Free From Money

There is an article at NBC5 in Dallas, Texas about a man who retrofitted a used car bought from a junkyard with an electric motor. The car cost $4,750 to build, including the car itself and the electric motor. It gets 300 miles per charge and only costs $7 to charge. Not bad.

It really makes you wonder why our government is pushing crap fuels like ethanol, or grilling the oil industry on high prices instead of subsidizing production of electric cars and pushing for a true solution to the problem. If some dude in Texas can build a decent car in his garage out of spare parts don’t you think Honda or Ford could build something awesome?

I watched a movie a while back called ‘Who Killed The Electric Car’ about the history of GM’s electric car the EV1. The basic premise was there was not enough profit to make the electric car, and that diversions like ethanol and hybrid cars kept the status quo alive for everyone who profits from oil sales.

Here is the movie, courtesy of google:

If you have an hour and a half to spare it’s a pretty interesting documentary. Mel Gibson is even featured in the movie as a former EV1 owner. If you’re short on time you can jump to the end to find the conclusions on why electric cars are no longer around.

I remember when I lived in San Diego there was a target near our apartment that had designated electric car parking complete with recharging stations. Too bad electric cars don’t actually exist other than home brew cars and boutique cars like the Tesla. Maybe one day people will make the choices necessary to really bring about change. Until then I don’t think fuel prices are going lower.

One of my favorite flash games right now is called magic pen. The goal of the game is to use various mechanical tools to get a ball to the flag. The first few levels are fairly easy, but the later ones require some thought, and sometimes brut force.

Once you’ve played that game for a little bit and are more familiar with using wedges, levers, and planes head over the The Wisdom Journal and read this post from Ron on 6 simple financial tools. He outlines how these simple tools (and a few others) relate to personal finance.

Personal finance isn’t tough, but consistency and patience are. Just like the magic pen game, getting to the goal is just a matter of using the right tools in the right places.

From cracked.com: (foul language warning for those following the link)

Too funny, especially considering the recent fight against helping consumers in foreclosure.

In case you’ve been in a cave the past week, the Federal Reserve called an emergency meeting on Tuesday and cut the federal funds rate by 75 basis points, the largest cut since 1990. So how does that affect you as a consumer and investor?

What do I think about the cut?

What is my own take on how this affects you? Unfortunately that is a complex topic which even a professional economist might have difficulty explaining in a short amount of time. Basically the Fed Funds rate is the interest rate that banks charge each other to borrow money. From the fed funds rate a bank’s prime rate is indexed, which is then used as a basis for other lending rates at a bank.

But the relationship between all lending rates isn’t that easy. A bank’s mortgage lending rates are typically tied to longer term rates, like the 10 year treasury rate. Why? Banks rarely keep mortgage loans on their books, choosing instead to sell them off to investors. The average life of a loan is around 10 years due to refinancing and the way that the mortgage backed bonds are created. Furthermore rates may be set based on other index rates, such as LIBOR, or public rates set in the swap market.

What does all of that actually mean?

For the most part, I doubt you are going to see a huge change in interest rates. The big risk for you is to let any salesmen convince you otherwise. Be wary of what interest rates were before and what you’re being offered now.

There is a lot of fear in the market right now (rightfully so, I think), so you will unlikely see a huge change in mortgage rates. This investors who actually own the mortgages are now expecting higher spreads than ever, which translates to higher rates.

If you have an online savings account, you have already seen a jump down in your interest rate. If you still have debt, the gap between what you pay in interest and what you earn from savings is going to grow. So it might be a good idea to focus on paying down any debt now.

Furthermore, the Fed didn’t just cut rates randomly. They called an EMERGENCY meeting, ahead of schedule, and cut their rates a huge amount. This means they are very worried about the state of the economy, and you should be too. Now is not the time to buy a new Lexus because you think interest rates are a tad lower. Keep an eye on your investment portfolios, they are likely to take a big hit in the coming months, if they haven’t already. And now, as always, is a great time to work on putting yourself into a better financial situation by paying off debt and controlling your spending.

Here are a few other posts I found regarding the rate cut:

Trent at The Simple Dollar suggests that there will be a widespread fall in interest rates, both on consumer loans and in savings rates. I have already seen the interest rate on my ING Direct savings account go down. I was happy when rates were going up, but I’m not so happy on the way down. I’m not so sure I agree with the rest of his analysis.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity considers the refinancing into a 15 year fixed mortgage to save a ton on total interest paid, at the cost of a higher payment.

Wisebread gives a few ideas for taking advantage of the rate cut. Most of the advice involves taking advantage of lower lending rates. As I mentioned before, please be sure you compare rates before you make any big financial decisions.

Further reading:

I have already included a few links regarding the federal funds rate, the prime rate, LIBOR, and the swap market .

If you’re interested Wikipedia has a great (and long) entry on the history of the Federal Reserve system.

If you want to compare interest rates, Bankrate.com is a great resource for following both consumer loan rates as well as savings account and CD rates.

All of that should keep you busy for a while. If you want more, you should seriously consider studying economics!

Personal Finance.  This is a round up of my favorite personal finance posts from the week:

I’ve Paid For This Twice Already struggles with having patience when paying off debt.  I know that this is tough for me too.  I want things to happen and I want them to happen now, but paying off debt happens so slowly.  But as they say, it took about 6 years for us to rack up that debt, and it’s not going to disappear overnight. 

WiseBread says that modern cleaning methods versus old school methods are both wasteful and expensive.  We use disposable cleaning wipes and they are oh-so convenient.  But it’s something I need to consider. On a side note, we just bought some of these last weekend, and I noticed that the Disinfectant Wipes don’t actually disinfect, according to the label. 

FreeMoneyFinance earned over $700 last year from rewards.  Not to shabby.

LazyManandMoney compares a Netflix subscription to renting at Blockbuster.  As I mentioned previously we have gone a year without cable, and Netflix has made the transition much easier. 

No Credit Needed says to call your credit card company and ask them to lower your interest rate, even if you have to call them every month until it happens. 

Building a better blog.  I felt it was appropriate to include a few links about blogging, to help me get this thing going. 

Daily Blog Tips recommends not routing your RSS feed through feedburner.  I currently have my feed routed through them, so it might be a good idea to reroute my feed, before I actually have any subscribers.  (not a post from this week, but still important to this blog)

Copyblogger shares some writing tips from television, as well as an approach to developing good content.  If this thing is going to make it I need to heed that advice and write some good articles.