#most of the rest are u.s. pennies from the 30s-50s

[procrastinatress-supreme]

Ok so look what i got at work today

Someone thought it was a quarter and when I told them that it was not, in fact, American legal tender (i don't even think it's legal tender in Germany anymore) they said they didn't want it back and told me to either keep it or throw it away so now it's mine

[airoasis]

The 1 Bitcoin Show- VanEck SolidX is back (as expected)! Walk the walk, NEM? A 17 y/o's bank

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/the-1-bitcoin-show-vaneck-solidx-is-back-as-expected-walk-the-walk-nem-a-17-y-os-bank/

The 1 Bitcoin Show- VanEck SolidX is back (as expected)! Walk the walk, NEM? A 17 y/o's bank

Hiya every person this is adam meister the bitcoinmeister the disrupt meister welcome to the one bitcoin exhibit as a strong arms today is January the thirty first 2019 robust hand long-term thinking bow your wealth in bitcoin offended by shelling be a unique beast simple all okay everybody verify out the hyperlinks below everything I talk about within the video is linked to below disrupt meister calm tech ball te CH b LT okay this week in bitcoin the next day to come eight:00 a.M. Japanese Time that’s 1 p.M. In London we got three pleasing company i’ll go away it Oh it should be a shock you they are i do know who they’re expectantly they are going to exhibit up it’s hard to do a show at eight:00 a.M.Japanese Time i will let you know that but i am in Tel Aviv Israel so I received to do it cuz I obtained to head to shul as soon as the solar Goes Down on Friday town that like button for shabbat shalom all right relocating on so Friday’s exhibit can be exceptional however then Saturday there is gonna be one more awesome exhibit we’re gonna go past beyond Bitcoin and talk about a crypto dividend no it is not be hex why are you individuals pondering it can be be hex I stated we are debuting a new crypto dividend that has now not been stated anyplace but on Saturday at three p.M. Eastern time 1 p.M. Mountain time you know like in Denver Colorado and ya are aware of it’s once more I like it’s an airdrop mine i like crypt of dividends on account that you just you’re rewarded for maintaining your big coin I like it you get some new all coin you turning the significant coin babe you received more Bitcoin don’t forget the identify of the exhibit is the one Bitcoin exhibit so for those who get some free crypto dividends you flip it into Bitcoin also you acquired one Bitcoin you are good for your approach they day okay so yeah that is Saturday’s beyond Bitcoin show then Sunday goes to be one more distinct exhibit max Moe is approaching from Venezuela Juan Gault will also be also we’re going to talk so much about Venezuela on Sunday on this very Channel and so as to be at what’s that I consider 3:00 three:30 p.M. Eastern something like that i’m going to remind each person as it will get nearer some some three it’s going to be earlier than the Superbowl don’t worry it should be right earlier than the super Bowl on Sunday we’re gonna talk about like real lifestyles stuff in Venezuela as all of you who as so many humans get drunken fats within the cozy the usa you understand staring at the the Rams and would the Tom Brady’s play the bubbly individuals had been as well like you know coping with actual lifestyles due to the fact they need the Bitcoin down there all right so yeah moving on very first thing I’ve bought so many notes right here a few you know it’s a Sunday exhibit Saturday show oh and about Saturday’s show once more I stated it can be within the men and women who’re hanging on the script of dividend they may be in motion and i hooked a few of them up due to the fact that they three of the dudes know Minnie I had met them individually and you’ve gotten obvious them on the show handiest this for your Bitcoin show earlier than but once more I forgot to say the day prior to this that if you’re in motion and you adore what they’re doing you as a rule can do whatever with them i assume it can be continually good to be so don’t be afraid to contact them or contact me if you happen to got any strategies bear in mind probably the most character who got here up with this really cool air drop crypto dividend concept I feel contacted me I used to be like one of the first humans would contact maybe I was once the primary person you contact I don’t know so and i and i acquired him rolling and Wow it’s simply strong and so for those who’ve got just right recommendations you tell me i can put you in contact with individuals if you are a excellent man or woman I mean I recognize individuals who are emotion and men and women that I’ve conversed with online and who’ve been on the show and who i am in man or woman you know you get a think for men and women after a at the same time after you will have received some wisdom and expertise in life not after which i am no longer sensible like you know like my father used to be smart and a individual over 70 over 60 over 50 there that is wisdom there but yeah i am hopefully i am on light-weight you know you are making mistakes you attain you be taught your lesson you turn out to be you gain some wisdom by means of all of it right to be a whatever we must all a attempt for sir somewhat bit of wisdom and that i feel I’ve obtained it tad little bit of it from a few of this crazy experiences i have been by means of in life residing in Linden Avenue in Baltimore having three houses throughout a short period of time the Bitcoin you don’t seeing how impulsive folks are valuing my wealth see females and then doubling my wealth and bitcoin god it can be enjoyable yeah I can’t lie can’t lie acquired some excellent reviews you understand when you meet me a character good that is what you get k now but you get some more private experiences while you meet me first i try to like hold some matters that preserve off the air so this is a loved ones software with everything let’s get let’s get to the nitty-gritty of matters you want to hear in regards to the band act strong x bitcoin etf its again they the that is from one of the most guys over at van ax van eck pound that like button by the way and been from van eck you tweeted this out what’s this guy’s title Garber the van XIX Bitcoin ETF inspiration rule change has been resubmitted through CBOE hard work by way of all groups worried public document k so you you when you click on that hyperlink you’ll find the general public report oh what a shock its back of path its again of path now when will the hope the entire system begins again so who knows when it’s gonna get approved or disapproved or anything do not hold your breath men and women but of direction its again colossal deal you realize it’ll be time to have a good time once it will get authorized ok it is gonna get a proof eventually no one can say what eventually is though it might not be except 2020 so hello there you go maybe you obtained to put a smile to your face that they’ve resubmitted you failed to hear but there is a news for you so I noticed penny ling hams Twitter thread and he shared up a man who was a pal of his i guess a co-located is he’s a buddy that is they they found that a organization together once he he retweeted this guy’s tweet it’s about a new enterprise what’s this known as grasp on i’m gonna i would step calm certainly a well-funded or shall be a good-funded Silicon Valley but when they might pay for the step dot-com area now there’s a purpose i am bringing up this and you realize and on the grounds that clearly this individual is going with the aid of the rules and once enterprise funding they may be gonna they may be gonna follow the foundations that once they’re talking about young adults I count on they may be speaking about 18 and 19 year olds ok so and there’s a medium put up the guy explains what he’s doing and i am gonna quote from for the put up prior nine months i have been busy at the back of the scenes combining my passions and existence classes with my competencies to hooked up the next big task a trusted banking platform that works with latest trendy lifestyle and teaches not simplest young adults but additionally households the best way to higher manipulate their cash okay and it is step calm which you can go to step calm and you’ll find but I mean once more that that that lifeless URL failed to come low cost so you recognize this dude’s he is talking about a believe a banking a relied on banking platform nobody why do you need to stick me why do you need to persist with these traditions why do you wish to have to maintain it within the bank like the motive I deliver up all this given that I feel this is only a massive waste I believe the fellow’s gonna get some huge cash however he is linked and some thing he’s accomplished this before he’s situated firms he is obtained a good pitch oh he needs Bitcoin k so i’m gonna read i’m gonna read some more there are presently seventy five million kids and young adults under the age of 21 in the U.S. This underserved demographic and i agree it’s underserved demographic he’s overwhelmingly pressured to care for money despite the fact that their lives are digital they cannot use money to shop online pay for an uber order from Amazon download track or participate in online gaming sites like fortnight the potential to transact and have entry to your money immediately is major as tests and cash grow to be less primary in contemporary digital world well dude why don’t you just inform you understand I i will recognize that this man wishes to and in case you learn the whole submit he desires to coach persons to make not make silly financial errors no longer get bank cards with thirty five percentage interest rates I consider part of the schooling it most commonly would be the youngsters which can be under 18 in order that when they stand up for these credit cards they do not fall for it k that’s exceptional however for the rest of the I mean they could learn that from holding Bitcoin from being their possess back to start with they could they might get that schooling that way but I imply if they wish to play video video games on-line in the event that they wish to purchase matters from Amazon or go to over I imply it is a Bitcoin I imply you do not want your you are retaining them in the old mannequin you are preserving them in the bank card banking paradigm but why I don’t know I mean once more I I see you know the unbanked as being folks underneath 18 if you’re 17 if you are 16 free anything I suppose you maybe can have a heritage when you get your mother’s title on it again i’ve alluded to after I began tuition out of 17 so my mom’s identify is still on my banking account to this very day but I believe to preclude such nonsense you just be your own financial institution we’re just I consider it is gonna be a gorgeous world when there may be a bunch of seventeen yr olds available in the market that are their own banks due to the fact that of Bitcoin and i suppose that is and you know that’s you don’t need enterprise funding or an costly URL or you understand a best administrative center in Silicon Valley to bring that message to instruct folks you just want Bitcoin Bitcoin solves all the disorders this man is speakme about so it can be fascinating that Vinnie retweeted this I suppose in view that the fellows is buddy and used to be his accomplice in an extra industry but over again I believe there may be do people still begin tuition when they’re sitting when they may be 17 i do not even understand anymore that is if that’s a factor anymore if it can be if it is even rarer rarity it is it can be now not as long-established because it was traditionally i can anticipate that folks like to start their youngsters at all these moms want their youngsters to be the biggest and the oldest they do not need them to be the youngest in order that they hold them back raids and the whole lot so I do not know how many 17 year-olds institution anymore however that could be a excellent goal viewers target demographic for Bitcoin considering the fact that they’re no longer going to be capable to open their possess banks right now they’re going to be ready to want to have some financial freedom and no longer have their mother sign bank account or have get permission from their dad or whatever I suppose that that is going to be you understand again we have now talked concerning the unbanked in the 1/3 world I think in regards to the unbanked and i’ve realized this I forgot it I point out this on the show earlier than I consider about sixteen yr olds and seventeen 12 months olds simply being busy being equipped to be businessmen there if they’ve Bitcoin they could promoting stuff for Bitcoin they don’t need a financial institution account they don’t need their mom or dad’s permission and once more 17 year-olds go off to university I feel nonetheless I was once one of them as soon as so there you go so I combined plenty of things into that i suppose just right good fortune to Vinnie’s pal perhaps you should just you understand it’s forbidden simply motivate humans to make use of Bitcoin however once more he’s it can be howdy cursor professor he is a new counterculture that guy was once competent to elevate a lot of money for from Silicon Valley people have a quality place of work anywhere and Palo Alto San Mateo at any place good for him i guess i am gonna go inform us spread the massive factor phrase once more tech Bolcom disrupt meister comm te c HB alt on twitter that is me bitcoin meister bit backer and steam it all right so yeah uh the day gone by’s exhibit i speak about a further trendy topic in Silicon Valley uh you realize worried about women in tech females in Bitcoin minorities and bitcoin minorities intact you already know discontinue annoying about who’s speaking the talk it it doesn’t matter it can be not gonna make that so much a difference in your private life for those who go to should you pay some huge cash to go to a few conference where some anyone’s paid slightly of money to do what intercourse they are or what race they are you know if they’re talking about some ICO that is such as you gotta make certain you’re jogging the stroll and that you have Bitcoin bitcoin is running the stroll traumatic about who’s speakme to speak who’s talking about cryptocurrency who’s speakme about I cos he’s speaking about tech that is not productive so stroll the stroll before you worry about speakme that who’s speaking to talk and believe me it can be higher just to walk the stroll appear preserve the Bitcoin and let different individuals worry about who’s speakme about big okay with I do I do marvel if a few of these persons complaining concerning the demographics of Bitcoin if they even own any Bitcoin that’s how you make a giant difference you motivate individuals to be their possess banks to manage their own personal keys that helps you know women you already know humans from Greenland folks from at any place or each person’s got an possibility to purchase Bitcoin any there’s nothing protecting them back from from from buying Bitcoin mainly if you’re in the Western world there may be only a few obstacles you get yourself on Bitcoin so is it higher to attend a a speakme gig in San Francisco and pay like a $200 to see some woman talk about Bitcoin or is it higher to possess a fraction of a Bitcoin in your technique to proudly owning one Bitcoin I suppose I believe you received to prioritize right here folks let’s let’s get humans proudly owning Bitcoin not worrying about who’s speaking about considering that there’s nothing you recognize and that i inspire females in case you’ve been in case you think like you may have been discriminated in opposition to and you are not able to talk in the tech convention buy Bitcoin you can get the final left you are going to get the final snigger trust me about that for those who should you feel you’ve gotten been discriminated in opposition to or if you have been discriminated against Bitcoin will fight these big quickman Kansas for me in opposition to any one and it fights towards discrimination actually so there you go so let’s we’re talking about I stated I SEOs and cryptocurrencies and all coins why do not we have a flashback to I consider it was once 2017 when humans were telling me yeah ma’am is that this super Asian or chinese coin or some thing it can be the flavor of the month of some month in 2017 oh I recall it it used to be before iota and after who knows i don’t understand it was once the flavoured a month before ma’am there weren’t too many foot and after veritasium so yeah core desk and that i won point desks has this title and an editorial guys basis practically broke plans layoffs and pivot and in the article it says and that is what the foremost part is there is no longer a whole lot of humans engaged on this platform despite the fact that it can be easy the community is not really there until you go to Japan the enhance the developer stated we want more developer traction on this platform ok so yeah that is what happens the flavors of the month they have got folks don’t in reality use it and then their foundations go bankrupt and again i know the groundwork is not really named however it due to the fact says name is centralized and the truth that they’ve acquired some similarities that you can learn the article if you want to however the flavors of the month are going to maintain on coming they usually’re gonna roll in rather a lot faster as soon as the inexperienced persons roll it again once more we’re in a in terms of Fiat humans say this is a bear crypto advertise’s all cyclical will see the wildness once more there will likely be some why all of the flavors of the month and you know i guess best approaches it inexperienced is a taste of the month right now or anything like that or the opposite ones are the flavor of the month reasonable interesting stuff whatever k so i am adam meister the bitcoinmeister the disrupt meister recollect subscribe this channel like this video share this video verify out the hyperlinks under pound that like button bang the bell button follow me on twitter and consider day after today exhibit is quickly this weekend Bitcoin might be at 8 a.M.On Friday morning again there is a new show right here daily love you guys i’ll see you in the morning bye bye .

[batterymonster2021]

The 1 Bitcoin Show- VanEck SolidX is back (as expected)! Walk the walk, NEM? A 17 y/o's bank

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/the-1-bitcoin-show-vaneck-solidx-is-back-as-expected-walk-the-walk-nem-a-17-y-os-bank/

The 1 Bitcoin Show- VanEck SolidX is back (as expected)! Walk the walk, NEM? A 17 y/o's bank

