Fun | Betty Kincaid

Let’s Hit the Links: Week #7

February 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Mmm...cookies

Many years ago, I led my daughter’s Girl Scout troop during cookie sale season. These girls were ruthless. They met their sales goal and earned a camping trip to the now-defunct Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Mesquite, NV. What? You thought they were going to sleep on the ground, pee in a hole in the ground and subsist on campfire rations?

Selling cookies taught the girls how to: 1) set and achieve a goal; 2) convince someone to buy something unnecessary; and 3) manipulate their parents into helping them succeed. It prepared each girl for the life of an entrepreneur. Next time you’re at the grocery store, pick up a box of Thin Mints and help a girl succeed.

This crazy article about finding your cat-loving soul mate is from PetPlace.com

If there is a lack of cat talk, that is not a good sign. Somebody who doesn’t make cats part of your initial chat may not want to be part of you (sic) or your cat’s real life later on.

Is this site funny? I can’t decide.

The advice in this Huffington Post piece entitled 15 Gay Reasons to Watch the Super Bowl (Not Counting Madonna) is timeless:

Tom Brady is very, very handsome. Remember all those pics from VMan a few years back? And Eli Manning, though not as Bruce-Weber-ly handsome as Brady, possesses his own dorky cuteness. (They tried to dress him up for Men’s Vogue a few years back. An adorable effort.)

Here are dueling trash Trent Hamm posts from Control Your Cash:

Trent Hamm is a 30-something American who claims to function in the modern world. People actually read this dunderhead. By the way, his stratagem about taking showers (and using underarm deodorant) comes from the same invaluable post in which he tells us to brush our teeth.

and Financial Uproar:

Trent goes on to explain that you could save $10 per year by just adjusting the temperature. He doesn’t actually bother to do the math or anything (this isn’t such a bad thing) he just pulls the number out of his ass.

Because I’m not done with football yet, here’s a fascinating article from NFL.com’s new Football Freakanomics blog:

Our latest Football Freakonomics episode — the last one this season — argues that the draft is much more of a crapshoot than most of its practitioners would have us think. The evidence is everywhere. Consider the research of research of Cade Massey and Richard Thaler, who find top draft picks to be seriously overvalued.

What did you do last weekend?

Yep, that's a moat

From Wikipedia:

The Dry Tortugas, [Commodore John Rodgers] reported, consisted of 11 small keys and surrounding reefs and banks, over which the sea broke. There was an outer and an inner harbor. The former afforded a safe anchorage at all seasons, and was large enough to let a large number of ships ride at anchor. Of more importance, the inner harbor combined a sufficient depth of water for ships-of-the-line, with a narrow entrance of not more than 120 yards. Rogers said that if a hostile power should occupy the Dry Tortugas, United States shipping in the Gulf would be in deadly peril, and “nothing but absolute naval superiority” could prevail. However, if occupied and fortified by the U.S., the Dry Tortugas would constitute the “advance post” for a defense of the Gulf Coast.

The fort, which takes up almost all of Garden Key, was never finished. It’s now a ghost town 67 miles west of Key West, FL, and comprises most of Dry Tortugas National Park. Access to Garden Key is via seaplane or daily scheduled ferry. There’s a cadre of National Park staff and a small vistor center/bookstore, but no other public facilities. There’s great snorkeling, tours of the fort* (ranger- or self-guided) and a moat. The tour’s highlight is the cell where Dr. Samuel Mudd was incarcerated after he was convicted for conspiracy in the assasination of Abraham Lincoln. In 2010 just 53,890 people visited Dry Tortugas.

Carnivals and Links:

No carnivals this week but Dr. Dean of the Millionaire Nurse threw me some link love.

Product Placement:

The Business of Your Business: Formula, Financials, Function and Freedom

I wrote this class for the Women’s Council of REALTORS® but the information and tactics work for anyone who wants to start or improve their business.

