Dear Lifehacker,
I don't know how it happened, but when I got home today I realized I didn't have my wallet with me. All my credit cards, IDs, and club cards were in there. What do I need to do to make sure my identity isn't stolen?

Sincerely,
Empty Pockets

Dear EP,

Man, that stinks! Losing a wallet with all your info is no good and it's not easy to replace everything you keep in there. If you have the time, the first thing you need to do is retrace your steps and call any stores you might have left it at. If calling fails to turn up your wallet it's time to start the process of cancelling and replacing everything you had in there. Let's go through a step-by-step process for what you need to do to cancel, check, and replace the contents of your wallet.

Step 1: Cancel Your Credit/Debit Cards

The first thing to do is call and cancel your credit cards. We've noted before that it's a good idea to keep your credit card company's phone number on hand, but if you didn't do that you can visit their website to get the phone number. Explain to them your card was lost and they'll go over the last five or six transactions with you to make sure nobody has tried to use your credit card.

Next, they'll cancel your current cards and your bank will issue you a brand new number. When you're calling your banks don't forget about any department store credit cards you might have. Photo by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious.

Step 2: Call the Police

Calling the police because you lost your wallet might seem like overkill, but it's an essential step for fraud prevention. No, the police will not actually be able to do anything about a lost wallet, but you will get a police report stating your wallet was lost and it will come in handy if someone tries to steal your identity or use your credit cards.

Step 3: Make a List of All Your Subscription Services and Online Accounts

Automatic bill pay and subscription services like Netflix are awesome until you lose a credit card and have to go through each and every one to add your new information. If you happen to lose your card at the end of the billing cycle you have to go a few days without the service.

Your only real option is to start making a list of all the sites, services, and automatic billing subscriptions you use. When you get your new card and number in the mail you have to enter in your new information to ensure your service won't be disrupted. It's also worth thinking about any online purchases you may have made recently that haven't gone through yet. If you pre-ordered something where your card isn't charged until it's shipped, you have to update your card number.

Step 4: Get a New State ID

The least fun part about losing your wallet is losing your ID. Nobody wants to spend a day at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Every state has a different policy for the steps you need to take, but don't be surprised if you have to appear in person, file a police report, or pay a fee. You can find a list of the requirements for your state over at The Unofficial DMV Guide.

Step 5: Make a List of Everything Else in Your Wallet and Make Some Phone Calls

Depending on the variety of cards you had in your wallet, you may need to start making a bunch of phone calls to cancel them. Start by making a list of everything in your wallet. This means insurance cards, reward cards, retail cards, library cards, and everything else. Track down a phone number for the company and let them know your wallet was stolen and you want to cancel the card with your name attached to it. The last thing you want to get in the mail three months from now is a bill for overdue library books you didn't check out. Oh, and if you need to replace club cards, you may just want to start using Jenny's number instead. Photo by Martijn van Exel.

Step 6: Request a Credit Report and Initiate a Fraud Alert

Even after you cancel your credit cards it's a good idea to request a credit report and put a fraud alert on your account. You're entitled to a free credit report and fraud alerts after you lose your wallet. You can get your free credit report from Annual Credit Report and you can start a fraud alert at Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax. The service is free and will monitor your credit for 90 days. If you (or someone else) tries to set up a new account or take out a loan you'll receive a phone call to confirm it's you.

It's not a fun process, but if you take care of the above steps right away you can ensure your identity is safe and get your credit cards back quickly.

Sincerely,

Lifehacker

P.S. Ever lost your wallet (or purse) and realized you lost something that couldn't be replaced? Share your experiences and tips in the comments.

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Title image remixed from R.Ashrafov (Shutterstock).

Dear Lifehacker,
I did a couple of small side projects for friends and now it looks like I might get some steady freelance work and actually make some real money part-time. I'm not ready to quit my day job, but do I need to do anything official like actually start a business or register somewhere now that I'm actually making money freelancing?