Hiya every person this is adam meister the bitcoinmeister the disrupt meister welcome to the one bitcoin exhibit as a strong arms today is January the thirty first 2019 robust hand long-term thinking bow your wealth in bitcoin offended by shelling be a unique beast simple all okay everybody verify out the hyperlinks below everything I talk about within the video is linked to below disrupt meister calm tech ball te CH b LT okay this week in bitcoin the next day to come eight:00 a.M. Japanese Time that’s 1 p.M. In London we got three pleasing company i’ll go away it Oh it should be a shock you they are i do know who they’re expectantly they are going to exhibit up it’s hard to do a show at eight:00 a.M.Japanese Time i will let you know that but i am in Tel Aviv Israel so I received to do it cuz I obtained to head to shul as soon as the solar Goes Down on Friday town that like button for shabbat shalom all right relocating on so Friday’s exhibit can be exceptional however then Saturday there is gonna be one more awesome exhibit we’re gonna go past beyond Bitcoin and talk about a crypto dividend no it is not be hex why are you individuals pondering it can be be hex I stated we are debuting a new crypto dividend that has now not been stated anyplace but on Saturday at three p.M. Eastern time 1 p.M. Mountain time you know like in Denver Colorado and ya are aware of it’s once more I like it’s an airdrop mine i like crypt of dividends on account that you just you’re rewarded for maintaining your big coin I like it you get some new all coin you turning the significant coin babe you received more Bitcoin don’t forget the identify of the exhibit is the one Bitcoin exhibit so for those who get some free crypto dividends you flip it into Bitcoin also you acquired one Bitcoin you are good for your approach they day okay so yeah that is Saturday’s beyond Bitcoin show then Sunday goes to be one more distinct exhibit max Moe is approaching from Venezuela Juan Gault will also be also we’re going to talk so much about Venezuela on Sunday on this very Channel and so as to be at what’s that I consider 3:00 three:30 p.M. Eastern something like that i’m going to remind each person as it will get nearer some some three it’s going to be earlier than the Superbowl don’t worry it should be right earlier than the super Bowl on Sunday we’re gonna talk about like real lifestyles stuff in Venezuela as all of you who as so many humans get drunken fats within the cozy the usa you understand staring at the the Rams and would the Tom Brady’s play the bubbly individuals had been as well like you know coping with actual lifestyles due to the fact they need the Bitcoin down there all right so yeah moving on very first thing I’ve bought so many notes right here a few you know it’s a Sunday exhibit Saturday show oh and about Saturday’s show once more I stated it can be within the men and women who’re hanging on the script of dividend they may be in motion and i hooked a few of them up due to the fact that they three of the dudes know Minnie I had met them individually and you’ve gotten obvious them on the show handiest this for your Bitcoin show earlier than but once more I forgot to say the day prior to this that if you’re in motion and you adore what they’re doing you as a rule can do whatever with them i assume it can be continually good to be so don’t be afraid to contact them or contact me if you happen to got any strategies bear in mind probably the most character who got here up with this really cool air drop crypto dividend concept I feel contacted me I used to be like one of the first humans would contact maybe I was once the primary person you contact I don’t know so and i and i acquired him rolling and Wow it’s simply strong and so for those who’ve got just right recommendations you tell me i can put you in contact with individuals if you are a excellent man or woman I mean I recognize individuals who are emotion and men and women that I’ve conversed with online and who’ve been on the show and who i am in man or woman you know you get a think for men and women after a at the same time after you will have received some wisdom and expertise in life not after which i am no longer sensible like you know like my father used to be smart and a individual over 70 over 60 over 50 there that is wisdom there but yeah i am hopefully i am on light-weight you know you are making mistakes you attain you be taught your lesson you turn out to be you gain some wisdom by means of all of it right to be a whatever we must all a attempt for sir somewhat bit of wisdom and that i feel I’ve obtained it tad little bit of it from a few of this crazy experiences i have been by means of in life residing in Linden Avenue in Baltimore having three houses throughout a short period of time the Bitcoin you don’t seeing how impulsive folks are valuing my wealth see females and then doubling my wealth and bitcoin god it can be enjoyable yeah I can’t lie can’t lie acquired some excellent reviews you understand when you meet me a character good that is what you get k now but you get some more private experiences while you meet me first i try to like hold some matters that preserve off the air so this is a loved ones software with everything let’s get let’s get to the nitty-gritty of matters you want to hear in regards to the band act strong x bitcoin etf its again they the that is from one of the most guys over at van ax van eck pound that like button by the way and been from van eck you tweeted this out what’s this guy’s title Garber the van XIX Bitcoin ETF inspiration rule change has been resubmitted through CBOE hard work by way of all groups worried public document k so you you when you click on that hyperlink you’ll find the general public report oh what a shock its back of path its again of path now when will the hope the entire system begins again so who knows when it’s gonna get approved or disapproved or anything do not hold your breath men and women but of direction its again colossal deal you realize it’ll be time to have a good time once it will get authorized ok it is gonna get a proof eventually no one can say what eventually is though it might not be except 2020 so hello there you go maybe you obtained to put a smile to your face that they’ve resubmitted you failed to hear but there is a news for you so I noticed penny ling hams Twitter thread and he shared up a man who was a pal of his i guess a co-located is he’s a buddy that is they they found that a organization together once he he retweeted this guy’s tweet it’s about a new enterprise what’s this known as grasp on i’m gonna i would step calm certainly a well-funded or shall be a good-funded Silicon Valley but when they might pay for the step dot-com area now there’s a purpose i am bringing up this and you realize and on the grounds that clearly this individual is going with the aid of the rules and once enterprise funding they may be gonna they may be gonna follow the foundations that once they’re talking about young adults I count on they may be speaking about 18 and 19 year olds ok so and there’s a medium put up the guy explains what he’s doing and i am gonna quote from for the put up prior nine months i have been busy at the back of the scenes combining my passions and existence classes with my competencies to hooked up the next big task a trusted banking platform that works with latest trendy lifestyle and teaches not simplest young adults but additionally households the best way to higher manipulate their cash okay and it is step calm which you can go to step calm and you’ll find but I mean once more that that that lifeless URL failed to come low cost so you recognize this dude’s he is talking about a believe a banking a relied on banking platform nobody why do you need to stick me why do you need to persist with these traditions why do you wish to have to maintain it within the bank like the motive I deliver up all this given that I feel this is only a massive waste I believe the fellow’s gonna get some huge cash however he is linked and some thing he’s accomplished this before he’s situated firms he is obtained a good pitch oh he needs Bitcoin k so i’m gonna read i’m gonna read some more there are presently seventy five million kids and young adults under the age of 21 in the U.S. This underserved demographic and i agree it’s underserved demographic he’s overwhelmingly pressured to care for money despite the fact that their lives are digital they cannot use money to shop online pay for an uber order from Amazon download track or participate in online gaming sites like fortnight the potential to transact and have entry to your money immediately is major as tests and cash grow to be less primary in contemporary digital world well dude why don’t you just inform you understand I i will recognize that this man wishes to and in case you learn the whole submit he desires to coach persons to make not make silly financial errors no longer get bank cards with thirty five percentage interest rates I consider part of the schooling it most commonly would be the youngsters which can be under 18 in order that when they stand up for these credit cards they do not fall for it k that’s exceptional however for the rest of the I mean they could learn that from holding Bitcoin from being their possess back to start with they could they might get that schooling that way but I imply if they wish to play video video games on-line in the event that they wish to purchase matters from Amazon or go to over I imply it is a Bitcoin I imply you do not want your you are retaining them in the old mannequin you are preserving them in the bank card banking paradigm but why I don’t know I mean once more I I see you know the unbanked as being folks underneath 18 if you’re 17 if you are 16 free anything I suppose you maybe can have a heritage when you get your mother’s title on it again i’ve alluded to after I began tuition out of 17 so my mom’s identify is still on my banking account to this very day but I believe to preclude such nonsense you just be your own financial institution we’re just I consider it is gonna be a gorgeous world when there may be a bunch of seventeen yr olds available in the market that are their own banks due to the fact that of Bitcoin and i suppose that is and you know that’s you don’t need enterprise funding or an costly URL or you understand a best administrative center in Silicon Valley to bring that message to instruct folks you just want Bitcoin Bitcoin solves all the disorders this man is speakme about so it can be fascinating that Vinnie retweeted this I suppose in view that the fellows is buddy and used to be his accomplice in an extra industry but over again I believe there may be do people still begin tuition when they’re sitting when they may be 17 i do not even understand anymore that is if that’s a factor anymore if it can be if it is even rarer rarity it is it can be now not as long-established because it was traditionally i can anticipate that folks like to start their youngsters at all these moms want their youngsters to be the biggest and the oldest they do not need them to be the youngest in order that they hold them back raids and the whole lot so I do not know how many 17 year-olds institution anymore however that could be a excellent goal viewers target demographic for Bitcoin considering the fact that they’re no longer going to be capable to open their possess banks right now they’re going to be ready to want to have some financial freedom and no longer have their mother sign bank account or have get permission from their dad or whatever I suppose that that is going to be you understand again we have now talked concerning the unbanked in the 1/3 world I think in regards to the unbanked and i’ve realized this I forgot it I point out this on the show earlier than I consider about sixteen yr olds and seventeen 12 months olds simply being busy being equipped to be businessmen there if they’ve Bitcoin they could promoting stuff for Bitcoin they don’t need a financial institution account they don’t need their mom or dad’s permission and once more 17 year-olds go off to university I feel nonetheless I was once one of them as soon as so there you go so I combined plenty of things into that i suppose just right good fortune to Vinnie’s pal perhaps you should just you understand it’s forbidden simply motivate humans to make use of Bitcoin however once more he’s it can be howdy cursor professor he is a new counterculture that guy was once competent to elevate a lot of money for from Silicon Valley people have a quality place of work anywhere and Palo Alto San Mateo at any place good for him i guess i am gonna go inform us spread the massive factor phrase once more tech Bolcom disrupt meister comm te c HB alt on twitter that is me bitcoin meister bit backer and steam it all right so yeah uh the day gone by’s exhibit i speak about a further trendy topic in Silicon Valley uh you realize worried about women in tech females in Bitcoin minorities and bitcoin minorities intact you already know discontinue annoying about who’s speaking the talk it it doesn’t matter it can be not gonna make that so much a difference in your private life for those who go to should you pay some huge cash to go to a few conference where some anyone’s paid slightly of money to do what intercourse they are or what race they are you know if they’re talking about some ICO that is such as you gotta make certain you’re jogging the stroll and that you have Bitcoin bitcoin is running the stroll traumatic about who’s speakme to speak who’s talking about cryptocurrency who’s speakme about I cos he’s speaking about tech that is not productive so stroll the stroll before you worry about speakme that who’s speaking to talk and believe me it can be higher just to walk the stroll appear preserve the Bitcoin and let different individuals worry about who’s speakme about big okay with I do I do marvel if a few of these persons complaining concerning the demographics of Bitcoin if they even own any Bitcoin that’s how you make a giant difference you motivate individuals to be their possess banks to manage their own personal keys that helps you know women you already know humans from Greenland folks from at any place or each person’s got an possibility to purchase Bitcoin any there’s nothing protecting them back from from from buying Bitcoin mainly if you’re in the Western world there may be only a few obstacles you get yourself on Bitcoin so is it higher to attend a a speakme gig in San Francisco and pay like a $200 to see some woman talk about Bitcoin or is it higher to possess a fraction of a Bitcoin in your technique to proudly owning one Bitcoin I suppose I believe you received to prioritize right here folks let’s let’s get humans proudly owning Bitcoin not worrying about who’s speaking about considering that there’s nothing you recognize and that i inspire females in case you’ve been in case you think like you may have been discriminated in opposition to and you are not able to talk in the tech convention buy Bitcoin you can get the final left you are going to get the final snigger trust me about that for those who should you feel you’ve gotten been discriminated in opposition to or if you have been discriminated against Bitcoin will fight these big quickman Kansas for me in opposition to any one and it fights towards discrimination actually so there you go so let’s we’re talking about I stated I SEOs and cryptocurrencies and all coins why do not we have a flashback to I consider it was once 2017 when humans were telling me yeah ma’am is that this super Asian or chinese coin or some thing it can be the flavor of the month of some month in 2017 oh I recall it it used to be before iota and after who knows i don’t understand it was once the flavoured a month before ma’am there weren’t too many foot and after veritasium so yeah core desk and that i won point desks has this title and an editorial guys basis practically broke plans layoffs and pivot and in the article it says and that is what the foremost part is there is no longer a whole lot of humans engaged on this platform despite the fact that it can be easy the community is not really there until you go to Japan the enhance the developer stated we want more developer traction on this platform ok so yeah that is what happens the flavors of the month they have got folks don’t in reality use it and then their foundations go bankrupt and again i know the groundwork is not really named however it due to the fact says name is centralized and the truth that they’ve acquired some similarities that you can learn the article if you want to however the flavors of the month are going to maintain on coming they usually’re gonna roll in rather a lot faster as soon as the inexperienced persons roll it again once more we’re in a in terms of Fiat humans say this is a bear crypto advertise’s all cyclical will see the wildness once more there will likely be some why all of the flavors of the month and you know i guess best approaches it inexperienced is a taste of the month right now or anything like that or the opposite ones are the flavor of the month reasonable interesting stuff whatever k so i am adam meister the bitcoinmeister the disrupt meister recollect subscribe this channel like this video share this video verify out the hyperlinks under pound that like button bang the bell button follow me on twitter and consider day after today exhibit is quickly this weekend Bitcoin might be at 8 a.M.On Friday morning again there is a new show right here daily love you guys i’ll see you in the morning bye bye .

[tittafest]

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To help support our reporting work, and to continue our ability to provide this content for free to our readers, we receive compensation from the companies that advertise on the Forbes Advisor site. The Forbes Advisor editorial team is independent and objective. Applying the 50/30/20 rule would give you a budget of: It’ll be the basis for all of your calculations.įor example, say your monthly take-home pay is $4,000. To determine how much of your income should go toward each category, you’ll need to know exactly how much money you’re making. You’ll need to do some math to create a 50/30/20 budget-but luckily, it’s not complicated. In this case, the 50/30/20 budget planner allows you to allocate money for debt and savings goals while also allocating funds to spend on things you may want but don’t necessarily need. Budget PlannerĪ budget planner is the method you decide to use to manage your money. Keep in mind that you don’t have to follow a budget down to every last penny if you end up splurging on a new item, you can find other places to make up for the purchase, maybe by cutting down your grocery bill by only buying generic items for the rest of the month. It can be easy to indulge a little too much on a night out, or make an impulsive shopping purchase that wasn’t planned for. Overspending can be one reason why you might find your budget doesn’t work. Expenses can vary, but categorizing them into “wants” and “needs” can make it easier to figure out where your money is going. ExpensesĮxpenses are what you spend your income on. If your income varies each month (for example, maybe you work in the service industry and rely on tips as your main source of income), you can build a budget plan based on the average of your monthly income for the past six months. If you have multiple streams of income each month, you’ll need to know exactly how much you receive before trying to make a budget plan. But there are other forms of income, including capital gains from investments, passive income from rental properties and other sources, or income from government programs, like Social Security. Incomeįor most people, income consists of take-home pay from a job. When you see your overall financial picture, it will be easier to create realistic goals along your financial journey, such as for purchasing a home or saving money for a wedding.Ī budget plan finds the right balance between your income and expenses. A budget plan is a helpful tool that will give you a better idea of where you stand financially. Making a budget plan can sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Savings and debt payments should account for 20% of your income. These expenses include:ĭiscretionary costs, also referred to as “wants,” should take up about 30% of your income. Mandatory expenses, which are expenses you “need” to pay and can’t avoid, should account for about 50% of your income. Having only three categories to budget into can be much less overwhelming than more detailed budgets. This budgeting method makes it easier to budget by splitting your income into three buckets: wants, needs and savings. senator) Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, in their book All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. It was made popular by then-professor (and now U.S. The 50/30/20 budget is a simple budgeting strategy that can help you get started with a budget, or get back on track after a setback. These results are how you should spend your money each month according to the 50/30/20 rule. The calculator will split your after-tax income into the three categories according to the different allocation percentages. Once you enter the after-tax amount, click “Calculate.” Usually, after-tax income also reflects deductions for health insurance and any employer-sponsored retirement plan, like a 401(k). That’s the amount you receive each month from paychecks and other income sources after taxes have been deducted. To use the 50/30/20 budget calculator, enter your monthly after-tax income. A 50/30/20 budget calculator, specifically, will split your income into three different categories: 50% for your needs, 30% for your wants and 20% for your savings. How to Use the 50/30/20 Budget CalculatorĪ budget calculator can be a useful tool to help evaluate your monthly income and where it’s going each month.

[meeedeee]

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Using a visa loophole to fire well-paid U.S. information technology works and replace them with low-paid immigrants from India is despicable enough when it’s done by profit-making companies such as Southern California Edison and Walt Disney Co.

But the latest employer to try this stunt sets a new mark in what might be termed “job laundering.” It’s the University of California. Experts in the abuse of so-called H-1B visas say UC is the first public university to send the jobs of American IT staff offshore. That’s not a distinction UC should wear proudly.

UC San Francisco, the system’s biggest medical center, announced in July that it would lay off 49 career IT staffers and eliminate 48 other IT jobs that were vacant or filled by contract employees. The workers are to be gone as of Feb. 28. In the meantime they’ve been ordered to train their own replacements, who are employees of the Indian outsourcing firm HCL Technologies.

The training process was described by UCSF managers by the Orwellian term “knowledge transfer,” according to Audrey Hatten-Milholin, 53, an IT architect with 17 years of experience at UCSF who will be laid off next month.

“The argument for Disney or Edison is that its executives are driven to maximize profits,” says Ron Hira of Howard University, a expert in H-1B visas. “But UC is a public institution, not driven by profit. It’s qualitatively different from other employers.” 

By sending IT jobs abroad, UC is undermining its own mission, which includes preparing California students to serve high-tech industry.

“UC is training software engineers at the same time they’re outsourcing their own software engineers,” says Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), whose district includes much of Silicon Valley. “What message are they sending their own students?”

As we’ve reported before, H-1B visas were created to allow American technology companies to import uniquely talented individuals from abroad; visa holders can work in the U.S. for three years, with the goal of obtaining permanent residency and ultimately citizenship.

But the program has been co-opted by outsourcing firms that use the visas to import workers, mostly from India, to replace Americans in middle-level IT jobs. Those firms, including HCL, corral about half of all H-1B visas every year. The workers they import often live here barracks-style and are at the beck and call of supervisors who can revoke their residency at will. Eventually they return home to continue their assignments, without workplace benefits and at wages a fraction of what their American counterparts were paid. 

UCSF officials say the decision to outsource 97 IT jobs, about 20% to the total IT headcount, was forced on it by daunting economic challenges. The state requires UCSF Health, which encompasses the university’s hospitals, to be fiscally self-sustaining, collecting its revenue entirely from patient fees, Chief Executive Mark R. Laret says.

The hospitals recorded a $42-million deficit in the last fiscal year on $3.4 billion in revenue, he told me. The red ink was partially the result of an increased caseload from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which was expanded under the Affordable Care Act. Medi-Cal reimbursements are so low that UCSF loses 40 cents on every dollar it spends on those patients’ treatment, he says.

In searching for costs to cut, USCF concluded that the most expendable IT employees were systems maintenance staff, whose jobs could be done for so much less by foreign workers going without high salaries and fringe benefits.

UCSF officials have convinced themselves that most of the laid-off workers will have little trouble finding new jobs in the vibrant Bay Area technology industry; they say three of the workers already have accepted other positions at UCSF and some have been offered work by HCL. “These individuals are not unemployable,” Laret says.

The university says outsourcing their work to HCL will save $30 million over the five-year term of the HCL contract, which will cost $50 million.

That’s a meager savings of 0.1% of the UCSF budget, which was $5.83 billion in 2015-16. But the key question is what the university may be giving up in terms of system security and other important considerations. 

The work being sent abroad isn’t trivial. According to an email sent to the IT staff last July, it includes managing and backing up most of the system’s data; management and administration of its data networks; operations related to its telephones, email and video conferencing; and payroll and financial applications. 

