Jan 01
Another year has passed. Later this week, I’ll have my goals for the new year to share, but for now, I’ll just take this moment to wish all my readers and fellow Personal Finance Bloggers a Happy, Healthy New Year.
Dec 25
I am taking off through New Year’s Day. Spending the week in the city (for me “The City” will always mean NYC, no place else like it in the world) with my daughter, ‘Jane 2.0.’ I’ve never perfected the art of writing ahead of periods I plan to be away. Maybe 2012 will be different. I hope this past year treated you well, and the the new year brings you the right mix of wealth, health, and happiness. Be well, and see you all next year.
Joe
Dec 14
When I mentioned The Financial Buff’s Behavioral Economics Explanation for Sensitivity on Service Fees a couple weeks back, I didn’t think an example of this would come to my attention so quickly. But first, a quick recap of TFB’s article. His discussion focused on how people reacted to the $5/mo debit card fee that Bank of America was about to inflict charge on its victims customers. This was the first example, baggage fees, another. Today, here’s mine.
This is a ticket (redacted to eliminate my info) to an upcoming concert. The ticket price is $125, which I guess is within reason, good baseball tickets cost this much and there’s 90 chances to see the local team play at home. Yanni, or any performer is pretty limited in how often you can see them play live. But the thing I found irksome was the ticketing fee, $18.50. There’s a transaction cost the credit card processor charges, and I get a 2% rebate each month, so there’s $2.50, it’s the balance of $16 to process this transaction that I object to. The agent has little overhead to handle this ticket, in fact they print nothing and mail nothing out. It was all done electronically. Here’s the crazy thing – If the tickets showed a price of $150 with a $1 mailing fee or free to print yourself, I’d have been happy and thought this a great deal. It’s only when the fee is broken out and I see I’ve paid $37 to process two tickets that I feel ripped off. Not enough to avoid the transaction of course, but just enough to write about it. Last I saw Yanni live was over 20 years ago, before I was married, and he gave a great concert, looking forward to seeing him again. But I won’t be buying popcorn there.
Dec 09
Sometimes I’m wrong and I know I’m wrong. Other times, it takes an intelligent reader (ha! you thought I’d say my wife. Well, she doesn’t read me, so it takes a reader!) to set me straight.
In this past Sunday’s roundup, I joined the Thousandaire to poke fun at Joe Biden for his low net worth. Often, when pulling titles together for my roundup, I don’t go a level deeper. In this case, that lack of extra research has me feeling pretty bad. As Elle pointed out to me, Joe Biden did not have the luxury of being able to save, but he had his priorities straight. From Elle’s comment:
“Biden’s wife and baby daughter died in 1972, and his two sons had critical injuries, when a truck crashed into the car his wife was driving. Biden was a single dad of two sons for the next 4.5 years. Wiki entry: “To be at home every day for his young sons, Biden began the practice of commuting every day by Amtrak train for 1½ hours each way from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, D.C., which he continued to do throughout his Senate career… Biden left standing orders that he be interrupted in the Senate at any time if his sons called.” Biden re-married in 1977 and had a daughter with his second wife.
Three kids to put through college and graduate school. A long commute for nearly all his working life. If the guy has a positive net worth; managed to put his children through graduate school; and has no mortgage; then given the pension, he is wealthy.”
So, I’m left to say “Sorry, Joe.” You are a good dad, and no bank balance can take that away from you. As Elle continued “I’ll take a low income VP or senator, who’s scrambling like most of the U.S. to make a living, over a wealthy one (especially those who inherited) any day.” I agree with her sentiment. And I wish you well.
Nov 24
This year, we’re having Thanksgiving at my Mother-in-Law’s place. A 55+ community with a restaurant right in the building. I’m told that while turkey is a menu item, it’s just one of many choices, so as my way of protesting, I am not going to eat turkey tomorrow. What am I protesting? I don’t know, I’ll get back to you with that. What are my demands? I am certain I have just one demand and I will demand it once it’s been formulated. I’m thinking it will be big, I may demand world peace, or an end to hunger. Maybe that’s not thinking big enough, maybe I’ll go right to the Big Guy ™ and demand He stop with the earthquakes, tornadoes, and flooding. I know, He promised never the flood the entire planet again, but these little floods seem to circumvent that promise, to those flooded, it may as well be the world, to them, it seems that way.