Thanks,
Moonlighter

Dear Moonlighter,
Congratulations and welcome to the wild, wonderful, and challenging life of a freelancer. We've touched on the topic of freelancing a few times before, from psychological and financial preparations you should do to how to decide how much to charge for your freelance services. It sounds like you want to know what you're legally required to set up, though. Thankfully, the answer is—depending on where you live and what your line of work is as a freelancer—not much. Let's take a look.

Your One-Person Business

You don't need to start a business, because actually once you start making money as a freelancer or independent contractor—surprise—you already do have a business, at least in the eyes of the law. You are now the owner of a one-person business (technically a sole proprietorship)!

Local Business Licenses and Permits

With that power and responsibility, however, may come licenses, their associated fees, and possibly permits—depending, again, on where you live and how your work is set up. Most business licenses and permits are required by local governments—your specific city or possibly county you live in.

DBA (Doing Business As): If you want to do business under a name other than your own (e.g., "Joe Smith Widget Building"), you'll need to file a fictitious name statement or DBA ("doing business as") from your county before getting the local city license. (The DBA will also be needed to open a business bank account if you want one. You don't need a business bank account as a freelancer, though.)

City or county licenses: To keep things simple, however, you could just use your own name for your freelance work, in which case you wouldn't need to file for that DBA, and your locality also might not require you to get a local business license. The local business license is really just a tax-revenue collecting permit to allow you to do business in the area. You'll have to check with your city and county business licensing office to be sure, of course. If you are required to get a license regardless of whether you use a DBA or your own name, it's usually a painless process. You just have to go to the office, fill out a form (possibly get it notarized) and pay the annual fee. The fee can range from $25 to a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the type and amount of work you expect to do.

Local home business permits: Aside from the city or county license, while you're talking to the local business licensing department, you might want to ask them about any permits required to work from home (assuming that's the kind of freelancing you're doing. If not, move along). Some communities do have zoning regulations against home-based businesses, to restrict things like parking problems, commercial signs, and things they consider nuisances like lots of people coming and going. You can also check with your local chamber of commerce to find out how your area is zoned. If you find out a home business is prohibited, you could a) ignore the restriction, as some freelancers do, but keep in mind the risk of fines, b) try using an alternate mailing service for your business, c) apply for an exception or variance, or d) move (as a last resort).

State and federal licenses: More licenses, you're thinking? Don't worry, unless you work in a specific type of profession like architecture or real estate, you probably don't have to worry about business licensing from your state; chances are you'd know if you'd need a license already, but if not, go to your state's website at www.state.[your state's two letter abbreviation].us to check. The federal government doesn't really license small businesses either.

Collecting Taxes

Only one more topic to discuss about freelancing requirements—taxes. Yup, our favorite. There are two issues:

Sales tax collection and permits: Depending on the freelance work you do, you might need to collect sales tax for your state and possibly local government and turn it over to them on whatever schedule (annual, quarterly, or monthly) they designate. If this is the case, you'll probably need to apply for a permit to collect sales tax (Yay! Isn't this fun?). Generally this applies if you sell or resell products that are subject to sales tax, but it can also apply, in rare cases, to some services in some states. As an example, finished graphic design work transferred on DVDs or in print to clients is a tangible product subject to sales tax, at least in NY, but writing, being a service, is not subject to sales tax. But, again, your mileage will vary depending on your work and where you live, so refer to your state's website.

Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN): Last but not least, as a freelancer, your identification number on your tax forms and licenses will be your Social Security number or a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). You're only required to get an EIN for certain circumstances, such as if you want to hire employees or if your insurance company or a vendor requires you to have one. In that case, you can get an EIN from the IRS for free by filing Form SS-4. While not necessary, it might be a good idea to get an EIN to protect from identity theft. Finance Diva suggests that since the EIN is free and easy to get, you should use it instead of your Social Security number when you have to provide your information to companies and individuals you work with, including subcontractors. This is optional, though, but still something to consider.

