Don't Pay Checking Fees

One of the best ways to keep money in your pocket and not to give it to someone else is to avoid bank fees. This may take a little investigation, but is worth it.

Some banks have a fee schedule for your normal banking activities such as per check that you write or for each deposit that you make, and some even charge you for using their atm even if you have an account with them. If this is the case where you bank, check out their competitors in the area.

In most places in the country banks have signs outside their offices for free checking. One bank's free checking may not be the same as another bank's free checking. One bank may require a minimum balance that may be double or triple the requirement of another bank, all with hefty fees if your balance goes below a certain amount. Find out what the minimum balance is, if any. In my area some banks have free checking with no minimum balance for seniors that direct deposit their social security checks with them.

Also watch out for limitations on free transaction limits on writing checks or making deposits or using the atm. Ideally you want no limits on transactions for free or at least limits that you know you will never exceed.

Make sure if you do use atm's that the bank has them located conveniently where you are likely to go. There usually is no fee to access the atm where you bank. But if you access a foreign atm, then you may get a fee for atm usage from not only the foreign bank, but also from your bank.

Watch out for fees when you access your account from the internet. Some people like to let the computer balance their account for them. I like to check whether a deposit cleared for me so I can use the money without getting an insufficient funds penalty. I know of a local bank that offers free checking for writing checks and making deposits, but charges $15.00 each month for internet access.

If you find a bank that also offers free checks, you deserve praise because few offer it. I get a kick out of it when you are asked to select your check style and color. I usually ask for the cheapest.

I have my phone number, name and address printed on each check because most stores want the phone number when you cash a check anyway.

Sometimes, I use the yellow pages and call the list of area banks and tell them I want free checking, can you help me. Then I go through my list of minimum balance, limits on the number of checks that I can write for free, and the number of deposit I can make for free, free atm access, free internet access, and finally, who pays for the checks?

Buy Flex Fuel Vehicles

Brazil's government is no longer dependent on foreign oil because they changed over to ethanol fuel made from sugar and enabled their population's vehicles to utilize the ethanol by using flex fuel engines.

Flex fuel engines can run on gasoline or gasoline with a small percentage of ethanol added to the fuel mixture such as 10% or 15% or can run on an 85% mixture of ethanol with 15% of gasoline added. The flex fuel engines can handle the combinations of gasoline and ethanol automatically.

The market for 85% ethanol fuel or E85 is small because the vast number of American vehicles cannot currently run on it. Existing vehicles can be converted to flex fuels for a few hundreds of dollars, but would it not be wiser if you are in the market for a vehicle to purchase a flex fuel vehicle. New flex fuel vehicles may cost only a hundred dollars or two more than a gasoline powered vehicle of the same make and model. This way, as more ethanol is available, then we can pump it into more vehicles than we can today. If there is a shortage in gasoline then we can use ethanol. If one is priced higher than the other we can purchase the cheaper fuel. If we are eco-friendly we can buy the ethanol. One of my priorities in selecting my next car is that it must be flex fuel. General Motors built most of the hybrid vehicles for Brazil.

If you have additional money to spend, a flex fuel hybrid is a good choice. A hybrid has two engines to power the car including a battery powered electric motor. Up to now, most hybrids were gasoline and battery powered, but the flex fuel hybrid can burn both gasoline and ethanol.

The bottom line is that if you think ethanol production will continue to increase, you will need a flex fuel vehicle to run on it.

We should also try to motivate our local, state, and federal government to look into purchasing flex fuel vehicles and to order ethanol fuels to run them. Tell them you are interested in flex fueled vehicles and ask them what they are doing to make ethanol available across the country and the area where you are living. Write to your representatives.