When the Federal Reserve cuts short-term interest rates, as it did yesterday, you feel the pinch in your savings account. My ING Direct account, for example, has dropped from 4.50% when I opened it to 3.65% today. It may drop again.
Brian from The Job Bored dropped a line with a money hack for those who like to chase the highest interest rates. “Why not buy protection?”, he wonders. Here’s how:

Since ING makes it free and easy to open a certificate of deposit [CD], every time I see another interest rate drop coming, I just throw more money into a 6-12 month CD, which locks in the higher rate.
I’ve been doing this since before Thanksgiving, and actually just did it again yesterday. I was watching CNBC and they were all saying a rate cut was certain. I now have about 40% of my savings in CDs, earning an average of 4.90%.
This may not seem [...]

The Federal Reserve has lowered short-term interest rates twice in the past week by a total of 1.25 percentage points. (They lowered the federal funds rate, not the prime lending rate, though that falls in lockstep with the former.) Many people are excited because they believe this will lead to lower rates on fixed-term mortgages, meaning the average person may be able to save big bucks by refinancing. One GRS reader wrote yesterday to ask:
The feds cut rates again this afternoon. I would like to know if this means it may be a good time to consider refinancing my primary residence. I’m currently locked at 7.0% for 30 years.
This is a great question, one that I’ve had, too. But my research revealed something surprising. Contrary to popular belief, the federal funds rate does not directly affect mortgage rates. (Not even adjustable rates, from what I can tell.) According to Bankrate:
Mortgage rates have declined [...]

I’m another step closer to quitting the day job: today I began to train my replacement. I’ve never actually trained somebody in sales before, so this is a strange experience. It’s almost like the blind leading the blind! I’m hoping to find a quality sales seminar in the Portland area so that he can learn from a professional. Meanwhile, as you’d expect, I’ve accumulated some interesting personal stories to share:
“Still believe real estate values never go down?” asks Flexo at Consumerism Commentary. He points to recent stats that indicate U.S. home prices have fallen 6% in the past year. Some experts expect prices to drop as much as 30% in the next three years. (By contrast, prices in the Portland area have continued to increase, if only slightly.)
Yahoo! Finance recently posted a list of the 13 most overlooked tax deductions, including:

Sales tax
College tuition
Charitable contributions
State tax
Points paid during refinancing
And more!

I spent some time yesterday updating [...]

One of the most rewarding aspects of writing Get Rich Slowly is sharing success stories and strategies with the readers. In the forums, there’s an entire section devoted to financial success stories. Mostly, though, people share these via e-mail. Travis wrote today to tell me about his transition from debt to savings. Like me, he found it a bit of a challenge. Here’s our e-mail exchange:
Travis
I was reading about your progress on your goals, and thought that you would be interested in my own personal experience with tipping the debt scale.
After following your site for a long time now I am debt-free, but I found that one of the hardest parts was going from debt to having savings. It seemed that right when I became debt free I went back into debt by a couple of hundred and then would pay that off.
I wasn’t able to escape debt until I [...]

This is a guest post from Lily of The Honest Dollar, a great new personal finance blog.
The most common ways to increase your salary are to get promoted or to negotiate a raise. But promotions don’t come along often, and negotiating a raise may or may not result in a salary increase. So what do you do when you want to make more, but you’re between promotions and raises? The good news is that you’re not out of options. The bad news is that you’ll need to get creative and may have to use a little elbow grease.
Low Effort, High Reward
401(k) match. Perhaps the easiest way to get your employer to give you more money is to contribute to your 401(k), if your employer offers a match. A 2007 Hewitt Associates survey [PDF] reports that 98% of employers put some money into 401(k) plans, and two-thirds provide matching contributions. According [...]

In 2004 Dr. Michael Lynn, associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, produced a paper entitled “Mega Tips: Scientifically Tested Techniques to Increase Your Tips” [PDF]. If you work in a restaurant, reading this pamphlet could help you increase your earnings. But if you don’t work in food service, knowing these techniques may help you separate good service from subtle manipulation! Lynn writes:
The techniques described [here] were mostly tested in low to mid-priced, casual dining restaurants. Thus, these techniques should work in such informal operations as [Applebee’s, Chili’s, Denny’s, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, and TGI Friday’s]. On the other hand, these techniques may not work in more formal, upscale restaurants such as Chart House, Morton’s of Chicago, or Ruth Chris Steak House. In fact, most of the techniques would be inappropriate in the more formal atmosphere of fine dining restaurants.
Among the scientifically-tested techniques to improve tips are these:

Wear something [...]