By the end of the online video course, you’ll be able to:

Evaluate your net income and ensure increased profits by planning growth.
Position your personal production by leveraging your assets.
Manage your activities to create more money and personal freedom.
Organize your business, freeing up your time to concentrate on your personal investments.

Get more information here.

What’s on my Kindle:

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy By Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss

Outliers: The Story of Success By Malcolm Gladwell

Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win By Anne E. Kornblut

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West By Stephen Ambrose

Filed Under: Fun, Link Love Tagged With: Dry Tortugas, Entrepreneur, Florida, Fun, National Parks, Travel

Let’s Hit the Links: Week #5

January 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

The Constitution, with its system of checks and balances, not only allows for gridlock, it practically guarantees some degree of it. The Founders knew that gridlock can be a very good thing. If nothing can be agreed upon in Washington, harm to the country is limited. Considering the Obama administration’s ideas of what caused our problems, and how to solve them, the wisdom of the founders certainly shines through today.

Ron Paul

Remember this quote the next time you read about how gridlock and obstruction in Washington are bad things. Ron Paul wants to reduce the impact of the federal government on its citizens’ lives, cut $1 trillion in spending during his first year in office, and restore individual liberty by returning to Constitutional basics. You may not agree with (or like) everything he says, but you know he’ll stand by his beliefs. That’s called integrity, a trait the other candidates would do well to emulate.

Still wondering which candidate is right for you? Take this quiz at Reason.com.

Here’s what I’m reading during the commercials in the Republican debates and State of the Union address:

Garth Turner at the Greater Fool Blog (via Financial Uproar) sounds like he’s auditioning for a job at Control Your Cash:

Most people – the vast majority – will continue down their path to financial ruin. Utterly lacking in self-control, they’ll spend unearned money chasing stuff they want, but do not need. There’s no clear plan to repay any of this borrowing. Just a vague notion things will turn out, and an ingrained sense of entitlement.

Nelson from Financial Uproar, guest posting at Sustainable Personal Finance, explains the problem with electric cars:

The average Canadian spends about $2200 per year on gasoline. Even if driving a Volt cuts that down to $1100 per year, (which I think is a generous allowance) you’re still waiting 13 years before the investment becomes worth it. And that’s not factoring in a dime for the extra electricity needed to charge the thing.

Despite the cogent financial argument against electric (or hybrid) cars, the commenters still think electric cars are feasible. The industry just needs more government subsidies and higher gas prices. Of course the best way to get higher gas prices is to increase taxes. It’s a win/win for big government and the electric car makers, and a great big loss for the taxpaying consumer.

My other half teamed up with the brilliant Paula Pant to pen this post championing content over clicks at ProBlogger:

But until the day the robots achieve sentience, there will always be an audience for innovative content spawned from inquisitive human minds. And unlike link analysis or pageview counts, worthwhile content is impossible to engineer artificially.

Megan McArdle at The Atlantic tries to do the math on the “Warren Buffett’s secretary pays more taxes” meme:

There is no way at all to pay effective federal income tax–or even effective federal income tax + payroll tax–that sums to 35.8%. You can–just barely–get a marginal tax rate of 35.8% if she is making almost exactly the taxable social security limit of $110,000.

McArdle herself is best in small doses but her commenters are some of the smartest on the web.

We waded into the Suze Orman prepaid debit card controversy over at Control Your Cash with this account of Greg’s appearance on the self-proclaimed personal finance expert’s show.

Sister, your card is for people who will never be rich, largely because they’re swallowing advice undigested from an imbecile. Your card is only for people whose credit is already so horrible, no bank or credit union will let them open an account.

What did you do last weekend?

Crazy Horse's completed head is 87½' high.

Started in 1948, the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota is both huge and unfinished. The latter, because the foundation that owns it relies solely on private donations. The family-run foundation owns the land, supervises the building of the monument, and operates a bustling visitor center. No taxpayer funds have been or will be used to build this magnificent tribute to the Oglala Lakota warrior.

