Where to find cash the government may owe you...

If these three things happen, the market will plunge...

In yesterday's Digest Premium, Porter updated readers on his End of America thesis... Today, he shares three specific things he expects to spark a market collapse.

To subscribe to Digest Premium and receive a free hardback copy of Jim Rogers' latest book, click here.

Where to find cash the government may owe you... Save money on our taxes... Read the Journal and the Times for free... Where to buy drugs cheap... Stop overpaying for insurance... How to get the best deal on your next car...

Editor's note: Over the holiday week... we're featuring some of Dr. David "Doc" Eifrig's most popular secrets for leading the "millionaire" lifestyle.

In his Retirement Millionaire newsletter, Doc shows readers how to take control of their health and finances. Beyond his monthly investment ideas, he packs the issues with ways to save money, improve your health, and live well on less money than you'd expect...

Today, we've compiled some of his most popular ideas for saving money... and finding cash you didn't know is owed to you.

 States hold more than $30 billion in unclaimed property... This money comes from stocks, bonds, payroll checks, checking accounts, utility deposits, pension payments, and more. If the money is left untouched for a certain number of years (past the statute of limitations), by law, it is often turned over to the state. Over the years, I've helped Retirement Millionaire subscribers find thousands of dollars in unclaimed property using sites like www.missingmoney.com and www.unclaimed.org.

Recently, I've found a way to find unclaimed pensions, through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal agency that guarantees pensions. You can search for the pension participant's name, the company that provided the pension, or the state the company is or was located in. Just visit the agency's website here.

 Before you file your taxes, make sure you visit the IRS' Free File service. If your 2012 adjusted gross income (AGI) is less than $57,000 – and it was for 70% of Americans – you can file your federal tax return completely free.

The IRS lists all the tax-software companies that participate in the program. (Some even let you file your state tax return for free.) You don't have to buy or download any software. All the software remains on the participating companies' websites, and the preparation and filing is through IRS.gov. Your personal information is protected. Free File even allows you to track your refund status or pay your taxes electronically. Just visit this site to learn more.

 August is the best month to start stocking up on back-to-school supplies. States across the U.S. offer sales-tax holidays on items like computers, clothing, books, and school supplies in August. Some states hold these holidays for several days. Connecticut and Maryland both give a full week.

 May is the best time of year to buy a new mattress or box spring. Retailers make room for new models meant to entice spring-time cleaners looking to spruce up the bedroom and the kitchen. You can find greatly reduced prices on older models. This year, I found a $1,500 mattress I had been looking at for $512 at U.S. Mattress. And it was delivered in less than two weeks. You can also find great deals on refrigerators in May for the same reason.

 There's a simple way to read articles online from the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times... Google them. Both services participate in a "First Free Click" program with Google. This allows you to see a handful of articles that are meant for subscribers for free.

Just copy and paste (or retype) the headline of the article into Google's search box. Most likely, the article you want will be the first in the search results. Simply click on the link and enjoy. (We found the program limits you to five articles a day.)

 Paid-up Retirement Millionaire subscriber Bill H. sent us a great tip on how he saves on prescriptions:

 Stop overpaying for car insurance... The average person drives about 12,000 miles per year. But people 65 years old and older drive less than 8,000 miles per year on average. This means auto-insurance firm MetroMile could save you up to 40% on your car insurance.

MetroMile offers pay-per-mile insurance policies, so you only pay for the miles you put on your car. The company gives drivers a "metronome" to track your travels and measure mileage. With the metronome hooked up to your car's diagnostic system, MetroMile's software tracks what you spend on gas, mileage, time spent driving, and several other statistics. Then, MetroMile uses this information to determine your auto insurance rate.

Right now, MetroMile is only available in Washington state and Oregon. But the company is expanding to several more states in 2014. To learn more, visit www.metromile.com.

 You've probably heard that the best time to buy a new car is at the end of the month. This is when salespeople are under the most pressure to meet sales goals. But if you want to get an even better deal, buy your car during the week or in the evening. According to United States Automobile Association – the insurance and financial-services provider for military families – shopping during the week means you avoid the crowds, giving you the salesman's undivided attention. And if you shop in the evening, the salesman is less likely to try dragging out the negotiation... He's probably ready to go home after a long day.