In short, you only really need to look into getting: a local business license if your city or county requires it, possibly a home permit, and a sales tax permit, depending on your work.

Good luck!

Love,
Lifehacker

Photo by Veronika Mannova

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Seeing as I am neither an oil baron nor a trophy wife (yet), I've never given much thought to the idea of prenuptial agreements. Those are for people with elevators in their houses and gold-plated-robot-monkey-butlers, right? (It's like a regular monkey-butler but golder and without all the feces.) Those are for dukes, princes, viscounts, sheiks, lords, ladies, magnates, Kardashians, and people who live waaaaay closer to the beach than me—people who actually own something worth losing. And anyway, I'm not even married. Why bother thinking about prenups? A bunch of reasons, it turns out.

CNN says:

Prenuptial agreements aren't just for married folks anymore. A growing number of unmarried couples are seeking similar legal protections through cohabitation agreements. These legally-binding contracts, which are drawn up by an attorney, protect each person's assets, address child custody issues and determine support obligations, much like prenuptial agreements do.

"We've seen a real dramatic increase," said Ken Altshuler, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, or AAML. "A lot more people are delaying, or forgoing, marriage and people are realizing as you get older, you have more things to protect."

Huh. To be honest, my gut reaction was…sarcastic bile. Like, sure! Why don't we just go through life never trusting anything or anybody or taking any risks! Clearly the big problem in this world is that people aren't jealous and grasping enough! Plus, this part:

Ironically, couples in the honeymoon phase of their relationship are best suited to map out these types of difficult situations, advised Daniel Clement, a divorce lawyer in New York. "It's a happy time, when you don't have the bitterness that you experience at the time of a break up."

Great. Cool plan. Hey, honey. You know how we're really really happy right now? What do you say we sit down and imagine a billion doomsday scenarios in which you try to fuck me over and steal my house? Also, you complete me and stuff. Show me the money.

Then, in preparing to write this post (down with prenups! Up with romance! No pain, no gain, bitchez!), I happened to mention the whole thing to a friend of mine-Guy Branum, a comedian who also went to law school-and promptly discovered that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. The conversation was so enlightening that I'm posting it here in its entirety:

Guy: It basically comes down to this: To what extent do these structures encourage a woman to focus on a relationship instead of her career because her man has greater earning potential?

Lindy: Right. But I get confused. The prenup, generally, is designed to PREVENT the woman from taking "more than her share," right? Or are prenups used to make things more equitable? Like…is the law fair? Or are the prenups fair? My brain is broken.

Guy: Well, it depends. There are two systems of divorce law in the US.

Forty-one states have what's called "equitable distribution." Those give a woman "what she deserves," so women get screwed or women get jackpots, depending on the judge. Awww, she stayed home, poor dear! Oh, she cheated on him! She deserves nothing! Equitable distribution leaves huge space for a judge-probably male, despite what Law & Order has led you to think-to make value judgments about you, a woman, and how you live your life.

And nine states-including California-have "community property," where, while married, the man gets half of the woman's income from work, and the woman gets half of the man's income from work. Things owned before marriage are separate. Community property is, in my opinion, not terrible from a feminist perspective. In California, prenups are a way of screwing women. It's a way of saying, "You get two million dollars and some lovely parting gifts." Community property presumes equality in a really badass way.

In an unmarried situation, no one has a claim. You're just constantly creating unspoken contracts. In a way, not getting married is way more dangerous for women than for men. Palimony basically doesn't exist except through contract, so a prenup for an unmarried couple is a way of getting quasi-married without the tax benefits. It's what we gays do in states where we can't do anything else.

Lindy: That's so interesting!!! And confusing.

Guy: Yes. Agreed. But magically so.

Lindy: But it seems like it might be good to have it be up to a judge's discretion. Because what if I was a terrible wife? And we were only married for 20 minutes, and all I did was be horrible and then take a nap? And then I got half?