Joe, (that’s me, talking to myself, poetic license) have you lost your mind? This is a load of nonsense, you been hitting the eggnog a bit early?
I wish. Actually I’ve been trying to understand the demands of those who are part of Occupy Wall Street. I know they’re upset with the 1%. As my friend and fellow blogger Kay Bell wrote, Who’s in the top 1 percent of earners, it takes about $350K adjusted gross income to be in this elite group. And I’m pretty sure their are Doctors, Lawyers, and other professionals whose lives are far from Wall Street yet they are in this group. Is 1% the point, or are they really protesting the $1 million a year income folk who are mostly on Wall Street? I’m not so sure of that, as I read an article in the National Review, What the Wall Street Protesters Want, in which the protesters ask “Why does a municipal worker make $30,000 a year when Matt Damon and Johnny Depp manage to extort $20 million for a month’s work……” Huh? When did Matt Damon become a symbol of Wall Street gone crazy? Put that way, it appears OWS is questioning the very nature of compensation. One can ask what makes anyone worth their salary, why do teachers make $X but (fill in your favorite profession) make $Y? Actors, Singers, Sport figures, all successful ones are in the spotlight and make the big bucks, should we applaud them or protest this?
In a “communique” nearly two months ago, a list of demand was offered;
- Ending capital punishment is our one demand.
- Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.
- Ending police intimidation is our one demand.
- Ending corporate censorship is our one demand.
- Ending the modern gilded age is our one demand.
- Ending political corruption is our one demand.
- Ending joblessness is our one demand.
- Ending poverty is our one demand.
- Ending health-profiteering is our one demand.
- Ending American imperialism is our one demand.
- Ending war is our one demand.
I’ll accept their use of “one demand” as a rhetorical device, and just look at the content of this list. In hindsight, the demands of my introduction were pretty reasonable compared to these. Ironically, I’m ok with most of these goals, who doesn’t wish to end poverty for instance? But to end wealth inequality seems the antithesis of both capitalism and democracy. Just for laughs, let’s say I agree with this goal. How would it be implemented? Would everyone earn the average, and there be no distinction between the pay of a fast food worker and a brain surgeon? How would the economy absorb the loss of those high end earners? Would all businesses catering to the wealthy simply cease? Or are they protesting (again) the million dollar incomes, and want to tighten the range of income, not actually bring it to parity? End joblessness? Hasn’t that been the goal since Bush destroyed the economy left office?
The truth is, I don’t know what they really want. And since I have no idea how to solve these major issues, I doubt any of these protesters do either. When they figure it out, I hope they let us know. Happy Thanksgiving.
Nov 17
It wasn’t long ago that the price of copper started rise to the level where a pound of pennies (about 145) cost more than their face value to produce. The last year a 95% copper penny was made was 1982, just under 17 billion pennies minted that year. Since then, pennies have been made of zinc with a plating of copper less than 1% of the penny’s weight. By the way, if you want to try to tell the difference between a current penny or a pre-1982 cent, just drop it on the table, the copper cent has a slight ring, but the zinc just a mild thud. Still, with the price of zinc rising as well, there are efforts to stop producing the penny and just rounding purchases. We’ll see if the penny leaves our change purses one day.
But, that’s all an introduction. It seems now the dollar bill is now at risk. Earlier this year, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) produced a report concluding that by removing the dollar bill from circulation and forcing the distribution of the dollar coin, the government can save nearly $5.5 billion over 30 years or $184 million dollars per year net present benefit. When we look at the Federal Budget of $3.7 trillion dollars (That’s 3,700 billions) this savings might seem small. But, to quote Senator Everett Dirksen, ““A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” In this case, let’s kill the paper and start to look for other ways to save a couple hundred million dollars, soon, we’ll be talking real money.
How would 4 dollar coins feel in your pocket? I often find the quarters adding up, and pulled eight out of my pocket last night. They weighed 45 grams, just a bit more than 5 dollar coins weigh. So, to keep my pockets from ripping, I’d probably be just a bit more careful to spend the change when I spend cash and don’t charge a small item. What would you miss more, the penny, or the dollar bill? I do have one proposal. If we get rid of George’s bill, let’s keep minting his image on the coin, at least for some fraction of coins per year. And then just mint as many as it takes to keep the cashiers happy.
