Personal Finance Blog

Tips And Stories To Help You With Managing Money

Mink 3D Printer Produces Eye Shadows And Makeup

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Grace Choi presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014
Grace Choi presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014
More and more people are looking for ways to make 3D printing pay. Grace Choi is one of those who has found a practical use for the technology. She invented Mink as a way to “print” makeup allowing users to pick designer colors from images.

The Next Big Thing

3D printing is being touted as the next big thing in computer technology, a process in which a computer replicates an item by adding layers of a chosen material, following a digital pattern. It is expected to blossom over the next few years into multiple uses as diverse as body replacement parts and food products.

Choi explained her Mink process to interested critics during the TechCrunch Disrupt NY2014 meeting in early May. It was held at the Manhattan Center in New York and was an opportunity for innovators to share their concepts incorporating 3D printing.

Mink's 3D Printer Prints Eye Shadow, Lipstick And More
Mink’s 3D Printer Prints Eye Shadow, Lipstick And More

Make Up Ingredients

Choi started from the premise that almost all makeup products are created from basic substrates, whether it ends up in pricey high-class shops or on the shelves of the neighborhood has-it-all shopping center. Problem is, these outlets don’t cover the waterfront in color and shade, but tend to cater to a mid-range of customers. Mink allows endless choices.

Computer Generated Color Selections

She looked at the principle that the basic contents of makeup are the same and developed that concept into computer-generated makeup that can employ any color imaginable to suit the maker. Using software that already exists, the operator can print powder, blush, eye shadow, lip gloss or any other type of makeup. Imagine getting up in the morning and custom-designing your makeup to match your clothing selection for the day. (And the gurus predict that some day, 3D printing will be used to produce that dress you want to match, as well!)

3D printer technology allows picking colors directly from digital photos.
3D printer technology allows picking colors directly from digital photos.

Choi told the New York panel that her pre-production research showed that those who buy makeup don’t tend to be resolutely loyal to any particular brand, but are looking for convenience. What’s more convenient than your own home?

Serial Inventor

The young woman innovator, who terms herself a “serial inventor,” said she had plenty of failures as she worked toward Mink. But she is looking forward to putting her product on the market later this year, at a suggested price of $200 per unit. The target buyer group will be those 13 to 21, a demographic that is not firmly set in its makeup-buying habits.

Future Plans

At the same time, she will keep researching and hoping to alliances with companies that can enhance the prospects for success. She will be talking with some of the big printers such as Epson to see if deals can be made that would be rewarding for her and for them as the role of 3D printing increases. She continues to study how she can make Mink competitive with the mass market. Her big selling point is the number and variety of colors that can be used in Mink.

She is keeping a finger on the pulse of fashion and talking with those who influence fashion trends.

Look for more uses for 3D printing as innovators such as Choi really get down to the job.

Visit Coolchecks.net/blog for more 3D Printer stories.

Correcting Your Credit Report

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Errors can keep you from qualifying for a home purchase.
Errors can keep you from qualifying for a home purchase.
What used to be “a brick wall” consumers crashed into when they tried to correct information on their credit reports is falling, Money Magazine reports. Errors on your credit report often influence an individual’s ability to buy a home or make other major financial decisions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has pushed for easier ways to make corrections in the reports. Three major credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, have always been convinced that they need to allow customers to dispute mistakes but now they are making that process streamlined by offering a way for consumers to do it online and in greater detail. The companies have changed their complaint systems in response to the CFPB pressure, the magazine states.

Under the new processes, the reporting agencies are obligated to forward materials provided by the customer to the creditor. If the alleged errors are confirmed, the creditor is obligated to fix the errors with all three of the reporting agencies. In 2011, the agencies received about 8 million complaints about errors in their reports.

To submit disputes online use these addresses:

Trans Union
Equifax
Experian
To receive a free report once a year go to:
Annual Credit Report

You must have the number of your credit report to access these sites.

To expedite the correction of mistakes, contact both the credit bureau and the organization that provided the information to the bureau. Both are obliged under terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act to correct inaccurate or incomplete information in your report.

