Every now and again, I stumble across something that makes me wonder, “Are you a dumb ass?“  Someone forwarded me a post from a year ago where a PF blogger spent $60,000 on a luxury car right after revealing his net worth was only $55,000!  I mean seriously, is that not a little messed up or what?  It’s almost as dumb as a minimalist owning multiple Apple products, a health nut who smokes and drinks soda, a vegan who wears leather shoes, and an evangelist who embezzles millions from you.

When I innocently asked why he spent more on his car than his entire family’s net worth, another commenter responded that it was because the blogger wanted to save money by spending money so he wouldn’t have money left over every month to spend.  Huh?  What?  Hmmmmm.  That’s just dumb.

THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL

The barriers to entry for being a personal finance blogger are really low.  Just look at all the dumb things on this sight for example!  The hurdle is so low that you can write about amazingly stupid financial moves, and still have a nice readership following. You can literally write about anything and proclaim you have the keys to wealth, without being wealthy yourself.  You can write about the detriments of home ownership, while never having owned a home.  You can rag about how idiotic politicians waste our hard-earned money without ever having stepped in their shoes.  Whatever the case may be, all of you should consider starting your own blogs and get rich!

We have blogs about how to blog.  We have blogs making a lot of money teaching others how to make a lot of money blogging.  There are blogs out there that talk about blogs that talk about blogs!  There are even self-proclaimed social media and self-help gurus.  They better have the bomb ass life or else I ain’t listening to them!  There are blogs that talk about relationships and marriage by single people who’ve never been married.  There are bloggers who making $30,000+ a month who still pretend to write like they are poor as to not alienate their readers.

The point is, we are free to do whatever we please.  So long as we have an opinion, there will be those who will want to listen to what you have to say.

MY OWN DUMB ASS THOUGHTS AND MORE

Frankly, I love dumb ass posts.  It makes me laugh and want to comment profusely.  I’ve got a lot of dumb posts that have engendered a lot of conversation.  One of my favorites is, “How To Increase Your Job Security For Life”.  What an idiotic idea, making babies to save yourself from a layoff!  Or is it?  Kids are not only a great unemployment insurance, they must also be very cheap, otherwise you would never see poor families with multiple kids.

I’ve talked about how we should implement a flat tax system so that everybody has skin in the game to help our nation thrive.  Seriously, what kind of dumb ass system is a flat tax where everybody pays an equal percentage of their income to taxes above a certain poverty threshold?  It doesn’t make sense that those who make less, pay less and those who make more pay more with a flat tax.  It’s such a dumb ass proposal that the post garnered well over a hundred comments saying how stupid it is!  Let’s only make the top 50% of income earners pay for everything, since only the top 50% of income earners use all our governments resources.

Why would anybody bother saving any money for retirement when we have the government to provide us a safety net?  We’ve got 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, fantastic pensions, social security and medicare.  If it was up to me, we’d employ the 5-year unemployment program called the “Shock & Awe Yeah” (SAY)!  We’ve got a government who can’t stop spending the top 50% income earner’s money on everybody, so let it rain baby!  Who are the cheapos who don’t live it up and don’t spend everything they earn?  Life is short and we can die tomorrow.  There’s no point working if you don’t spend.  If the government safety system doesn’t work, you can always find yourself a working spouse!

So many people decided to convert to a ROTH IRA in 2010.  Can you believe that people voluntarily decided to pay taxes to a government whose spending is out of control?  The more money you give the government, the more they will spend on things that won’t benefit you!  Converters and contributors of a ROTH IRA believe that when it comes to paying taxes during retirement, they will be making more money during retirement than when working (???) largely because they will have accumulated 20-40X their average lifetime income!  When people are struggling to save just 10X their annual income in retirement, these patriots think they can accumulate double to quadruple.  Hmmmm.

And then there’s Alexandra Wallace.  She is a dumb ass for making a public rant that could potentially offend 2 billion people!  Doesn’t she know that her name will be forever linked to someone who hates Asians?  The majority of all employers will Google your name just to make sure nothing crazy comes up.  She must be a trust fund baby, because she’s going to have a tough time finding a full-time job unless she wipes her identity clean and changes her name.

