My Super Sweet 16 - Messing Up and Spoiling Kids For The Next Generation

By MoneyBlueBook

For those who haven't seen it before, MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" is one of the many things in television pop culture today that is seriously messing up the minds of kids today, leading them down the path of excessive consumerism and obsession with wealth and entitlement. The MTV reality TV show follows and documents the 16th birthday celebrations of upper class teenagers. Now these are no ordinary birthday parties. We're not talking about a day at Dave and Busters or the bowling alley. On this program we have stretch Hummers, horses, live dancers, famous rap stars, decked out ballrooms, and budget rolls in excess of $300,000. Everything is paid for in cash or with quick obligatory swipes of the parents' trusty Amex Black Cards or Visa Black Cards, indispensable and exclusive tools of the trade. You won't see any "paltry presents" like Apple iPods or Gap clothing here. Instead, the doting parents of these spoiled rotten kids prefer to give them top of the line BMW's and Land Rover's, capped with red bows on top to quench their material thirst. The show, although quite entertaining, proclaims the non-stop need to spend, spend, and spend to the utter collective delight of all luxury car dealerships and luxury boutiques everywhere.

Spoiled Bratty Kids Come In All Sizes

The show features spoiled teens of all race, nationality, and even sex - black, white, Persian, and even shockingly, a few teenage boys among the mostly teenage girls. The show follows the same template,

By MoneyBlueBook

Is it just me or is there something very wrong when you have to spend money to buy what is essentially the some denomination as money? Because that's basically what people are doing when they buy gift cards and are required to pay a purchase fee.

Personally, I have no problem with buying or giving gift cards as a presents. Gift cards are more flexible than the usual pre-chosen gift since the recipient theoretically has the option to determine how best to spend it. But therein lies the limitation and fallacy of the flexibility of gift cards. They're actually not as versatile and unrestricted as people may think they are. Since most gift cards are only good towards the particular store they were purchased for, they are limited to that one location.

Gift Cards Impose Limits and Purchase Fees

If I receive a Starbucks gift card for example, I am limited to using it at a Starbucks store, even if I prefer the coffee drinks served at the Caribou coffee shop next door. What if I'm not even a coffee drinker? Then what am I supposed to do with this extra card? End up selling it on eBay for a price less than face value like so many gift card holders end up doing? Truthfully, having the gift card actually limits my options.

One of the most frustrating aspects of gift cards is the upfront purchase expense required. If you want to buy a $25 gift card for your friend, think you're paying $25 for it?

By MoneyBlueBook

If you run a small home business on the side like I do, it's not always easy to project a professional image without breaking the bank. If your business is new, it's unlikely you have the financial means or even the budget to afford a commercial office space, a secretary, a furnished meeting room, or any of the usual business amenities. However, depending on your budget and needs, there are affordable options out there.

Rent A Shared Office For Meeting Room Or Virtual Office Needs

More established small businesses might be able to look into renting a shared or serviced office space through a workplace solution company like Regus. These business office rental locations are usually fully furnished with desks, meeting rooms, functional kitchens, and business amenities like secretarial service and a professional front desk to handle clients, mail delivery, and customized call answering. They provide a professional working environment without the long term commitment. I would know - I'm currently working a contract project at such a location.

Rental offices are a good alternative for small but growing businesses looking to expand but don't want to deal with the hassle of property ownership or long term commercial leases. However, many small business owners run things from their own homes. For them, there are virtual office solutions available:

1) Telephone Service

Sharing business phone calls with your personal home line isn't a good idea, especially if you get a lot of incoming business calls. Dialing out is fine, but for incoming business calls how does one line

By MoneyBlueBook

I was routinely checking my Citibank balance online the other day when I noticed a little warning box above my account balance mentioning something about a savings account transfer limit of 6 per statement cycle imposed by a federal rule called Regulation D. I had heard about it before but never previously paid it much attention. Examining the reminder message, it was clear to me that this was something that might easily be overlooked by the average savings account holder. It's the type of important information that should be, but isn't readily advertised enough by banks. Particularly at this stage of the current ongoing economic crisis as high interest savings accounts continue to rapidly grow in popularity, it's more important than ever to be mindful of the transactional limitations of such accounts. Your money may be earning the highest interest rates at the top savings banks, but the trade off is a reduction in liquidity and access to funds.

Banks Place A Limit On The Number of ACH Transactions You May Execute Per Month

Bank savings and money market accounts are regulated by the Federal Reserve Board's Regulation D, which governs deposit accounts and their reserve requirements. The reserve percentage is the amount mandated by federal law that banks must retain in house and not loan out to customers. For savings and money market deposit accounts, Regulation D limits the number of electronic ACH transfers that one can make to 6 per statement cycle, which is about a month. While the regulation doesn't impose a

By MoneyBlueBook

How was your Christmas? Did you spend it all day with family and friends? Or did you manage to sneak out to watch Aliens vs. Predator like I did. Yes, I was one of those that ducked into the theaters on Christmas afternoon to watch this winter's biggest sci-fi blockbuster movie on opening day. Only this time, I was sorely disappointed. It wasn't even the movie itself either (although I thought it could have been better). It was my realization that I was paying way too much money for the opportunity to be crammed into a stuffy hot room with a crowd of noisy, obnoxious people, to watch a movie on a blurry movie screen operating on technology that probably hadn't been updated in several decades. Watching the latest movie release at the local cinema simply isn't what it used to be anymore. Why are movie tickets so expensive nowadays? Times have changed and I wonder if it's time I did so too.

Movie Theater Tickets and Concession Stand Snacks Are Outrageously Overpriced

Christmas day afternoon I went to see the new Aliens movie with my brother. Going with the Christmas spirit, I decided to pay for everything. For two expensive movie theater tickets I shelled out a total of $18 at about $9 each. Two popcorns and two small sodas tacked on another $16 for a grand total of $34 for two people. Now, if I was a father with a wife and 2 kids, and assuming everyone bought the same customary number of snacks and

By MoneyBlueBook

I am part of a new generation of technology dependent people. Since the explosion and mainstream adaptation of wireless internet, cellular phones, iPods, and the growth of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and even real time chat, I've become very dependent on technology and the digital medium. I've already transitioned the bulk of my important documents into digital format and thrown away all of my old audio compact discs in favor of mp3's. I've discarded the practice of receiving paper bills through snail mail and have already converted all of my bank and credit card statements into e-billing exclusively. I've substantially cut down on paper transactions in favor of direct deposits, ACH electronic transfers, and online payments through PayPal. With a few keystrokes and taps at my computer keyboard, I can shift my bank funds around from savings to broker to checking. My legion of credit cards are all enrolled in automatic debit payment, which automatically withdraws money from my attached bank account to pay off each month's credit card statement balances.

Everything has become electronic and my life has grown significantly more organized, paperless, and automated. I've aggregated my bank accounts, credit cards statements, investment brokerages, frequent flyer plans, hotel plans, and other reward point plans into my Yodlee powered Fidelity Full View account aggregation program where I can monitor everything from a single online access point.

However, this dependency has one obvious downside and weakness - I am heavily dependent on the reliability of computers and the internet.