OK, admittedly, it's not something you really want to think about. But, what if? Let's just imagine that no one was home, but that you lost every material item that you owned. Insurance could cover a lot of your loss, sure. But how are you going to get your children's birthday photos off of your ashy external hard drive, mommy?

Back up your data! That is the single best piece of advice I will ever give you. Back it up online, even if you have an external drive. For $5/month at Mozy, you can achieve peace of mind in case, god forbid, your house burned, or someone stole your computer or your external drive crashed at the same time as your internal drive. See what I mean? Five dollars a month is NOTHING! For an unlimited amount of data! Sister, that is the bargain of the new millennium.