Lazy Man and Money

Amazon Friday Sale

Lazy Man — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:21:32 +0000

The Amazon Friday Sale was a little weak this week. I usually find a few products, but with many repeats of previous products, I found only three noteworthy products. (I wish they'd get rid of the whole footware category. I know women like their shoes, but I'm not about to write about it.)

The coolest piece of gadgetry is the Urban Trend Tulip Corkscrew. It looks like a tulip, but performs the duties of a corkscrew. I'm really Lazy so my favorite corkscrew solution is still the Oster Electric Wine Bottle Opener. It'll set you back another 95 cents, so start scrounging those couch cushions.

The best product by far in my opinion is the La Crosse Technology Power Battery Charger. I read the reviews about how it brought back rechargeables that were long dead. I didn't think it was possible. However, I put it on my birthday list one year and found that it lives up to the hype. It was north of $40 back then, so to get it for less than $25 is notable.

Honorable mention for the best product is the LeatherCraft Roller Tote Tool Bag. A tool bag is great because you can just reach in and get what you want. This one ups the ante in two ways. It's got wheels and it's on sale for 67% off. That's decent value.

As always, the deal is just for Friday, so snatch it up quick or lose.

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Why I Don’t Buy Digital Media

Lazy Man — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:10:21 +0000

[Caution, I'm going to get on my soapbox for this post. If you are not interested in soapboxes, I suggest you avert your eyes]

Yesterday, I touched on the Legality of IPodMeister's digitizer service. Bringing up the First-Sale doctrine opened up a can of worms in my mind.

I love digital media, but I won't pay for it (or steal it obviously). I have never purchased a song from the iTunes Store. For too many years, all the songs were looked up so that they'd only play on certain Apple products. There were workarounds, but they were less than convenient for this Lazy Man. The iTunes Store is heading in the right direction making it so their songs do play everywhere (or so I've read). You could burn a CD of the songs you bought on iTunes and then rip that to MP3. There was some software that was a little more direct, but it just seemed to be a gamble. If I could spent money and get something without restrictions, why spend money and get restrictions? It's no problem to sell a CD to someone, but have you ever tried to sell a song you purchased on iTunes? Good luck with that.

I like the idea of the Amazon Kindle. I was very close to saying that I love it. After all it's a nice way to carry pile of books with you while traveling. However, when I looked at the Kindle in depth, I saw too many drawbacks. People aren't likely to steal a book at the beach if you go for a swim. If I like a book, I can't lend it to a friend. And like the iTunes Store, you can't sell the books you bought to others.

Amazon gets around this by stating in their End User Licensing Agreement (EULA), that you aren't really buying the book, but the rights to read it. You can read more here. Okay, I can play ball with that restriction, but you need to give me something else in return... like a much cheaper price. Of course as CNET's Rick Broda points out you often don't save much money on eBooks. You would expect a lot of savings considering that eBooks eliminate the need for: Paper, ink, shipping (gasoline, trucks, and drivers), warehouse storage, shelf space, sales staff, etc. but that's not the case. When you give up the rights to sell the book it's looking like a worse deal.

I don't want to pretend that there are no advantages to eBooks. There are features like search and digital annotation in addition to the aforementioned portability that are quite nice. In the end though, I think it comes up to be a wash or regular paper books having the advantage. This disappoints me, because I think we should be making moving forward with innovation and eBooks could be a large part of that - except that arbitrary restrictions hold them back.

It's that right of first sale that I don't understand. It would be technically easy for Amazon (and others) to implement one of two things

Credit an Owner's Account a Percentage for Deletion of the eBook - In this scenario, you are essentially selling the book back to Amazon. Why would Amazon buy the book back? Simply because they know you A) are more likely to buy a book in the first place knowing that you can sell it back and B) will use the credit to buy more books hence making them more sales.
Allow People to Sell their eBooks - It's easy to transfer the "Amazon license" from one account to another. In fact, Barnes and Noble's new Kindle competitor, the Nook allows you to lend eBooks to others, as long as you only do it once per book for a maximum of 14 days. It is a baby step in the right direction.

Some say that publishers don't want this digital media transferable because it's simply too easy and would cut into sales. People might just buy the first hundred thousand copies while the cheap guys (like myself) wait for them to finish and then buy them for the lowest price. I don't know why publishers fear this so much because that already happens. You can buy used books on Amazon. You can use PaperBackSwap.com to get books for free. And then there is that library system.

The Best Digital Media Solution

The RIAA should maintain some kind of huge database that notes the digital rights that everyone has. As long as you paid for the rights, you can get the music in any form you wish for a nominal free (downloading for free, a mix CD for a buck or two, etc.). Sure it's a privacy nightmare. However, I think consumers would buy into it. There are a lot of consumers out there who are fed up after buying Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic in 5 times (vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD, iTunes). The RIAA says that a lot of the cost is paying the people producing the album, but if you paid those people with your vinyl purchase, why do you have to pay them again for the cassette version? If my CD gets scratched, it should be replaceable for the cost of the CD as all the parties are already properly compensated. If Toys in the Attic gets remastered or if we are talking movies with DVD extras, it's fair to charge the consumer a bit more to upgrade their license. However, the consumer should get the choice to keep the license for the previous work which they've paid for.

This solution would work for all digital media. If I bought a book on a Kindle and later decide that the Nook is a better device, whatever organization that binds book publishers should transfer over that license for easy downloading.

It's inevitable that we get there, it's just going to take time for media publishers and owners to realize that this is the fair way to make sure that everyone gets compensated fairly.

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IPodMeister: Trade your CDs for an iPod or iPhone… legally?

Lazy Man — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:35:30 +0000

CNet's Cheapskate Blog is one of my favorite sites for technology deals and very much a daily read. They recently had this article on iPodMeister. They provide you with the labels for free shipping. You simply pack up your old CDs and get a new iPod, iPhone, or hard drive. They'll even send you a DVD with all your music back for an additional cost (more CDs).