Laret says UCSF expects the security of all these systems to be at least as good under HCL as it is now, though he acknowledges that “there are no guarantees.” Breaches of medical systems can be exceptionally harmful; a hack attack of UCLA Health System’s network revealed in 2015 may have compromised personal and medical information of 4.5 million patients.

Some UCSF workers involved in training their replacements were less than impressed with the process. Kurt Ho, 57, a systems administrator at UCSF since 2015 who is earning about $100,000, says he spent all of two days with his replacement. “He told me he would go back to India and train his team, and would be sending me emails with questions.”

Hatten-Milholin, whose salary has been $127,000, says some of the replacements were on hand for two weeks.

“What was shocking is that the system is so complex there’s no way you can learn it in two weeks,” she told me. She and Ho are among nine workers who have filed a complaint against UCSF with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, asserting that they’ve been discriminated against based on national origin, age, sex or race.

Disclosure of the layoffs triggered an uproar last fall. Letters went out to UC President Janet Napolitano from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Lofgren, who urged Napolitano to reverse the outsourcing plan and suspend the HCL contract until UC can “thoroughly examine” the public policy issues raised by the plan.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pointedly reminded Napolitano that UC received about $8.5 billion in federal funding in 2014-15, and said she was unhappy to hear that the funds would be used “to replace Californian IT workers with foreign workers or labor performed abroad.” She added, “this is not the way” to cut costs.

UCSF responded by tinkering with the plan a bit. The university told Feinstein’s office in November that of 27 HCL employees assigned to UCSF during the transition, eight were H-1B visa holders. UCSF said all had been moved to other locations in the U.S. and would not be working any further on the UCSF program, which raises the question of why they were brought to UCSF for training in the first place.

Sending them away allowed UCSF to assert in a public statement that neither the university nor HCL would “replace the affected UCSF employees … with H-1B visa holders.”

But that’s mostly an optical illusion, says Sara Blackwell, a visa attorney who has sued Disney for discrimination on behalf of Walt Disney World employees whose jobs were outsourced to an Indian H-1B firm.

“The endgame is not to have foreign workers stay on the job here,” she says, “but to move the jobs to India.” 

Blame for the outsourcing extends well beyond UCSF. The California Legislature has systematically reduced to pennies the state’s share of the budgets of UCSF and the rest of UC, which once was proudly supported by Sacramento. Meanwhile, Congress has consistently failed to close a glaring loophole allowing U.S. employers to send good American jobs overseas — instead, it has moved to expand the H1-B program at the behest of tech firms claiming, dubiously, that they can’t find enough good engineers in the U.S.

UC President Janet Napolitano seems to be trying to dodge responsibility for this policy. Although she vowed to crack down on H-1B abuses as secretary of Homeland Security, a job she held from 2009 to 2013, she’s been utterly silent about UC’s abuse of that very program on her watch. 

Let’s be clear: The outsourcing of IT jobs to India isn’t UCSF policy, but emerging UC policy. Napolitano’s staff says this is UCSF’s deal. But the HCL contract on which UCSF is operating applies system-wide, and it’s up to individual campuses and schools to opt in; UCSF simply was the first to do so. According to notes from an Aug. 5 meeting of UC’s IT Architecture Committee, chief information officers at other campuses are happy to let UCSF act as a guinea pig and will “wait for a year before jumping in with HCL” in order to gauge UCSF’s experience.

Of course, if UCSF’s initiative blows up in its face, the victims will be its patients, doctors and researchers. In running a university hospital, Laret told me, “you have to make some hard choices.” That’s indisputable, but the unanswered question is whether UCSF’s choice will cost more than it saves.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltzik's blog.

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Alibaba Explains It All; Tesla’s $2 Billion Call

Alibaba Explains It All; Tesla’s $2 Billion Call:

Alibaba Explains It All

The market’s got chills. They’re multiplying. And China’s losing control.

Because the Wuhan virus they’re supplying … is electrifying!

Yesterday’s lull in new, reported coronavirus infections was the calm before the storm. Today, China announced 15,152 new cases and 254 new deaths. The totals now stand at more than 60,0000 confirmed cases and 1,369 dead.

So far, China has remained confident that it can contain the outbreak, and Wall Street has followed happily along. But that narrative changed this morning after an earnings conference call from Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: BABA).

Now, Alibaba’s most recent quarter was stellar, with earnings surging 58% and revenue climbing 38% year over year. But the company’s guidance was a wake-up call for Wall Street … and not just for Alibaba shareholders.

“The epidemic has negatively impacted the overall China economy, especially the retail and service sectors,” said Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu. “While demand for goods and services is there, the means of production in the economy has been hampered by the delayed opening of offices, factories and schools after the Lunar New Year’s holiday.”

In short, Chinese workers are either sick and can’t work, or can’t work because of delayed return-to-work dates or quarantines. It’s safe to say that productivity is grinding to a halt in the country.

Alibaba’s quarterly report has, so far, been the most honest take on the situation, and investors across the board should take notice.

The Takeaway: 

So, how’s everybody feeling today? Any sniffles? Fever? Aching outside the norm?

I hope you’re doing well. If you’re outside of China and inside the U.S. (like most of Great Stuff’s readers), you’re probably just wondering when the rain will stop.

Maybe you’ve got your own flu worries to contend with. While the Wuhan virus gets loads of attention, schools are closing due to outbreaks of the regular old flu here in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, area.

We went from snow days to flu days here … it’s kind of sad.

You’ve probably heard that the Wuhan virus — officially dubbed COVID-19 — is like a really, really bad flu. That’s not far off the mark.

But that comparison brings with it generalization. Why can’t the Chinese just suck it up and keep working? That’s what we do here, after all.

The Chinese are hard workers, but their health care system (from hospitals all the way down to local drug stores and supermarkets) just isn’t as convenient as ours. We can rag on U.S. health care all we want, but at least we have convenience at our disposal! It’s the price of that convenience that’s a pain…

I think this is the main reason why Wall Street and most regular investors aren’t taking the threat of COVID-19 very seriously. It’s not spreading here, so why worry?

In truth, the virus may never widely spread in a Western country due to improved health care options. But that doesn’t mean that COVID-19’s impact in China won’t affect you or your investments.

Alibaba made that very clear this morning. The company relies on local merchants and businesses to operate and sell goods … and those businesses are struggling under the weight of the outbreak.

This is true for every single company with a significant supply or manufacturing chain running through China — as we’ll see later with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).

Now, this isn’t the end of any of these companies by any means. For Alibaba and the rest, this latest bout of volatility is just another buying opportunity in disguise.

Great Stuff readers know more drawdowns may follow today’s, and the shrewdest of you may have already taken the chance to scoop up some shares on the cheap. But, if you’re tired of panicking on down days, Banyan Hill expert Jeff Yastine is your guide to buying when the buying’s right.

Over his 15 years of financial news coverage, Jeff’s seen it all — from boom to bust to boom again. No matter what happens in the market’s fickle flights of fright, Jeff Yastine has his eyes out for high-growth stocks trading at bargain prices.

Today, he’s about to reveal a massive investment that he calls “Q Shares.” This may be Wall Street’s best-kept secret — a simple upgrade that could grow your profits up to 27 times faster than holding “normal” shares.

Click here to learn more about “Q Shares.”

The Good: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Oh boy … we’ve got another winner here! I hope you’ve been reading Great Stuff, because you might’ve missed this recent opportunity.

I’m talking about Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT). Shares of the semiconductor equipment-maker are rallying today, after the company put in a solid fiscal first-quarter performance. Applied beat earnings expectations by $0.07 per share, and revenue rose to $4.16 billion. Wall Street was looking for sales of just $4.09 billion.

What’s more, the company issued second-quarter guidance significantly above the consensus target. Applied sees earnings in a range of $0.98 to $1.10 per share and revenue of $4.14 billion to $4.54 billion. The average analyst targets rest at $0.91 per share and $4.05 billion in revenue.

I’ll just take this opportunity to say: I told you so! Back on December 31, I recommended AMAT as one of Great Stuff’s top picks for 2020 and beyond. In less than two months, AMAT is up more than 12%!

And, as the cycle continues to improve for semiconductor stocks, we can expect bigger and brighter returns from AMAT.

Congratulations, Great Stuff investors. You’re on a roll!

The Bad: An Offer You Should Refuse

You know when a company says it’ll sell more shares, and investors get worried about shareholder dilution? Yeah … that didn’t happen with Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA).

Today’s trading was quite volatile for TSLA, but the stock still moved broadly higher. Why should Tesla stock have fallen? Because the company announced it was selling $2 billion in new common stock. Yes, $2 billion.

Now, I get that the company can put that money to good use. This is not necessarily a bad thing for Tesla … as a company. In fact, with the shares trading stupidly high right now, it’s a brilliant move by Tesla to raise capital.

But $2 billion in new Tesla shares running around should have some negative impact on the stock’s price. It just should.

You divide the current market capitalization by the new higher number of shares outstanding and the price goes down. That’s how math works.

Well, that’s how math is supposed to work. But, when your stock price is propped up artificially high by speculation and over-the-top bullish sentiment, math tends to take a back seat.

Don’t get me wrong: Great Stuff is still bullish on Tesla over the long term.

But this current craziness in TSLA pricing is still out of hand. If you already own Tesla, you don’t need to sell, but some hedging might be in order to protect your portfolio. If you don’t own TSLA … don’t sweat it. There will be better prices to buy in at down the road.

The Ugly: Down With the Sickness

Earlier, we mentioned Cisco Systems in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak. The stock is getting punished today, and I don’t think it’s because of the company’s earnings report.

In fact, the company’s fiscal second quarter was quite good. Earnings beat expectations by a penny. Revenue came in at $12 billion, also edging past Wall Street’s targets. Third-quarter guidance was relatively tame … but nothing unexpected.

All in all, it was a very vanilla quarterly report with no real surprises.

But there was one little tidbit that Wall Street might’ve seized on. Asia-Pacific orders were down 4% last quarter, with China driving that weakness. In fact, Chinese orders plunged 30%.

When you combine that footnote with Cisco’s heavy reliance on Chinese component suppliers and contract manufacturers … things start to get dicey. Add in Alibaba’s stark admission on just how bad things are getting economically in China, and you can see why CSCO fell roughly 6% today.

That said, Cisco is a well-run company with solid growth opportunities. The COVID-19 outbreak won’t last forever, and CSCO will bounce back, meaning now could be a good time to buy the dip.

I would also like to remind you that now’s an excellent time to choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. You don’t have to rush to take Jeff Yastine’s advice, but, if you’re a working man (or woman), sooner is better.

Here’s that information on Jeff’s “Q Shares” again, just in case you missed it earlier.

Welcome back to another edition of Great Stuff’s reader feedback!

In this weekly column, I read your emails and … provide feedback. It’s kind of in the name, huh?

This week we asked for your thoughts on the Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) / T-Mobile US Inc. (Nasdaq: TMUS) merger … and boy, were you guys chatty!

Let’s get started:

They Did the Math

Perhaps the judge is the one who understands the economics of building a network.

All network operators have to build a network that gets you 100% coverage, or you don’t get customers. The most expensive part of all networks is the last mile.  So, the cost is the same for all providers.  Now, take the mobile population and divide by the number of networks:

100%/1= 100% revenue = monopoly, covers costs and huge profit.

100%/2= 50% revenue each = duopoly, covers costs and nice profits for both.

100%/3= 33% revenue each = oligarchy, covers costs and slim profits for all.

100%/4= 25% revenue each = costs not covered, no profits and fight to kill one.

Based on 30 years working on mobile networks, three competitors provide both competition and money to upgrade to each generation of networks. Having four slows progress down and impedes innovation.

Mike H.

Thanks for writing in Mike! I’m not entirely sure about your math there or how it applies to T-Mobile and Sprint — that last mile is often run by companies like Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) or American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT). But you get an “A” for effort, nonetheless.

As for the judge in the case, it seems his decision was based less on the credibility of the 10 witnesses in the case and more on the fact that Sprint just sucks as a company.

Total Domination

There is an extreme determination in the world to justify one’s existence by how much $$$ you have or control. And that equates to Power and with unabjectable Power comes total domination … so it refurbishes that, in our reality, you are undeniably the Most Superior essence in Existence. My relative that came over here on the MayFlower didn’t come here for me to live under that concept!

Brian R.

I have to be honest with you, Brian. I totally appreciate and get your point, but … maybe … lay off the Red Bull occasionally? (Or maybe I need more Red Bull … caffeine is a heck of a drug.)

Remember, the new T-Mobile still has to compete with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) … as well as a host of other internet companies providing access. We’re not at “total domination” levels just yet … despite how the financial media portrays this merger.

Thanks for reading and writing in!

Happy Wife = Happy Life

Following up on your wholly unsubtle snarky comment, “Please tell me you don’t still have a phone landline,” in today’s Great Stuff, I have to guess that you have never been married, or if you were, you are since divorced. Why do I say that? Because if you had a wife, she probably disliked her cell phone — I know mine only uses hers in a true emergency!

We also have cable TV, since streaming here is still too fragmented for comfort, so I use a much less expensive (Tracfone) cell service for us and do my heavyweight online stuff from home. I figure my extra net landline cost is maybe $30-$50/month — a very small price to pay to have a happy wife.

Yes, I suppose if my wife were under 40 and grew up with wireless, this conflict would not exist, but there you are. I’ll stick with the one I got…

Dave G.

I feel you Dave. I’ve been married for more than 20 years. My wife is like a technology black hole. Everything she touches randomly and mysteriously stops working for no reason. It took me years to get her to use a smartphone, and she only switched after I laid out a detailed plan on how cutting the landline would save us lots of money down the road. (One of the benefits of being a financial wag on the internet, ha!)

Now, she’s hooked on the thing and uses it more than her laptop. But those mysterious tech issues pop up more and more frequently, and we argue about those instead of dropping the landline.

It’s a never-ending cycle. So, we did manage to drop the landline … but at what cost? At what cost, Dave?!

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.

And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at GreatStuffToday@banyanhill.com, and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.

That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

[goldira01]

Alibaba Explains It All

The market’s got chills. They’re multiplying. And China’s losing control.

Because the Wuhan virus they’re supplying … is electrifying!

Yesterday’s lull in new, reported coronavirus infections was the calm before the storm. Today, China announced 15,152 new cases and 254 new deaths. The totals now stand at more than 60,0000 confirmed cases and 1,369 dead.

So far, China has remained confident that it can contain the outbreak, and Wall Street has followed happily along. But that narrative changed this morning after an earnings conference call from Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: BABA).

Now, Alibaba’s most recent quarter was stellar, with earnings surging 58% and revenue climbing 38% year over year. But the company’s guidance was a wake-up call for Wall Street … and not just for Alibaba shareholders.

“The epidemic has negatively impacted the overall China economy, especially the retail and service sectors,” said Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu. “While demand for goods and services is there, the means of production in the economy has been hampered by the delayed opening of offices, factories and schools after the Lunar New Year’s holiday.”

In short, Chinese workers are either sick and can’t work, or can’t work because of delayed return-to-work dates or quarantines. It’s safe to say that productivity is grinding to a halt in the country.

Alibaba’s quarterly report has, so far, been the most honest take on the situation, and investors across the board should take notice.

The Takeaway: 

So, how’s everybody feeling today? Any sniffles? Fever? Aching outside the norm?

I hope you’re doing well. If you’re outside of China and inside the U.S. (like most of Great Stuff’s readers), you’re probably just wondering when the rain will stop.

Maybe you’ve got your own flu worries to contend with. While the Wuhan virus gets loads of attention, schools are closing due to outbreaks of the regular old flu here in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, area.

We went from snow days to flu days here … it’s kind of sad.

You’ve probably heard that the Wuhan virus — officially dubbed COVID-19 — is like a really, really bad flu. That’s not far off the mark.

But that comparison brings with it generalization. Why can’t the Chinese just suck it up and keep working? That’s what we do here, after all.

The Chinese are hard workers, but their health care system (from hospitals all the way down to local drug stores and supermarkets) just isn’t as convenient as ours. We can rag on U.S. health care all we want, but at least we have convenience at our disposal! It’s the price of that convenience that’s a pain…

I think this is the main reason why Wall Street and most regular investors aren’t taking the threat of COVID-19 very seriously. It’s not spreading here, so why worry?

In truth, the virus may never widely spread in a Western country due to improved health care options. But that doesn’t mean that COVID-19’s impact in China won’t affect you or your investments.

Alibaba made that very clear this morning. The company relies on local merchants and businesses to operate and sell goods … and those businesses are struggling under the weight of the outbreak.

This is true for every single company with a significant supply or manufacturing chain running through China — as we’ll see later with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).

Now, this isn’t the end of any of these companies by any means. For Alibaba and the rest, this latest bout of volatility is just another buying opportunity in disguise.

Great Stuff readers know more drawdowns may follow today’s, and the shrewdest of you may have already taken the chance to scoop up some shares on the cheap. But, if you’re tired of panicking on down days, Banyan Hill expert Jeff Yastine is your guide to buying when the buying’s right.

Over his 15 years of financial news coverage, Jeff’s seen it all — from boom to bust to boom again. No matter what happens in the market’s fickle flights of fright, Jeff Yastine has his eyes out for high-growth stocks trading at bargain prices.

Today, he’s about to reveal a massive investment that he calls “Q Shares.” This may be Wall Street’s best-kept secret — a simple upgrade that could grow your profits up to 27 times faster than holding “normal” shares.

Click here to learn more about “Q Shares.”