Usually after you have reported specific mistakes in your credit report, the credit bureau must investigate within 30 days, unless they consider your complaint frivolous. Include copies of documents that support your complaint, not the originals. It might be well to include a copy of the erroneous report with the information you are contesting clearly identified. State your complaint and add material to support your position. Request that the erroneous material be deleted or corrected. Be sure your complete name and address are included. Make copies of the correspondence and send the letter by certified mail.

Notify the creditor who has received the erroneous report that you are disputing the information and are in touch with the credit bureau. If the provider chooses to correspond with the bureau, he should include a notice of your dispute. Ask for copies of their correspondence. The process takes 30 to 90 days.

Check your credit reports on a regular basis so that you can keep your buying power strong.

Is There A 3D Printer In Your Future?

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Princeton University Creates A 3D Bionic Ear
Princeton University Creates A 3D Bionic Ear
The impact of 3D printers, predicted by the industry to be huge, has stuttered a little, mostly due to patent/intellectual property issues, but be assured it’s coming. The future almost certainly holds 3D applications that will affect individual users and the mass market in ways hard to imagine.

The technology involves using a three-dimensional “pattern” to guide a computer in laying down layers of materials in a process they have dubbed “additive manufacturing.” The expected uses range from the creation of small toys, jewelry, makeup and edible goods to body replacement parts and large-scale manufacturing of a host of items. To date, patents have been issued for 45 different materials intended for use in 3D printing, including ceramics, clay, palladium, paper, rubber, silver, titanium and wax.

The myriad anticipated uses are just coming into being. Likely to be in general use first are these applications:

Medical: Researchers already are using 3D printers to do bioprinting – creating of tiny strips of organ tissue and facial appendages including ears and noses. The predictions envision printed organs such as kidneys and livers. Initially, these printed organs will likely be used for testing drugs and vaccines. Ultimately, they could fill the huge gaps in the availability of viable human organs and the numbers of patients who need them.

Pete Basiliere, a leading analyst of 3D printing potential, predicts that the advances in organ printing will outpace the public’s understanding and acceptance of the technology. 3D organ printing, he assumes, will join similar medical advances, such as organ transplantation and use of stem cells to treat patients, in a learning curve before the public adopts the idea. The same ethical questions that have been raised about artificial hearts and other cutting-edge technologies are likely to be debated: Are humans trying to play God? Are new medical innovations creating “rich men’s remedies” that will exclude the poor? If the past is an indicator, the life-saving benefits of the new technologies will triumph, Basiliere expects.

Another potential medical use is creation of prosthetic limbs. A 13-year-old girl who lost an arm in a boating accident was fitted by students at Washington University with a 3D-created prosthesis that used about $200 worth of materials, a stark contrast to the $6,000 cost of similar devices created by current processes. Another girl from Illinois, who was born without fingers, was fitted with an operating set of plastic fingers at a cost of $5. A high school engineering class created the prosthesis. In Canada, researchers are working toward 3D printing processes to create prosthetic limbs for victims of civil war injuries in Uganda.

The fashion industry dressed models in outfits created by 3D in the New York Fashion Week shows in 2013. Such eminent performers as Lady Gaga have garbed themselves in 3D dresses. She wore the world’s first “flying dress” to the 20133 ArtRave. The world’s first 3D printed bikini, the N12, is named for the material a computer used to create it: Nylon 12.

Some organizations devoted to the war on global poverty see the potential for such things as solving water hygiene problems in Third World countries. They envision needy people using “mini factories” to create products that would provide them a living. 3D may provide simple answers to such pervasive problems as hand sanitation in refugee camps.

There’s a good chance that one of your next automobiles will be created through 3D printing. A prototype, the Urbee, has been designed by Kor Ecologic. The two-seater gets up to 200 miles per gallon of fuel. Estimated cost: about $20,000.

Personal 3D printers are likely to join the standard electronic equipment in the vast majority of American homes. At present, they’re generally expensive and hard to operate. Some require hand assembly. However, there is little doubt in the minds of those who know about such things that the problems will be resolved and that affordable 3D will be available. But there’s a long road ahead until such technology finds its logical and practical uses for most Americans.