It sounds interesting, but I have a few questions and so did commenters:

Legality of Keeping Your old - The biggest thought in my mind is that once you sell your CD back to iPodMeister, it's probably illegal for you to keep a copy for yourself or use their digitizing service (I use "probably" because I'm not a lawyer.) If you it were legal to keep copies for yourselves, we'd just recycle CDs on Craigslist all day. I'd pay $2 to get the used the CD and sell it back to someone else for what I paid after I copied it. The Right of First Sale was getting a lot of scrutiny in some states as far back two and a half years ago.
Value for Your CD Collection - One commenter pointed out that you are getting less than a dollar a CD (or less) in value when a pawn shop would give you $1-2. I'm not up on the pawn shop market for CDs so I can't verify that.
Is iPodMeister affiliated with Apple? - Lastly (and least importantly), does iPodMeister have an affiliation with Apple? I ask only because they give out Apple products and use a derivative of the trademarked Apple iPod name in their name. Again, I'm no lawyer, just curious about these kinds of things.

The legality of the digitizing question is the big one for me. It just doesn't seem right. Yet it seems that the Consumerist will interview them and not ask the question. Interestingly though the Consumerist asks for feedback from it's readers on the service (largely implying that they don't know if it's a great deal either).

I have a pile of CDs back from my college days (Those BMG and Columbia House "deals" really got to me.) Though I've digitized all my CDs, I save space by putting them in binders and keeping the artwork and jewel case in the attic - of my old home in Boston. Because the service requires the artwork and cases, I couldn't use it even if I thought it was legal. Oh well, I think I'd rather have proof of the official rights to the music anyway.

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Belichick was Right (and Personal Finance Links)

Lazy Man — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:29:31 +0000

Do we have any football fans in the house? If you aren't a fan, just skip down to the links. If you are a fan, hopefully you caught the Patriots-Colts' "Rivalry of the Decade" game. Whenever these teams get together it's always comes down to the wire. As a Patriots fan, losing a game with a 17 point fourth lead is pretty harsh. There are a lot of reasons why it happened, but everyone wants to talk about the controversial call by Bill Belichick to go for it on 4th-down in an attempt to run out the clock.

Before I get to that, there were two previous plays that should get attention. They simply are being overshadowed by that call. The Patriots had the ball at the Colts 1or 2 yard line when Lawrence Maroney fumbled and the Colt recovered. That's the kind of play you look back on in a 1-point loss. The other play was a 36 yard pass interference call - on a very late flag. I thought it was straight up defense with little or no contact. Two ESPN analysts said it was a "dicey" call and Deion Sanders of NFL Network said it was "a questionable call". The Colts went on to score a touchdown in the next couple of plays. Patriots fans everywhere remember the phantom pass interference that proved to be the difference in the 2006 AFC Championship game that got the Colts into the Super Bowl over the Patriots. The heavily favored Colts ran away with the game.

The play everyone is talking about is the Patriots' decision to go for it on 4th down from their own 28-yard line. The Patriots didn't get the necessary two yards (though replays show it was pretty close with the receiver's foot over the 30 yard line after securing the ball) and the Colts got the ball back with a short field. Deion Sanders later said it was a bad spot by the referee. The Patriots couldn't challenge the spot because they had used up their timeouts.

The alternative was to punt the ball away. On a SportsCenter.com 58% of the people say there is no excuse for the call, 27% say it was somewhat understandable giving the flow of the game, and 15% say it was right call.

Tedy Bruschi, a former Patriots defensive player who could become the mayor of Boston if he wanted to, said that . Bruschi said that the decision didn't give the Patriots' defense the chance to win the game and wrote that Belichick dissed his defense. With all due respect to Bruschi, I don't believe the defense was a large thought in Belichick's mind. I think Belichick had a couple thoughts in his head:

We have a great QB and offense - The strength of the Patriots is the offense. It still has the key players that made it the highest scoring offense in the history of the NFL in 2007. The defense has a lot of young players drafted in the last 2-3 years on it.
They have a great QB and offense - Peyton Manning has already secured himself a spot in the Hall of Fame and some can argue he is the best QB of all time. Punting the ball gives him more than 2 minutes (plenty of time) and four downs on every set (the Colts wouldn't punt or kick a field goal down by 6). It is always a smart move to keep the ball out of Manning's hands - even if you have the 1985 Chicago Bears defense.

Another way to look at it is this. Since 2001 (Tom Brady era), the Patriots get a first down on 4th and 2 or less 76.4% of the time. That's a 76.4% chance that you'll be able to run out almost all the clock, virtually guaranteeing the win. An average punt typically nets 38 yards of field position... very close to the 36 yards that can be erased on a dicey pass interference call. Advanced NFL Stats broke down the probabilities of going for it on 4th down vs. punting and found that an average team had a 9% better chance at winning (79% vs. 70%) if they go for it. However, if you plug in the Patriots' 76.4% on 4th and 2 or less, it goes up to 95% win probability in the Patriots favor. Of course that 76.4% may be artificially high since he it likely includes a lot of easier to convert 4th an inches.

In the end, analysts seem to be starting to realize that Belichick made the right decision to go for the win. The difficulty that some people are having is that it so unconventional to go for it on fourth down on your own side of the field with a lead. This is a case where the conventional wisdom is simply wrong.

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Why the Google Admob Acquisition is Important to Me

Lazy Man — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:12:14 +0000

Earlier this week Google made a $750 Million purchase of Admob a company specializing in mobile advertising. It surprised the market in two ways. It was Google's 3rd largest acquisition (behind DoubleClick and YouTube) ever. The mobile advertising industry is fairly small at this time. However, Google is moving into mobile in a variety of ways. It has a mobile operating system (Google Android), mapping/GPS applications (Google Maps/ Latitude), phone applications (Google Voice), and I'm sure a few thing that I've missed.

