Are You Ready for Some Financial Football?

Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 20, 2009

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Woo-Hoo! Football has finally started!

Better yet I got to watch my favorite team, The Washington Redskins, on TV(This is a big deal when you live in the middle of nowhere and you only have three channels). But let ye football gods strike me down because I ended up watching more of the US Open than I did the pigskin.

The way I figured I only had one more day of tennis left on TV, but I have 20 more weeks of football.

Besides every time I turned to the football game, the Giants were kicking butt, so I decided it was best that I didn’t watch. But I made sure to check my fantasy players.

That’s right, I’m a nerd!

The Redskins may have started out poorly, but my two fantasy teams are off to a great start(probably because I don’t have any Redskins…j/k I have Cooley).

And while I’m already a huge fantasy football fan, today I stumbled upon another football game that I think I’ll like.

Financial Football

It’s geared for teachers to use it in their classroom to help teach students financial literacy.

The game (sponsored by VISA) has four quick lesson plans which they recommend you go through before playing. They call it “training camp.”

The Fundamentals of Net Worth
Savings and Interest
Credit & Debit Cards
The Art of Budgeting

I didn’t have the patience to go through “training camp” so I dived in right away.

Here is an example of the questions they ask:

What is the first step in settling a retail dispute?

If you answered “call the retailer with whom you have the dispute”, you wouldn’t get tackled and gain a first down. The crowd would cheer and you’d get another question.

I opted to only play one quarter due to lack of time, and before I knew it I had The Redskins getting revenge on the Giants for their week one let down. I marched down the field and scored at will.

Hail to the Redskins!

But getting back to the point…

I thought it was an interesting way to reach out to kids and get them thinking about their finances. You should play it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Do you think it is appropriate material for classroom use? Do you think kids will take to it? Does it leave a bad taste in your mouth knowing it’s sponsored by Visa? Or do you think its crazy that the Redskins can march down the field on anyone?

Until next time,

-DD

» Filed Under Children and Money, Credit Cards

DD’s End of Summer Round Up, “To be Continued…Edition”

Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 16, 2009

I see from all the TV promos for new shows that the Fall TV season is about to begin. Which is too bad because it feels like summer was just starting.

As a kid I remember that all my favorite TV shows would end with a thrilling spring finale with a killer cliffhanger. That way I knew summer had started. The summer would be full of reruns and in the fall all my favorite shows would come back on.

I don’t know about you, but I hate cliffhangers! And by hate, I mean that I secretly love them. In my recent library post, I announced my affinity for the TV show Lost. It seems like every episode ends with a cliffhanger.

I hate it (I love it!!!)

They are so frustrating. Just when you think everything is going to be wrapped up nicely…BAM! Someone gets shot, drowned, drugged, lost, found, kidnapped, or a million other crazy things that you didn’t see coming.

Keeping us in anticipation for the next installment.

That is the idea I’m shooting for with this round up. The following were my favorite summer reads that had us coming back for more:

J Money @ Budgets are Sexy had a two part series on the Confessions of an Online Poker Player. I really liked these posts. I’ve never been much of a card shark myself, but I really liked Rounders, and one time while traveling I watched a World Series of Poker Marathon. So these posts brought me right back to the fantasy of making it as a professional gambler.
Smithee @ Consumerism Commentary asked whether or not Is it Ever Okay to Steal Entertainment. He then revisited the idea a week later. My wife makes her living taking pictures, so we do our best to honor copyrights, because we like it when people honor hers. But we live in a right click world, so this can be tricky at times.
JD @ Get Rich Slowly held a two week tryout for potential staff writers. As much as I love GRS, I really liked the 2 weeks of auditions. That probably speaks for the part of me that loves competition. After it was done, I kept waiting for the results, “Who was it going to be…” Told you I hate Cliffhangers.
The King of the two-parters is Bill Simmons, ESPN’s The Sports Guy. He ended summer with a two part column about a trip he and his friends took to Vegas. Good times! Here is Part One & Part Two.
Brainy @ Pants in a Can took time out from his Mommy blog(j/k) to describe the process of getting some trees removed. It ended up being a rather interesting five part series. Check it out: Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4, & part 5. My favorite was the video & pics in Part 4.

To really hammer the “To be Continued…” point home, allow me to bookend my summer posts with Pearl Jam.

Back in June I gave you some investing advice. That investment is already paying dividends! Pearl Jam’s new album will be out soon (I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. The best $13.99 I ever spent!!!) They currently are on a mini-tour and have released a new video:

At least this way you can’t say that the summer of 2009 didn’t rock!

Until next time,
-DD

» Filed Under Bloggers

Is Capitalism Always The Answer?