Here’s the family’s mission statement:

Continuing the progress on the world’s largest mountain sculpture, carving a memorial to the spirit of legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse and his culture;

Providing educational and cultural programming to encourage harmony and reconciliation among all people and nations;

Acting as a repository for Native American artifacts, arts and crafts through the Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Educational & Cultural Center;

And by establishing and operating the Indian University of North America, and when practical, a medical training center for American Indians

Here's what the finished monument will look like. It'll be 641' long and 563' high.

With Mount Rushmore just 17 scenic miles west, you can easily view both monuments in one trip. In 2007 the LA Times wrote:

If you take a right turn on the way out of Mt. Rushmore National Memorial and head west on South Dakota 244, the two-lane route will take you winding through a gorgeous Black Hills medley of pines, slopes and jutting boulders.

Eventually, you reach U.S. 16, and turn south toward the town of Custer. But before you get there, you’ll see Custer’s nemesis on your left.

Carnivals and Links:

No joy.

Product Placement:

Still haven’t bought my book?

Here’s a free sample.

What’s on my Kindle:

End the Fed, Ron Paul

The Revolution, Ron Paul

Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman

Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: Fun, Leadership, Taxes, Travel

Let’s Hit the Links-Week #4

January 22, 2012 3 Comments

Many years ago, I worked with a guy who constantly used sports metaphors when talking to his employees. I told him that his female employees weren’t moved by this language and, since his workforce was 90% female, he needed to find other ways to express his thoughts. At the next employee meeting, he busted out a shopping reference. I told him to go back to sports.

A metaphor is supposed to help you understand a concept by relating it to something with which you’re already familiar. Conventional wisdom tells us that by using sports metaphors we exclude or confuse women, foreigners and homosexuals. Let’s look at some phrases we all use:

I can’t finish my workout. I’m throwing in the towel.

I like the cut of his jib.*

I’ve got to run an errand. Will you run interference for me until I get back?

Let’s huddle up and try to figure out where we are.

That was a slam dunk!

That’s a bit of a sticky wicket you’ve gotten yourself into.

That last one comes from the most confusing sport ever. Everyone knows what these phrases mean. Looking back I realize that instead of telling him to get rid of the sports metaphors, I should have helped him use more familiar imagery.

Here are some medal-worthy reads:

In this post from last year, Control Your Cash used Brett Favre to demonstrate how the free market works.

Nelson at Financial Uproar does a great job with this article pointing out how running a major league baseball team equates to your personal finances.

Suffering from Tebow withdrawal? ESPN’s Rick Reilly wants you to believe.

14 reasons why football is just like personal finance from Dr. Dean at The Millionaire Nurse.

Bankrate looks at the 5 cheapest football stadia. Fans of supply and demand will not be surprised by #1.

Mint put the information used by Bankrate in the above post into an infographic breaking down average game cost per team.

One last article comparing sports to personal finance: Lazy Man and Money uses his fantasy football tribulations to explain some basic investment concepts.

Visa and the NFL teamed up for a project called Financial Football. Choose your team, your opponent and the degree of difficulty for each play. Answer the (basic) financial questions correctly and your chosen play is executed.

Finally, this article from Education World teaches teachers how to use sports, teamwork and acronyms to get their students excited about learning.

What did you do last weekend?

I read Mutts Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed. A non-Kindle book by Patrick McDonnell, creator of the Mutts comic strip. The book consists of Mutts strips juxtaposed with photos and stories of real-life rescue animals and their owners. A touching, funny and educational read.

This weekend, take a ride to your local shelter or go online to find the love of your life.

Carnivals and Links:

Carnival of the Vanities

Product Placement:

Join my mailing list to get every new article within minutes of publication. I’ll also send you the occasional email with insider tactics, tips and strategies.