My $350 dumb ass chair massage.

Just recently, I went to park at a local drugstore parking lot in the middle of the day.  The lot has a 1 hour time limit so I figured I’d go to the bank to deposit some cash money and then hop on over to the Chair Massage Store and get a free back rub before buying my sundries.  I sunk my way in one of those ridiculously priced $6,000 leather machines and kicked back enjoying a massage I would have paid $80 for otherwise.  The clerk literally let me keep on going for 45 minutes!  All was wonderful until I got back to the parking lot 1 hour 20 minutes later to find Moose GONE!  WTF!  The parking Nazi called the tow company on the 55th minute mark and it ended up costing me $350 to go rescue Moose!  What a burn!  I’m such a dumb ass!

$30,000 for hope, which is not a strategy.

I remember losing some $30,000 (roughly 25%) in a gas trading company because I overly concentrated my risk on one stock and foolishly thought gas prices, and therefore its stock price would rebound.  Well, they didn’t and I had to pull the rip chord in late 2006 only after three months of holding.  If had bought a more regular size position and had a stop loss, I would have lost only about $10,000.  At least I wasn’t the only casualty as Amaranth Capital lost US$6 billion betting the same way.  Damn, that was an ugly dumb ass trade!

A $100,000+ vacation property mistake.

I once had the idea of buying vacation properties all over the world, to relax all over the world, while making an income as well during retirement.  It’s a decent idea if everything stays stable, but of course the real estate market blew up.  I realized I was in the midst of things blowing up, and the trader in me couldn’t resist buying a place $115,000 cheaper than what the owner had bought the place for just a year ago.  Well guess what?  The place went down another $100,000 + a year later because the mortgage market for vacation properties dried up and nobody could get a loan!  The mortgage market has since thawed out a little, and the rents do cover most of the costs, but damn I should have waited just one year longer, or at least bought after seeing an uptick.  Although I never plan to sell, I’m still a dumb ass idiot for buying too soon.  At least I’ll have some fond memories while I’m up there! Note: I classify vacation property differently than rental property.  One is a luxury + rental income, the other is purely for income.

GETTING AHEAD IS PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD

Bugatti Veyron

No matter how perfect one seems, know that they have a lot of dumb ass in them.  This is the reason why you should never give up.  There will be openings at work, in relationships, and in life where you just have to pounce when mishaps happen.  Eventually, it will be your turn to be a dumb ass and the reverse will happen so don’t feel guilty.

It really doesn’t take much to get ahead.  You just have to be a little bit smarter, and a little bit savvier than the dumb ass person next to you.  At the same time, you need to always appear dumber and more aloof than you really are.  Personal finance is really straight forward.  Yet, you see a lot of stupid activity anyway.  My advice to you is to secretly do all the right things.  Can someone tell me whether I should go buy a $2.6 million Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 now?  A company expense perhaps?  Thanks!

Readers, what are some of the dumb ass things you’ve done?  Have you stumbled across some seriously questionable posts before?  Are we all dumb asses?  Please feel free to highlight more of my dumb ass posts as examples!

Note: Besides Moose getting towed, the large majority of my poor financial decisions have been due to my desire to do better financially and live a better life.  No risk, no reward as they say.  Too bad nothing is risk free except for treasuries and CDs under $250,000.

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

If you are a dumb ass, please sign up for my RSS Feed or E-mail Feed and keep in touch.

For all those who didn’t perform well in college, don’t want to perform well in college, aren’t willing to go back to grad school to give yourself a second chance, and like to make excuses for not trying harder, you’re in for a real treat!  It’s clear from the comments in my article “Examples of Good Resumes That Get Jobs,” that your GPA doesn’t matter.  As someone who has participated in the hiring of dozens of individuals all these years, I’ve got it all wrong and I’m glad you called me out on it.

I’d like to think of myself as a very flexible person who sees both sides of the equation.  Hence, in this post, I want to highlight why your GPA doesn’t matter at all, and why you should feel confident in never putting your GPA on your resume.  Working hard is overrated and employers are certainly looking for as many C and B students out there as they are A students.