3D Printing: What’s In The Future?

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Ipad stand manufactured with a 3D printer.
Ipad stand manufactured with a 3D printer.
Ideas abound about possible applications of 3D printing: body replacement parts, building components, do-it-yourself cosmetics, jewelry, eyewear, wearing apparel, foods (how about broccoli shaped like a dinosaur for fussy toddlers?) etc. etc. You name it.

The concept of using computer-guided additive technology to build items layer by layer has been around since the 1980s, but the technology is still in its infancy. Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corp. created the first 3D printer in 1984. The first application was prototyping. At the time, there were predictions that the technology eventually would be used in mass production and distributed manufacturing, but the predictions were made with a caveat: it would take time. Some of those production roles went into practical use in the 2010s, and the technology is gradually creeping into all sorts of applications.

Michelangelo would be astounded. The technique is just the opposite of his famed 1500s approach to sculpture: He posited that inside every block of stone there was a figure waiting to be found. 3D printing does it in reverse, building from the inside out, adding layer by layer of material in different shapes as the computer dictates. Widespread use of 3D printing could replace processes now in use, such as the cutting and drilling (subtractive) methods used in traditional machining.

Creation of a Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) for the desired product starts the process. The 3D scanner then translates the model into digital, three-dimensional measurements. The computer then directs layers of the material being used, conforming to the digital model. Layers are fused by heating, curing, centering, lamination or photo polymerization into a single object.

Sales of additive manufacturing equipment have skyrocketed since the turn of the century and prices are dropping as more companies pick up the technology. Wohlers Associates, a consultant, reported that the market generated $2.2 billion worldwide in 2012, an increase of 29 percent over 2011. The concept is gradually moving into architecture, construction, industrial design, automotive, aerospace, military, medical, GPS systems, foods and other applications.

In some applications, 3D is used alongside traditional subtractive processes, combined by the computer to make the best use of both approaches.

The 3D printing advances are good news for consumers, since the ability to mass produce items at less cost will reduce the price tag at the point of purchase. Use of 3D printers may offset capital costs for the producers and ideally the savings will be passed along to consumers. The process of getting products to the market has been complicated and slowed, the experts say, by a flood of complex patent issues. Some potential users have been reluctant to dive into the competition because they fear lawsuits, they conjecture.

Even so, as 2014 got into gear, at least 22 commercial applications of the technology in fields as diverse as construction, defense and foods were established. Obviously, the story of 3D Printing in modern life is in the early stages of Chapter One. Look for the announcement of new advances at an escalating rate.

It is conceivable that 3D desktop printers will join the computer as standard home equipment. Amazon advertises an 11-pound printer that fabricates objects using thermoplastic filament purchased separately. Finished products must stay within the size guidelines — 4.5 inches cubed, in this case. The price for this version is just below $600. But the potential could make every owner of a 3D printer an inventor, sculptor or chef, depending on objectives.

There is a downside. A 3D printer is capable of manufacturing items — think guns — that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. In 2013, a self-styled anarchist designed, created and printed a plastic gun using the technology. He shared the information with some 1000,000 interested individuals via the Internet before the U.S. government closed down the site. A Japanese man was arrested this year for possession of five 3D printed guns. What other illegal or dangerous uses could be made of the technology almost surely will be part of the ongoing story.

Which Debts Should You Pay Off First?

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Managing Debt, Debt ManagementThere is all kinds of advice floating around as to which debts you should pay off first. Most advisors seem to have a preference for paying off credit cards or mortgages ahead of other types of debt.

There may be no right and wrong when it comes to paying off debt – after all, paying off just about any debt is a step in the right direction. But some debts are more threatening than others, so we’re going to look at paying off debts in the order of most risky to least risky. When you look at it that way, the whole order changes.