So what does this have to do with me? I have worked for two mobile phone start-up companies in the past. When it was time to move on from them, I had to decide whether to buy my stock options or surrender them. This is often a difficult decision with a start-up company. If the company goes out of business, you get nothing. If it becomes successful, you can make a great deal on your investment. Complicating matters, it's very difficult to sell private stock. There are a lot of rules like having to offer it back to the company before you can sell it to others. After much thought on my first company, I made a very risky investment and put around $2000 into buying the stock of the company. Roughly one year later, I found myself in similar position when I left my next mobile phone company. I made the same decision and plunged around $5000 into that stock. That's a good deal of cash out there.

Fortunately the Google purchase puts me in good position. Google put out Google Facts about Google's acquisition of AdMob and their chart shows that they now have mobile ads covered in: search ads, web display ads, and application display ads. Google points out a glaring omission, they have no SMS advertising. As fortune would have it, the company that I bought $5000 of private stock is probably the unquestioned leader in SMS advertising. Like Admob, the company is a Silicon Valley company like Google and would easily fill the SMS advertising gap. Probably the only thing holding back Google from buying them at this point is that regulators may hassle them if they went too crazy on the mobile advertising front at one time.

The other company that I worked for does location-based software. If you wanted to know where your friends are or where the nearest Starbucks is, you'd use this software. I worked for this company when I was in Boston. Google doesn't need this company as much as it's own Google Maps and Google Latitude does something similar. Also, Boston is not very close to Google's Mountain View headquarters. If Google was to buy something in that area, they'd probably go with Loopt, a Silicon Valley company that does a similar thing. The only thing that really helps my old Boston-based company is that it is starting to move into location-based advertising. The holy grail of this type of advertising is this: You go to Starbucks' website and sign up your phone to receive special offers. When you walk by a Starbucks, they might send you an SMS notification that you are eligible for a discount on coffee for the next half hour. If you were on the fence, would a savings of a dollar get you to go in and make a purchase? If it does, it's a big win for Starbucks' business. That kind of experience is the thing that a lot of businesses would pay for. And you better believe that Google would love to add that location-based component as a great complement to all it's mobile advertising models.

I had almost forgotten that I own stock in these companies because it seemed like there would never be an event to make my stock liquid. They've gotten a lot more interesting lately though.

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Amazon Friday Sale: Angry Fashion Model Edition

Lazy Man — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:29:12 +0000

Each week, I like to look at the Amazon Friday Sale and see what kind of deals or interesting products they are promoting. Let's get right to the products:

Interesting Product of the Week: 10" Clip-in Hair Extension - I really don't find the product that interesting. The photo of the model they used looks really, really unhappy to be there. Not that I'm in the market for women's hair extensions, but I wouldn't by the product on the basis of that photo alone. Plus look how much happier she is with 14" Clip-in Hair Extensions. I guess, at least in hair extensions, size does matter to women.
Deal of the Week: Yamazaki Belgrove 45-Piece Flatware Set, Service for 8 - I'm always surprised when couples register for flatware that costs hundreds of dollars. I bought a different style of Yamazaki flatware about 5 years ago and it's great. They look and work great. I don't know what else you'd want for your money.
Trek-Tech Flexible Tabletop Tripod - If you have shaky hands, a tripod is a must-have. I like this one for a couple of reasons. 1) It can curve around to hang onto fences or other things (see the photos) 2) It folds into a nice compact size. At 58% off this seems like a good price. However, to be completely honest I have priced these so maybe that's the usual price for all flexible tabletop tripods.
Double Bogo with 2 Storage Cubes and matching Leather Parsons Chair - That looks like a good price for the cubes and the "bogo" (is that a real word). I have similar cubes in microfiber that set us back $40 a piece at HomeGoods. The chairs seem to be a good price for leather. If you put it all together you'd have a nice package.
Men's Fashion IR System Watch - I'll close it out with a cool piece of geekwear. If you are looking to get a conversion started, this is a good way to go about it. Sadly, at $250 and no Friday-sale savings (what's up with that?) it's hard for me to recommend on a site about getting the most for your money.

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My Grandfather In-Law: A True Veteran Hero

Lazy Man — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:29:00 +0000

~~Sometimes~~ A majority of the time I am an idiot. Today is one such case. My wife and I are scrambling around to get some chores done like it's any other Wednesday. I knew that it was Veteran's Day as that is the reason my military wife is home to begin with. Let me rewind to last week. I had been trying to figure out a way to tell a story that needs telling... one that has nothing to do with being lazy/efficient or managing money. How can I go so far off-topic to tell a war story of my grandfather in-law? It took until about 3:38PM today (Veteran's Day) for my fissure-lacking brain to realize that this is the one day of the year where it's completely appropriate to write this story. (As a special bonus, writing this article is also a Get-Out-of-Cleaning-Free card from my wife.)

Chronologically, the story starts in 1950 during the Korean War, but for me, it started this past August. Regular readers know that my wife and I relocated from Boston to San Francisco three years ago. We make two trips a year to Boston to visit with family. One of them was this past August for three main reasons 1) my niece's 1st birthday 2) my grandfather-in-law's 80th birthday and 3) no snow! While enjoyed seeing Boston without snow and had good time with friends and family at my niece's birthday, the interesting thing happened at my grandfather-in-law's 80th birthday. (Note: From here on out, I'll just refer to him as "Pa" as grandfather-in-law is rather lengthy.)