WHY GRADES DON’T MATTER

1) You are special. You have done many award winning things that have brought you accolade.  You started a game changing business or are a virtuoso violinist.  In the world of millions, you do not believe there are also people with great grades that can also do great things.  People need to recognize you for who you are.  You are unwilling to conform by getting good grades.

2) You learn for the love of learning. What’s most important is that you absorb the material you are learning and put it to good use.  You don’t feel you have to justify your learning by getting good grades.  You do not believe it is possible to learn for the love of learning and also get good grades.

3) You believe experience matters most. College is a great time to experiment new things and meet new people.  You believe people who get good grades are incapable of experiencing college in its “purest” form.

4) You believe grades are not a barometer for success. Once you get into the school of your choice after high school, that’s all that matters.  Once you have that good school on your resume, you believe your employer will not use grades to differentiate you from your thousands of other classmates.

5) You believe life is too short to get good grades. Why bother studying hard and standing above your competition when there are great shows to watch and places to see? Life is too short to work hard and give yourself the best chance possible to pursue what you want to do.

6) You believe there will be people out there in great positions who will empathize with you. After all, people stick together and look out for their own.  There will be people in charge of hiring who did poorly in college.  You don’t want to risk hurting this potential bond by doing well yourself.

7) You believe in equality. It doesn’t matter if someone got a 4.0 GPA, attended 6 more years in medical school, and works 80 hour daily shifts.  You believe you also deserve to make $500,000 a year, provide a luxurious life for your family, and receive the same accolades.  Both of you are human and deserve to be treated equally.

8) You are not American. Apparently, it is very rare for other countries except for the United States (questionable too, hence this post) who use grades as one determinant of whether you will be a hard working, good hire or not.

9) You are already very wealthy. Grades mean nothing because you can always work for your parents company, live off your trust fund, or live off your spouse.

10) You believe that only the best organizations care about high performers. If your organization isn’t one of the “top 10%”, then your company must not care about choosing the best people for the job.

12) You believe there is no correlation with good grades, effort and quality of life. You believe most of the cool kids in school who got poor grades will do great.  You have example after example of very successful people who did poorly in school.  You don’t believe there is a correlation between education and a good life.  Undoubtedly, most of the successful people you see in this world didn’t have good grades.

13) You believe as a student looking for a job, you know more than the person who is looking to hire you. As you a student, you have years of experience hiring, firing, and building a team.  As a result, your beliefs about the unimportance of grades trumps the hiring manager’s beliefs of the importance of grades.  After all, you are special.

14) You believe it is easier to re-invent the wheel than accepting one of many variables that indicate performance. You’d rather make your own tennis racquet than buy one from the store, or program your own website than use one of the thousands of customizable templates.

15) You don’t care if your doctor did poorly at a no-name med school. All doctors are the same when it comes to performing life saving surgery, so long as they passed the medical exam.  Besides, he’s a nice guy.

16) Since grades don’t matter, you don’t believe where you went to school matters either. You don’t believe there is a correlation with some of the most successful people in the world and the schools they attended.  If you had a choice, you’d rather go to Chico State than Harvard because grades don’t matter getting into school, and therefore schools don’t matter.

17) You believe posting your GPA takes up too much space on your resume. 3.3/4.0 takes up seven spaces, which is crucial real estate where you could be writing how great you are.

18) You believe the best way to achieve economic progress is through Socialism. Socialism is when there is no personal responsibility and no reward for hard work.  You are willing to help your 2.0 GPA classmate who parties all night by giving her 1.0 of your 4.0 GPA so both of you can have a chance with your 3.0s.  As a result, everybody will eventually stop working hard in order to gain benefits from others, and tremendous progress will be made.

19) The economy is so hot all you need is a pulse and you can get a job. The situation is exactly like the housing boom where anybody who could sign their name could get a loan.   Good credit is meaningless for banks since they’ve done so well these past three years, just like good grades are meaningless for employers.

LET’S CHANGE PERCEPTION!

After listing all the things which support the fact that grades don’t matter when choosing someone to hire, let’s start a movement and change perception!  It is much easier to change the perception of the thousands of firms, than focus on improving ourselves.  Forget about studying hard or going back to grad school to give ourselves a second chance.  We are special and the world must see who we are!

