I was reading some posts around the web discussing how it’s common place to live at home with mom and dad. Is it really that common? Have I lost touch with reality, yet again? After four years of college, where there are just ridiculous amounts of parties and unspoken amounts of fun, who on earth goes home and lives back with mom and dad?
Even if I was unemployed, I’d pay several hundred bucks and rent the sofa in my buddy’s living room or something. Is there no shame in living at home with parents as a grown adult? Perhaps not. Right on my street, live three 26-27 year old young bucks with grandma. Come on, how can these guys live with themselves living with grandma? After 25 years old, that’s 3 years after college to find independence. So I got to thinking, perhaps it is feasible to live at home with mom and dad, or grandma and still get girls!
STRATEGIES FOR GETTING GIRLS WHILE LIVING WITH MOM & DAD Read more…
One of my graduate school friends recently found himself out of a job. It was a tough slog, but at last, he and his co-founders decided to shutdown their startup and start something new. Nobody is really going to feel sorry for Greg, as he joined Google the year they went public and cashed out on a couple million dollars in stock options over the next 4 years.
His $180,000 a year salary was nothing to sneeze at either, but also nothing too spectacular in the land of $1 million dollar starter homes. In a nutshell, Greg is the typical Silicon Valley success story who busted his butt to get ahead, networked like no other, and fell victim to a downshift in the economy these past couple years.
There are literally thousands of millionaire 30-somethings in the San Francisco Bay Area who are underemployed or just not working because they haven’t found that great idea, or that premium company fit yet. Why should they bother wasting a companies’ time and enlist only to quit 6 months to a year later when something better comes along? That’s not fair to the company and so they do the right thing and wait.
When I asked millionaire Greg about his thoughts on the government extending unemployment insurance to 99 weeks he let out a big “YIHAW!“ You see, Greg has been collecting unemployment insurance for the past 16 weeks via the solvent state of California, and he is worried that Obama will crack down on people like him once Federal care starts kicking in.
A MILLIONAIRE’S TAKE ON COLLECTING UNEMPLOYMENT AS A MILLIONAIRE Read more…
The reason why Warren Buffet is so great is because he’s able to distill the most complicated financial topics into very simple terms. Lucky for us, there is someone like Warren in the economics world. Regular reader, Investor Junkie who disagrees with the government’s unemployment insurance extension, but agrees with the cessation of rising taxes, highlights a fantastic video by the great economist Milton Friedman about four different ways of spending money.
Professor Friedman’s examples are simple and perfectly to the point. In an environment where we are spending other people’s money on someone else (deciding how other people’s tax dollars are spent), we don’t maximize the value of the dollar because we simply don’t have much at stake.
Professor Friedman highlights that people spending someone else’s money on others is a “distributor of welfare funds.” Strong words with a certain amount of truth wouldn’t you agree? In “The Ultimate Solution To A Fair Tax Policy In America”, I discuss the concept of limiting the voting ability of the 47% of non tax paying Americans on raising taxes for the other 53%. Don’t worry, voting rights for everything else is status quo. The reason why I suggest this rational solution is because it makes sure the country isn’t overrun by those who have their cake (don’t pay taxes) and get to eat it too (enjoy the benefits).
One can easily see an America where 90%+ of citizens don’t pay taxes and stick it to the 10% rich because it’s rational to look out for your own interests. It’s up to balanced people who believe in equity to continue fighting for those who perpetually get unfairly blamed for our economy’s problems. It really is ironic, because if everybody studied hard in school, volunteered their time to help others, and were self-sufficient (doesn’t have to be wealthy), America wouldn’t have nearly the amount of problems we have now!
The 4 Ways Of Spending
1) Spend your own money on yourself.
2) Spend your own money on somebody else.
3) Spend somebody else’s money on yourself.
4) Spend somebody else’s money on somebody else.
Readers, do you agree or disagree with Professor Friedman’s thesis that the 4th way of spending is the worst way of spending? If you do agree, why do you think people feel it’s OK to spend other people’s money as they wish?
Regards,
Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”
With the Bush tax cuts set to expire next year, there’s going to be a big debate during the mid-term elections this November! But, should there really even be a tax debate? It’s obvious that we should NOT raise taxes on small business owners and higher income, hard working Americans in a nascent economic recovery!
Everybody knows roughly 47% of Americans pay no federal income taxes. Hence, the ultimate solution for tax legislation is to strip away tax voting rights for the 47% of Americans who pay no tax, but who still get to enjoy the benefits of other people’s contributions. If you’re one of the 100+ million Americans who pay no income tax, isn’t it good enough to enjoy free public schooling, nice roads, friendly firemen and police officers protecting your neighborhood? Being thankful is a great disposition to have. Being greedy is not.