For Pa's birthday, it would be decided we would go out to lunch in a beautiful seaport town near where he lives. My wife and I show up to see Pa with my mother-in-law and someone strange man we've never met before. He's from the local Veteran's society and he's doing a story on Pa for their newsletter. This really didn't rub me or my wife that well. When we come to visit, we generally have one day with each branch of the family and this was our only chance to spend time with Pa. Perhaps selfishly, we didn't want to share the time with a reporter for a newsletter with a circulation we estimated at under one-hundred people. (Okay maybe more, but again, remember we are really, really upset by this.) We gritted our teeth though. Obviously Pa must have invited him... and at his 80th birthday party, he has every right to do the tango with Bozo the Clown if he wants.

We noticed a newspaper article copied at every place setting. My mother-in-law tends to send us a newspaper article each week, so we kind of passed it off as something that could be looked at later. We knew it was about Pa, but it would seem rather rude for us to ignore Pa or the lunch to take time to read the article. Besides, if there was really something we should read there, Pa would surely tell us.

Flash forward to the following week. By this time, my wife is finally calmed about the newspaper reporter incident. She suspected that my mother-in-law had invited him in some kind of conspiracy to gain publicity for Pa while ignoring our trip. (My wife and her mother rarely agree on anything and I have to say that my wife's suspicions don't seem far-fetched if you know my mother-in-law). My wife is away on a business trip and calls me up as she usually does at the end of her workday. She asked if I had read the newspaper article from that day. I confessed that I hadn't. It turns out that neither did my wife... nor my mother-in-law read it either. That is until that day when my mother-in-law sent the e-mail to my wife saying, "OMG, you gotta read this now!"

The story goes back to 1950, specifally the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. I dont know anything about the Korean War. My US history classes started from the Columbus and took us up to the Model-T before running out time in the school year. You can read the Wikipedia article here, but I'll give you a short version as I understand it (please don't hold me to complete accuracy here). Twenty to thirty thousand US troops were surprised by Chinese forces who range from an estimated 60,000 to 200,000 in number. The temperature is 30 degrees below zero. A small wound is very much a death sentence in those conditions under those circumstances. What ensued was considered the biggest retreat in US military history. An estimated 3,000 people died and and another 13,000 were severely injured, mostly from frostbite. It's estimated that 35,000 Chinese also died in the battle. Even with my weak history knowledge, that's one hell of a bloodbath.

Pa's convey was under heavy fire. In his words, it was a "complete slaughter." He said that frozen weapons had made many in his troop helpless. The sounds of hand-to-hand combat and screams of fallen soldiers were all you heard... if your ears even worked in that kind of cold. Pa said that you had to keep moving, because your feet would catch frostbite. It didn't matter that his feet were severely blistered or his calf was full of shrapnel... you must keep moving. The retreat lasted for days where the only sleep he had was when they dug a foxhole... one on the lookout for the enemy, the other sleeping. Looking back, Pa said the hardest part was leaving soldiers behind, noting that even today he cries thinking of it.

For the first time in several days fortune smiled on Pa. He hitched a ride on a US tank. However, with no room on the inside, he held on to the outside. He continued to using different modes of transportation until he got to where his troop was dispatched from. Pa was saved.

Now Pa is a simple man. He just wants to play with dog, eat lunch at the Border Cafe, and watch the Boston College Eagles games. He is active in the community, and even has a donut named from him at local bakery (he invented it). My wife never knew his story. My wife's mother never knew his story. We doubt that Pa's wife who died six months ago heard his complete in any kind of detail. He lived with it every day for 60 years probably thinking, "What good is it going to do anyone to tell it? Why not move on and enjoy every moment of life."

In the story, it came up that Pa was up for a Purple Heart as well as a few other millitary accomidations. However, the building that housed the records burned to ground and the information was lost. Pa just shrugs his shoulders at that. I suppose for a man who has experienced what he has, a Purple Heart doesn't mean much - it might even be a reminder of a time in his life that he'd rather forget. However, it turns out that through a random chance encounter, my mother-in-law bumped into the nurse to took care of him when he got back to the Army base. Through that eye-witness testimony it looks like Pa will be receiving his much delayed Purple Heart.

My wife and I had seen him wear a wool Army hat a dozen times to only think that it's fashionable. It has no markings or indicators that it was part of a uniform. I wonder if it could talk if it would have told us the story that Pa wouldn't.

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Addicted to Cell Phones (and Personal Finance Links)

Lazy Man — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:26:24 +0000

My name is Lazy Man and I'm addicted to cell phones. It seems that I spend too much time reading various blogs about cell phones and not getting the things I need to get done. Specifically, I read about Palm because I've always liked their products... and now they are an underdog as the Apple iPhone and Google Android phones are getting the majority of the smartphone press. One of the better articles I've read on Palm is from a friend... he writes, 13 Reasons Why Palm Pixi is Better than the Apple iPhone. (You'll recognize the theme I'm sure.)

It's a strange addiction, because it's not like I learn new cell phone tricks that make me more efficient. I learn a few tips, but 90% of the time, it's more for the entertainment factor than it is about productivity.

There's another reason why I'm addicted to cell phones. However, that's a story for later today (hopefully)... for now here are some personal finance links from last week:

Money Writers:

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Adventures in Dallas (and how we saved money there)

Lazy Man — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:51:41 +0000

This past week, I took my first trip to Texas. I was kind of excited and kind of nervous as I didn't know what to really expect. I have known only a couple of people from Texas. They wore shirts with slogans on them, like "There are two kinds of people... those who are from Texas and those who wish they were." They had other shirts that stated that Texas should just move off and be its own country. I had never been a fan of country music (with the exception of Kenny Rogers' Coward of the County) and have long theorized that the Country Music Television breaks millions of mute buttons on television remotes a year (the guys out there know what I'm talking about).

However, I have to say that I loved my trip to Texas. My fears of being outcast as an outsider were completely unfounded. Spending most of my life in New England, I had forgotten to account for one basic thing: southern hospitality. They say that everything is bigger in Texas. That saying has never been more true than when describing that hospitality. My wife and I just had to drop our jaws at the level of politeness.