Readers, please share with us more reasons why grades don’t matter.  If grades don’t matter, are colleges being totally moronic for giving grades?  What’s the point then?  Is it logical to conclude that since most students aren’t A students, most people will concur that grades don’t matter?

LIGHT BULB IDEA!: What about starting a firm that is strictly only allowed to hire C+ or worse students.  Furthermore, the company will pay everybody the same, regardless of performance.  Surely, this will be the best organization in the world, yes?

Best,

Sam

President Obama’s State of The Union address was well delivered.  He said almost everything right – from restoring spending discipline to improving education to allowing everyone access to affordable health care.  The one thing President Obama didn’t say correctly was regarding taxation.  He said illogically not to let millionaires get away with their tax cuts at the expense of X, Y, and Z.

Can anybody guess where the inconsistency is in President Obama’s words on income taxes?  On the one hand, President Obama attacks millionaires, yet he so strongly pushes to raise taxes on individuals making only $200,000 and couples making $250,000!  Last time I checked, someone making $200,000 a year isn’t making a million dollars.  And someone making $200,000 a year isn’t necessarily a millionaire!

SAVING FACE THANKS TO POOR NEGOTIATIONS

I was very disappointed when the Democrats rolled over so easily this past December and accepted Republican’s demands for no tax increases.  Sure, the Republicans wanted permanent tax rates and settled for a 2 year tax cut extension.  However, it’s clear the Democrats gave too much.  The budget deficit is a big problem, and by not raising taxes we will surely pay for our excesses because it’s not enough to just cut spending.  Poor children of America.

All President Obama had to do was raise taxes on millionaires, you know, the ones making over a million a year!  If you make $1,000,000 a year, there is no way in hell you will be hurting if you have to pay 4% more on any money made over $379,000.  Besides, the $379,000 figure is so arbitrary whereas $1 million, although still arbitrary, is less so given the vernacular we use to describe rich people.

There’s no way you will ever publicly complain about a 4% tax increase if you are making over a million bucks.  You can live in expensive Manhattan, and still live a damn good life earning $1,000,000 paying 39% in Federal taxes.  It’s not ideal, but it’s doable at the margin.

I’m absolutely convinced that Republicans would have agreed to a $1,000,000 income level threshold where tax increases kick in.  We have missed the opportunity to raise taxes on the true millionaires and billionaires of America whose revenue we so desperately need to pay down our deficit.  Leave the rest of us alone!

2011 FEDERAL MARGINAL TAX BRACKETS

As you can see from the table above, the more you make the even more you pay.  I’ve long argued for a flat tax to simplify the tax code, raise tax revenue, and provide more incentive for people to do great things.  Tack on 5-10% state tax rates and it’s understandable why those making ~$200-$500,000 a year who live in expensive cities have something to argue about.  Slap on a 40% tax bracket for anything over $1,000,000 to ensure we capture the revenue of our multi-millionaire and billionaire friends and let’s pay off the budget deficit!

Readers, what did you think of the State of The Union address?  Why do you think the Democrats didn’t argue harder for the $1 million income threshold?  Doesn’t that make a lot of sense?

Regards,

Sam

When the state of California raised the sales tax by another 1% on April 1, 2009 I was pretty pissed.  What kind of government expects their residents to pay a whopping 10% tax on everything they buy?  Pedro doesn’t want to pay $200 in taxes on his $2,000 60-inch LCD TV.  Nancy shouldn’t have to pay $300 more on her $3,000 diamond encrusted bracelet.  And I certainly don’t want to spend $5,200 in taxes on a handsome $52,000 BMW!  That’s just ridiculous!

We the people of California deserve our luxury items just like every other parrot-brained consumer in America.  Who’s to dictate what we can and can’t waste our hard earned money on?  Certainly not some bureaucrat in Sacramento counting all his money under the table, no way!

GOVERNMENT WANTS YOU TO SAVE WHILE THEY SPEND

I was angry about the mismanaged state of our budget and so I went on strike.  I cut down my purchases so drastically that by April, 2010, one year after the sales tax raise, I literally had over $20,000 in extra spending money in the bank.  You see, I figure I spend about $20,000 a year for the past 5 years on stuff.  This stuff includes automobiles, watches, shoes, clothing, musical instruments, computers and so forth.