The Good: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Oh boy … we’ve got another winner here! I hope you’ve been reading Great Stuff, because you might’ve missed this recent opportunity.

I’m talking about Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT). Shares of the semiconductor equipment-maker are rallying today, after the company put in a solid fiscal first-quarter performance. Applied beat earnings expectations by $0.07 per share, and revenue rose to $4.16 billion. Wall Street was looking for sales of just $4.09 billion.

What’s more, the company issued second-quarter guidance significantly above the consensus target. Applied sees earnings in a range of $0.98 to $1.10 per share and revenue of $4.14 billion to $4.54 billion. The average analyst targets rest at $0.91 per share and $4.05 billion in revenue.

I’ll just take this opportunity to say: I told you so! Back on December 31, I recommended AMAT as one of Great Stuff’s top picks for 2020 and beyond. In less than two months, AMAT is up more than 12%!

And, as the cycle continues to improve for semiconductor stocks, we can expect bigger and brighter returns from AMAT.

Congratulations, Great Stuff investors. You’re on a roll!

The Bad: An Offer You Should Refuse

You know when a company says it’ll sell more shares, and investors get worried about shareholder dilution? Yeah … that didn’t happen with Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA).

Today’s trading was quite volatile for TSLA, but the stock still moved broadly higher. Why should Tesla stock have fallen? Because the company announced it was selling $2 billion in new common stock. Yes, $2 billion.

Now, I get that the company can put that money to good use. This is not necessarily a bad thing for Tesla … as a company. In fact, with the shares trading stupidly high right now, it’s a brilliant move by Tesla to raise capital.

But $2 billion in new Tesla shares running around should have some negative impact on the stock’s price. It just should.

You divide the current market capitalization by the new higher number of shares outstanding and the price goes down. That’s how math works.

Well, that’s how math is supposed to work. But, when your stock price is propped up artificially high by speculation and over-the-top bullish sentiment, math tends to take a back seat.

Don’t get me wrong: Great Stuff is still bullish on Tesla over the long term.

But this current craziness in TSLA pricing is still out of hand. If you already own Tesla, you don’t need to sell, but some hedging might be in order to protect your portfolio. If you don’t own TSLA … don’t sweat it. There will be better prices to buy in at down the road.

The Ugly: Down With the Sickness

Earlier, we mentioned Cisco Systems in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak. The stock is getting punished today, and I don’t think it’s because of the company’s earnings report.

In fact, the company’s fiscal second quarter was quite good. Earnings beat expectations by a penny. Revenue came in at $12 billion, also edging past Wall Street’s targets. Third-quarter guidance was relatively tame … but nothing unexpected.

All in all, it was a very vanilla quarterly report with no real surprises.

But there was one little tidbit that Wall Street might’ve seized on. Asia-Pacific orders were down 4% last quarter, with China driving that weakness. In fact, Chinese orders plunged 30%.

When you combine that footnote with Cisco’s heavy reliance on Chinese component suppliers and contract manufacturers … things start to get dicey. Add in Alibaba’s stark admission on just how bad things are getting economically in China, and you can see why CSCO fell roughly 6% today.

That said, Cisco is a well-run company with solid growth opportunities. The COVID-19 outbreak won’t last forever, and CSCO will bounce back, meaning now could be a good time to buy the dip.

I would also like to remind you that now’s an excellent time to choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. You don’t have to rush to take Jeff Yastine’s advice, but, if you’re a working man (or woman), sooner is better.

Here’s that information on Jeff’s “Q Shares” again, just in case you missed it earlier.

Welcome back to another edition of Great Stuff’s reader feedback!

In this weekly column, I read your emails and … provide feedback. It’s kind of in the name, huh?

This week we asked for your thoughts on the Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) / T-Mobile US Inc. (Nasdaq: TMUS) merger … and boy, were you guys chatty!

Let’s get started:

They Did the Math

Perhaps the judge is the one who understands the economics of building a network.

All network operators have to build a network that gets you 100% coverage, or you don’t get customers. The most expensive part of all networks is the last mile.  So, the cost is the same for all providers.  Now, take the mobile population and divide by the number of networks:

100%/1= 100% revenue = monopoly, covers costs and huge profit.

100%/2= 50% revenue each = duopoly, covers costs and nice profits for both.

100%/3= 33% revenue each = oligarchy, covers costs and slim profits for all.

100%/4= 25% revenue each = costs not covered, no profits and fight to kill one.

Based on 30 years working on mobile networks, three competitors provide both competition and money to upgrade to each generation of networks. Having four slows progress down and impedes innovation.

Mike H.

Thanks for writing in Mike! I’m not entirely sure about your math there or how it applies to T-Mobile and Sprint — that last mile is often run by companies like Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) or American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT). But you get an “A” for effort, nonetheless.

As for the judge in the case, it seems his decision was based less on the credibility of the 10 witnesses in the case and more on the fact that Sprint just sucks as a company.

Total Domination

There is an extreme determination in the world to justify one’s existence by how much $$$ you have or control. And that equates to Power and with unabjectable Power comes total domination … so it refurbishes that, in our reality, you are undeniably the Most Superior essence in Existence. My relative that came over here on the MayFlower didn’t come here for me to live under that concept!

Brian R.

I have to be honest with you, Brian. I totally appreciate and get your point, but … maybe … lay off the Red Bull occasionally? (Or maybe I need more Red Bull … caffeine is a heck of a drug.)

Remember, the new T-Mobile still has to compete with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) … as well as a host of other internet companies providing access. We’re not at “total domination” levels just yet … despite how the financial media portrays this merger.

Thanks for reading and writing in!

Happy Wife = Happy Life

Following up on your wholly unsubtle snarky comment, “Please tell me you don’t still have a phone landline,” in today’s Great Stuff, I have to guess that you have never been married, or if you were, you are since divorced. Why do I say that? Because if you had a wife, she probably disliked her cell phone — I know mine only uses hers in a true emergency!

We also have cable TV, since streaming here is still too fragmented for comfort, so I use a much less expensive (Tracfone) cell service for us and do my heavyweight online stuff from home. I figure my extra net landline cost is maybe $30-$50/month — a very small price to pay to have a happy wife.

Yes, I suppose if my wife were under 40 and grew up with wireless, this conflict would not exist, but there you are. I’ll stick with the one I got…

Dave G.

I feel you Dave. I’ve been married for more than 20 years. My wife is like a technology black hole. Everything she touches randomly and mysteriously stops working for no reason. It took me years to get her to use a smartphone, and she only switched after I laid out a detailed plan on how cutting the landline would save us lots of money down the road. (One of the benefits of being a financial wag on the internet, ha!)

Now, she’s hooked on the thing and uses it more than her laptop. But those mysterious tech issues pop up more and more frequently, and we argue about those instead of dropping the landline.

It’s a never-ending cycle. So, we did manage to drop the landline … but at what cost? At what cost, Dave?!

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.

And if you haven’t written in yet … what’s stopping you? Drop me a line at GreatStuffToday@banyanhill.com, and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy bull market.

That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

[glitteryyouthstudentworld]

Being freelance with the addition of having my own blog allows me to write articles like this. Not only am I able to share someone’s remarkable journey, the someone is a colleague, business associate – all will be revealed – and someone, who, along with his good wife Maria, are more like family to me and mine.

Alan Gunner Lindbloom has been someone who I have been modelling my own recent behaviour and attitude on. He has been an incredible source of inspiration to me and always at the end of the phone when I need advice, guidance or a kick up the proverbial. It is an absolute honour (with a U) to be able to share Alan’s story with you. You are in for a treat, as Alan and I discuss things past, present and future. But before we look at current events, Alan Gunner Lindbloom, what’s your story?

A – I’m half-Sicilian on my mother’s side, and I was born into a very secretive Detroit Mafia Family. My grandfather, Peter Tocco – the older cousin of Giacomo “Black Jack” Tocco, the Boss of Bosses – was the unofficial consigliere of the entire Detroit Mafia.  At around age 14, my uncle began introducing me to a life of crime. We can come back to this later, but I have written a series about my life for NCS. This link contains a brief video about my life.

The Mafia writer: How a man wrote his way out of a life of crime.

D – WOW! That’s certainly one way to kick off an interview. I know that you are no longer a part of the Italian-American Mafia, so what made you stop?

A – Eventually, at age 29, I was sentenced to 13-50 years in prison for extortion, armed robbery, bank robbery, and weapons violations. But in prison, I found my calling as a writer.

D – Which, in a way, is how we started to be in contact. Writing also became my passion in prison. Although, unlike you I’m yet to write my first book. How many books did you write overall in prison?

A – Well, when I finally walked out of prison 30 months ago, I had nine completed novels of varying genres.

D – Nine? Wow. What time did you end up serving?

A – I was released after serving 13 years. But in prison, I found my calling as a writer. I knew I had a special gift–a very vivid imagination and the ability to create complex stories. I was a huge reader, yet I often found myself thinking that I could write better books than the ones I was reading. So, I began to write and didn’t stop for 13 years. It became my mistress, my pacifier, my great escape. 

D – I know your writing also achieved something else you weren’t expecting, we’ll come back to that later. Did you get any of your books published during your sentence?

A – I did publish but only once I was released. I first chose to self-publish my Mafia novels, TO BE A KING, mainly because I figured I could leverage my past to propel my future. 

D – And why not? Is the Mafia genre well supported?

A – Definitely. Just on social media, there are dozens of VERY large Mafia fan groups that have hundreds of thousands of faithful followers, and my books have made me world famous in them.

D – We were admin together on a few, so I can confirm that to be true, as well as everything else. Tell us a bit more about TO BE A KING.

A – My grandfather, who was also the inspiration for the character “Don Falcone” in my books, in my teens, saw that I wasn’t destined for college or some professional career, so he began putting me to work for his “goombadis” in the Family. I eventually became his driver and bodyguard. We were constantly dodging FBI tails, bugs, and surveillance.

D – You must have seen some stuff, no doubt most you can’t talk about?

A – HAHA!.. I would join him on “sit-downs,” often over penny poker games with powerful men that included everyone from clergymen to professional athletes, to high ranking politicians and other mob bosses. I’d listen to them talk for hours. And the things I heard would blow your mind. Some of it I can never repeat, but I gleaned a wealth of information that would later spark my imagination while writing my novels.  

D – In what way?

A – Having a fly-on-the-wall view of how the Mafia works has resulted in a unique authenticity in my writing. I honestly believe the reason there hasn’t been a great Mafia story told since The Godfather is because very, very few individuals can authentically write this genre. Puzo admitted that he didn’t know any Mafiosi personally, but he did know a lot of guys from his neighborhood who did. His imagination did the rest. That is the difference between me and Puzo, or any other writer who attempts to write the Mafia genre.

D – Your experience of ‘The Life’ you mean?

A – Yeah! I lived that life, which made writing this story easy. I’ve seen and heard things that not even the most creative or tenured writer could contrive. I worked for some of the most iconic mob figures in American history. For example, Tony Giacolone (suspected of killing Jimmy Hoffa, and played by Armand Assante in the movie Hoffa) gave me the nickname “Pazzu Lupara,” which translates to “Crazy Gunner.” He gave me that nickname after he caught me scabbing his poker players for my own games. This was a very dangerous risk for me. If I wasn’t a Tocco, I may have come up missing for it. I mean, he was a man the FBI suspected of over 40 murders and/or disappearances, including Jimmy Hoffa! My Great Uncle Jack Tocco was the longest reigning mob boss in U.S. history. I was exposed to things that the average person (and not the average writer), could never be privy to.

Alan on FOX TV promoting ‘To Be A King’

D – Let’s give the readers a sample of ‘To Be A KING’.

A – Done.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BE-KING-Gunner-Lindbloom-ebook/dp/B01N6RQ3AE/ref=sr_1_1?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=TO+BE+A+KING%3A+Volume+1&qid=1562665822&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

  D – This is one of my favourite pictures of you and your amazing wife, Maria, and I said earlier your writing also achieved something else you weren’t expecting, explain please, lol.

A – Maria is the best. Five years into my sentence, a cousin of mine had set up a Facebook account to highlight the books I had been writing and so that friends and old classmates could get in contact. Maria had been on Facebook and saw the profile, we had also been classmates. Maria had previously worked for Amazon Publishing and was an avid reader, so she wrote to me. We wrote back and forth. I think it was when Maria read ‘To Be A King’ that she knew, not only was she in the possession of a best seller, but that she wanted to be with me. After 6 months, we fell madly in love with each other. That was 2010. 6 more years Maria waited. Within 24 hours of receiving my parole in 2016, Maria and I were married.

 D – WOW! Again, I love that story. I wonder who will play you both when the inevitable film about your life comes out.?

Staying in the past for a moment longer, you mentioned earlier about a series you have written for NCS. I share the links to my NCS articles here on my blog, although I’ve still to upload some. However, what series have you written and, who are NCS?

A – As you said we both write for NCS who are: National Crime Syndicate; known as the “Ivy League” of Mafia journalism and as the largest Mafia history website in the world. The on-going series I am writing are “The Lindbloom Chronicles” an ongoing series of short stories about my life growing up in in a Mafia Family. They have been read over 2 million times. Currently, a producer out of Atlanta is making them into a TV pilot. Click on these links for the Lindbloom Chronicles and NCS.

The Lindbloom Chronicles

National Crime Syndicate

A – We may as well share our Author pages.

D – Great idea.

Alan Gunner Lindbloom

David Breakspear

D – I’ll drop in the interview you had with our ‘Boss‘, Craig, at NCS.

Interview with Alan Lindbloom: Former ‘Detroit Partnership’ enforcer.

D – I mentioned in the introduction about us being business associates, I am of course talking about your company ‘Our Thing Apparel’, easy question, how did ‘Our Thing Apparel’ come about.

A – When I was creating a small run of promotional sweatshirts for ‘TO BE A KING’, I used the term “Our Thing” (which as you know is the English translation of Cosa Nostra) on the back. But when pictures of William Usher (business partner) and me started appearing on Facebook wearing the “OUR THING” hoodies, we became inundated with requests from people who wanted an “OUR THING” hoodie of their own. Thus, the brand was born. Not everyone knows what “OUR THING” means, but those who do, know it’s a euphemism for the Mafia, a secret society of gangsters that spans the entire globe. Wearing “OUR THING” may not make you a member of the Mafia, but it will make you part of an elite brotherhood that isn’t afraid to channel their inner gangster.

D – The ‘Our Thing’ clothing I have is top quality, but both you and I are bound to say that, one thing that I really respect and admire about you is how much time you have for your fans on social media. I love the fact that on the ‘Our Thing’ website there’s a picture gallery dedicated to your fans.

A – Yeah dude, the gallery page is an awesome addition to the website. You’re on there, once or twice hahaha!

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D – hahahaha! I love the support that you get, especially with ‘Our Thing’. The GodToddler and her family have become like family to me, as I know they have with you.

A – They are an awesome family who, yes indeed, have become like a family to us all at ‘Our Thing’, a big MASSIVE shout-out to the GodToddler and la famiglia, always reppin’ the ‘Our Thing’ look, which is the essence of ‘Our Thing’.

D – Here’s a few pics of the GodToddler making a rare, hmm! lol, appearance reppin ‘Our Thing’ apparel, as usual! (A – hahahahahaha!)

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D – I think we should just share the link to the website, so people don’t have to take our word for it and can see for themselves. We would be here all day otherwise.

Below is the link for the photo gallery:

“OUR THING” APPAREL: PHOTO GALLERY.

  D – So, where we up to now? We’ve covered ‘To Be A King’, ‘National Crime Syndicate’, ‘Lindbloom Chronicles’ and ‘Our Thing’. What’s next? I know, and it starts tomorrow.

D – ‘Festa Italiana’. The poster kind of tells all, and I know that you have a stall again this year. Excited?

A – Very excited. A lot of hard work goes in to be ready each year, especially with all the other projects I have going on but getting out there and meeting my fans means a lot to me, and if I can do a little business along the way, then even better. Here’s a few pics from last year, can’t wait to get you out here D.

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D – We can sort that when we are all in the villa in Sicily. I can’t wait to come out to America, if only to go fishing with you. We have hardly touched the surface in relation to all the projects you have got going on. Here’s an idea, why don’t we stop now and we can talk again after the festival, share some pictures along with a few more stories plus we can talk about the upcoming charity ball in September. Thank you so much for taking time out of your mad busy schedule and good luck at the festival brother, love to Maria and speak soon.

A – Thanks dude, yeah! Great idea. I need to get going anyway, so much to still get ready for tomorrow. Looking forward to letting you know how it has all gone. Take care and chat soon. Alan.

#OurThingCanBeYourThing

"My grandfather, Peter Tocco - the older cousin of Giacomo "Black Jack" Tocco, the Boss of Bosses - was the unofficial consigliere of the entire Detroit Mafia." What’s your story? Being freelance with the addition of having my own blog allows me to write articles like this.

[kennethherrerablog]

How to Budget When You Rely on Cash Tips: This Bartender’s Smart System

When you rely on tips for your income, it can be hard to save money.

For years, I’ve worked as a bartender, like about 611,000 other people in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When you go home with cash every day, it seems to burn a hole right through your pocket.

And from one day to the next, you have no idea how much you’re going to make. On my worst shift, I owed the restaurant $45 (gotta love those dine-and-dash folks). But on my best shift, I made more than $1,000 (a politician and his legal team hit the bar hard the night before he was sentenced).

