that fit overweight or obese people have cardiovascular mortality rates that are lower than thin, unfit people.

Michelle May, M.D., the author of “Eat What You Love; Love What You Eat: How To Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle,” says, “We use obesity as a marker of whether someone is practicing a healthy lifestyle, but that is not a way of determining if they are making healthy eating choices, are physically active, or have economic, emotional, and social stability, which is important to longevity.”

Health.com: Are you fit enough to run?

May, who is a member of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, says, “It is easy to use a BMI and place everyone in the same box, but it is too simplistic and is not always an accurate description of someone’s health.”

But are such studies just an excuse for overweight people — most of whom aren’t fit — to remain complacent about excess weight? There remains concern on the part of physicians that the rise in fat acceptance is an unhealthy trend.

Franklin says that people who are overweight or obese already have one strike against them in terms of heart health, and need to compensate by monitoring other factors like exercise, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

“I don’t want to take on any specific organization…but a social movement that would suggest healthy at any size in many respects can be misleading,” Franklin says. “We can’t say that every overweight person is healthy.”

Is body image as important as health?

But for Lemire and others, it is important to balance a healthy body image with a healthy body.

“Health at any size is helping people be as healthy as they choose to be, want to be, need to be — as healthy as they are,” Lemire says. “Everyone at any size can take care of the body they have and support their well-being.”

Health.com: How the pros lose 10 lbs. fast

May says she is concerned about contributing to fear and shame within a group for which the medical community has few available solutions.

“Where else in medicine do we offer a solution — dieting — that is going to fail and then point to the end user and say, ‘You are weak-willed; you don’t have enough willpower’?” she asks. “I know many thin people who don’t exercise and follow unhealthy diets.”

Part of the problem is that even when people — or their kids — are overweight or obese, they don’t think they are. In fact, 8 percent of obese people think they are healthy and don’t need to lose weight (even though 35 percent of those people have high blood pressure, 15 percent high cholesterol, and 14 percent diabetes), according to a study of nearly 6,000 people presented in November 2009 at the American Heart Association meeting.

It’s not clear why there’s a disconnect. But with the rise in obesity, people may have a skewed perception of a “normal” weight. Right now, more than 60 percent of American adults are obese or overweight. (This map shows the states with the highest percentage of overweight people.)

Health.com: 5 fast low-fat dinners

Lemire and May believe that the focus should be placed on an individual’s health as much as his or her weight, and that people can make great strides just by taking small steps toward improvement.

“I think it’s a given that we understand physical activity is good for your body,” Lemire says. “Most people find that when they are more physically active, it makes us feel better and makes the machine run better. But we shouldn’t be promoting it just on the backs of fat people.”

However, people who don’t think they have a health problem may be less likely to exercise, visit a physician, or talk about dietary changes with their doctor.

Stephen Nicholls, M.D., the clinical director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention, says it’s never too late to improve your health by eating better, becoming physically active, quitting smoking, and seeing a doctor for checkups.

Health.com: How to burn more calories running

However, Nicholls is still concerned that fat acceptance may send the message that being overweight isn’t a health issue.

“As a population, we have moved the yardstick ourselves as what we consider to be a problem and what we don’t consider to be a problem,” Nicholls says. “We consume processed, high-fat, easily available food and reduce the amount of exercise and activity we perform on a daily basis. There is complacency about developing obesity, and it could suggest that we underestimate what its implications might be.”

He adds, “Obesity is the single greatest public health problem we face in the U.S. today and is now spreading beyond the developed world into developing countries.”

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Copyright Health Magazine 2009

A recent study by Prudential Financial found that less than 25 percent of women feel they are “very well prepared” to handle financial matters.

Seventy-eight percent said it is very important that they not become a financial burden to their loved ones, but just 24 percent are confident they can pull that off. You don’t need all that stress!

What follows is your 2010 financial to-do list. It’s divided into three sections. Get a Grip focuses on where you are today: what you have, what you owe. Find Hidden Savings is about making more out of what you have. And Build Security is about knowing where to put all that money you free up.

Post this list on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, or your bulletin board, and take it on in little chunks. Make 2010 the year you find your financial confidence.

Oprah.com: When you should stop listening to a financial adviser

Step 1: Get a Grip

Track your spending
Why it’s important: You know the big-ticket expenses in your life, but all the smaller spending can also be a killer. Take a look at your monthly outflow, and I guarantee you will have a few “Yikes, I had no idea” moments.

Do this now: Gather up your bank and credit card statements. Then go to my Web site, SuzeOrman.com, and click on Suze’s Expense Sheet. Input your average monthly expenses, and get honest about where your money is going.

Oprah.com: What money can teach you about personal power

Calculate your net worth
Why it’s important: We tend to focus on assets and forget about debts. Financial security requires facing up to the big picture: assets minus debts.

Do this now: Type “net worth calculator” into any search engine and you will find plenty of free online tools to help you take stock of your assets and debts.

Check your credit profile
Why it’s important: Your credit score affects the interest rates you’re offered on credit cards and loans, can be used to vet your job application, and in some states may influence your insurance premiums. So your credit reports, which determine your FICO score, need to be up-to-date and correct (mistakes abound). A score of at least 720 (the range is 300 to 850) earns you a gold star.

Do this now: Go to AnnualCreditReport.com to get your free credit reports from the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Every year, you are entitled to one free report from each. If a site asks for your credit card to receive a report, you’re at the wrong place!