An Example Of A Family Making $120,000 Paying No Taxes: Read more…
Hear that? That is the sound of another self righteous employed person complaining about the unemployed sucking up resources and driving the government deficit further into the red. Who cares employed people?? You guys aren’t the ones who are struggling to find a job in this economy!
There are several tautologies here:
1) Few can live a comfortable lifestyle off of unemployment benefits which average $200-3oo a week
2) The vast majority of people who are unemployed want to make more money, find jobs, and do something meaningful with their lives.
3) Our budget is headed towards a $1.4 trillion+ deficit, so who cares if we’re going to spend another $50 billion to help millions of unemployed people survive for up to 99 weeks?
THE BUDGET DEFICIT DOES NOT MATTER WHEN YOU HAVE NO JOB Read more…
Despite an honest attempt to seek out more great things about the East Coast, several readers actually proceeded to bash the West Coast instead! What’s up with that? Some curiously mentioned that the East Coast is fantastic because the horrendous weather for half the year makes the other six months so wonderful. Ummm, that’s like saying you appreciate your right hand more because you chopped off your left hand! Wouldn’t you rather have both hands?
The only positive takeaway from the comments I agree with is the cluster of historically significant cities within a several hours drive. Other than that, nobody came up with any stand out reasons other than the six I provided as to why East Coast living is great. Given that the West Coast was attacked, I feel it’s important to stand up and defend our honor!
While waiting at the dentist, I picked up the April issue of Inc. Magazine and stumbled upon an article entitled, “The Secret Of Their Success.“ The article discusses what really drives salespeople to succeed. We are all salespeople, whether we know it or not, which is why being a happy loser helps bring out the best in everyone.
Clotaire Rapaille, a psychoanalyst and ethnographer describes a happy loser as someone who sees rejection as a challenge. The first “no” stimulates their brains to want to try harder and not give up. Clotaire highlights one example where a firm defines success not by how many wins a salesperson achieves, but by how many rejections instead. Read more…
Over 11 million people are estimated to have died by the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust just 65 years ago. 5 to 6 million of the 11+ million were Jews and over 300,000 were Athenians during the Axis’ occupation of Greece. It’s a fallacy to blame modern day Germans about the atrocities of the past. Yet, just because the demons have all died, shall we forgive and forget? Absolutely not. The offspring and relatives of the 11+ million dead live on, and their stories will never ever be forgotten.
With a GDP of US$3.6 trillion, Germany is now the largest economy in Europe as well as the 4th largest economy in the world. Germany also has roughly $50 billion in estimated loans to Greece, a large amount, but not an overwhelmingly debilitating amount given the size of their economy. Saving Greece helps the Germans and the rest of the 27 EU members who in some way were all negatively affected by Germany decades ago.
If you look carefully around the web, you’ll read scores of articles about the desire to retire early. Yours truly wishes to finish up no later than 45, as I believe working for 20 or so years is a long enough time. I’ve done the math with various living and return scenarios and it can be done. But the question is whether it’s a good idea? Perhaps not.
Now that the economy is in recovery mode, it’ll be interesting to see how attitudes change towards early retirement. Will those who’ve short circuited their careers feel the pull to return to full time work and maximize their earnings potential again? I believe so. What about all our “lifestyle design” and “digital nomad” friends who had a rough time landing something stable they truly love? Possibly they’ll come back too.
Those who are able to retire early are often cherished. I certainly admire those who are able to cut down their desires to the bare bones and live a very frugal lifestyle. I also admire those who’ve been able to strike it rich very early! That said, perhaps early retirement isn’t a good idea for the large majority of people. Let’s explore several reasons as to why people want to retire early, why they exist, as well as understand why it may not be a good idea. Someone has to argue the other side, so it might as well be me.
WHY PEOPLE WANT TO RETIRE EARLY (IT ISN’T THAT OBVIOUS!) Read more…
In “How To Dramatically Increase Your Job Security For Life“, the article suggests managers are more inclined to fire those workers who have nobody to support but themselves. As a result, one should strategically at least hint at the intention of starting a family to protect oneself from unemploymentville. Clearly I’m being somewhat flippant. My goal is to make people realize that relationships and emotion play enormous roles in shaping work success.
Whether you work for a small family business or a large corporation, hiring and firing is a very personal decision that comes down to one or only a handful of decision makers. By tugging at their souls, and increasing their guilt factor, you’re well on your way to dramatically higher job security for life.
Let’s say you’re not particularly wealthy, nor make a particularly impressive amount of money. You still have loads of student loans and consumer debt to pay off. In essence, you’re the typical American! Shouldn’t you be putting on your air mask before helping others?