I have a friend who absolutely relies on getting the occasional group that tips $700. His other four shifts barely pay for gas to work. With those fluctuations in pay, it can seem nearly impossible to set a budget.

Over the years, I’ve developed several strategies to get off the financial roller coaster and on to a life of greater security. Here’s how to save money as a server.

Look at the Bigger Picture

First, start keeping track of your income. You’ve got to know where you stand.

Track every dollar you actually make, after tipping out other staff (but before buying post-work shots). Write it down in a journal or spreadsheet after every shift, which you should do anyway in case of an audit.

Total up your income for 10 weeks, then find your average weekly income. This process helps smooth out the differences between individual shifts.

If you’re working at your job long enough, do another 10-week average. Compare it to the first 10 weeks to see how much your income varies. Now you can determine a margin of error for your budgeting.

Pick the lower of the averages, and base your budget on that figure, just to be safe.

At my most recent job, my 10-week average only differed from my average of the next 30 weeks by $3, which is exceptionally consistent. That might be a rare case, but I expect you’ll find your income to be more consistent than you’d think, as long as you take the longer view.

Pro Tip

If you change jobs, keep track of your weekly income, including the time you’re out of work. You want to know how you’re doing in the profession generally, not just at one job.

Save Creatively

While you’re gathering this data, it’s not too early to start saving and making a crude budget. Many in the service business do something like this:

Immediately Set Aside 10-15% of What You Make Each Shift

Doing this helps with taxes; set aside even more if you can.

Since most servers only make $2.13 per hour or so, with the rest as tips, they’re often stuck with a large tax bill every year. Start planning and saving for it now so you don’t have to sell your car (or live in it) later.

Deposit Larger Denominations in the Bank

Different people choose different bills. I deposit all $100, $50 and $20 bills and use them to pay rent and to buy groceries and other necessities.

This way, you’ll use most of your earnings to build up your checking account and cover fixed expenses.

Pay All Day-to-Day Expenses in Cash

You can feel the impact on your wallet more when you use cash than when you just swipe a card. I use $5 and $10 bills for most purchases.

When Paying in Cash, Never Use Change

Always pocket your change and throw it in a jar at home. This is the DIY version of those checking accounts that round up and transfer the difference to your savings.

Change adds up fast. For years, when I was living more hand-to-mouth, this stash was my rainy day fund, and it saved me several times.

Now I use it to fund travel. One jar  netted me $600 to use for a trip to Costa Rica.

Pro Tip

As you save change, keep your eye out for valuable coins.

If You Can Afford It, Put Away All Your Singles

Mike Zaunbrecker, a server and bartender in Austin, Texas, puts every dollr bill he gets into a big empty protein powder canister. This helps him save even more quickly than my change jar.

I like to use change to build up my fun/travel fund and singles to build up my savings account. Figure out which system works best for you.

Save for Something Specific Using a Wine Bottle

Alana Ramirez, a former hostess and server in Austin, Texas, saved for a trip to Hawaii by stuffing every $20 bill she earned into an empty wine bottle for months. When the time came to buy her ticket, she smashed it open.

A wine bottle helps keep your hands off your savings, since you really need to commit to breaking it to get access to your money.

But What About Paychecks?

Out of 12 or so restaurant gigs in my life, only two paid tips in the form of a paycheck cut every two weeks.

Even if you do get a paycheck, you likely don’t get a check consistent enough to base a budget on. After all, the paycheck is just your tips from a week or two, which can be quite variable.

Enter Even. The app analyzes your past paychecks and comes up with an average for you, which it reworks every month for accuracy.

If you get a bigger paycheck, the app takes the extra money and holds it in a separate account, and if you get a smaller check, it uses that account to cover the difference.

If you don’t have enough in your “savings,” Even fronts you the money and makes up for it with the next larger paycheck. It’s not a loan, and you don’t pay interest or have to pay the money back at a certain time.

With Even, you get the same amount of money every week or two, and you can budget without having to worry about big income swings.

Take Control

Once you have a good idea of what you’re making and have developed nearly automatic savings habits, structure your finances into whatever system works best for you.

Make a budget that takes into account what you can really expect to earn, and put your cash to work by building up savings and investments. That way, you don’t fritter away all your hard earned money on shots of Jameson. (Just some of it.)

Jeff Morrison is a bar manager and freelance writer from Austin, Texas.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

How to Budget When You Rely on Cash Tips: This Bartender’s Smart System published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

[goldeagleprice]

Letters to the Editor (May 28, 2019)

Signature on $1.00 note

In the “Letters” section of the April 30 issue of Numismatic News entitled “Trio of Mnuchin signature,” the 2017 series does not have the Secretary of Treasury signature. I have two uncut 50 $1.00 2017 series and the noted has a printed name, Steven Mnuchin in print. I think it is sad that they cannot sign their name.

Charles Cupit Bossier City, La.

  Long Awaited Treat

Just to let you know our first 2019 coins came in change. My wife got two 2019 p-nickels in change at our local Publics Market. Usually the first coins are pennies that are in change much earlier in the year, so this was a long awaited treat. I always set aside the first of each denomination that arrives during that calendar year. It is an easy way to get and keep AU or better coins with no real searching. With Dave Harper in retirement we send good wishes to the new NN editor. We hope to meet you at the January FUN show in Orlando in 2020.

Glen and Connie McClary Satellite Beach, Fla.

  Mint Statistics

I noted on the Mint Statistics page of the April 23 issue of NN Express that the entry for the clad half dollar set (see below) still shows a (P) for the mint doing the striking. Both of the half dollars in the two-coin set were struck in San Francisco, where indeed all Apollo 11 proof halves were struck. The erroneous (P) indicates that Apollo proof halves were struck both places, which is not the case.

2019 Apollo 11 Coins

Proof Uncirculated Max. mintage

Apollo 11 gold $5 25,594 (W) 10,616 (W) 50,000

Apollo 11 .999 silver dollar 149,984 (P) 49,684 (P) 400,000

Apollo 11 clad half dollar 49,746 (S) 33,511 (D) 750,000

Apollo 11 half dollar set *99,661 (P) N/A 100,000

The Proof Apollo 11 clad half dollar is paired with enhanced reverse proof 2019-S Kennedy half dollar. The 100,000 maximum is part of the 750,000 maximum for all clad half dollar sales options.

By the way, I see that the Mint surprised us Kennedy half collectors again by spiffing up the 2019-D halves included in their special Rocketship Set. I’ve seen a raft of SP69 PL specimens being sold online for several hundred dollars apiece. The highest price so far was $712 for a PCGS SP69 PL example sold at a dealer auction. By comparison, the last time I checked the NGC pop report for the 2018-D PL Kennedy, it stood at exactly ONE. The “Rocketship” pieces obviously enjoyed some special handling. Meanwhile 2019-D PL SP68’s are fetching a couple hundred apiece, windfall profits for those dealers who picked up quickly on what was happening.

Todd Starbuck Address withheld

  Editor’s Note:

Thank you Todd for noting our error. We appreciate your great attention to detail. We have made the proper corrections to the mint statistics and this error should not be reflected in last week’s issue of Numismatic News.

  Solitary Alabama

Looking at my uncirculated quarter album, 2021 Alabama stands alone. I noticed the same thing in my silver quarter album. Why? My second question is, how are they going to be sold? Separately? In a set? Why is the state of Alabama last? What is the pricing for the last coin going to be?

Wayne Walther North Baldwin, N.Y.

  Advice for cleaning coins

I lived through the Nov. 8, 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise. My collection of coins didn’t do as well. If your readers have any advice on cleaning coins in bulk I need the help. There are 2,300 pre-1958 pennies, six of them are1909, one thousand are bulk silver from the USM and 102 silver dollars. Thank You.      

P.S. gold came through okay.

Bob D. Alderin Yuba City, Calif.

  Jackpot at an ATM

I have had many finds in coin counters with coins that are silver but mainly in the sixties, and they are not something special. Also, I found many world coins, but on May 3 I had my biggest find on a bill / ATM money changer at a casino. I put in a $5 bill and received five uncirculated consecutively numbered Mnuchin p-signed ones. After I got over my shock I stuck in another $5 bill and received five more consecutively numbered uncirculated dollar bills. I tried it a third time but I received circulated bills. Living in Nevada I have not seen any of these bills circulated or uncirculated to date.

You never know where you will receive something that will add to your collection from a source that you least suspect.

Scott Ferguson Henderson, Nev.

  2019-W National Park Quarter

I think the idea of the U.S. Mint minting two million of each 2019-W national park quarter is a great idea. I plan on going to the bank and purchasing a $500 box or two for the rest of 2019. I have never found a box of 50 rolls of new (uncirculated) quarters, only circulated quarters with a couple of newer quarters mixed in, and even then sometimes no national park quarters. Happy hunting everybody. I know it is a longshot, but I am ready for the challenge.

Ralph A. Fuller Cleveland, Ohio

This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

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The post Letters to the Editor (May 28, 2019) appeared first on Numismatic News.

[seniorbrief]

75 Mind-Blowing McDonald’s Facts

istock/ermingut

The Inception and the Legacy

1. Seventy-five years ago, in 1940, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened up the first McDonald’s restaurant—a BBQ joint—in San Bernardino, California (at left; it’s now a museum). Eight years later, they switched to burgers, shakes, potato chips, and pie. The McDonalds purchased several Multi-mixers for use in their establishment, and when Multi-mixer salesman Ray Kroc visited, he was impressed by their success and efficiency. Kroc purchased franchise rights from the brothers. In 1955, he opened his first franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. Looking for more McDonald’s facts? This is the first McDonald’s menu ever.

2. McDonald’s first drive-thru opened in 1975 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. What inspired the then-revolutionary concept? The restaurant was located near a military base, and soldiers were not allowed to leave their cars while wearing fatigues. Check out how the McDonald’s menu has changed throughout the years.

3. There are almost more than one-and-half times more McDonald’s locations than hospitals in the United States: 14,350 versus 10,660. Find out the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald’s.

4. All those dimes and pennies do add up: In 2013, Ronald McDonald House Charities—the nonprofit organization that is McDonald’s charity of choice—raised around $450 million. It used those funds to help nearly 9 million children and their families worldwide. Today, RMHC has nearly 300 local chapters in 58 countries and regions.

5. McDonald’s invested in Chipotle in 1998, back when the fast-Mexican chain consisted of 16 restaurants. By 2006, McDonald’s owned 90 percent of Chipotle—which had grown to 500 locations—but it sold its stake in order to focus on McDonald’s.

6. The average McDonald’s drive-thru transaction took roughly three minutes, or 189.49 seconds, according to one recent study; the fast-food leader was Wendy’s with a 133.63-second turnaround time.

istock/patty_c

McDonald’s Facts: All About the Arches

7. The Golden Arches are said to be the most recognized symbol in the world, even ahead of the cross. By the way, this is the drink you should never order at a McDonald’s, according to an employee.

8. Founder Richard McDonald first sketched the Golden Arches as an architectural feature to attract customers in cars looking from the roadside, but it took five more years for the arches to be linked into an M (shown at right, at a present-day restaurant in Downey, California, the oldest one still in operation). Did you know there might be a hidden sexual meaning behind McDonald’s gold arches?

9. At its Paris Champs-Elysees restaurant, McDonald’s typically yellow Golden Arches are neon white to blend in with the lighting of that location. This is the real reason the logo is yellow and red.

10. The McDonald’s in Sedona, Arizona, has the world’s only turquoise arches—the owners of that franchise were told that they needed to make the location more in keeping with the distinct desert environment. The blue was chosen to echo the sky, and the building is more orange and red to resemble the surrounding terrain. Read more about it here.

McDonald’s Facts from Around the World

11. While many international McDonald’s look the same as their American counterparts, their menus contain unique items that reflect local tastes. Some examples: nurnburger, or three bratwursts on a bun (Germany); creamy stars, or deep-fried star-shaped pieces of cheese (Italy); McFalafel and McKebab (Israel); McSpaghetti, or pasta served with Chicken McNuggets on the side (Philippines); McRice burger, or a burger in which rice patties are used instead of a bun (Singapore); quiche de quejo, or cheese quiche (Brazil); red bean pie (Hong Kong); McAloo Tikki burger, or a spiced-potato burger (India). Pssst: There’s a reason why Coke tastes so much better at McDonald’s.

12. Samuel Jackson’s character came pretty close in Pulp Fiction: a Quarter Pounder in France is called a Royal Cheese, not a Royale with Cheese. This is the McDonald’s with the best menu in the world.

13. Since 1996, skiers have been able to schuss into the world’s only ski-thru McDonald’s in the Lindvallen resort area in Sweden.

14. Many people probably wish they could dine on McDonald’s on a flight instead of airline food; for now, they’ll have to settle for dining at a New Zealand McDonald’s, which includes an actual retired aircraft as part of the restaurant.

15. Nations that have placed a ban on McDonald’s include Bermuda, Montenegro, Kazahstan, and Macedonia. Here are more countries that have banned McDonald’s.

16. In all the world, there is one floating McDonald’s. Known as the McBarge, it’s in Vancouver, Canada. It was built for and served food at the 1986 World’s Fair, but it is now abandoned. Perhaps it should open as a sail-thru?

17. The Queen of England owns approximately $11 billion of real estate in the United Kingdom; among her holdings is a McDonald’s near Buckingham Palace. So far, she has yet to dine there—but she may be more of a drive-thru type.

18. Golden wedding arches: McDonald’s in Hong Kong offers a variety of wedding packages. The deluxe package, which costs around $1,200, includes a two-hour rental of a decorated McDonald’s location, 50 invitations, McDonald’s gifts for 50 guests, a pair of McDonald’s balloon wedding rings, a bridal bouquet, apple pie display, and an emcee.

19. In the U.K., McDonald’s has launched a program to recycle its employees’ uniforms. Some of the material will be re-spun into fiber to make new uniforms; the rest will be shredded and used to stuff mattresses.

20. In another innovation, McDonald’s Hungary and the advertising agency DDB Budapest recently unveiled the BagTray: a paper bag that has a reinforced cardboard tray at its bottom. By ripping off a strip of the bag, you can detach a sturdy tray.

istock/junce

McDonald’s Facts: Menu Mania

21. McDonald’s best-selling menu item is … French fries! Check out the 10 most popular items at McDonald’s.

22. But it took nine years for fries to appear on the restaurant menu (they debuted in 1949); before that, only potato chips were available. This is the secret ingredient behind the addictive flavor of McDonald’s fries.

 23. You don’t need a passport to try exotic McDonald’s offerings. In some parts of America, McDonald’s restaurants sell their own specialty items. In the summer, you can get a McLobster roll at restaurants in New England. But Hawaii takes the prize: Choices include Saimin, a Hawaiian noodle soup with fish cake, nori, char siu pork, and sliced scrambled eggs; a taro-root pie; and a breakfast platter with Spam or Portuguese sausage as the meat options.

24. A McDonald’s franchise owner in Monfort Heights, Ohio noticed that residents in his highly Catholic town did not eat hamburgers or cheeseburgers during Lent so he created a meat-free alternative, the Filet-o-Fish, which swam onto menus in 1962. Today, 23 percent of all Filet-o-Fish sales are thought to occur during Lent.

25. The fish in the filet was originally halibut; now it’s wild-caught Atlantic pollock.

26. The chain’s worst-selling item may have been the Hula burger. Invented by Ray Kroc as a meatless alternative for Catholics on Lent, it consisted of a grilled piece of pineapple with a slice of cheese in a bun. It lasted a brief while in 1962. Here are the failed McDonald’s menu items you’ve probably never heard of.

27. McDonald’s McGriddle was invented by product developer Tom Ryan because he wanted a handheld breakfast item that was both sweet and savory. He is the Dr. Frankenstein of fast food. In an earlier job at Pizza Hut, he created stuffed-crust pizza and the Meat Lovers, Veggie Lovers, and Cheese Lovers pizzas. He is now the founder and chief concept officer at Smashburger.

28. Franchisee Herb Peterson created the Egg McMuffin, which became available in 1971, by modeling it off his breakfast of choice, eggs benedict. This is the only McDonald’s Breakfast made with fresh eggs.

29. Some discerning diners believe that the Coke served at McDonald’s tastes better than it does at other places. They may be onto something: Only at McDonald’s is the Coke syrup delivered in stainless steel tanks to preserve its freshness; elsewhere, it’s transported in plastic bags.

30. At a grand total of 1,880 calories, the 40-piece Chicken McNuggets are the highest calorie item on the regular menu. That’s more calories than many adults should consume in a single day. Find out the 5 healthiest things you can order at a McDonald’s.

istock/Juanmonino

31. The number of ingredients in Chicken McNuggets? 40, which is low compared to the ingredient list for the McRib, which has 70. By the way, this is why McNuggets always come in one of four shapes.

32. The McRib, which debuted in the chain’s restaurants in 1981, was invented in part because chicken farmers couldn’t keep up with the demand for McNuggets.

33. There are no ribs in McRib; it’s a patty made from pork shoulder meat.

34. The McRib was removed from the McDonald’s menu in 1985 due to its lack of popularity. But thanks to a loyal cult following, it came back in 1989 and was offered until 2005 in the chain’s restaurants in much of the world. From 2006 on, it’s been available for a few months every year. However, all along it has been a menu staple in one country: Germany.

35. According to Reddit users, you can get a Big Mac for half the price if you order a McDouble without mustard or ketchup and add shredded lettuce and special sauce. The only difference will be the lack of a third bun.

