I recently received a forwarded email that has been circling the net for quite some time. The premise of the email is that if you are ever forced to withdraw money from an ATM by a thief you could enter your PIN in reverse order to summon the police. While such an idea has repeatedly been proposed, it hasn’t actually made its way into ATMs.

You can imagine the value of such a system. It would have marginal added cost, would allow transactions to continue, and offer the hope of rescue for victims. The main drawbacks often cited are that:

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As regular readers of Richer by the Day know, I read a lot of personal finance, investing, business, and economics books. Along with my personal experiences, the books that I read have played a huge role in my financial education. I typically list the book I am currently reading in the sidebar of this blog. I often write a review of each book as I complete it.

How does this help you, and where do the Free Books referenced in the title come into play?

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I’ve always been a big fan of Google, both as a search engine and as a company. They seem to be the best at just about everything they do. Their Froogle product search (now called Google Product Search) dominated when it was introduced, but Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program may stiffen the competition. Both tools allow you to do comparison shopping online, but the Microsoft tool seems better equipped at finding the lowest total cost and also pays cashback for purchases made through the site.

The program will give you 2%-5% cash back on the purchase. Also, the search includes shipping charges so it does a better job than Google in finding the overall lowest price.

Due to heavy interest in the program, the live search cashback website has had trouble staying up.  Try this alternate link to live search cashback.

The release of Wii Fit this week got me thinking about products and services that can meet our needs at a fraction of the cost of other alternatives. For those of you who haven’t heard of Wii Fit, it’s a peripheral for the Nintendo Wii that you stand on as you do exercises led by the accompanying game. By monitoring your weight and balance, it allows you to control your character in a wide range of activities, including Yoga, Hula-Hooping, Ski-Jumping and many more. The game gets you moving and looks to be so much fun that you don’t even realize that you’re exercising.

Certainly Wii Fit is not a replacement for a full exercise regiment, but for people who don’t exercise at all or who have a hard time getting motivated, it may be a great alternative. From a financial perspective, I thought I’d consider the cost of a Wii Fit to my gym membership. At first, I was thinking about it from the $89.99 MSRP for the Wii Fit versus my $50 per month gym membership. Such a comparison is somewhat misleading. Obviously someone who uses the gym many times a week for many different activities gets a lot more out of it than someone like me. I go to the gym a few times a month to use the pool, track, and play basketball. All of those activities are things that I can do for free in nicer weather.

So a better comparison might be the cost per hour of exercise.

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FHASecure is the program started last August to allow sub-prime borrowers to switch to low, fixed-rate mortgages after they fell behind on payments because their adjustable rate mortgages reset.

Only about 1.5% of the 200,000 refinances through FSASecure are reported to be for those who were about to lose their homes. The rest were homeowners who met the criteria for the program who simply wanted to lower their payments. You can’t fault the homeowners for taking advantage of the program. New requirements in July will change who is eligible.

The new rules, are as follows:

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Reducing the estimated 38 billion plastic water bottles discarded each year will obviously have a huge environmental impact. Those environmental benefits may be leading this effort to switch from bottled water to tap water, but the finances of making the change should also not be overlooked.

Cindy Crawford has joined the effort by teaming up with PUR Water Filtration Systems (PUR) to promote a limited edition Thirsty for Change water bottle. The aluminum water bottle is manufactured and sold by SIGG, the Swiss Engineered Water Bottle company. The idea is to reuse the bottle and fill it with filtered tap water instead of buying bottled water. The Thirsty for Change website claims that PUR filtered water is 1/10 the cost of bottled water, which will save an average of $600 per year. Filtered tap water is being promoted because PUR is the co-sponsor of the initiative but depending on where you live, you may be able to drink unfiltered tap water to save even more.

Any reusable bottle will allow you to make this change, but if you order the limited edition Thirsty for Change water bottle, all proceeds from the sale will benefit Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, which helps reduce water-related disease in many developing countries around the world.

Personally, I use a Nalgene bottle that cost about $10 less than the SIGG bottle.

Chrysler recently announced the Let’s Refuel America program which locks in gas prices at $2.99 per gallon. Here’s a clip from the press release followed by an analysis of whether the deal is worth it.

From the press release: “In response to direct customer feedback citing the prospect of rising gas prices as a top concern, Chrysler LLC today announces its own economic stimulus package: an exclusive gas price protection policy that eliminates the risk of further spikes in fuel prices. With the U.S. purchase of eligible Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, customers can enroll in the “Let’s Refuel America” program and receive a gas card that immediately lowers their gas price to $2.99 a gallon, and keeps it there for three years. The offer is available at 3,511 U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealerships through June 2, 2008, and is available on vehicles ranging from popular new compacts, crossovers and minivans to full-size diesel-powered pickup trucks.”

The analysis:

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Postage rates will increase on Monday, May 12th. I previously covered why Forever Stamps are a Losing Investment. For the next few days, it does make sense to buy enough forever stamps to cover a few months worth of your postage needs. You can buy forever stamps at $0.41 each through Saturday, May 10th and they will be valid for first class mail that would normally cost 42 cents after that date.

Portion sizes have gotten so out of control that you often get enough for a small family when you order an individual entree. Sure, you can take leftovers home to eat the next day, but I’d rather not have to pay so much to get more food than I really want. In the past, I’ve said that I would gladly pay more than half price to get half as much food when I eat out.

That’s why I was so excited to hear about T.G.I. Friday’s Right Portion, Right Price menu. Restaurants have traditionally only offered smaller portions and prices at lunch time, if at all. The Friday’s program is all day, every day. I hope that other restaurants follow this innovative idea. I don’t eat out much, but when I do I would definitely consider going to T.G.I Fridays to get just the amount that I want at a more reasonable price.

The advertisement announcing this program isn’t available on YouTube at the moment.  I’ll add it to this post when and if it gets added there.

Richer by the Day is once again listed in the Fire Finance Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs. Traffic on Richer by the Day increased from 2352 visitors in February to 2502 visitors in March. Based on Sitemeter data, this blog was ranked 57th in the latest rankings. Thanks to all of my visitors.