Common Cents Approaches to Financial Freedom

Those of you in the Associate’s Program will get a personal finance class, but the information below is most likely of interest to anyone trying to save a few dollars in this economy. These links are from a blog I recently discovered called LenPenzo.com. Some very interesting articles… enjoy!

• Why Rechargeable Batteries Are Rarely Cost Effective
• Gas or Charcoal BBQs: Which One Is More Cost Effective?
• Shopping For Low Gas Prices Is A Losing Proposition
• Is the Payback Period on Energy Efficient Bulbs Too Long?

Are CEO’s Paid Too Much?

A funny look from Dilbert:

A Practical Joke

It Could Be Worse

Is It Worth It?

I don’t teach any personal finance classes, but if I did, I would love going over stuff like this.

Another good link here, conducting your own personal financial stress test like the banks did last month.

Nintendo Canned New Handheld Project

One of the more recession-proof industries of the past year have been video games. During Christmas, while revenues for most stores were down, electronics and technology practically drove consumer spending in December. The video game industry is the second largest entertainment industry in the world, second only to motion pictures.

Video game consoles generally have a 10-year life span before the next generation is released. Microsoft’s XBOX 360 came out in 2005, so we’re just about halfway through the life cycle of the 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii (even though those last two came out a year later). Already, people are clamoring for news this week from the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo on the next generation of hardware. The problem is that the industry knows that any new hardware releases right now are going to be a tough sell for recession-strapped families.

Even so, Nintendo released an updated version of their handheld Nintendo DS system this past spring called the DSi, and they have apparently developed a new model each of the past three years, but haven’t put them to market.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company has created – and completed work on – an entirely new handheld gaming device at some point in the past three years, but decided that it wouldn’t do anything for the momentum of the business and ditched it. “In the history of Nintendo, there are several such examples,” he told CNBC, declining to reveal any details of the product. “But when we are launching new hardware, the most important is thing is to sustain the momentum. If introducing new hardware won’t do anything to do that, well…”

Iwata also confirmed the company’s stance on price points, echoing UK boss David Yarnton’s words to GamesIndustry.bizyesterday. “Right now, we have no plans at all about a price cut,” he said. “We are going to start launching the stronger software in the later half of the year and we are confident [we will] regain the momentum,” he added, referring to a stall in particular in Wii sales in Japan. “People often talk about the price cut as if it’s an almighty weapon. The fact of the matter is that what a price cut can do is rather limited. In the long history of videogames, at the time of the price cut we see a momentary hike in sales, but usually that can not sustain its momentum and it soon comes down to below the price cut level.”

Getting Some Skin in the Game

Our president popularized this term lately as a way to convey that everyone will have to sacrifice to get this economy turned around. One might say that the little guy has already sacrificed enough… jobs, homes, savings accounts, retirement money… so, here is a banker that isn’t following the lead of others accepting bailout money.

Then again, one wonders if we shouldn’t sacrifice whole companies up to the economy, especially since bailout after bailout seems to be doing no good. It might be doing some harm in the short term, but someone would have bought these bank assets eventually, even without TARP money to do so.

Here’s a question on an off tangent: why is it that those who are in favor of teaching evolution in schools so afraid of an laissez-faire economy that is truly “survival of the fittest”? We are truly living in a mixed economy, folks (I just gave away an exam answer right there).

C.P. Morgan Has Mixed Legacy

I live in a CP Morgan neighborhood, so I will reserve my highly subjective and negative comments about my family’s experience with this builder. However, I am somewhat surprised that the treatment I received seems to have been fairly commonplace.

C.P. Morgan has mixed legacy

Easy credit was part of builder’s success, downfall

Picking up the pieces in demise of builder

Here’s an interesting question: how would Jesus lend money? If you had to go to Jesus to ask Him to buy a $150,000 or $200,000 house, what His reaction be? Would He simply relax the requirements so you could end up in a ruined neighborhood 5 years later and surrounded by foreclosures? Wouldn’t He tell you to lean on Him and trust God’s timing instead?

I am very disturbed by the current and popular notion that the way to get the economy going again is for all of us to spend more of our personal incomes and various stimulus checks when it is exactly that behavior that has gotten us into this mess. Couldn’t private citizens fund our own bank bailout by simply depositing that money ourselves in interest-bearing accounts, which in turn the banks could loan?