36. Those in the know say that McDonald’s has a secret menu. The most popular items include the McLeprechaun shake (a chocolate shake mixed with their seasonal Shamrock Shake), the McKinley Mac (a Big Mac made with quarter-pounder patties), and the Land, Air, and Sea burger (a McChicken patty, beef patty and Filet-o-Fish patty combined). Here are the McDonald’s secret menu items you need to know.

37. In an effort to provide a more customized experience, the “Create Your Taste” initiative allows diners to use tablet-like kiosks to pick different buns, cheeses, toppings, and sauces for their burger. It’s expected to roll out at 2,000 locations in the United States this year, or about one in seven McDonald’s in the United States.

38. Customer Moshe Tamssot posted a YouTube video that showed him creating the biggest burger possible with a “Create Your Taste.” Although he was limited to two quarter-pound beef patties, he was able to add 10 times all the other ingredients. His sandwich was topped by 10 slices of bacon, 30 slices of cheese, and 10 servings of guacamole, tomato, pickles, lettuce, mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, raw onions, and grilled onions (not to mention a variety of sauces). The sandwich weighed 3.8 pounds and cost $24.89. We believe he is still digesting it.

39. In a one-off event in 2013, McDonald’s challenged celebrity chefs to deploy McDonald’s ingredients to create a “McGourmet” meal. Guests at the NYC dinner enjoyed kung pao chicken (made with Chicken McNuggets and sweet-and-sour sauce), a tortilla espanola (hash browns and eggs), slow-cooked beef with blueberry pomegranate sauce (the chain’s blueberry-pomegranate smoothie) and gnocchi (French fries!), and washed it all down with mojitos (mango pineapple smoothie).

istock/PhonlamaiPhoto

Ronald McDonald Facts

40. While there are disputes about who invented the Ronald McDonald character, Willard Scott—who later became famous for being The Today Show weatherman— was the first to portray him in TV ads.

41. Scott was fired from being Ronald McDonald after he was deemed to be “too fat.”

42. In Japan, the character is known as Donald McDonald, due to the lack of a clear “R” sound in Japanese.

43. The original Ronald McDonald wore a yellow-and-red striped suit, which he often accessorized with wearing a tray bearing a hamburger, fries, and milkshake as a hat.

44. Ronald’s newest wardrobe, which debuted last summer, consists of yellow cargo pants and a vest and a red-and-white striped rugby shirt; on special occasions, he tops it all with a red blazer emblazoned with golden arches on the front pocket. His new look was created by theatrical costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, who won a Tony for Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast.

45. In 2005, a man from Manchester, New Hampshire, robbed a Wendy’s. His name? Ronald MacDonald. Learn which McDonald’s is the most expensive McDonald’s in the world.

McDonald’s Facts: Crime, Punishment, and Some Bizarre Lawsuits

46. Shaneka Torres of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is currently serving a three-to-seven-year prison sentence after she was convicted of shooting a bullet in a McDonald’s drive-thru window after she failed to receive bacon on her burger. She has also been banned from the restaurant for life.

47. In 2014, a McDonald’s customer sued the company for $1.5 million after claiming to suffer “undue mental anguish” after he received only one napkin with his order. This is why McDonald’s ice cream machines are always broken.

48. After starring in a McDonald’s-bashing ad for Burger King, the then-4-year-old actress Sarah Michelle Gellar was named in a lawsuit by the fast food giant—and was banned from McDonald’s.

49. While the best-known McDonald’s lawsuit in America is the one involving scalding coffee, the company is known in the U.K. for a different legal matter. In 1994, two members of the London Greenpeace group were sued by McDonald’s for distributing pamphlets that claimed the company was responsible for hunger in the Third World, deforestation, food poisoning, cruel treatment of animals, and paying low wages. The trial—dubbed the McLibel case—still stands as the longest in English history at 300 days, generating 20,000 pages of trial transcripts. The defendants were found guilty of making some libelous statements and ordered to pay a fine. But in 2005, they brought their case to the European Court, which declared that the case was in breach of the right to a fair trial and right to freedom of expression (mainly due to the unavailability of legal aid for the Greenpeace members).

50. Children’s television producers Sid and Marty Kroftt sued McDonald’s in 1973, saying that McDonaldland ripped off the “concept and feel” of their TV show H.R. Pufnstuf. McDonald’s was ordered to pay the brothers one million dollars.

istock/Magone

McDonald’s Facts: Amazing Feats

51. In the Guinness Book of World Records, one record is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon: “Most Big Macs Consumed.” When Don Gorske of Wisconsin set the record in 2008, he’d already consumed 22,477 sandwiches. But since he eats two a day, he’s had over 27,500 of them by now. He had his first at age 18 in 1972 (it cost 49 cents). He liked the sandwich so much that after eating it, he had eight more of them—for a one-day total of nine, a limit he has never exceeded. Both his weight and cholesterol are said to be normal.

52. The world’s largest Big Mac can be found in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, at the Big Mac Museum (which bills itself “the most tasteful museum in the world”).  While the mega-Mac is inedible—it’s a 14-foot-tall statue—hungry visitors can eat the real thing at the on-premises McDonald’s restaurant.

53. Mike Fountaine holds the record for owning the most McDonald’s related memorabilia. His 75,000-item collection—which includes buttons, uniforms, cups, and Happy Meal boxes and toys—spills over nine rooms of his Pennsylvania home. In 1968, a then-15-year-old Fountaine began working at the Golden Arches and began his collection one year later. Today he owns two McDonald’s restaurants.

54. The world’s largest McDonald’s PlayPlace is in the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. It includes a 500 gallon aquarium, waterfall, and 100 arcade games.

55. A limited edition—one out of 200 produced in the world—500 ml bottle of McDonald’s Big Mac Special Sauce sold in Australia on eBay this year for $20,600 in Australian dollars, or around $16,144 US. One hundred percent of the profits went to Ronald McDonald House Charities.

56. But the ingredients in the special sauce are no longer secret. According to the company website, it contains soybean oil, pickle relish, distilled vinegar, water (main components); egg yolks, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, garlic powder, vegetable protein, caramel color, paprika and turmeric extracts (for flavor and color); high fructose corn syrup, sugar (for sweetness); sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA (for preservation of color and taste); propylene glycol alginate, mustard bran, soy lecithin (for thickness and creaminess).

57. In 2012, Rebekah Speight of Nebraska auctioned off a truly one-of-a-kind possession on eBay: a chicken McNugget that resembled George Washington. The winning bid was $8,100, which Speight planned to donate to her church’s youth camp. At the time of sale, the nugget was already three years old. In general, eBay bans the sale of expired food products, but the company made an exception.

58. McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys. It gives away around 1.5 billion toys each year with Happy Meals.

59. Jamaican runner Usain Bolt claims to have eaten around 1,000 chicken McNuggets during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where McDonald’s had an outpost in the Olympic Village. It was the lunch (or dinner) of champions: At those games, he won three gold medals and set three world records. This is the secret that makes their apple pies taste so good.

McDonald’s Facts All About the Employees

60. One in eight U.S. workers has been employed by McDonald’s at some point in their careers. These are the secrets McDonald’s employees won’t tell you.

61. Famous former employees of McDonald’s include Rachel McAdams, Pink, Macy Gray, Jay Leno, Carl Lewis, Jeff Bezos, and Andie MacDowell.

62. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “McJob” is “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector.”  McDonald’s threatened to sue to change the definition, but ultimately responded with a clever U.K. ad campaign that extolled the company’s employee benefits. It ended with the line: “Not bad for a McJob.” This is how much McDonald’s workers really make.

63. On a corporate level, McDonald’s has some pretty spectacular benefits. Employees get an extra week of paid time off in the years when they reach an anniversary ending with a “5” (5, 15, 25, etc.). They’re eligible for an eight-week paid sabbatical for every 10 years worked.

64. In 1961, the company opened Hamburger University to train its executive employees; today, there are more than 2750,000 graduates. The original campus is in Oak Brook, Illinois, where McDonald’s is headquartered. Other campuses are in Tokyo, London, Sydney, Munich, Sao Paolo and Shanghai. All together around the world, Hamburger U. employs more than 60 full-time college professors.

65. McDonald’s holds its own version of American Idol. Called the Voice of McDonald’s, the competition shines the spotlight on the vocal talent of its 1.8 million employees. In its most recent contest, 58,000 McWorkers from 63 countries entered. Lucy Ospitia of Bucaramanga, Colombia, won the $25,000 grand prize. Rocky Rosabal from the Philippines won second prize ($17,500); third prize ($12,500) went to Ashlae Nelms from Illinois.

A Pop Culture Icon

66. The Economist created the “Big Mac Index” in 1986 as a shorthand way to determine whether a country’s currency is inflated. The index uses the international prices of a Big Mac, a globally available food product, to illustrate the differences in monetary value between nations. It’s still referenced today. In January, the average price for a Big Mac was $4.79 in the America and $7.54 in Switzerland. (All prices are in U.S. dollars.) Russia and Ukraine were among the cheapest places at which to buy a Big Mac, $1.36 and $1.20, respectively.

 67. In the 2003 documentary Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock chronicled his 30-day, all-McDonald’s diet. At month’s end, Spurlock had gained 25 pounds, sent his cholesterol sky-rocketing, and caused serious harm to his liver. McDonald’s removed Super Size fries and drinks from its menu six weeks after the film’s release, although it said Super Size Me did not influence its decision.

68. The “I’m Lovin’ It” McDonald’s jingle was written by Pharell and recorded by Justin Timberlake.

69. Ottawa Senators goalie Andrew Hammond is nicknamed Hamburglar. How he earned it: A fan threw a burger on the ice at Hammond after a recent win (in 12 starts, he’d amassed an impressive 10-0-1 record); the goalie graciously accepted it but did not eat it because he said it was too cold. To ensure that he always has access to a hot burger, Hammond received—courtesy of McDonald’s in Canada—a special card that entitles him to a lifetime of free eats.

70. Octogenarians Carl and Barbara Becker of Virginia were regulars at their local McDonald’s, where they liked stopping in for “scrunch”—a snack between lunch and supper. One day, an employee was sweeping up near them, and when asked if it bothered them, the couple answered that it did. A manager then told the Beckers that they’d exceeded their allowed 30 minutes in the restaurant and had to leave.  The Beckers wrote a heartfelt letter to their local paper in which Carl explained how the incident had marred their McDonald’s ritual. For the pair, scrunch is “a sweet time of fellowship, which we enjoy, which helps sustain our marriage of 63 years,” wrote Carl. In response, McDonald’s corporate offices sent the couple coupons for two small coffees. The Beckers refused them but said they’d still patronize the chain—just not the Culpeper location.

71. The Beckers were not left burger-less, however. Shawn Moss, who owns Shawn’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant in Culpeper, was so moved when he heard about the couple’s experience that he offered them one free “scrunch” a week for the rest of their lives.

72. In 2014, 18-year-old Stian Ytterdahl from Norway had a tattoo artist ink a McDonald’s receipt onto his arm after his friends dared him; a week later, he had the same receipt tattooed on his other arm. For the rest of his life, he’ll always know what he ate at 7:36 PM on March 24, 2014: a Coke, three cheeseburgers, a cheeseburger Happy Meal, a McFlurry NonStop with three extra toppings, and an extra Happy Meal toy. This is why you should always ask for your receipt at McDonald’s.

73. At the McDonald’s online shop, customers in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Australia can purchase Big Mac-patterned pajamas, wallpaper, long underwear, rain boots, dog coat, and (human) bedding.

74. Scientists studying McDonald’s patrons found that female diners ate less when they were eating in mixed-sex groups rather than in same-sex groups, while male diners ate more in mixed-sex groups than in mixed-sex pairs, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Health Psychology.

75. While only McDonald’s is on Twitter (with more than 2.8 million followers), both McDonald’s and Ronald McDonald have Instagram accounts. McDonald’s boasts 565,000 followers to Ronald’s 10,900.

Original Source -> 75 Mind-Blowing McDonald’s Facts

source https://www.seniorbrief.com/75-mind-blowing-mcdonalds-facts/

[themoneybuff-blog]

18 favorite financial rules of thumb (and some useful money guidelines)

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After twelve years of reading and writing about money, Ive come to love financial rules of thumb. Financial rules of thumb provide helpful shortcuts for making quick calculations and decisions. You dont always have time (or want to take the time) to create elaborate spreadsheets when choosing a course of action. In these cases, its nice to have some rough guidelines you can rely on. Youve probably heard of the rule of 72, for example. This shortcut says that if you divide 72 by a particular rate of return, youll get the number of years itll take to double your money. If your savings account yields 4%, say, it will take about 18 years for your nest egg to increase by 100%. But if you were able to earn 12% on your investment, that money would double in six years. Like all rules of thumb, the rule of 72 isnt precise. It doesnt give an exact answer but a ballpark figure. Financial rules of thumb dont always hold true. But theyre true enough for us to make loose plans based on them. I have some engineer friends whod get tense at this sort of sloppy guesswork, but most of the rest of us are happy to trade a bit of precision for speed. Thats what rules of thumb are all about! The trick, of course, is knowing which rules of thumb to use. Most are handy, but some common guidelines do more harm than good. Rules Gone Wild In the past, youve probably seen my rant about some of my most-hated financial rules of thumb. Lets look at three things I think conventional wisdom gets wrong (and what I believe are better alternatives). How much should you save for retirement? For instance, I get frustrated when I hear financial advisers push the idea that you should base your retirement savings on 70% of your income. Instead of estimating your retirement needs from your income, it makes far more sense to base them on spending. Your spending reflects your lifestyle; your income doesnt. I think a better rule of thumb for determining retirement needs is this: When estimating how much youll need to save for retirement, assume youll spend as much in the future as you do now. Use 100% of your current expenses to calculate your retirement spending. (And if you want to build in a safety margin, base your future needs on 110% of your current spending.) How much should you spend on a house? As I mentioned last week, another rule of thumb that makes me cranky is this common guideline espoused by all sectors of the homebuying industry: Buy as much home as you can afford. No no no no no! Of all financial rules of thumb, this is probably the worst. Its certainly one of the most prevalent. This is how folks end up house poor, chained to a mortgage they resent. Lenders quantify this guideline by saying your housing payments should be nor more than 28% or 33% or 41% of your income. But, as David Bach wrote in The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, You should generally assume that the amount the bank or mortgage company is willing to loan you is more than you should borrow. A better rule of thumb? Spend as little on housing as possible. Spending less than 25% of your net income is best less than 20% is even better. How much life insurance should you carry? A third rule that bugs me is the one for determining how much life insurance you should buy. Different experts give different answers. Some say your policy should cover five times your annual income. Others say ten times. And Suze Orman recommends 20 times annual income needs. The truth is that not everyone needs life insurance. Like all insurance, its designed to prevent financial catastrophes. You only need it if other people like a spouse or children would face financial hardship when you die. If you dont have kids, if your spouse has a good income, or you have substantial savings, then life insurance isnt a necessity. Even if you do need life insurance, you probably dont need to carry as much as your insurance agent is willing to sell you. To find out the amount thats right for you, check out the Life Insurance Needs Calculator from the non-profit Life Happens organization. (How much life insurance should I carry? According to this calculator, I shouldnt have any at all. And I dont.)

Useful Financial Rules of Thumb Financial rules of thumb usually arent this bad. In fact, most are useful. Here are eighteen of my favorites. When estimating income, $1 an hour in wage is equivalent to $2000 per year in pre-tax earnings. The reverse is also true: $2000 per year in salary is equal to $1 an hour in hourly wage. (This rule works because the average worker spends roughly 2000 hours per year on the job.)How wealthy should you be? According to the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, the following wealth formula can tell you if youre on target: Divide your age by ten, then multiply by your annual gross income. Your net worth should be equal to this number (less any inheritances). So, if youre 40 and make $50,000 per year, your net worth should be $200,000. If you have less than half the expected amount, youre an under-accumulator of wealth. If you have twice the target, youre a prodigious accumulator of wealth. (Note that the authors are well aware that this formula doesnt work well for young people; its meant to be used by folks nearing retirement age.)On average, each dollar an American spends represents about $2.50 of after-tax value in ten years or $10 in thirty years. (If you live outside the U.S., the consequences of spending that dollar are probably even greater.) This is due to two reasons: taxes and compounding. When you buy something, you spend after-tax dollars. On average, Americans have to earn $1.33 to have $1.00 left over.Inflation is the silent killer of wealth. In the U.S., inflation has averaged 3.18% over the past hundred years. A lot of folks figure a 3% inflation rate when making money calculations. I think its safer to assume 3.5% or even 4% average inflation in the future.Historically, U.S. stocks have earned long-term real returns (meaning inflation-adjusted returns) of about 7%. Bonds have long-term real returns of around 2.5%. Gold and real estate have long-term real returns of close to 1%.If you withdraw about four percent of your savings each year, your wealth snowball will maintain its value against inflation. During market downturns, you might have to withdraw as little as three percent. If times are flush, you might allow yourself five percent. But four percent is generally safe. (For more on safe withdrawal rates, check out this article from the Mad Fientist.)Based on the previous rule of thumb, theres a quick way to check whether early retirement is within your reach. Multiply your current annual expenses by 25. If the result is less than your savings, youve achieved financial independence you can retire early. If the product is greater than your savings, you still have work to do. (If youre conservative or have low risk tolerance, multiply your annual expenses by 30. If youre aggressive and/or willing to take on greater risk, multiple by 20.)Building on the above, Mr. Money Mustaches shockingly simple math behind early retirement gives us a useful rule of thumb for determining how long youll need to save before youre financially independent. Figure out your current saving rate (or profit margin, if you prefer). Subtract this number from 60. Roughly speaking and assuming youve started from a zero net worth thats how long youll need to work before your nest egg is big enough to support you in retirement. (Note that this rule breaks down at saving rates over 40%. If you save a lot, subtract from 70.)Joe from Stacking Benjamins likes what he calls the penny approximation: Assuming a safe withdraw rate of roughly four percent, every $100 you save gives you one penny per day in perpetuity. Once you stack enough Benjamins you have enough pennies to sustain you forever. If you change your own brake pads and save $200, thats two cents a day for the rest of your life because you avoided paying a mechanic.