1. Car loans

I am a strong advocate of paying off car loans ahead of any other type of debt. There are two primary reasons for this:

High monthly payment to balance. If you owe $10,000 on a credit card, your monthly payment is probably around $200. On a student loan debt, it’s probably a little bit over $100. With a car loan, the monthly payment could easily be $400. That is a big, fat monthly payment, and getting rid of it as soon as possible will do wonders to improve your cash flow, and make it easier for you to concentrate on paying off other debts. Typically, paying off a car loan gives you the greatest bang for the buck when it comes to improving your budget. This is why it needs to be the first loan that you pay off.

The outcome if you are unable to pay this debt. This is an issue most people don’t think much about, but you need to. Typically, a car is an asset that you use in the production of income. Whether you use your car for business purposes or to commute to your job, you need your car in order to earn a living. If you lost your job and could no longer afford to make the payments on your car, the car would be repossessed and you would be unable to get a new job for lack of a way to get there. For this reason alone, paying off your car loan should get top priority.

2. Business loans

There are a large number of people who are self-employed in small businesses and have certain assets that are required in order for them to generate income. Paying off debts associated with these assets is a close second to paying off car loans.

The case here is similar to giving a priority to paying off your car loan. An asset used in the production of income should be owned free and clear, that way if you hit on hard times and couldn’t afford to make your debt payments, you will still be able to earn a living.

3. Other secured loans

If you have a secured loan that is collateralized by an important asset, you should pay it off as soon as possible. This may not be a true priority if the loan is secured by furniture or a recreational vehicle, since they are not necessities. But if the loan is attached to something you can’t live without, it should be given a priority. This is because normal functioning in your household will not be possible in the event that a major asset is repossessed.

4. Credit cards – smallest to largest

Most financial advisors make paying off credit cards the number one priority. But in the grand scheme of things, credit cards are more of an annoyance than anything else. If you fall behind, the creditors can harass you and threaten you with of all kinds cataclysms, but they won’t be able to remove important major assets from your life. You’ll still be able to get to work every day, to heat your house and to do your laundry, you’ll just have to get used to living under a constant cloud of threats.

The two most compelling reasons to payoff credit cards are:

  1. High interest rates, and
  2. The rates are variable

These are legitimate concerns, but in the current low interest rate environment, you have time to payoff the more dangerous loans listed above before taking on any of your credit cards. And if you do, you’ll have more cash to payoff your credit cards.

5. Student loans

These days it seems that nearly anyone who has a student loan wants to pay it off. That makes sense, given the long-term nature of the debt. But at the end of the day, student loan debts are simply not that threatening. Monthly payments are low compared to the outstanding balance, and interest rates are far more well behaved than your credit cards. In short, student loans aren’t going anywhere so you have plenty of time to take care of other debts first.

Given the fact that student loan debts are typically large balances, you’ll probably need to payoff other debts before taking on these. In order to make substantial progress in paying off a large balance, you’ll have to clear the decks of other obligations to free up your cash flow to make the larger payments. Which is another compelling reason to pay off other debts ahead of your student loans.

6. Your Mortgage

Next to credit cards, paying off the mortgage is probably the most recommended course of action. But there are a whole lot of reasons to hold this debt until last:

  • The loan is secured by your home, which probably has enough equity that you can sell it to payoff the loan, if push came to shove.
  • If you have negative equity in the house, the lender would be in no hurry to foreclose on you anyway, giving you time to work out some sort of settlement.
  • Mortgages typically carry lower rates of interest than other types of debt.
  • You’re probably getting some kind of income tax break on mortgage interest.
  • If it’s a fixed rate mortgage, your payment cannot increase.
  • A mortgage is long-term debt, which means you have close to forever to pay it off; in the meantime, you have the benefit of living in the house.

Perhaps the biggest reason of all to put mortgages at the back of the payoff line is their sheer size. Let’s say that you are three years into a 30 year mortgage, and still owe $250,000 on it. Even if you concentrate all of your efforts on paying off the mortgage, it will probably still taking years to do it.

And if it will take years, you’ll need to have all of your other debts paid off first, that way you’ll have the money that you need to make a serious effort to make your mortgage go away.