I could accept paying 8.5%, or $1,700 in taxes on $20,000 a year in stuff.  But, I drew the line at 10% and wasn’t willing to support government waste, greed, and mismanagement by contributing $2,000 a year in sales tax.  I’d rather just laze around and demand government help than contribute to a lost cause so I stopped consuming in California.

The $1,700 in California sales taxes I paid on average for the past 5 years literally declined by 95% last year.  Whenever there is something to buy in California, I think about the 10% sales tax and get sick to my stomach.  I end up putting the item back on the shelf and walk away.

THANK YOU CALIFORNIA

I just want to formally thank California for jacking up taxes so much.  It’s great that whether one is poor or rich, they are still going to have to pay the same 10% sales tax on basic necessities.  So thoughtful of you guys!  Without government mismanagement and corruption, I wouldn’t be $20,000 richer today.  I would have spent merrily all along, not thinking about where the tax revenue is going.

So thanks again guys for helping me save a boatload of money over the past year.  You guys might as well increase the sales tax to 30% for all I care.  You’ll really crush your tax revenue by causing a halt in spending.  Not only that, you’ll just have people move out of California.  Washington, here I come!

Readers, any of you drastically cut down your spending after higher taxes?  Do you think people will stop working as much once their Federal Income tax rates go from 33% and 35% to 36% and 39.5%, respectively?

What are your thoughts of a VAT tax?

Note: There are 7 no-income tax States in America.

Cheers,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our RSS feed.

What do Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University have in common?  They are considered the Top 5 best schools in the nation according to recruiters!  Wall Street Journal has this unique ranking system where they essentially ask corporate recruiters to rank their best schools.

I’ve seen a lot of college surveys before, and not once have I ever seen any of these schools in the Top 5, let alone in the top 10.  Let’s be honest, for the same cost, would you go to one of these schools over Harvard, Yale, Penn, MIT, Michigan, or Berkeley?  Most would say “probably not,” so what gives?

Let’s have a look at why recruiters are so excited about these schools.

* Size. The average student population of the top 5 schools is around 28,000.  This means that out of a class size of 7,000, there’s a higher chance of finding someone they like.

* Sports. The top 5 schools all have big time basketball and football programs.  Americans are obsessed with sports, which is why every single one of you should also play and at least follow sports.

* Public. All five schools are public schools.  We are in a period where it’s all about the middle class and not standing out.  Anything private, that costs more than the average annual income of an American isn’t going to fly.

* Competition. It’s much easier getting into these top 5 schools with an average acceptance rate of ~50% vs. 15% for the traditionally accepted top schools.  As a result, there’s a less “the world owes me” type attitude as students are more humble and eager to please their perspective employers.

* Representation. Being a recruiter isn’t exactly the hardest job in the world to land.  As a result, there is a high likelihood that most of the recruiters come from the very schools they have voted to the top!  We all want to take care of our own, and recruiters are no different.

CONCLUSION

Surveys are great because they can be manipulated to suit the surveyor’s beliefs.  Everybody looks out for their own, and the Wall Street Journal is no different.  Look into the management of the WSJ and I’m sure you’ll find one of them who is an alumni of their Top 5.

Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University are all fine schools.  They just aren’t the top schools the WSJ believes them to be, otherwise they’d have the most Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, Nobel Laureates, endowments, and so forth.  Frankly, the WSJ might as well rank colleges by their proximity to the Pacific Ocean!  Now that would be a great survey!

Readers, would you go to any of the WSJ’s Top 5 schools over other big names such as Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, MIT and so forth?

Getting by the recruiter is the ultimate goal, so shouldn’t this ranking system be perfectly legitimate?

Regards,

Sam

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:

“Say you’re married with salary income of $120,000, 401(k) contributions of $12,000, two under-age-17 kids, and a college student with $4,000 in education expenses. Assume you also bought a home this year that qualifies for the now-defunct $6,500 credit for existing homeowners. Finally, assume you’re eligible for the $1,500 credit for energy-efficient home improvements. Believe it or not, your 2010 federal income tax bill will be zero even if you only claim the standard deduction.