My research assistant Laura reported one of her family members recently tried this tactic. He knew exactly what he wanted to buy and which dealership had the car he wanted. So he went to the dealership about an hour before closing on a Thursday. As he told me, "The salesman was obviously anxious to get home for the evening, so he got the deal done fast with almost no haggling." He saved nearly $3,000 on a brand-new car and paid nearly $1,000 less than he was offered by other dealers he visited over a weekend.

 Get a head start on tax season and see if you qualify for the "savers credit." A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar gift from the U.S. government. As a reward for putting money into your IRA or employee-sponsored retirement plan (like a 401k or a 403b), the government will give you a tax credit of up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for joint filers.

If your income is less than $29,500 for singles or $59,000 for couples, the feds will give you a tax credit of up to 50% of what you put into an IRA or qualified tax plan.

This is the best return on retirement money you'll ever see. You can get up to a 50% return immediately. This tip has helped Retirement Millionaire subscribers make thousands. You have until April 15 of the following tax year... So start planning now so you'll have money to contribute.

If you have friends or grandkids that started a new job in the last part of the year, they're likely to be under the amount. Encourage them to take advantage of the one time you can instantly make 50% on your money.

Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,

Dr. David Eifrig Jr., MD, MBA
Raleigh, North Carolina
December 24, 2013

Editor's note: One of the questions we most often see from readers is what to do with their cash today...

Thanks to inflation, you're losing money in your savings account every year. Treasury bonds don't pay you enough, either.

It's difficult to find a safe place to park your cash and collect a healthy yield.

But there are still good opportunities out there... You just have to know where to look.

That's why Dr. Eifrig spent the past 18 months developing a collection of strategies to "time" investments in a variety of cash-generating assets. These indicators can tell you exactly when to get in and out of certain assets. By using these strategies, you can generate 10%-20% more money than simply buying and holding the same income investments.

What he found was so compelling, we launched a new investment advisory service based on his techniques... It's called Income Intelligence. And it's designed to help subscribers maximize the returns they enjoy from a range of income-generating vehicles – from corporate bonds to high-yielding equities.

In Income Intelligence, Doc shows you how to earn big income, while protecting yourself from downside risk (a 5% yield means nothing if the underlying security falls 40%).

Because we think Doc's latest research is so important, we've decided to give you a gift for the holidays...

You can sign up for one year of Income Intelligence for $900. (That's $300 off the regular price.) And we'll give you one-year of Retirement Millionaire (normally $99 a year) free.

In addition to Income Intelligence and Retirement Millionaire, you'll also receive the "Income Investors Handbook," which explains everything about Doc's methodology. And you'll receive Doc's three favorite income investments to make today.

We've never made this offer before... And it's only available to Digest readers through December 27. You can learn more here (without watching a long sales pitch)...

Stansberry & Associates Top 10 Open Recommendations
(Top 10 highest-returning open positions across all S&A portfolios)

As of 12/17/2013

Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any S&A publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio.

If these three things happen, the market will plunge...

In yesterday's Digest Premium, Porter updated readers on his End of America thesis... Today, he shares three specific things he expects to spark a market collapse.

To continue reading, scroll down or click here.

Stansberry & Associates Hall of Fame
(Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all S&A portfolios)

If these three things happen, the market will plunge...

 I (Porter) have a few specific things you should watch for as indicators for the advancement of the End of America and a downturn in the markets.

As I already said, I expect the major credit-rating agencies to continue downgrading Western sovereign debt.

The first benchmark is when yields on the 10-year Treasury bond reach 4%. Getting above 4% will cause some consternation in the equity markets because bonds will start to look attractive relative to stocks.

 I also won't be surprised to see a dramatic flattening of the "yield curve." Let me explain what that means... If the Federal Reserve withdraws the support it has been giving the bond market (more than the amount announced last week)... we'll see a huge increase in yields for short-term paper. The 30-, 60-, and 90-day rate as well as the one- and two-year rates will all increase. So even if the 10-year doesn't go much above 4% next year – if the two-year goes to, say, 2.5% – we'll have a massive tightening of credit across the debt markets.

Tightening credit spreads will make it harder and harder for U.S. corporations to roll over their debts. And that will bring back all the debt panics that we saw in 2008 and 2009.

The saying on Wall Street is that a rolling debt gathers no moss. The idea is that debts don't go bad as long as you can roll them forward. But as that yield spread narrows, it will become much harder for companies to finance their debts going forward.

 And so we could find ourselves at the end of 2014 in a situation where the credit markets are really tight and sovereign debt is being downgraded. That could be the beginning of another debt crisis.

– Porter Stansberry and Sean Goldsmith