I hate detailed budgets because they bog people down. Instead, Im a fan of budget frameworks that focus more on the Big Picture. My favorite budget framework is the Balanced Money Formula: Spend no more than 50% of your after-tax income on Needs, put at least 20% into savings (including debt reduction), and spend the rest (around 30%) on Wants. This is a great beginner budget, but its also useful for transitioning to the mindset of Financial Independence. If you decide early retirement is a goal, then part of your Wants spending becomes additional savings.If you own your home, its wise to set aside money for maintenance and repairs. Each year, contribute 1% of your homes current value to a separate account. If you dont spend the money, keep it there for future remodeling and improvements.Is it better to buy or to rent? The price-to-rent ratio is a useful rule of thumb for making this decision. Find two similar places, one for sale and one for rent. Divide the sale price of the one by the annual rent for the other. The result is the P/R ratio. Say you find a $200,000 house for sale in a nice neighborhood, and a similar home for rent on the next block for $1000 per month, which is $12,000 per year. Dividing $200,000 by $12,000, you get a P/R ratio of 16.7. If the P/R ratio is low, its better to buy. If the price-to-rent ratio is over 15, its probably better to rent.How much does it cost to raise a child? As a rule of thumb, budget $10,000 per child per year. Thats not quite a quarter of a million dollars per kid, but its close.If you get a windfall, use 1% to treat yourself. (Or maybe 2%, tops.) Put the rest in a safe place and ignore it for six months. After youve had time to think about it, then take action. So, if you inherit $100,000 from Aunt Marge, only allow yourself a $1000 splurge. Stash the remaining $99,000 someplace you wont be tempted to spend it.To approximate a new vehicles five-year cost of ownership (in monthly terms), double the price tage and divide by 60. Looking at a brand-new Mini Cooper ? Double that $30,000 sticker price to get $60,000, then divide by 60. Is it really worth $1000 per month to get rid of your crummy Ford Focus?The standard rule of thumb is to save at least 10% of your income. I think a better goal is to aim for 20% and more is better. Financial guru Liz Weston says that if youre young, you should follow this guideline: Save 10% for basics, 15% for comfort, 20% to escape.Nobody agrees how much you should set aside for an emergency fund. Even the experts offer advice ranging from $1000 up to 12 months of expenses. (The most common suggestions range from three to six months of expenses.) One clever rule of thumb to determine how much you should have set aside: Your emergency fund should cover X months of expenses, where X is the current unemployment rate. In other words, because the U.S. unemployment is about 4% right now, you should aim to have enough money in the bank to cover four months of expenses.According to Consumer Reports, wen youre faced with the repair of an appliance (such as a refrigerator or washing machine), you should buy a new one if the appliance is more than eight years old (or if the repair would cost more than half what it would take to buy a replacement). Its important to remember that rules of thumb arent set in stone. Theyre guidelines. Theyre meant to help you make quick evaluations, not actual life-changing decisions. Financial rules of thumb are a starting point. Start with them, then adjust for your individual goals and situation. Other Useful Financial Guidelines Strictly speaking, rules of thumb deal with numbers. Still, there are a lot of non-numeric guidelines that I think are useful to know. If youve done any reading about personal finance, for example, youve probably heard the admonition, Pay yourself first. While not strictly a rule of thumb, this guideline is very similar. Here are some other useful financial guidelines: The more you learn, the more you earn. In the U.S., education has a greater impact on work-life earnings than any other demographic factor. Your age, race, gender, and location all influence what you earn, but nothing matters more than what you know.Bank a raise. When you get a salary bump, dont increase your spending. Stay the course and put the added income into savings.Always take the employer match on the 401(k).Never touch your retirement savings except for retirement.Never co-sign on a loan. (Ever.)Avoid paying interest on anything that loses value. Its okay to finance a home or a college education but avoid taking out a loan on a car.Speaking of cars: When you buy a vehicle, buy used or buy new and plan to drive it for at least ten years. (Do both and youll save even more!)Dont mess with the IRS. When it comes to taxes, dont try to cheat. Pay what you owe. Claim all the deductions you deserve, but dont try to stretch things.In general, save an emergency fund first; pay off high-interest debt second; and begin investing (at the same time you pay down remaining debt) last.It almost always makes more sense (and cents) to repair your old car than to buy a new one.If youre not willing to pay cash for it, then it doesnt make sense to buy it on credit. (I have a friend whose guiding principle is: If I wouldnt buy five, why would I buy one? Similar idea taken to an extreme.)Save for your own retirement before saving for your childrens college education. They can get loans for school. You cant get loans for retirement. Now its your turn. What rules of thumb did I miss? Do you disagree with any of those I suggested? What are some of your favorite rules of thumb? Shares 392 https://www.getrichslowly.org/financial-rules-of-thumb/

[andrewdburton]

Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live

While visiting Raleigh earlier this month, I spent a morning with my pal Justin (from the excellent Root of Good blog) and his wife. As we sipped our coffee and nibbled our bagels, the conversation turned to cost of living. (Money nerds will be money nerds, after all.)

“Things are cheaper here in North Carolina than they are in Portland,” I said. “Food is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Hotel rooms are cheaper. Your homes are cheaper too. Last night, as I was walking through the neighborhood next to my hotel, I pulled up the housing prices. I was shocked at how low they are!”

“Yeah, housing costs are lower here than in many parts of the country,” Justin said.

“Take our house, for instance. We bought it in 2003 for $108,000. Zillow says it’s worth around $198,000 right now. But I’ll bet that’s a lot less than you’d pay for a similar place in Portland.”

He’s right. Justin and his wife own an 1800-square-foot home on 0.3 acres of land. Their place has four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There’s only one place for sale in Portland right now that matches these stats and it’s going for $430,000 — more than twice the price the same home would fetch in Raleigh.

Housing is by far the largest slice of the average American budget, representing one-third of typical household spending. Because of this, the best way to cut your costs (and, therefor, boost your “profit margin”) is to reduce how much you spend to keep a roof over your head.

One obvious way to cut costs on housing is to choose a cheaper home or apartment. But if you truly want to slash your spending, consider moving to a new neighborhood. Or city. Or state. If you’re willing to change locations, you can supercharge your purchasing power and accelerate your saving rate.

Cost of living is one of those factors that people seldom consider, but which can have a huge impact on the family budget — sometimes in unexpected ways. According to The Millionaire Next Door:

Living in less costly areas can enable you to spend less and to invest more of your income. You will pay less for your home and correspondingly less for your property taxes. Your neighbors will be less likely to drive expensive motor vehicles. You will find it easier to keep up, even ahead, of the Joneses and still accumulate wealth.

It’s one thing to talk about the effects of high cost of living, but another to actually experience it.

Cost of Living in Real Life

On our fifteen-month road trip across the United States, Kim and I made a point of watching how prices varied from city to city and region to region.

While stranded for ten days in rural Plankinton, South Dakota, for example, I paid $10.60 for a fancy men’s haircut. At home in Portland, I pay $28 for the same fancy haircut. In Fort Collins, Colorado, I paid $30 for a haircut. In Santa Barbara, California, I paid $50 or $60 for the same fancy cut.

Gas was cheaper in South Dakota too. So was food. So was beer and whisky. So were movies. So was just about everything, including housing. Housing prices followed a similar pattern to the haircut prices I mentioned above. A $280,000 home in Portland might go for $300,000 in Fort Collins and $500k to $600k in Santa Barbara. In South Dakota, that same home would cost about $106,000.

A couple of years ago, I exchanged email with a reader who had first-hand experience struggling with the high cost of living. She gave me permission to share her story:

I had been saving about 40% of my relatively modest salary for eight years. I had built up an emergency fund as well as a good sized savings…and then we had kids.

We lost our rent-stabilized apartment right after our children were born. We live in New York City, and while I maintain that there are many things about the city that are actually very budget-friendly (public transit and free entertainment top my list), the cost of rent and daycare in NYC are over the top.

In one year, the cost of a market-rate apartment in our neighborhood plus two kids in daycare ate into my hard-earned savings. By the end of the year, the pot of money that I had worked so hard to save was down by almost $50,000.

Luckily, my husband and I have never carried any kind of debt and had already been living well below our means before the kids came along. But that also meant there was very little fat left to trim in our budget other than rent and daycare expenses. (We’d already dropped the landline, never had cable, cooked almost all of our meals at home, and cut out our modest “allowance” of $50/month for splurges.)

We are the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish!

Eventually, we moved into a cheaper apartment. Although we haven’t had to dip into savings since we moved, we’re still essentially living month to month because of daycare and rent. The neighborhood is cheaper for a reason.

Real Life will force us to make another move in the spring. One of our jobs is going away, so it will force a decision one way or another since we can’t stay in New York on one salary. Change is definitely coming.

This reader and her husband are already frugal-minded — that’s how she built her buffer of savings to start with — so there isn’t much more the family can cut. This is an example where the only real solution is to seek a city with a lower cost of living.

Saving in Savannah

Which places are cheapest to live? Which are most expensive? This map from Governing magazine shows how far the average paycheck goes in 191 U.S. metro areas.

Dark green (blue?) dots indicate cities where your wages buy more after adjusting for cost of living. Dark brown dots are places where you have to work harder to get what you want. (Click through to play with an interactive version of the map.)

As you can see, large coastal cities tend to be more expensive than smaller towns in the center of the country. If you have a fixed budget, you’ll get more bang for your buck by buying a home in Oklahoma City or Sioux Falls than by living in San Francisco or Washington D.C.

It’s not just coastal cities, though. There are spendy pockets throughout the U.S. from Flagstaff, Arizona to Hot Springs, Arkansas. And some coastal cities — Boston, Houston, Seattle, Tampa — are relatively inexpensive. (In Boston and Seattle, though, that’s because wages are high, not because things are cheap.)

In the middle of our road trip, Kim and I decided to stay the winter in Savannah, Georgia. During our six months in Savannah, we spent much less than we would have for the same lifestyle here in Portland. According to the CNN cost-of-living calculator, Portland is 44% more expensive than in Savannah. (And housing costs nearly three times as much here as it does in Georgia!)

In larger cities, there are often cost-of-living differences between neighborhoods. When deciding where to live in Savannah, for instance, we had a choice:

We could rent a small apartment in the downtown historic district for $1750 per month. The place would have been a lot of fun because it was surrounded by shops and restaurants, and it was close to anything we might want to do.

We could opt instead for a modest-sized condo on the outskirts of town at $1325 per month. This location was next to nothing. We could walk to the grocery store, but we’d have to drive into the city if we wanted to indulge ourselves.

After considering financial and lifestyle factors, we chose to rent the condo in the middle of the marshlands. On the surface, this decision saved us $425 per month. In reality, it saved us much more than that.

If we had lived downtown, we would have had to pay to park the Mini Cooper ($95/month). We would have been constantly tempted to eat out or go for drinks. It would have been too easy for window shopping to become actual shopping. Instead, we enjoyed one Date Night each week. We spent the rest of our time working and exercising.

I believe that opting for the less glamorous location saved us a minimum of $5000 over our six month stay — and the real savings are probably far greater.

Pinching Pennies in Portland

This same concept — certain neighborhoods costing less than others — was a driving factor in our decision last year to sell our condo and move to “the country”. We loved where we lived, but the costs were crazy.

First, there were the maintenance costs for a place that we ostensibly owned outright. Even without a mortgage, we were paying nearly $1200 per month for HOA fees, utilities, insurance, and more. (In our new place, we spend half that.)

Plus, there was the sneaky cost of lifestyle inflation. Our condo was in a fun neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars. It was all too easy after a long day to simply walk up the street to one of our favorite spots, where we’d drop $50 or $100 on food and drinks. Moving to our new place cut our restaurant spending in half.

Lastly, the cost of goods in our new neighborhood is lower than in our old. In Sellwood, our grocery options were limited. And expensive. The nearest markets were both high-end organic-only affairs, the kind of places you might see on an episode of Portlandia. Yes, the quality was outstanding. But since we’ve moved, we’re spending about 25% less on groceries each month.

Moving helped us save big on some cost-of-living items. But it also brought with it a few increases in spending. Because we’re more rural now, we drive more often. Kim, especially, is spending more on gas. Our “new” home also has greater maintenance costs than the condo. We’ve poured a ton of money into this place since moving in. (I guess that’s not actually a cost-of-living issue so much as a homeownership issue, though.)

My point is that even within a city, there are cost-of-living differences you can leverage to your advantage — especially if you’re willing to live in a rougher part of town.

The Bottom Line

Obviously there’s more to picking a place to live than pure price.

When you choose a city (or neighborhood) to call home, you do so because of the climate, the politics, and the people. You want to live close to friends and family. You want a nice school district. You want people who think and act the same way you do. For those reasons (and others), Omaha might not be a good choice for you. (Savannah isn’t a good choice for me long-term, but it was fine for a few months.)

Here’s the bottom line: Where you choose to live has a greater effect on your long-term financial success than almost any other factor. How much you earn is sometimes more important (not always), in which case cost of living is a close second.

Cost of living can wreak havoc on your pursuit of financial freedom. Or it can help you achieve your goals sooner than you thought possible. The choice is yours.

Other ways to make the most of your housing budget? Consider renting. Live close to where you work so that you can walk, bike, or take the bus. Purchase a house that fits your lifestyle and needs rather than the commonly cited “buy as much home as you can afford”. The latter is self-serving advice from real-estate agents and mortgage brokers. You don’t need a big house; you just need someplace comfortable.

The post Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/cost-of-living/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[foursprout-blog]

Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/cost-of-living-why-you-should-choose-a-cheap-place-to-live/

Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live

While visiting Raleigh earlier this month, I spent a morning with my pal Justin (from the excellent Root of Good blog) and his wife. As we sipped our coffee and nibbled our bagels, the conversation turned to cost of living. (Money nerds will be money nerds, after all.)

“Things are cheaper here in North Carolina than they are in Portland,” I said. “Food is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Hotel rooms are cheaper. Your homes are cheaper too. Last night, as I was walking through the neighborhood next to my hotel, I pulled up the housing prices. I was shocked at how low they are!”

“Yeah, housing costs are lower here than in many parts of the country,” Justin said.

“Take our house, for instance. We bought it in 2003 for $108,000. Zillow says it’s worth around $198,000 right now. But I’ll bet that’s a lot less than you’d pay for a similar place in Portland.”

He’s right. Justin and his wife own an 1800-square-foot home on 0.3 acres of land. Their place has four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There’s only one place for sale in Portland right now that matches these stats and it’s going for $430,000 — more than twice the price the same home would fetch in Raleigh.

Housing is by far the largest slice of the average American budget, representing one-third of typical household spending. Because of this, the best way to cut your costs (and, therefor, boost your “profit margin”) is to reduce how much you spend to keep a roof over your head.

One obvious way to cut costs on housing is to choose a cheaper home or apartment. But if you truly want to slash your spending, consider moving to a new neighborhood. Or city. Or state. If you’re willing to change locations, you can supercharge your purchasing power and accelerate your saving rate.

Cost of living is one of those factors that people seldom consider, but which can have a huge impact on the family budget — sometimes in unexpected ways. According to The Millionaire Next Door:

Living in less costly areas can enable you to spend less and to invest more of your income. You will pay less for your home and correspondingly less for your property taxes. Your neighbors will be less likely to drive expensive motor vehicles. You will find it easier to keep up, even ahead, of the Joneses and still accumulate wealth.

It’s one thing to talk about the effects of high cost of living, but another to actually experience it.

Cost of Living in Real Life

On our fifteen-month road trip across the United States, Kim and I made a point of watching how prices varied from city to city and region to region.

While stranded for ten days in rural Plankinton, South Dakota, for example, I paid $10.60 for a fancy men’s haircut. At home in Portland, I pay $28 for the same fancy haircut. In Fort Collins, Colorado, I paid $30 for a haircut. In Santa Barbara, California, I paid $50 or $60 for the same fancy cut.

Gas was cheaper in South Dakota too. So was food. So was beer and whisky. So were movies. So was just about everything, including housing. Housing prices followed a similar pattern to the haircut prices I mentioned above. A $280,000 home in Portland might go for $300,000 in Fort Collins and $500k to $600k in Santa Barbara. In South Dakota, that same home would cost about $106,000.

A couple of years ago, I exchanged email with a reader who had first-hand experience struggling with the high cost of living. She gave me permission to share her story:

I had been saving about 40% of my relatively modest salary for eight years. I had built up an emergency fund as well as a good sized savings…and then we had kids.

We lost our rent-stabilized apartment right after our children were born. We live in New York City, and while I maintain that there are many things about the city that are actually very budget-friendly (public transit and free entertainment top my list), the cost of rent and daycare in NYC are over the top.

In one year, the cost of a market-rate apartment in our neighborhood plus two kids in daycare ate into my hard-earned savings. By the end of the year, the pot of money that I had worked so hard to save was down by almost $50,000.