Use this link to sign up and I’ll send you a free copy of my latest eBook: The Unglamorous Secret to Riches.

What’s on my Kindle:

Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today’s NFL
John Feinstein

The Little Book of Coaching
Ken Blanchard and Don Shula

Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports are Played and Games are Won
Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim

*Thurston Howell III and I may be the only people who use this phrase.

Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: Animals, Football, Fun

Let’s Hit the Links! Week #2

December 11, 2011 3 Comments

Occupy the living room

She would like more treats and fewer visits to the vet. She is the 99%.

Here’s what I’m reading this week:

Punch Debt in the Face makes this great point about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

“Do you know how frustrating it is to work so hard (as I chronicled in many blog posts) to accomplish a goal, only to have it marginalized by a group of people who want the same thing, but aren’t willing to go to the lengths I did to achieve it. I was EXACTLY where you are now, a few years ago.The difference was I didn’t go Occupy Wall Street, I occupied multiple jobs.”

Speaking of choices determining your net worth, Roshawn Watson wonders how broke people afford everything:

Your clothes and toys are nice. Everyone’s envious of your whips. You frequently eat at restaurants that most people only dine at on special anniversaries or birthdays. We always appreciate your twice annual post cards from the likes of Paris and Bora Bora. Your lifestyle is pretty impressive, except for the fact that you’re a financial fake.

MoneyCone does the math to determine if you should move your accounts from one of the Big 4 banks to a credit union:

“Alliant Credit Union pays interest on your checking, a darn good one too (relatively speaking) at 1.10%, as of this post. Bank of America pays zilch for checking accounts.”

Darwin, the guy who runs the appropriately titled Darwin’s Money, wrote this article about how an insurance inspection, along with resultant mandatory repairs, put a crimp in his latest real estate investment:

“…even though we lined up insurance well ahead of the closing, had paid a full year’s premium in advance, had the documents of insurability, etc. at closing, the way these insurance companies work is they go inspect the properties AFTER you buy them!”

My favorite of the week is this article from Begging to Retire equating debt to a chronic, potentially fatal disease. Good times:

“So get real. Santa Claus is not going to come down the chimney and pay off your credit card for you. If you find yourself in that situation you might need to cancel the cable and eat a holiday chicken instead of a turkey. Start making your own lunches to carry to work, if you’re lucky enough to still have a job. Pull and extra shift over the holidays to bring in some additional income, while your coworkers go out and incur more and more debt at the mall.”

Robert over at The College Investor points out 4 of the ways that the US Government is setting a bad financial example:

“Our leaders have been extremely unaccountable in recent years, and it is no wonder they are not getting the results they want. It is even less surprising that their leadership and role-modelling has led to a lack of accountability at all levels of individual personal finance. Here are some prime examples of financial unaccountability and how it translates to individual personal finance.”

Over at Control Your Cash, we started a new feature explaining why the simple in The Simple Dollar website is not just an adjective:

“It’s not the worst personal finance site in existence – there are others whose authors can’t even spell nor punctuate – but it’s the worst of the established ones. It’s the personal finance blog equivalent of Maroon 5’s music or Stephenie Meyer’s books. [Trent] Hamm populates his blog with interminably long, utterly worthless posts that focus on life’s tiniest minutiae.”

What did you do last weekend?

I hope you weren’t planning on driving Utah State Route 14 from Cedar City to Duck Creek Village anytime soon. The road’s been closed since the landslide on October 8th and isn’t expected to open until late 2012. No great loss.

Carnivals and Links:

Working at Home Blog Carnival 270th Edition
Carnival of Financial Camaraderie

Product Placement:

You’re just one person, with the same daily 24-hour allotment everyone else has. In other words, how much you can earn is far more limited than how much your money can earn. If you work 40 hours a week and want to double your income, there are two direct ways to do it:

1. Put your money to work for you.
2. Work 80 hours a week.

The people who build wealth via passive income vastly outnumber those who do it just by the sweat of their brows.