Posted by The Happy Rock on September 8, 2009

I know that probably sounds like blasphemy to a lot of folks out there, but I am starting to feel like it is the truth. As much as I like free markets, they don’t magically solve every problem. We all probably have different definitions of what we think capitalism is, so let’s define it so we all start off on the same page. I am not saying this is a perfect definition, but one that is probably is digestible by all of us.

Capitalism - An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods that are distributed chiefly by competition in a free market

I am really not here to bash capitalism, as I can only think of two other system that would work better, a completely benevolent king/dictator or communism. That’s right communism, not Marxism or the cold war kind or even the Communist China type of communism, but voluntary communism. Despite what you think about those two systems and how they might succeed or fail, free markets are wonderful and have a multitude of advantages.

Capitalism in and of itself is is fairly amoral, although one might argue the natural effects of capitalism on the human condition often leads us down immoral paths. With that said, what I really want to do is start a dialogue about some holes I am beginning to see in the American capitalism. I am not going to bore you with economic theory or politics, I would rather discuss actual stories of people that are near and dear to my heart.

Mom - The Hard Working Volunteer

First, let me set the stage for who my mom is. She is a poster-child for free market success and the American dream. As a poor single mother at the age of twenty she hustled her way from nearly homeless and living off food stamps and government cheese, to waitressing, to an associate’s degree, and finally to a $60,000+ a year job in a little over 25 years. She is the type of person that realizes that she needs to get n degree and within weeks is enrolled in classes, regardless of the numerous roadblocks like money, time, and child care. She escaped poverty , owned a home, and had a decent sum of money in the bank. The American Dream in action, with one little problem… she hated her field with a passion and only did it to get me through my expensive private school and provide for us. What an awesome unselfish parent! My life reaped the benefits of her love and devotion many times over.

After I left home, she decided to the sell the house, quit the job, and take up volunteering. This is where capitalism started to turn its back on her. She traveled to Zambia to help out in orphanages, educated children and adults on global poverty and hunger, rebuilt after Katrina, was a community organizer in a forgotten about city, and much more. Through all of this, she is left without being able to afford health insurance, and barely able to afford a car and housing let alone many luxuries. Why, because there aren’t profits to be made when working with poor and needy.

Now this is one of the hardest working ladies you will probably know. She isn’t the stereotype of the lazy person who doesn’t want to help themselves that people often use as reasoning for the government to not help people and for people to justify not giving their time and money. She is ambitious, motivated, committed, and hard working and has exceptional skills that she is bringing to society.

So where exactly does she fit in? I would think as a society we would want to support people like her. People who are willing to move travel where there are needs and give their time, energy, and love are in short demand. The ones that do exist have to barely eek out a financial existence. They have to waste their energy worrying about meeting the basic necessities of life, when instead they want to use that energy to pour themselves into people and problems that could use their full attention. It seems like there has to be a better way.

My Father In Law - The Devoted Farmer

Story number is two about a farmer from birth. He lives and breathes farming, and for those that don’t know any farmers they might work harder than any profession I have ever seen. Imagine working seven days from morning till night. The alarm goes off at 5:00am and he quickly grabs a small first breakfast and heads out to greet a never ending list of tasks often before the sun even rises. As much as he wants to take off on the seventh day or take a vacation, he can’t. Crops and animals don’t stop needing your attention just because it is Sunday. Work must go on whether it is in the blazing sun, bitter cold, or windy rain. Weather can also ruin months of work in a matter of days or hours. No rain for a week or two when the corn is first planted and it all shrivels up. I have gained a new found respect for the food I eat after spending years visiting a farm, it is brutal.

As hard as my father in law works, he will most likely never get ahead. Corporate farms and foreign imports usually ravage any semblance of profit he might of been able to ring out of the earth. He is forced to hop from one thing to another just trying to keep his head above water. I have seen him go from milking dairy cows, to raising beef cattle, to pigeons, to pigs, to raising animals for other farmers, all in less than 10 years.

He also isn’t a business man; that just isn’t one of the gifts that he has to offer this world. He’s a farmer with an awesome heart. He sells his sweet corn cheaper than most people because his customers are mostly fellow church members, friends or neighbors, and his dozen is more like 14 than 12. I remember the first time I helped the family weigh and wrap scrapple to sell. The capitalist in me struggled to watch him always round up and provide more product than he was ’supposed’ too at prices that were already too low. As time moves on I have come to really appreciate the heart and love for people that goes into most everything he does. I know it doesn’t make business sense, but he can’t ignore his heart. It is big like that, with a focus that is always on others. He doesn’t have expensive tastes and he isn’t wasting money either. Even with all his frugality, he won’t ever ‘make it’.

Again this is someone I would think society would want to encourage, not discourage. A man with that type of heart and that type of work ethic deserves to be rewarded not beaten down. He would be happy if he could just pick a crop or animal to raise that would fetch a fair price and rewarded him just reasonably well. But I am just not sure that will happen in this day and age. It seems like the system often discourages certain skill sets that we deem not as important rather than making sure that he has a revered and useful and compensated place. What is someone like this supposed to do?