Child raising is estimated to cost anywhere between $250,000 to $1 million from birth to after college. If a family can’t even have the discipline to save 20% of their paycheck after contributing to their 401K and IRA, how can one consciously start a family?
$250,000 ISN’T A LOT, YET HOW MANY CAN SAVE THAT MUCH? Read more…
A fantastic topic came up over dinner one day regarding how to increase job security in today’s highly volatile economy. The usual tips came up, such as: be invaluable, develop strong internal relationships, and never call in sick on a Friday (slacker). All tips were logical, but the more we drank, the more out of the box we thought until we reached the best employment insurance strategy of them all: Make babies and start a family!
Starting a family could be the #1 way to ensure long term employment. With a family, your employer must not only consider your situation, but the situation of every single person you support. The more kids you have, the more bullet proof you become! Imagine a scenario where your boss is faced with firing 10 employees out of 100, or 10%. How do you think she chooses?
Insensitive statements by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) not only infuriates many, but also raises one titillating question: Why isn’t President Obama considered white? Obama’s mother is white, and his father is black. He relates more to his white side of the family given his father left him as a child. Hence, isn’t it logical to think Obama is more white than black? Let’s see if we can change Obama’s default setting to the world.
THREE SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHY
1) “He doesn’t look white.”
Well, what does “white” look like? Yes, Obama doesn’t look like a Norwegian Viking, but you can still tell he’s mixed. Since when does being half black mean that he’s full black? If a white person is only supposed to look like Tiger Wood’s wife Elin, then we need to revise what the definition of white is. Read more…
President Obama plans on limiting the tax break for charity deductions to 28%, penalizes those in the 33%, 35%, and soon to be 40% federal income tax brackets. Since the overwhelming majority of charitable contributions come from households, and the overwhelming absolute dollar amount comes from those in the highest tax brackets, one can deduce charitable contributions at the margin will go down in 2011 and beyond. Given this logical conclusion, why are Democrats and President Obama against helping others through monetary means?
Currently, if you are in the 25% tax bracket, you can save 25% in taxes due to your charitable contributions i.e. donate $10,000, save $2,500 off your tax bill. Meanwhile, there is equality among those who pay the highest taxes at 35%. 35% tax payers can equally save 35% in taxes from their donations. So far, so good.
Due to massive government pork spending it’s egregious that politicians now want to not only raise the highest marginal tax bracket from 35% to 40%, but also cut tax breaks on charitable contributions down to 28%! That’s two slaps in the faces of hard working Americans and a punch in the gut for those who need the most help.
Congratulations to the Democrats for passing a smaller, less corrupt version of Obama’s health care plan to cover the 30 million+ Americans who are uninsured. I’ve read numerous articles about the pros and cons of this plan, and I still can’t figure it all out. An Associated Press article writes, “Obama practically needs a spreadsheet to tell people what’s going on and when.“ That said, progress has been made. I’d like to go over some of the basics, and end with a discussion.
This is a guest post by the Lean Life Coach who writes at Eliminate the Muda! [mooda] about how to improve life and personal finance through the application of proven business management techniques that originated with great Americans such as Henry Ford and Benjamin Franklin.
Fighting to Survive
Would you gargle with a floor cleaner?
Originally invented in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic, Listerine was later diluted and sold as a floor cleaner. The Lambert Pharmacal Company, maker of Listerine, was not a wild success, selling a little more than $100,000 per year of their concoction. In 1921 Jordan Wheat Lambert initiated a new marketing campaign advertising Listerine as a cure for “cronic halitosis.” In less than 7 years annual revenue exploded to $8 million.
Just as a small side note, “Cronic Halitosis” was a fake medical term! No doubt, a few of us have an occasional issue with bad breath, but it was not considered a major societal issue until this groundbreaking marketing plan. Not only did the Lambert Pharmacal Company create a new product they even created a new medical term that is commonly accepted to this day.
The objective of any business, big or small, is not only to make a profit but also grow. Doing so requires a focused approach towards obtaining and more importantly retaining a customer base. This of course requires marketing and advertising.
Years ago a company would develop a single marketing campaign and blast it to the world at large; “Buy our widgets.” A successful campaign might be profitable for decades while a failed effort could doom a company.
Money Loan Where would we be without the rolling and the folding! Borrow and get your self a nice roll. Great Rates!
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I was reading some posts around the web discussing how it’s common place to live at home with mom and dad. Is it really that common? Have I lost touch with reality, yet again? After four years of college, where there are just ridiculous amounts of parties and unspoken amounts of fun, who on earth goes home and lives back with mom and dad?
