I think that's the rub. I don't use it at all in my professional life. And I have little use for it in my personal life. I may start using it more for some organizational things, but that would be it.

I meant event invitations and planning as appointments and reminders for myself. When I add something to my calendar, I include my personal email and work email so the invite will show in my home and work versions of outlook, as well as on my phone.

I use a bank app too, but I get alerts in my email when large purchases are made on my CC. I get alerts in my email when my bills are due.

Email also allows me to keep a quick and easy history of everything I do/pay/correspond with/etc. I just move things to the appropriate folder and I can search and find stuff very quickly.

I have 5 different e-mail accounts.

I'm low carb.....no thanks.

If you've used outlook, you can use Windows Live.
If you're looking to create a new email - just sign up for a gmail (google) account. Adding the account to Windows Live is painless. Are you needing to add a exchange account?

Another email client option would be Mozilla Thunderbird.

I couldn't live without email, personal or business. I send or receive at least a dozen personal emails every single day, and have sent or received well over 2000 emails for business since January 1.

I hate gmail. Google collects way to much information about you. I dont like that at all.

I use: http://www.hushmail.com/

So far so good.

The ultimate way to go would be to sign up for your own domain and have someone host your email for you.

I actually dislike gmail as well. Never could get into it. I use hotmail and my corporate account primarily, and a cable/isp account as well.

Google gives a **** about what kind of innoculant I'm using?

Your information is being collected no matter what system you use, including hushmail. You're not really avoiding anything. There is no such thing as online privacy anymore.