The Unglamorous Secret to Riches will show you how the people who earn more than you (while somehow having more time on their hands than you) manage to do so.

Before you buy…If you buy our book Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense by clicking here, we’ll give you The Unglamorous Secret to Riches. Not only will you learn how to gain a permanent upper hand on your money, the e-book will teach you in detail the method that self-determining rich people use to build and preserve their wealth: a method that’s so simple that it’s easy to overlook.

What’s on my Kindle:

11/22/63 Stephen King

In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks Adam Carolla

Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look Pat Kirwan and David Seigerman

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or befriend me on Facebook.

Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: economics, Education, Fun, Investing, Occupy Wall Street

Let’s Hit the Links! Week #1

December 4, 2011 6 Comments

Look what happened in my backyard Wednesday night.

I really hate the cold…and the wind…and winter. It snowed down the street and we’re supposed to have our first freeze of the season tonight. Did I mention that I live in the desert?

Enough whining. Here’s what I’m reading this week:

DQYDJ.net writes smart, well-researched articles like this one about generational wealth:

Volatility at the top is the name of the game. Every generation produces new wealth and new means to catapult people into the top 1%.

In the Treasury’s study, only 42.4% of the lowest quintile of incomes they tracked in 1996 remained in the lowest quintile in 2005.

Nelson at Financial Uproar wrote this spot-on post about weddings:

(A) wedding is a giant waste of money. At their best, weddings are a largely meaningless ceremony which creates a false expectation of marriage being a magical union of heavenly bliss for a lifetime. At their worst you get bridezillas and people who get pissed off because their presents aren’t good enough.

Weakanomics.com dispels the myths about income equality in this fascinating article:

Since 1967 the total number of households in the US has grown 95%, while the population has only grown 56%. How can that happen? When a household splits in half, you get two households. Say mom and dad get divorced and each make $30k a year. You go from having one household that makes $60k to two that make $30k. How does this get reflected in the data? It skews the low income numbers down. In the lowest quintile household, on average there are zero income earners. In the top, of course there are two. If more households had two income earners, you’d see less of the widening gap. A single income household is economically less efficient. The rise of divorce and single parent households has contributed to the perceived increase in income inequality for sure, but this isn’t the only thing out there.

GetRichSlowly.com reviews the traits, behaviors and beliefs that differentiate the rich from everyone else. The idea that you’re more likely to be rich if you take responsibility for your life and make smart choices doesn’t go over well with most people. You must read the comments.

Rich people believe: “I create my life.” Poor people believe: “Life happens to me.”
Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.

GiveMeBackMyFiveBucks.com explores the disconnect between what 25-29-year-olds think they should earn by age 30 and what they will. Spoiler alert: The twenty-something respondents overestimated their earning potential by a factor of 3:

To the youth of today: you can truly do great things with your life and with your career – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But you have to want it more than your peers, and you have to want it more than those who already have it. Be hungry. Work hard, don’t take anything for granted, and create opportunities for yourself.

Paula at AffordAnything.com explores the entrepreneur mindset (or lack thereof) among journalists and their ilk. She met a journalism professor, and walked away shaking her head:

He’s insecure — that’s why he wants job security so badly. He doesn’t believe in himself. He wants other people — smarter, richer, and probably better-looking people — to create a job and bestow it upon him.

You disempower yourself when you believe that someone else must create your job.

Over at ControlYourCash.com, we continue our popular “Retard” series by exploring the Occupy Wall Street mindset. These folks won’t be mistaken for entrepreneurs or millionaires anytime soon:

We found a website where Occupy Wall Street protestors have chosen to write their laments. There are hundreds of them, but once you’ve read a few you can create the rest from a template. Which would read something like “I willingly took on tens of thousands of dollars in debt without calculating the estimated payoff. This is rich people’s fault, for some reason. And I probably have a child. Feel sorry for me.”