For spending just a few days, we got a lot of "touristing" done. We were in the Dallas area for the most part, but drove up to Longview for a wedding. Here are some of the highlights:

Thanks to PT Money - I have to thank Phil Taylor for his article on frugal things to do in Dallas. It's a very helpful list. I even sent him some e-mail about specific questions I had and he was happy to answer. The lesson here is that Phil rocks.
Fort Worth Stock Yards - This area is very much cut out of any Western that you've seen. What's there to do there and how much does it cost? I'm glad you asked:
- Cattle Drives - They have two cattle drives a day. We were fortunate to catch the first one at 11:30 as we did want to stay until the 4PM one. It was very cool and you can't beat the price of free.
- Riscky's BBQ - A lot of people mentioned this as a great place for BBQ. It was decent, but didn't knock my socks off. It certainly was not as good as Everett and Jones. However, $9 all-you-can-eat ribs is a great deal.
- White Elephant Saloon - It's a very authentic looking saloon, because that's pretty much what it is. While it's biggest claim to fame might be that Wyatt Earp drank there, younger folks might recognize it as the exterior of C.D.'s Bar and Grill from the television show Walker, Texas Ranger. The price of a pint of Bud Light there? A frugal $2.
- Drink Dublin Dr. Pepper - Dr. Pepper is huge in Texas - because it was invented there. There's an original formula using Imperial Pure Cane Sugar made in small qualities and still distributed locally. You can get an old school bottle of Dublin Dr. Pepper at a few shops around the Stock Yards for $1.50.
- Much More - There are more things to do there, but we just didn't fit it in. There's a rodeo on Friday night, but we had to move on to Longview for a wedding on Thursday. There was a maze featured on the fifth season of The Amazing Race that you could go through, but I think it was $8 and we just didn't feel up to it. There were some museums that were interesting to stroll through, but nothing that knocked my socks off like...
The Sixth Floor Museum - Peter King mentioned this a couple of weeks ago in his very popular football column. I didn't think that I'd be that impressed, but I never wanted to leave. For those who don't know, this is the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination. It's turned into a museum not just of that horrific tragedy, but of Kennedy's life. If you don't openly cry, you have no humanity left in your soul. Interestingly one of most amazing things I saw was pretty well hidden on one of the walls. It was a quote by Kennedy the morning of his death:

You know, if anyone wanted to kill the President, it wouldn't be so difficult. All one would need was a high-powered rifle, a tall building, and wait for the opportune moment.

Oddly, I could only find mention of this on this one Facebook page. How is it possible that only me and this one other person are the only people to mention it on the Internet?

If you do nothing else in Dallas this would be my recommendation. It was well worth the $13.50 (or $11.50 with our military discount).

In case you are wondering Las Vegas has the odds at about 85% that the Secret Service will be visiting my home in the next 30 minutes. Searching Google for all forms of "high-powered rifle" and "kill the President" will do that.
Restaurants to Eat at: - We stopped at quite a few places to eat along the way. I thought I'd write a little about each of the significant ones:

Wolfgang Puck's Five Sixty - This is the signature restaurant in the Dallas Reunion Tower. (The Reunion Tower looks like a bigger version of New Year's Ball in Times Square suspended on a smaller version of the Seattle Space Needle.) It rotates so you get a good view of the city while you eat. My wife says it must be 560ft high, because otherwise Mr. Puck failed his geometry class. We can't figure out why else he would name it the 560 instead of the 360. The dinner there is quite expensive... the sushi appetizers were $18 for example. Most entrees were $40+. However, they have a happy hour at the bar from 5-7 where you can several drinks and appetizers for $5.60. We got out there with two drinks and three very small (but extremely good) Kobe beef sliders for around $20. The best part? You can time happy hour with the sunset and it's fantastically romantic enough that you forget that you are being frugal.
Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse - A lot of people mentioned that I had to try this place out. I liked it better than Riscky's, but it was still no Everett and Jones. It was about the same price as Riscky's.
Whataburger - The aptly named fast-food restaurant is all around Texas. As a commenter mentioned we should try this place as well, we did. I was a little surprised by the pricey $7.14 combo meal for a double burger (the single burger looked small and I was really hungry. I was more surprised when this burger didn't come with cheese. $7.14 for your signature burger and it doesn't come with cheese? For a dollar or two more, I might as well go to Friday's or Outback and sit down. Fortunately, the burger was extremely good. I liked my bite of my wife's chicken sandwich as well. Still fast-food drive through for two people shouldn't be over $15.
Gator's Croc & Roc - When we got of the plane this was the first place we went to. Coming from California it was still 9PM for us and a good time for dinner. It was 11PM there and we were grateful to find an open place. I went for their "Ultimate Texas Grande Belt Buster Burger." I love a challenge, I was hungry, and it was less than $10. It was a much better value than Whataburger. It was so big, I just focused on the meat an tossed the bread aside... no-need for filler.
The most fun of the night though came when an off-duty (fairly attractive) waitress was hitting on a guy at the bar. They had obviously known each other from before the way she greeted him. I noticed her free up both hands by finishing up both of her drinks almost like Popeye would down two cans of spinach. I realized this could get interesting when I noticed the restaurant had grain alcohol on the menu. She went into a game of, "Let me show you my tattoos" with the gentleman. Somewhere along the line my wife heard her mention something about her boyfriend. Wouldn't you know it, the boyfriend shows up not ten minutes later and it's just the 7 of us at the bar (me, my wife, the bar tender, the cook, and the love triangle). Everyone took it outside, except my wife and I stayed there to eat. Somehow no punches were thrown. I figure the boyfriend realized that his girl was the instigator. Anyway, it was good drama at the start of our trip.