Your tax bill of $11,950 is completely wiped out by $13,300 in credits ($2,000 child credit, $2,500 education credit, $6,500 home buyer credit, $1,500 credit for energy-efficient improvements, and the $800 Making Work Pay credit). In fact, you’ll get a $1,350 check from the government because some of your credits are refundable ($13,300 of credits – $11,950 of tax = $1,350 of free money),” writes Bill Bischoff of SmartMoney.

VOTING TO RAISE TAXES ON OTHERS WHEN YOU PAY NO TAXES IS LIKE……..

* Dr. Phil writing a book and telling someone to lose weight.

* Suzie Orman telling you to invest in the stock market when only 2% of her wealth is invested in equities.

* A recent college graduate teaching you how to be rich.

* A hardcore vegetarian who wears leather shoes.

* A priest who preaches acceptance but expects you to burn in hell when Armageddon comes if you don’t convert.

* The United States implementing economic sanctions against emerging countries for polluting.

* A boss who tells you to work hard but goes and plays golf every other day and takes long lunches.

* US Treasury Secretary Geithner saying raising taxes is “the right thing to do” but cheats on his own taxes.

CONCLUSION

Some may argue that voting is a fundamental right as decreed by the 15th amendment of the Constitution.  I agree, go ahead and vote on whether the government should implement a flat tax on those who pay nothing. It’s only fair.  Just don’t go around pretending as a non tax payer, you have the right to vote on persecuting others to pay for your own free government benefits.

It’s so obvious to any rational person that if you pay no taxes, you can’t possibly be able to vote for people whose agenda it is to raise taxes on others.  Yet, millions of non tax paying Americans continue to support tax increases for the rich, who may very well be the ones who help keep the millions who don’t pay taxes employed!

Friendly Americans who pay no taxes, please have a heart and enjoy your spoils and stop punishing others further.  For the 53% of Americans who do pay taxes, let us decide what is the right level of income taxation to help support the economy and you guys.  We might vote to raise our own taxes and dis-incentivize ourselves to work hard.  So be it.  At least we get to vote on our own destiny!  Thanks!

Readers, do you think it’s right that the 47% of Americans who pay no taxes can vote on raising taxes for others who already pay?

Why do you think the government and the people of America allow this type of double standard?

Any suggestions on how to stop the persecution of hard working Americans?

Any other examples of “voting to raise taxes on others when you pay no taxes”?

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our E-mail or RSS feed.

One of my best friends is blessed with skinny genes.  At 5′ 3″ tall, she weighs all of 105 pounds.  When we go out to eat, she doesn’t just order a glass of iced tea and salad with dressing on the side.  She goes all out with mash potatoes, creamed spinach, BBQ oysters and then a nice juicy ribeye for a main course!  I gawk in amazement at her appetite while secretly groaning at trying to keep up towards the end.  After all, shouldn’t she eat 40% less than me if she weighs 40% less?  Guess not!

Despite my friend’s envious genetics, she isn’t exactly iron woman when it comes to sports and outdoor activities.  After three miles on a 10 mile bike ride, she’s pooped and waves at me to take a break.  Meanwhile, I’m going “lah, lah, lah” in my head, not even breaking a sweat as I soak in the glorious views of the Bay.  I let her catch up and we take a five minute pit-stop where she catches her breath as I go do some stretches and sit-ups.

THE GIMMICK

One day my friend tells me about a great incentive program at our local gym.  I kid her often because despite her $100/month membership, she never goes.  She comes up to show me a gleaming new card which says, “BURN TO EARN!”  Hmmm, what’s that I ask her?  She tells me that if she goes to the gym 20X in the next two months, she will be entered for a chance to win a free t-shirt, socks, swimming goggles, a weekend in Napa, or two rounds of golf which she does not play at some country club somewhere.

Suddenly,  I notice a transformation.  From going maybe once a month, my friend starts going 3-4X a week!  All for what?  A chance to win a simple T-shirt?  Needless to say, after two months, she was absolutely ripped.  We’re talking Madonna-like abs, and thankfully not Modonna-like arms, because that’s just scary.  When the time for the drawing came, she gleefully whipped out her BURN TO EARN card and gave it one good luck kiss.

