Jan

31

I was walking through a store the other day and my wife stopped at a rack of very nice flannel shirts that were on sale for $10.99. She sews and makes clothes so I asked, “could you buy the raw material for this price?”. “Not a chance” was her reply.

We live in an era fueled by rampant consumerism, large mega-stores swallowing up small business, and outsourced labor that in many cases work under oppressive conditions for pennies a day.

But this is the price polite societies must pay for in order to buy a $9.00 pair of shoes.

Jan

22

I was reading the other day an article in Money (Feb 2007) and they stated the following hours worked for the average middle class family.

That is a net gain of 539 hours. Obviously we have many more two family incomes these days. Why is this? Do we need the extra income just to make ends meet? Or, do we need this income to fuel our rising consumerism?

Jan

21

According to an article in the September issue of Money the average cost of a sweet 16 party was $10,000. Have we freaking lost our minds?

Recently a co-worker said to me that we are raising a generation of kids that feel a great sense of entitlement.

“Ya think?”

What would compell one to throw a $10,000 party? Did they hire the Dave Matthews Band…errr sorry…My Chemical Romance…

Jan

19

Payoff your house 7-8 years early the ad proclaims. All you have to do is front $100.00 and pay a monthly fee of $10.00. For this price you get to make 13 mortgage payments a year instead of 12. Here is a newsflash. You can make 13 house payments on your own, save the up front and monthly fee and still accomplish the same thing. Stay away from these programs, they are a waste of your money!

Jan

16

My wifes work is switching their pension plan over to a 401k. She was telling me about a co-worker that was complaining that she really didn’t understand a word they were saying about the new 401k plan but that it did not matter as she did not have any money to contribute. She told me this woman comes in every morning with a grande Starbucks and usually returns from lunch with one as well.

Cutting out one of these a day saves about $800-$900 for the 401k. Ironic how many people there are out there that don’t think they have any money leftover for there future. ….Sip, sip,…Slurp…

Jan

12

On my flight home yesterday from Philly I was reading an article in the Business section of the USA Today. It stated that in the past five years the cost of college has increase 35%. This figure was even adjusted for inflation! It went on to add that over the past 25 years these cost increases have even outpaced rises in health insurance.

As someone writing checks for college right now I can attest to this madness. Between rising health care costs and college it should be no time before we slide right into the crapper.

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