Hampton Inn Longview - Lastly, if you ever find yourself in Longview, TX (and I don't know why you would), you can do a lot worse than stay at the new Hampton Inn on North Eastman Rd. As we checked in on Thursday, the people at the front desk were kind enough to inform us that celebrate guest appreciation with free beer, wine, and appetizers on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:30 in the lobby. The wine was boxed Franzia and the beer was your choice of Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coor's Light in a can, but it was worth every penny. The appetizers were actually quite good and we ended up skipping dinner that night.
Three odd parts of our trip worth mentioning

Gator's Croc and Roc - Just making sure you are paying attention...
Weird Toll Policy - When picked up our car rental, the place tried to see us a $32 package of pre-paid tolls. We declined saying that we don't know what tolls we'll use, but we'll pay them as we come across them. The rental place pointed out that there are several highways that no longer take cash. You rack up fines if you don't have a transponder with the appropriate money in it... and you rack them up fast as each checkpoint is a $25 fine.
I can't understand two things. 1) Why not have one cash lane or people from out of town, technophobes, or just people with malfunctioning equipment? 2) Why have a pre-payment for something that you might not use? It wasn't clear if we were going to get refunded this money if we didn't use it. I tried to ask that and the car rental place didn't seem to understand that we didn't want to give them money for a service that we didn't intend to use, but we would pay for services that we actually use. Unfortunately that wasn't presented as an option.

As it turned out we found two restaurants that we wanted to go to, but couldn't because of Dallas' silly toll system. We tried to plan around back roads, but our GPS and Google Maps just gave us a response of "You can't avoid that leg of your trip."

The car rental place that Dallas was going in this direction with all it's toll roads. Note to Dallas: You'll be sinking tourists who don't have reasonable access to your transponder system.
Visiting NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base - As part of the military, we went to check out the military base in Fort Worth. Sometimes you can some good deals on clothing. I did find a bright purple suit just like the Joker's, but my wife refused to let me buy it. I thought it would be good value for $30, but she pointed out that it wouldn't fit anyway. That wasn't really the freaky part though. We found out about the Fort Hood shootings the next day just two hours from the base we were on.

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Amazon Friday Sale: L.A. Clippers For the Win Edition

Lazy Man — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:24:39 +0000

A hummus recipe yesterday and an Amazon Friday Sale today?!?! If this site hadn't jumped the sharked so long ago, this would surely be a jump the shark post... or maybe I'm just reducing your expectations so that I can knock your socks off next week. We'll go with the later. Be prepared to lose your socks.

However, for today, I'm back to picking out some products that Amazon has put on sale for today and today only. So if you like it then you should put a ring on it (or something like that).

NBA Kids' L.A. Clippers Future Star Watch - This is my product of the week. This watch has a nice early 80's look about it. I like to think that it's because it's actually from the early 80's and the Clippers are still waiting for their "Future Stars."
Portable Folding Hammock - Being lazy isn't always as easy as it seems. For instance it's tough to find a good hammock. When you do they take up so much darn space. And ever try to bring your hammock to the beach? There's never any trees to tie it to. This portable folding hammock solves that problem and at least two dozen other hammock problems that you probably don't even know you have. With 14 of the 17 reviewers giving it 5 stars it's got to be quality.
Collapsible Pet Feeder - Much like the hammock, saving space is key thing that I look for in products. This pet food and water dish is a nice way to save a little space when your pet isn't eating. My only issue is that we leave water for our dog Jake all the time. So if we bought this it would never be collapsed. Maybe someone else can find a good use for it though.
Umbra Aquala Bathtub Caddy - I had to include this just for the Lazy factor alone. I mean a bathtub, books, and wine... wow.
Stainless-Steel Beer-Can Chicken Rack with Drip Pan - You had me at "beer can chicken." I don't know how I missed this phenomenon, but I'm going to have to look into it... soon. Sounds delicious.

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Easy Homemade Hummus Recipe

Lazy Man — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:59:23 +0000

About two years ago, I was grocery shopping with my wife when she picked up some hummus and added it to our cart. Being the ~~jerk~~ price-conscious person I am, I inquired why it was so expensive. (I believe it was either $3.99 for around 12 ounces.) "Isn't hummus just ground up chickpeas?", I asked. My wife kind of shrugged her shoulders and I said, "I think so, but it's soooo good. It's healthy too!" That logic was a good enough for me given the time and the place, but I had a feeling that I was onto another money-saving idea.

It turns out that I was mostly right about hummus being ground up chickpeas. In fact Wikipedia lists the ingredients as: "mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic." If you look at those ingredients, you probably already have the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and garlic in your kitchen. So you really just need to find the chickpeas and the tahini. We found our chickpeas at Trader Joe's. "Joe" prefers to label them as garbanzo beans and I must give my credit for realizing that they are the same thing. The tahini was originally found at Whole Foods. However, Whole Foods can get pricey so dropped by a local Mediterranean market that had tahini in almost any size that you might want. (Seriously, it almost went up to a Costco keg size.)

My wife found a recipe online at All Recipes, but has modified the ingredients a bit to the following:

2 cups canned garbanzo beans, drained (or 1 Trader Joe's can)
1/2 cup tahini - even though All Recipes says a 1/3, my wife's tastes prefers the 1/2 cup
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
two cubes of frozen garlic... or two fresh garlic cloves. I think you could go with minced as well, but I haven't verified this.

If you are doing this at home, we'll wait here for you to gather all the ingredients. In the meantime, the rest of you talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The chick pea is neither a chick nor a pea. Discuss! (I'll be taking a phone call from the SNL producers for stealing their joke and not properly attributing it to their Coffee Talk skit.)

Now that we have all the ingredients it's time get out your favorite Blender/Food Processor. I use the food processing section. (You'll also notice I have a slightly older version.)