Scour your reports for mistakes, and follow the directions for filing a dispute. Once corrections are made, go to MyFICO.com to buy your FICO credit score. You may receive offers for free credit scores. They are knockoffs of the real deal — your FICO score is what most lenders and businesses check. It costs $16 to see your FICO score; with so much on the line, that’s a small price to pay.

Cut Spending by 10 Percent
Why it’s important: The median pay raise for 2010 is expected to be around 3 percent (the lowest forecast in 25 years). So challenge your family to give your budget a 10 percent raise by cutting your spending 10 percent.

Do this now: Once you input your income and outflow into the Expense Sheet on my Web site, print it out and circle every expense that is a want (not a need), then figure out how to reduce or eliminate it.

Oprah.com: Cut spending and create an emergency stash

Step 2: Find hidden savings

Shop for Insurance Deals
Why it’s important: You’re always looking for the best prices — why not on home and auto insurance, too? You’re nuts if you don’t comparison shop for auto insurance; you could save 10 percent or more. (But don’t reduce your level of coverage. You want the right coverage for the best price.)

Do this now: Go to InsWeb.com and NetQuote.com to find premium quotes from a variety of home and auto insurers. (For auto quotes from Progressive and GEICO, go to their Web sites.)

Raise Your insurance deductibles
Why it’s important: Low deductibles of $250 or so can entice you to make claims for small-ticket items. Do that too often and your insurer may boost your premium or boot you completely. And there’s a nice payoff for a higher deductible: Raise your auto and home deductibles to $1,000 or more and your premium cost falls at least 10 percent.

Do this now: Call your current insurer and ask for a new quote based on a higher deductible. (But do this only if you have an emergency savings fund that can cover the cost of the deductible. Don’t have that emergency fund set up? Grrr. See Build Security.)

Check out a credit union
Why it’s important: Credit unions are often a better deal than banks and tend to pay higher yields on deposits.

Do this now: Go to FindaCreditUnion.com and look for one that is part of the federal insurance program run by the National Credit Union Administration (go to NCUA.gov and click on Consumer Share Insurance Information and Tool Kit to check). Coverage is the same as at an FDIC bank — $250,000 per person per credit union is fully insured, and additional coverage is based on the types of accounts you hold.

Challenge your property-tax assessment
Why it’s important: Your tax is typically a percentage of your home’s assessed value. If that assessment doesn’t reflect today’s market — home values are down an average of 30 percent since the 2006 peak — you may be overpaying. The National Taxpayers Union reports that more than half of all assessments are too high.

Do this now: Contact your county tax assessor to learn how to challenge your assessment. TheNational Taxpayers Union also has a booklet on the topic.

Step 3: Build Security

Boost emergency fund to cover 8 months of living expenses
Why it’s important: By now I am sure you have started saving. The next step is to keep at it until you have at least eight months’ worth of living expenses.

Do this now: Go to MyFDICInsurance.gov for banks and NCUA.gov for credit unions to verify that your emergency fund is tucked away at an institution that is federally insured. Never invest your emergency savings in the stock market. Safe, not sorry, is all that matters.

Get the maximum 401(k) match at your current job
Why it’s important: If you left it to your company to auto-enroll you in the plan when you were hired, there’s a good chance your contribution rate is too low to max out on the match.

Do this now: Call your human resources department or the company that runs your plan; boost your contribution so you qualify for the max match.

Roll over 401(k)s from former employers into an IRA
Why it’s important: Once you leave a job, you can move your 401(k) to a brokerage or fund firm. You can roll over 401(k)s from multiple jobs into one new IRA; that’s a great bookkeeping assist. An IRA rollover also frees you up to invest in low-cost funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and bonds.

Do this now: If you don’t yet have an account at a discount brokerage or no-load mutual fund company, pick one and then ask for its IRA rollover kit.

Fund a Roth IRA
Why it’s important: After you max out on the company match in your 401(k), turn your retirement investing attention to funding a Roth IRA. In 2010 the maximum is $5,000 ($6,000 if you’re 50 or older) for individuals with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) below $105,000 and married couples filing a joint return with MAGI below $167,000. Reduced contributions are phased out for individuals once MAGI hits $120,000; for married couples, eligibility disappears with MAGI above $177,000.

Do this now: Don’t get thrown by high minimums. Ask if there is a program that lets you invest small monthly sums of $50 or so. Sign on for an auto-investment plan and you may get around the advertised “initial minimum investment.”

Leave your retirement funds alone
Why it’s important: Can’t handle the mortgage? That’s no reason to raid your retirement funds. When that money runs out, you’ll still face foreclosure, but you’ll have lost your retirement savings, too.

Do this now: Don’t cash out your 401(k) when leaving a job. In addition to an early withdrawal penalty (if you’re under age 55), your shortsightedness will cost you future gains.

Go to MoneyChimp.com and click on the Calculator tab. Under “current principal,” input the value of your 401(k). Leave “annual addition” blank. For “years to grow,” enter the difference between your age and 65. For “interest rate,” use a conservative 5 percent. Calculate the future value. The difference between that and the current value is what you’d give up by cashing out.

Convert to a Roth IRA
Why it’s important: As of January 1, anyone can convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA (previously there was an income limit). The advantage is that money in a Roth can be withdrawn in retirement with no tax due. Withdrawals from traditional IRAs will be taxed at your ordinary income tax rate.

Do this now: Convert in 2010 and you can spread your tax bill over the next two years. If you have both deductible and nondeductible traditional IRAs, ask a CPA to determine your tax liability.

Oprah.com: 10 solid-gold ways to save money

By Suze Orman from O, The Oprah Magazine, January 2010

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