Guy: No. It's like this. Community property: You get half from 20 minutes. But just what he made in that 20 minutes.

Lindy: Okay, so, in equitable distribution a prenup can be helpful for the lady, but in community property it is mostly for the purposes of screwing.

Guy: Yes. And all of these systems do kind of encourage women to raise a family/help her hubby with his career.

Lindy: Right. Okay. SORRY I AM SO SLOW AND DENSE.

Guy: It's okay. Would you like an opinion?

Lindy: Sure.

Guy: Newfangled relationship and property arrangements are fine if you're living newfangled and feminist lives. But if you at all put your career on hold to focus on family or childcare in an unmarried situation, if you practice old-school marriage without the legal rights protecting it, then you deserve what you get. If you own a house, keep track of who pays what. But if you're not gonna do that, JUST GET FUCKING MARRIED.

Lindy: But what is the real risk for unmarried people? Aren't they just at risk for a big pain in the ass? The pain in the ass of having to decide how to split everything up?

Guy: If you're unmarried, you're just constantly creating unspoken contracts. It depends on if one of the unmarried people did commit themselves to the other's career. A big example is Robert Rauschenberg's boyfriend saying he was promised some paintings in exchange for the work he did to support Robert's career.

OH. And what if your boyfriend dies? Who gets the house? If you were married, you get the house. If you are unmarried and have no children and no will, HIS MOM gets the house. Or some percentage of the house based on the mortgage payments you haven't been keeping track of. Also, what if you have joint checking? Or what if you buy groceries and pay power and he pays the mortgage or car payments? Then, when you break up, he owns the house or car, even though you were indirectly contributing.

Lindy: GOD, RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE WORST.

Guy: I know. It's all about planning for destruction. The feminist's answer, in my opinion, as a dude, is move to California and just get married.

Lindy: Okay. To sum up: community property is the #1 best for feminists because it values intangible and emotional contributions as much as monetary ones. Is that fair to say?

Guy: No.

Lindy: Oh.

Guy: The strength and determination to write your own prenup based on your property and jobs and forecasted life (but which is pretty much like community property) is best for feminists. Community property is a not-so-bad alternative for feminists who don't have it in them to fight all these fights. And in the other 41 states, women need to be on their toes and create something LIKE community property in a prenup.

Lindy: Right! Okay. God, I kind of want to just post this whole conversation. Because I feel like a lot of people have no understanding of this, particularly young people. Because I have no understanding of this and I am hella smart!!!

Guy: Do it.

Lindy: Done. Thank you. This has been fun and informative!

Guy: Now I must go write jokes about Fergie's clothes.

Lindy: Godspeed. I'm still not getting a prenup.

I already have an older iPad and even though the Retina display is tempting, I don't feel like I can justify dropping another $500 on a new iPad. Any recommendations to scratch my retail itch that would be more useful than another iPad?

Sincerely,
Pockets on Fire

Dear PF,

Good question. A lot of us at Lifehacker are in the same position. We enjoy our iPads, we're tempted by the new one, but we don't think it's really worth it if you already own one of the first two iPads. Obviously, you can always practice a little self control and not buy anything, but as we know, Apple has a knack for fabricating that retail itch. With that in mind, here's what we'd spend that money on instead.

Adam Pash: The New Apple TV, $99

I know, I know, I'm suggesting that you simply buy a different Apple product. Kind of lame, right? Still, the Apple TV is a great piece of equipment that, frankly, you could end up getting a lot more mileage out of than a new iPad. The last generation Apple TV, once jailbroken, is easy to install XBMC on, and it works like a charm, making it one of the least expensive, most capable media center front ends around. While the Apple TV 2 could play 1080p files on XBMC, the old Apple TV could only output at 720p. Not so of the new Apple TV, which supports 1080p, has a snazzy new look (that continues to hint at but not deliver an App Store), and will in all likelihood be jailbreak-able in a few weeks time. Mine's already on pre-order, and may likely replace my current media center box. (If you want to go even cheaper and don't mind waiting in long virtual lines, I'm also still eagerly awaiting a $35 Raspberry Pi.)