Open up your can of garbanzo beans, drain them, put them in your food processor:

Next up grab your garlic. We use this frozen garlic because keeping fresh garlic around (and fresh) is a pain. Like the garbanzo beans, we found ours at Trader Joe's. You'll note that with Dorot's crushed garlic, one cube is equal to 1 garlic clove... and you get 20 cubes in a package. Two cubes is all we'll use here.

Now it's time for the lemon juice. We are just using a 1/4 cup. We use ReaLemon because it's cheap at our local commissary. If you aren't affiliated with the military, I recommended a generic version to save a little money.

The next big ingredient is the tahini. We'll be using a half cup here.

I'll save you a picture of a teaspoon of salt. Just don't forget to add it. Not that a picture of tahini is exciting, but a picture of salt... well, that would set a new low on this website.

Just put everything in the food-processor and process until creamy. Here's the final product:

Homemade Hummus Savings

Now, since this about saving money, it's time to look at the price of the recipe. Many of these are well-known, common ingredients. Since I didn't have the prices of these handy, I simply decided to estimate the prices. The one rare product was the Tahini which I did confirm was $4.49 for 16 ounces (though it could have been cheaper if bought in larger sizes.)

Garbanzo Beans - Total: $0.75? per can - Cost Per Recipe: $.75?
Tahini - Total: $4.49 for 16 ounces - Cost Per Recipe: $1.12
Lemon Juice - Total: $2.00? - Cost Per Serving: $0.50?
Garlic - Total: $2.00? - Cost Per Serving: $0.20?
Salt - Total: $0.75 - Cost Per Serving: fractions of pennies
Total for the recipe: $2.57

This savings between $3.99 and $2.57 may not seem like much, but you get an extra four ounces when you make it at home. Also this hummus is extremely easy and can be made in about 3 minutes using many ingredients that you have around the kitchen. For a lot of people, that's not bad return for the time spent.

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Three Ways To Get Free Stock Trades

Lazy Man — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:15:45 +0000

[Below is a guest post from Bullishness.com. More information about the author and Bullishness are at the end of the article.

Many of you probably know about how Zecco offers free stock trades, but did you know Zecco isn't the only online stock broker that does this? If you're an investor with a fairly large portfolio, there are two other options for free stock trades available to you: Banc of America and Wells Fargo. You've probably heard of these financial service providers before but you probably didn't know that they offered free trades. This article will cover the requirements, and commission structure for each free online stock broker to give you a better idea of what your options are.

Brokerages with Free Stock Trades

Zecco ( Zecco Commission Schedule )
Although Zecco doesn't spend a lot on TV, newspaper, and magazine advertising, their online presence is hard to ignore. Zecco made a huge splash when they launched in 2006 being the first broker ever to offer free stock trades. When I first heard about Zecco, I was a bit skeptical, but they have managed to continue their business successfully serving over 130,000 customers. Their customer base is a drop in the bucket compared to other more established online stock brokers like E*Trade, but they do serve a smaller niche and definitely spend less money on big media advertising (E*Trade ads on the Superbowl anyone?).

Now, if you're getting free trades from anyone you have to be wondering what the catch is. Well, with Zecco, there are two main limitations. The first is that you need a balance of at least $25,000 in your account and you only get 10 free stock trades per month. After your 10 free stock trades are used, your rate goes up to $4.50.

Banc Of America ( Banc Of America Commission Schedule )
Banc Of America offers stock brokerage services, which may come as a surprise to some of you. The name of their brokerage division is called Banc Of America Online Investing, or BAIS for short. Although Banc Of America is a more established and traditional financial service provider, they're doing a lot to compete with smaller and newer online stock brokers. You can open an account with as little as $0.00 and, of course, qualify for free trades.

So what is required to qualify for free trades from Banc Of America? The minimum balance requirement is $25,000, just like Zecco, but unlike Zecco, Banc of America offers 30 free trades per month compared to Zecco's 10 free trades per month. After using your 30 free trades, the rate goes up to $7.00 per trade, which is more than Zecco's $4.50 per trade.

Wells Fargo ( Wells Fargo Commission Schedule )
Wells Fargo is another established name in banking that also offers stock brokerage services and free trades. You've probably heard of them before and might even have a checking or savings account with them. The official name for Wells Fargo's investing division is WellsTrade. Wells Fargo offers a slightly different commission structure than both Zecco and Banc Of America.

Just like Zecco and Banc Of America, Wells Fargo requires $25,000 to qualify for free trades. The number of free trades offered by Wells Fargo is 100 per year, which comes out to 8 trades per month. After using your free 100 trades, the rate goes up to $5.95 per trade which is more than Zecco's $4.50 flat rate and less than Banc Of America's $7.00 flat rate. Doing a little algebra shows that if you have a minimum balance of $25,000, your trade costs with Wells Fargo will never exceed your trade costs with Banc of America.

How Does Each Free Broker Size Up?
Although each broker's minimum balance requirements are all the same, they all offer different amounts of free trades and commission rates after the free trades are used. Below is a graph showing how your costs would add up with each broker per month.

Free Stock Trades

If you make 8 trades per month or less, you can take your pick from the three free brokers and your trade costs won't change. If you make 9 to 66 trades per month, your lowest trade costs would be with Banc of America. Beyond 66 trades per month, Zecco takes the clear advantage over the other two free brokers. One thing to keep in mind is that this analysis assumes 8 free trades would be used per month from Wells Fargo, even though they alot free trades on a per year basis. In other words, trading more during a certain time of the year would affect how beneficial free trades given per year would be. Hopefully the above chart and analysis gives you a good understanding of what your costs would be with each broker.

Conclusion
Hopefully those of you with $25,000+ to invest in the stock market can eliminate your trade costs completely. And if you don't have $25,000, it's definitely a good goal to start working towards. While $25,000 is no small amount of money, if you live below your means and make the most out of the money you earn, it certainly wouldn't be impossible to save that much money. Happy trading everyone!