As fortune would have it she won absolutely diddily squat in the first round.  Luckily, there was a consolidation round and there she heard, “And the winner of  a brand new pair of tubular socks is….. Lisa!“  A shrill of joy belched out of her little frame as she jumped up and down “I won!  I won!  Wheeee!“  I think I rolled my eyes because I didn’t win anything and couldn’t believe her luck.  New tubular socks.  Sweet!

CONCLUSION

By just administering a small rewards program, our health club was able to get a notoriously great client (one who pays on time and never goes) the motivation to go 15X more than normal.  I go 10X+ a month anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.  But for Lisa, it was like watching a new person altogether.  The lesson learned is that the next time you want to get someone to do anything, tempt them with cotton that warms the feet!

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our RSS or E-mail feed.

Michael Moore thinks he is pointing out injustices through his latest documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story“.  Instead, Michael simply reminds us that life isn’t fair in a free market economy where those who work hard sometimes get the short end of the stick through no fault of their own.

I find it ironic that one of the wealthiest documentary filmmakers is bashing Capitalism.  Despite highlighting that 33% of “young Americans” now believe in Socialism (37% for Capitalism, 30% undecided), it’s hard to argue for a better system.  It’ll be interesting to see if these young Americans still believe in Socialism by the time they reach their thirties and make some money.  Socialism just creates a new set of problems for society.  Is it really that bad buying a foreclosed property from someone who can’t pay their debt on time?  Property vultures are necessary to provide a floor in many devastated markets or else things go to zero and more people suffer.

There is a sense of self-righteousness when Michael tells the viewer that he can’t fight the system alone and encourages all to rise up.  Michael you aren’t alone.  Thousands upon thousands of us fight for what we believe in every single day.  I wish Michael would put his money where his mouth is and donate all his proceeds to helping victims he continues to highlight.

A STRANGE PLACE

Have you ever seen a journalist report from some God-forsaken place where malnourished children are starving in the background?  Do you ever think to yourself, instead of jibber jabbering away, why don’t you just shut up and provide some food for the starving children behind you?  The documentary is kind of like that.  Michael mocks ministers, judges, companies, government, and Wall St. to the point where I start thinking, why not just do something other than make a documentary?

There are some important parts to the documentary which made me want to stand up and cheer.  Most notably was the 6 day factory worker lock-out which got Bank of America to finally pay them $6,000 in unemployment benefits from zero.  That made me proud, because people were standing up against a company who just threw them away like garbage.  Digging dipper though, why is Bank of America responsible for their benefits just because they got some bailout money?  Shouldn’t the company itself be responsible?

TIME FLIES

The problem lies in the timing of this documentary.  Nobody could have foreseen that in just one year since Lehman’s bankruptcy, the economy would rebound so quickly.  The fear mongering has subsided and a sense of normalcy has returned.

He praises Obama for his promises, which one year later have not all been kept.  Making a shady deal with the Senator of Nebraska to get him to vote for the health care bill by exempting Nebraskans for paying is not right.  As a result, after 30 years of Democratic rule in Massachusetts, a Republican takes former Edward Kennedy’s place.

Michael trashes Wall St. for receiving $700 billion in bailout money, making it seem like everybody in the industry had a part in forcing people to buy homes they couldn’t afford.  One year later, a majority of the $700 billion has been repaid with handsome returns boasted by the government.  Are the taxpayers thanking Wall St. for their profits?  No, because frankly, as taxpayers, we pay the same amount of taxes regardless of where our money goes!

CONCLUSION

I commend Michael for making another hit documentary about this latest downturn.  The snark is entertaining and therefore worth the watch.  He makes the viewer think about issues, but he does not convince me that Capitalism is indeed ‘evil” as all his interviewed priests proclaim.  If Capitalism is truly evil, why is The Church one of the richest institutions in the world?  If Capitalism is evil, is Bill Gates also evil for donating billions to fight disease and poverty?  No, Capitalism isn’t evil and Michael Moore will profit handsomely once again.

TWO DVDs TO GIVEAWAY

* Share with us your thoughts on whether you think Capitalism is good or evil and why.

* Follow on Twitter and provide color in your tweet.

* Sign up for our RSS and E-mail feed.

Competition ends Sunday, March 28!

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”