In addition to regularly monitoring your checking account, try to keep a buffer of cash in there to help prevent overdraft charges or even cancel the overdraft feature altogether (although you may run the risk of late fees from billers if you miss a payment due to insufficient funds).

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Some may be used to pay down debt (or rather, to slow its growth), but Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary, wants to keep a healthy buffer to deal with surprises.

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This buffer gives you the opportunity to keep your manufacturing lines up and running.

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"We were very careful, we always were in the Lib Dems, to keep a distance, a buffer zone, over donations, " he said.

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Banks must hold a higher buffer of capital to a certain level in order to keep to European rules.

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In the bubble era, with unrealised gains on securities portfolios acting as a buffer, and eager bankers a mere phone call away, companies had few incentives to keep more than minimal financial accounts.

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In addition to checking daily for security updates, Mountain Lion includes app sandboxing to keep misbehaving apps from compromising your system, and kernel ASLR for improved protection against buffer overflow attacks.

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