Whitson Gordon: The Nook Simple Touch, $99

I totally dig my iPad, and while I don't know if I would have paid $500 for it in the first place (it was a gift), I definitely don't need to be buying a new generation anytime soon. How quickly people forget that the first gen is still a really, really awesome device. I have more tech than any one person needs, but if I had to pick an alternative to the iPad, I'd lean toward getting an e-reader like the Nook Simple Touch.

It doesn't have to be that exact model; the main point is that I'd get an e-reader. I just like the look of the Nook more than the Kindle. Plus I like the Simple Touch for its ability to run Android with a bit of hacking—which means I can get things like Read It Later, Reddit, or whatever else I want on it (since I don't read a ton of books). I don't use my iPad for all that much besides comic books and Instapaper, but it bugs me that I have to use a backlit screen to read things like Instapaper. Instead of getting the device I already have with a retina display, I'd rather get a second, slightly different device that's nicer on my eyes for the occasions when I'm just reading plain text.

Adam Dachis: Home Improvements

Before the new iPad was released, I traded in my original iPad for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus because I wanted a smaller Android tablet that I could root and use to play emulated retro games with a Sony Sixaxis controller (The Sixaxis app — requires root.). That is, literally, what I did with my iPad money in the past. But if I had $500 lying around now and wasn't going to put it towards another tablet, I'd use the money to make my apartment look a little nicer. After writing this post about home design I thought that it's probably time to start putting more stuff on the walls. On my free time I draw or create digital art, so the $500 could go to printing and framing. That way I'd have something personal to put up on the walls of my home.

Melanie Pinola: Bicycle, $500

My alternative to buying a new iPad is a low-tech bicycle. I've been meaning to buy one for so long and think it will pay off in so many ways, from saving me from having to drive just to pick up something from the pharmacy to sneaking in more exercise to spending more quality
family time together with rides around the park.

Although a good bike would probably run more than $500, a reader suggested in a previous bike-buying post to look up non-profit organizations that fix up and resell good old bikes and also do the bike fitting, so I might go that route. I'm also not sure what kind of bike I want—a Dutch-style city bike like the one shown here, a road bicycle, or a mountain bike. Either way, I think this purchase would be a very worthwhile investment.

Alan Henry: A Brand New HTPC, $500

Normally, I would tell someone that has some spare cash burning a hole in their pocket to save it, put it into something interest bearing, and make it work for them, but if you have to scratch that retail itch, a DIY home theater PC is where it's at. For about the same price as an iPad, you can build your own home theater PC running any OS you like, for around the same price—or less. I walked through the process a bit here and while the components have likely changed, you can probably do better with the same budget.

In the end, you'll get a box that you have total control over, the fun of choosing and ordering the parts you want, and a system that can run whatever front-end software you choose to manage your media. It will probably be useful long after this year's iPad is obsolete and you get the benefits of building your own computer from scratch, something everyone should do at least once. Photo by Bill Bradford.

Thorin Klosowski: Solid State Drive Upgrade, $130-$160

I get weirdly attached to computers and because of that I like to keep hardware alive as long as possible. With that in mind, I would dump my cash into an SSD drive for my aging Macbook Pro. With Whitson's handy guide that ditches the optical drive and replaces it with a solid state drive, I'd be able to upgrade, boot, and install OS X in no time. My plan is to keep my old, 2007 Macbook Pro alive as long as humanly possible because I adore the keyboard and kind of hate the new ones. This upgrade would add a couple more years to the computer's life and help ensure it survives a few drops, spills, and tumbles. Plus, it'll drop a few grams off the overall weight of the thing, making it slightly more plausible as a portable device.

Sincerely,

Lifehacker

P.S. Skipping this generation of the iPad yourself? What would you spend that money on?