Everybody Loves Your Money

You can see the latest carnival at Broke Grad Student:

http://www.brokegradstudent.com/carnival-of-personal-finance-167-highlights-from-the-beijing-2008-olympics/

I’ve been reading Rob Cockerham’s website for a long time.  He’s done some pretty funny things over the years.  If you’ve never spent any time surfing around his site, I’d highly recommend it.  His latest "project" had him posting a "found money" listing on Craigslist.  He was curious to see what kind of a response he’d get.  He’s convinced one group was trying to pull one over on him to get the cash.  I’d have to agree.  Anyway, it’s worth the read:

http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/found/found.php

A few of my other favorites from over the years:

The torn up credit card application:

http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/creditcard/application.shtml

Altering the menus of restaurants:

http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/menu/menu01.html

The "Work at Home" Herbalife report:

http://www.cockeyed.com/workfromhome/workfromhome.html

You know how I love reading about the trials and tribulations of lottery winners.  Brad Duke is the example of someone that knew how to turn his lottery winnings in to a life long investment.  Unfortunately most other people aren’t that successful with their winnings.

Take Rhoda Toth as an example.  She won $13 million 18 years ago and has long since gambled and spent that money.  In 2006 she and her husband were accused of tax evasion and the trial just completed.  Unfortunately for her husband Alex has since died so it’s just poor Rhoda facing the music.

At her sentencing, she claimed that she had MS and couldn’t walk.   When the judge saw video of her walking around, he opted to sentence her to jail, rather than let her off with a smaller punishment.

Just think.  18 years ago she was on top of the world.  Now, she is facing jail time and is broke.  Had she invested that money all those years ago, she’d be dining in the same restaurants as Warren Buffet.  (Okay, bad example because we all know Warren eats in pretty darned normal restaurants, but you get the point.)

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=86972&catid=8

I just discovered the next movie I want to see.  It’s called IOUSA and is a documentary about the massive debt we have in our country and what the long term implications are.  It isn’t being released on a large scale but I was able to find some theatres near me that will be showing it.

Here is the link to the official movie site:

http://www.iousathemovie.com

Here is a link to a review about it:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008103033_pfdebtfilm10.html

Since I haven’t seen the movie yet I can’t say much about it but I will post a review once I’m able to see it.  Is there a way out of this huge overbearing debt?  Is Rome falling?

Interesting article that talks about the total net worth of the US and then divides that by the price of oil.  It turns out that 400 billion barrels of oil would buy the entire US.  Saudi Arabia and Iran have just enough proven reserves to cover it.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/HowMuchOilItdTakeToBuyTheUS.aspx

If only oil wasn’t such a valuable natural resource and we had other alternatives.  Oh, and then there is the whole issue of how broke the US is……..

This doesn’t sound all that different than an article you might read in the US.  The only difference is that Macedonia has a 35% unemployment rate and poverty is huge.  Families use the motto "You only live once" to rationalize the huge expense and potential debt for years.  They actually get bank loans to throw the parties.  I think that most of these parties are weddings (like the article discusses) but does that make it okay?  One family said that if they don’t spend the money on the wedding, people will visit them all year long to congratulate them, which could end up costing more than the wedding.  I’m struggling to believe that, although I don’t know much about the Macedonian culture.  Anyway, it’s very much worth the read:

BusinessWeek Article on Macedonian Parties

I stumbled on to this interesting site today.  Basically it’s a site that asks for anonymous information about how much you make at your company and then posts it anonymously for all the other members to see.  It’s sort of like NetworthIQ but for salaries instead of net worth. I haven’t actually signed up for it yet, but I’m thinking about it.  If they have reliable data, it should be pretty fascinating over the long term.

Check it out: http://www.glassdoor.com

Want to see what properties are selling for in an area and then compare that to rental rates?  Hotpads does just that.  It also provides really cool heat maps to show you, at a glance, where it makes more sense to rent vs buy.  This tool could prove very valuable to someone trying to decide whether to buy in to an area or not.  It also has other demographic information as well. It’s well worth a quick look.

And check out this site: http://hotpads.com/main.htm

I’m not getting any sort of compensation for linking to them.  I just found them both to be two new refreshing looks at things that affect our personal finance lives.

Happy Sunday morning to you.  Here are a few links I came across this morning:

Retire in paradise, whatever that might mean to you:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003948199_overseas14.html

Not enough to retire?  Start a home based business.  10 million other people are:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003948225_sellathome14.html

1 in 5 families are struggling to make ends meet:

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/even-jobs-41-million-americans/story.aspx?guid=%7BC5F1A412%2DD153%2D4477%2D96DE%2D9CEA8CA63DCB%7D

Are credit cards the next major crisis?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.hancock10oct10001523,0,987590.column?coll=bal_business_util

MadameX realized she’s been loaning her money to the banks a little too cheaply:

http://www.myopenwallet.net/2007/10/what-should-i-do-with-all-this-extra.html

File this one under “amusing time waster”:

http://www.mcvideogame.com/game-eng.html

Someone took the time to build a Mcdonalds simulation.  I’m sure the folks at McDonalds aren’t very happy about it but if you give it 10 minutes, I think you’ll find it’s a bit addictive.

I was able to make decent money but I kept having to deal with pathetic employees, environmental groups, health conscious consumers, earth destruction and sick cows (to mention just a few of the things you’ll encounter in the game).  I think I’ll stick to my day job…….

Here’s an interesting link to pictures from various countries showing how close the ultra poor and the not so ultra poor live.  It’s interesting to me that a simple street is sometimes the only divide.

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/19/extreme-rich-poor-divides/?/