What’s The Answer?

There you have it. Two beautiful hard working people that are outcasts in a capitalist system. There are others outcasts too(the poor, the sick, and the producers for starters), but these two people are real. I can’t help but root for them, although they won’t ever ‘win’. I know capitalism doesn’t mean them any direct harm, but it isn’t doing anything to help encourage them or even the playing field. The question is what is the answer? Do we need government to step in? Do we need to focus on a guiding morality to help govern our choices within a capitalist society? Should they just get with the program and start trying to acrue as much money as possible? Should they move to a different country? I certainly don’t have any answers yet, but I think the questions are definitely worth asking.

[Title Edit 9/9/09] Changed from Capitalism Is Not The Answer to better reflect the spirit of the post rather than be sensational and distract from the discussion.

» Filed Under Careers, Chasing Dreams, Happiness, Materialism, Salary, Serving Others

DD’s Monthly Expenses - August 2009 - House Painting Edition

Posted by Debt Destroyer on September 4, 2009

If you’ve been sniffin’ around here longer than a month then you already know that I track my family’s expenses. Here is the tally for August:

$840.39 - Mortgage
$759.20 - Health Insurance
$337.48 - Groceries
$225.00 - Preschool Deposit #2
$182.47 - House Painting Supplies
$165.06 - Garage Door Repair
$135.00 - Student Loan
$133.33 - Gasoline
$117.88 - Electricity
$113.66 - Dining Out
$103.85 - Phone & Internet
$96.06 - Beauty Products
$74.89 - Medical
$70.00 - Babysitting
$56.00 - Water, Sewer, Garbage
$55.00 - Fees
$52.31 - Household Misc
$43.25 - Kids’ care
$26.68 - Lawn care
$26.29 - Tennis
$25.00 - Gift
$23.89 - School Supplies
$22.26 - Dance class
$22.10 - Clothing
$15.90 - Car Maintenance
$14.00 - Haircut
$13.99 - Pearl Jam
$13.00 - Donations
$12.06 - Golf
$5.12 - Dog
$1.06 - Video rentals (redbox)

For a grand total of $3782.18.

Or to put it another way, $600 more than last month.

Biggest Budget Busters:

$182.47 - House Painting Supplies - If it’s August than I must be attempting to paint my house. The good news this time is that I’m actually making substantial progress. I should also include Dinning out in this category because we ordered dinner on a couple of occasions(something we rarely do).
$165.06 - Garage Door Repair - Much like some previous expenses, this really should be listed under stupidity. Allow me to explain. Back in May I cleaned our garage. As I was showing my wife the progress, my daughter grabbed the broom and started playing with it. My wife took it away and put it right in line with the garage door tracks (Not noticing this of course). Surprisingly it did a number on the door. Which then caused a series of follow up problems.
$55.00 - Fees - If only Flexo would’ve posted his tips on avoiding overdraft fees a few days sooner. Throw in a couple of other late fees and you can get a sense of how out of sync we were in August.

Biggest Budget Breakthroughs:

$337.48 - Groceries - This is more like it. We’re back to being well under the $400 range. I’ve said it before, but what’s really helped us is making a weekly menu based on what we already in the house and only getting the things we need. We actually could see a $300 month.
$22.10 - Clothing - We hit up a rummage sale that our neighbor participated in. Her daughter is six months younger than ours, but she is much bigger so love getting her gently used clothes.
$1.06 - Video rentals (redbox) - You loyal readers know that we love movies. So we were rather excited when redbox came to town. So far we’ve only tried it out once. Mrs DD picked out “He’s just not that into you” Let’s just say that next time, I’ll be picking the movie out.

Since I’ve been keeping track of this stuff for over a year now, how about we have some fun with numbers shall we? In other words…

~Let’s do the Time Warp~

Last August we spent $4170.34 so I’m glad we were no where near that total. But much like our last time warp, I think not having to pony up for Daycare was the reason for our savings.

Looking back I got a kick out of myself griping about painting the house:

$95 Painting Supplies - When I lost my job, I stupidly started prepping part of my house to be repainted, thinking that I’d get it done with all my free-time. After killing myself scrapping for a couple of weeks, I decided I didn’t have the right tools for the job. Now I got the tools, but I might not get done before winter.

As I alluded to earlier, I didn’t get it done before winter. Instead we had the antique farmhouse look going for us. But mark my words, if the weather stays nice, it will be completed over Labor Day weekend.

Of course I’m also hoping to get some tennis in, so we’ll see…

Until next time,

-DD

P.S. Another example of how sloppy we allowed ourselves to be last month. I lost our last daycare bill(the one we got after I thought we were done). Whoopsie. So look for it next month.

» Filed Under Spending