Luckily, my husband and I have never carried any kind of debt and had already been living well below our means before the kids came along. But that also meant there was very little fat left to trim in our budget other than rent and daycare expenses. (We’d already dropped the landline, never had cable, cooked almost all of our meals at home, and cut out our modest “allowance” of $50/month for splurges.)

We are the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish!

Eventually, we moved into a cheaper apartment. Although we haven’t had to dip into savings since we moved, we’re still essentially living month to month because of daycare and rent. The neighborhood is cheaper for a reason.

Real Life will force us to make another move in the spring. One of our jobs is going away, so it will force a decision one way or another since we can’t stay in New York on one salary. Change is definitely coming.

This reader and her husband are already frugal-minded — that’s how she built her buffer of savings to start with — so there isn’t much more the family can cut. This is an example where the only real solution is to seek a city with a lower cost of living.

Saving in Savannah

Which places are cheapest to live? Which are most expensive? This map from Governing magazine shows how far the average paycheck goes in 191 U.S. metro areas.

Dark green (blue?) dots indicate cities where your wages buy more after adjusting for cost of living. Dark brown dots are places where you have to work harder to get what you want. (Click through to play with an interactive version of the map.)

As you can see, large coastal cities tend to be more expensive than smaller towns in the center of the country. If you have a fixed budget, you’ll get more bang for your buck by buying a home in Oklahoma City or Sioux Falls than by living in San Francisco or Washington D.C.

It’s not just coastal cities, though. There are spendy pockets throughout the U.S. from Flagstaff, Arizona to Hot Springs, Arkansas. And some coastal cities — Boston, Houston, Seattle, Tampa — are relatively inexpensive. (In Boston and Seattle, though, that’s because wages are high, not because things are cheap.)

In the middle of our road trip, Kim and I decided to stay the winter in Savannah, Georgia. During our six months in Savannah, we spent much less than we would have for the same lifestyle here in Portland. According to the CNN cost-of-living calculator, Portland is 44% more expensive than in Savannah. (And housing costs nearly three times as much here as it does in Georgia!)

In larger cities, there are often cost-of-living differences between neighborhoods. When deciding where to live in Savannah, for instance, we had a choice:

We could rent a small apartment in the downtown historic district for $1750 per month. The place would have been a lot of fun because it was surrounded by shops and restaurants, and it was close to anything we might want to do.

We could opt instead for a modest-sized condo on the outskirts of town at $1325 per month. This location was next to nothing. We could walk to the grocery store, but we’d have to drive into the city if we wanted to indulge ourselves.

After considering financial and lifestyle factors, we chose to rent the condo in the middle of the marshlands. On the surface, this decision saved us $425 per month. In reality, it saved us much more than that.

If we had lived downtown, we would have had to pay to park the Mini Cooper ($95/month). We would have been constantly tempted to eat out or go for drinks. It would have been too easy for window shopping to become actual shopping. Instead, we enjoyed one Date Night each week. We spent the rest of our time working and exercising.

I believe that opting for the less glamorous location saved us a minimum of $5000 over our six month stay — and the real savings are probably far greater.

Pinching Pennies in Portland

This same concept — certain neighborhoods costing less than others — was a driving factor in our decision last year to sell our condo and move to “the country”. We loved where we lived, but the costs were crazy.

First, there were the maintenance costs for a place that we ostensibly owned outright. Even without a mortgage, we were paying nearly $1200 per month for HOA fees, utilities, insurance, and more. (In our new place, we spend half that.)

Plus, there was the sneaky cost of lifestyle inflation. Our condo was in a fun neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars. It was all too easy after a long day to simply walk up the street to one of our favorite spots, where we’d drop $50 or $100 on food and drinks. Moving to our new place cut our restaurant spending in half.

Lastly, the cost of goods in our new neighborhood is lower than in our old. In Sellwood, our grocery options were limited. And expensive. The nearest markets were both high-end organic-only affairs, the kind of places you might see on an episode of Portlandia. Yes, the quality was outstanding. But since we’ve moved, we’re spending about 25% less on groceries each month.

Moving helped us save big on some cost-of-living items. But it also brought with it a few increases in spending. Because we’re more rural now, we drive more often. Kim, especially, is spending more on gas. Our “new” home also has greater maintenance costs than the condo. We’ve poured a ton of money into this place since moving in. (I guess that’s not actually a cost-of-living issue so much as a homeownership issue, though.)

My point is that even within a city, there are cost-of-living differences you can leverage to your advantage — especially if you’re willing to live in a rougher part of town.

The Bottom Line

Obviously there’s more to picking a place to live than pure price.

When you choose a city (or neighborhood) to call home, you do so because of the climate, the politics, and the people. You want to live close to friends and family. You want a nice school district. You want people who think and act the same way you do. For those reasons (and others), Omaha might not be a good choice for you. (Savannah isn’t a good choice for me long-term, but it was fine for a few months.)

Here’s the bottom line: Where you choose to live has a greater effect on your long-term financial success than almost any other factor. How much you earn is sometimes more important (not always), in which case cost of living is a close second.

Cost of living can wreak havoc on your pursuit of financial freedom. Or it can help you achieve your goals sooner than you thought possible. The choice is yours.

Other ways to make the most of your housing budget? Consider renting. Live close to where you work so that you can walk, bike, or take the bus. Purchase a house that fits your lifestyle and needs rather than the commonly cited “buy as much home as you can afford”. The latter is self-serving advice from real-estate agents and mortgage brokers. You don’t need a big house; you just need someplace comfortable.

The post Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

[meanwalk]

Here’s How to Make Money Shoveling Snow (For Real)

I wish I could start this article with, “We’ve all had to do it…”

But, fortunately, I’m a Floridian, and I’ve never had to shovel snow. From what I’ve heard, some people find it real pain — a job happily pawned off to any willing being.

On the other hand, what if you’re that willing being? You might be able to make some good money from a hearty dusting.

Even has shoveled snow.

I’m going out to shovel snow and see if I can make me a few extra dollars today. I’m charging more if they want to take pictures

— 50cent (@50cent) December 27, 2010

And so has Daniel Miller, CEO of .

It’s kind of like Uber — but for snow shoveling — and since its release in December 2016, more than 15,000 people have registered to become snow shovelers, according to Miller.

How Did the Shovler App Get Started?

Miller shoveled snow as a teenager and always thought it was the perfect gig: People are appreciative, you get a good workout in, and it’s actually kind of fun.

Plus: Pay ain’t too shabby.

He came up with the idea of Shovler in the winter of 2015, when his parents were hanging out in Florida and wanted a clear driveway upon returning home to New Jersey. A full-on plow service wasn’t necessary, and, other than that, they had a hard time finding someone.

“It just dawned on me that there are lots of people in similar situations, especially the elderly, that just want to hire a snow shoveler on demand for the days they need one or want to take a break from shoveling themselves,” Miller writes in an email.

He’d always seen those apps about solving what he calls “minor problems” — like delivering food a few blocks away. “But nobody has fixed this major logistical nightmare that people have every year,” he says.

For him, the app seemed obvious. Why hadn’t it been invented years ago?

How Much Money Can You Make Shoveling Snow?

Enter: Shovler.

The app went live for iOS and Android at the beginning of December 2016, and approximately 15,000 snow shovelers have registered with it across the U.S. and parts of Canada, according to Miller.

Those who are in need shoveling services enter their requests into the app. The registered shovelers get pinged when a job’s available nearby.

Pay is calculated by an algorithm that takes the depth of snow and the size of the property, as well as other factors, into consideration. In general, though, typical rates range from:

$20 to $35 for a car parked on a city street

$30 to $75 for up to a two-car driveway that fits three cars in length, an average walkway and an average sidewalk in front of a house

50 cents to $2 per square feet for a city sidewalk or small parking lots (for businesses)

The Shovler app takes 20% of each job (though there are promo codes out there for 10% off), and the human shoveler gets the rest.

Miller says shovelers have made up to $200 per gig this past year. He says the app also hosts customers who tip generously, some tacking on a 50% tip.

“Shovelers love the app because they get paid by the job, not the hour,” Miller says. “That really gives them the ability to earn $50 in an hour if they are quick.”

Shovelers get paid after the user rates the job or within 24 hours — whichever is faster.

How You Can Sign Up For Shovler

The app is available across the U.S. and in parts of Canada, but its most popular cities are Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and New York.

— and a lot easier than awkwardly knocking on your neighbors’ doors or giving them a ring.

So why not make some money off the most recent dumping of the devil’s dandruff?

Carson Kohler ([email protected]) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s currently chillin’ in 70-degree temps at The Penny Hoarder HQ in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida.

Do you think this article might help you put more money in your pocket?

Great! Sign up for our newsletter to learn more ways to make extra money:

Source

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/make-money-shoveling-snow/

[sherristockman]

Use a Mercury-Free Dentist Dr. Mercola 30 Tips in 30 Days Designed to Help You Take Control of Your Health This article is part of the 30 Day Resolution Guide series. Each day a new tip will be added designed to help you take control of your health. For a complete list of the tips click HERE By Dr. Mercola About half of all dentists in the U.S. still use dental amalgam, which consists of 50 percent mercury combined with silver, tin, copper and other trace minerals. Mercury is the most volatile and toxic of the heavy metals, and the vapors released when chewing or brushing pose a clear and present danger to health, especially your brain and kidneys, as mercury is a neuro- and nephrotoxin. It’s also toxic to your reproductive system. Europe is now paving the way for the rest of the world by banning the use of amalgam fillings in pregnant or nursing women and children under the age of 15. The rule takes effect on July 1 this year, and will apply across the entire European Union (EU)1 a— 28 countries in all, with a population totaling more than half a billion people. It took years to get this ban through, but it was well worth it. Millions of European children will never be exposed to dental mercury as a result of this victory. American children, as of yet, are not so lucky. Despite great efforts to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce the Minamata Convention rule on mercury, which states that proactive steps must be taken by all signatory countries to phase out the use of dental mercury, the agency continues to encourage the use of amalgam, even in children. Make Mercury-Free a Nonnegotiable Requirement Dentists in the U.S. and elsewhere who are foolish enough to use amalgam do so primarily for financial reasons. It’s a quick and easy way to make a profit, and the long-term damage amalgam does to your teeth ensures repeat clientele. Consumers for Dental Choice, which has spent the last two decades advocating for the complete elimination of mercury from dentistry, has helped radically shift the playing field in favor of consumers who want mercury-free dentistry. If you’ve not yet made this switch, please consider doing it now. Don’t let another year go by without locating a qualified mercury-free dentist. Doing so will not only protect your own health; it will also push the entire industry of dentistry closer to the goal where absolutely no one will have to get toxic mercury implanted into their teeth. By refusing to work with dentists who still use this pernicious poison, they will be forced to “get with the times” and go mercury-free, or lose their practice. Insurance companies and government programs will also be forced to update their policies. At present, these third-party payers continue to promote amalgam use, and pose a major barrier to mercury-free dentistry in North America. This simply must come to an end, and consumer refusal of amalgam may be the quickest way to incite this change. Check Your Insurance Policy Did you know that, in the U.S., you’re actually more likely to receive mercury amalgam if you have dental insurance than if you’re uninsured? The reason for this is because many private insurance companies do not cover mercury-free fillings for all teeth. Even if they claim to cover composite or resin fillings, buried in the fine print you will often find that the plan does not cover mercury-free fillings in posterior (back) teeth. If you want a composite filling, you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket, even though you have insurance. Alternatively, some plans that do pay for composite fillings in molar teeth only cover them up to the cost of an amalgam, which means you’ll have to pay the difference. Many plans also contain a "least expensive alternative treatment" (LEAT) clause, which states that the plan will only pay for the least expensive treatment alternative — regardless of how inappropriate that alternative may be. Mercury fillings, without a doubt, are no longer appropriate for a laundry list of reasons. Adding insult to injury, many insurance policies will not pay for the removal of old amalgams and replacement with composite fillings — even if your dentist believes this is the best treatment. The bottom line: Insurance plans often shuttle consumers into the pro-mercury dentist assembly line operating under the infamous motto of "drill, fill and bill” — and keep them going back there. Government Programs Force Amalgam on the Underprivileged Many state and federal government programs — including school and Medicaid dental programs, the Indian Health Service (IHS), the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs — also heavily promote the use of amalgam. As just one egregious example, on March 1, 2015, the Connecticut Department of Social Services issued a provider bulletin telling dentists that "Medicaid will not pay for composite restorations in the molar teeth regardless of whether the practice markets itself as 'amalgam free.'" Not only did this new rule promote further amalgam use — and on people who typically cannot afford an alternative route — but it also prohibited amalgam-free dentists from even participating in the state's Medicaid program! The IHS also demonstrates the federal government's disproportionate use of amalgam on minorities and people of color. A 2011 study found that dental amalgam is used for 73 percent of dental restorations in patients of "other" race — defined as American Indian/Alaska Native/Asian/Pacific Islander — many of whom receive IHS services. By comparison, dental amalgam is used for 51 percent of restorations in Caucasian patients. The National Congress of American Indians even adopted a resolution calling for the phase-out of amalgam on Indian reservations, but 200 years of history continues: Despite one treaty after another, the U.S. government turns a deaf ear to the wishes of Native Americans. Problems Caused by Insurance and Government Protecting Mercury Fillings By promoting the use of amalgam and refusing to pay for mercury-free fillings, these third-party payers: • Increase mercury exposure: Dental amalgam releases neurotoxic mercury vapor into your body. Children, the unborn and the hypersensitive are especially vulnerable to its toxic effects. By promoting amalgam, they put even the most vulnerable people at risk for increased mercury exposure. Dental amalgam also contaminates dental offices with mercury, exposing not only the individual patient to mercury but also the dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants and front office staff. Due to this constant exposure, dental professionals — many of whom are women of childbearing age — have been found to have higher systemic mercury levels than the general population. • Lower the quality of dental care: As if mercury exposure isn't bad enough, as a pre-Civil War concoction, amalgam requires the removal of healthy tooth tissue, weakens tooth structure and cracks teeth, which leads to higher dental bills later on. When third-party payers promote amalgam use, they lower the quality of oral health care. • Worsen mercury pollution: Dental amalgam is the largest source of mercury in the U.S. Most of this mercury, about 28.5 metric tons annually, ends up polluting our air, soil and water. Once amalgam's elemental mercury reaches the environment, it can convert to methylmercury, which contaminates fish stocks. Mercury pollution can cause severe and permanent neurological conditions, especially for children and the unborn, whose brain and nervous systems are still developing. When third-party payers promote amalgam use, they aid and abet worsening mercury pollution. • Limit access to dental care: Surveys show that 32 percent to 52 percent of U.S. dentists are mercury-free, and the number of dentists still using amalgam has been steadily declining. However, insurance is not keeping up with dentists. By not fully covering mercury-free fillings, third-party payers limit the number of dentists their customers can go to and get the full benefit of their policy. • Interfere with patient autonomy: The right of every patient to make decisions about their own bodies — including what filling material is implanted in their teeth — is enshrined in laws, policies and resolutions throughout the world. When third-party payers promote amalgam use, they interfere with patients' rights to choose. Take Action — Find a Mercury-Free Dentist and Push Back Against Insurance Plans That Refuse to Pay In a reasonable world, insurance would pay for mercury-free fillings only, and not a penny for amalgam, considering its adverse impact on your teeth and overall health. Indeed, experts worldwide agree that dental insurance needs to catch up with the times and promote the use of mercury-free fillings instead of amalgam. This includes the United Nations Environment Programme, which has stated: "Many insurance companies have traditionally only covered the cost of amalgam fillings, for marginal price reasons. However, the full long-term environmental cost burden is not reflected in these price differences."2 The World Health Organization has also stated that "existing or planned third-party payment systems must consider reimbursement schemes incorporating dental care which make use of materials alternative to dental amalgam." Now that about half of American dentists are mercury-free, Consumers for Dental Choice has shifted its focus from supply to demand, and consumer demand for mercury-free dentistry is primarily held back by insurance companies and other third-party payers who mandate continued amalgam use. It’s time to drive home the message that consumers will no longer tolerate the use of mercury amalgams, and will not settle for insurance plans and programs that mandate amalgam use. To participate: 1. Check the details of your dental insurance policy. If it fully pays for amalgam while limiting or denying coverage for mercury-free fillings, register your objections with this easy-to-fill-out online form, which you can then email to your insurance company. Please visit the Consumer for Dental Choice “Demand Your Choice” page to find additional details and tools to help you take a stand against your insurance company's pro-mercury policies. 2. Next, find another insurance company or plan that pays for mercury-free fillings in all teeth, without exceptions or LEAT clauses. 3. If your current dentist is still using mercury in his or her practice — even if they also offer mercury-free options — seek out a dentist that offers only mercury-free fillings for all patients. And, be sure to inform your dentist about the reason you’re transferring. Again, the reason for this is because dentists who still use amalgam end up using it on people who rarely have any other choice, either because they cannot afford to pay the difference, or their state or government program dictates they can only receive mercury. This unfair practice needs to end, and the quicker we can get all dentists to go 100 percent mercury-free, the sooner these programs will be forced to change. So, selecting a 100 percent mercury-free dentist is an altruistic choice on your part, which will help those whose voices are so often ignored. 4. If you have mercury fillings, be sure to consult with a biological dentist who is trained in the safe removal of amalgam (see resources below). 5. Last but not least, spread the word, and urge your family and friends to challenge their insurance companies' toxic policies and make the switch to a mercury-free dentist as well. Tip #22Use Coconut Oil Daily