Full Disclosure: As of this writing (November 2, 2009) Bullishness.com and the author of this article are not affiliated to any of the aforementioned online stock brokers.

[Parts of this article have been corrected since original publication]

[About The Author: Hello readers of LazyManAndMoney, my name is Soo-Young and I'm a financial mathematics graduate student and the creator of Bullishness.com, the largest and most comprehensive online stock broker comparison site on the internet. Bullishness.com has many unique features that help investors every day. Unlike other stock broker comparison websites, Bullishness.com automatically checks and updates its pricing information every 24 hours using a special price checking script. Bullishness.com also has the largest catalog of online stock brokers available on the internet. Finally, as of this writing (November 2, 2009), Bullishness.com is not affiliated to any online stock brokers, giving you the most unbiased and independent comparison information possible. Take a look around, and if you have any comments or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear from you (info@bullishness.com). And if you're in the Twin Cities area, let me know and we can chat over a beer (my treat).]

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Save More Money in Aruba

Lazy Man — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:30:18 +0000

Almost two years ago, I wrote a fairly comprehensive guide on how to save money in Aruba. My wife and I went back there a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to find that I had more tips to share. We like to go to Aruba because it's a lot like our Boston home due to the direct flights. Also, the weather is perfect, it has great food, casinos, and no hurricanes.

The best tip (and the first one) was one I got from a friend after I got back from Aruba:

Make Money in Aruba - As opposed to most of the things I write about, this is second-hand information from a trusted source. It's even someone dated information from that source. Because of that, I'll have to recruit a friend to try it out and report back the results. Here's how it goes:

Go To Tomato Charlie's for Pizza - Numerous reviews say it's the "best pizza they've ever had" and it's relatively cheap. My source says that you can get a pizza and pitcher of beer for around $20. I recall him saying that there's something extra that they toss in as a special
While at Tomato Charlie's grab a discount magazine - There are other places you can grab these, but you'll have time to flip through one while you are waiting for your pizza. What you are looking for are Casino match play coupons. As About.com says, match play coupons are almost always a sure way to make money at a casino. You can use them for free money on tables where the house has a 1% advantage. The beauty of this? If you are like most people in Aruba (a couple), you can pick up two sets of coupons for 5-10 casinos in the high-rise hotel area (near Tomato Charlie's). With coupons of around $20 each, you can go down the line playing one-hand at each where winning gets each person $40 and losing is only $20 gone. My source did this every night and came back with over $1000 in winnings (though I suspect he "gambled with the house's money" when he started off well.)

Shop at the grocery stores - I mentioned this one in the article, but it bares repeating as much of this article will assume that you've taken that advice. Our favorite place to shop there is Ling and Sons which is hidden behind the Hong King.
Maximize Your Dunkin' Donuts' iced coffee dollar - Dunkin' Donuts is the favorite coffee of my coffeeaholic wife. The problem is that they don't have them in California. However, there are a couple in Aruba. Problem is that it's a pain to wake up and walk 10 minutes from our Marriott timeshare to the Dunkin' Donuts. As I've said before, laziness is the father of innovation. Order a mega-large black ice coffee with no ice (or two). Bring them back to your place and add the ice and milk (from your grocery store stop) yourself. It's amazing how much ice and milk are in an iced coffee. By having just the main ingredient, my wife got three days of iced coffee without the long morning walk in 100+ degree heat. I was concerned the coffee might not be good after a couple of days, but she said it was fine.
Eat at cheaper hotels and resorts - A cheeseburger at the Marriott Timeshare we stayed at was $15. At the Holliday Inn next door it was $10. Everything was like that. It was worth walking next door and just eating there. (Of course grocery shopping for deli meats was by far the cheapest option.)
As we talked to others we found that some places had happy hour specials of $1 for a drink. Marriott ran a 2 Balashis (local beer) for $10 happy hour "special." The price of one Balashi any other time - $5. Marriott did have some "deals" where you could get a frozen for $6.50 during happy hour if you ordered two, but we rarely saw anyone drink at the bar by the pool. Instead, everyone had their own cooler that they got from their shopping trip. If you didn't have a cooler odds were that the person next to you had more beer than they could drink and would offer you one (or 10). It's not even mooching because you just talk to someone and they offer it. This is an appropriate time for me to thank Jim Gonsalves for his generosity yet again.
Plan your trip in advance - This might be hard to do if you don't know Aruba. Now that we do, we know we'll rent a car on the first or second day. We'll use the car to do our grocery shopping for the week (it's easier than taking Aruba bus system though that is a great value). We'll plan to go to Flying Fishbone which is a good 20 minute or more drive from the high-rise hotels where we stay. We'll also use it to sight-see on the island. We only need a car for a day or two to get this all done. We spend the the rest of the trip is generally around the hotel or on snorkeling tours. Speaking of snorkeling tours, as a bonus tip, we found that if you book those online in advance you can save some 15%-20% off them as well.

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Personal Finance Links (Dallas Advice, Anyone?)

Lazy Man — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:38:43 +0000

This week my wife and I are traveling to Dallas for a wedding. It's my first trip to Texas. We are planning to see the The Sixth Floor Museum as we've heard a lot of great things about it. However, we don't know a great place for good authentic Texan BBQ. Does anyone have suggestions? Also if you know any other good tourist attractions, I'd love to hear them.

I'll trade personal finance links for your Dallas information?

Money Writers:

Brip Blap shares this tip on how to keep a customer happy.
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My Dollar Plan writes earning interest and dividends on someone else’s dime.
Sun’s Financial Diary asks is ally bank in trouble?

Top PF Posts:

All That Glitters Isn’t Gold - The Casual Observer points out "Items that are marketed as 'collector’s items' rarely become items that collectors truly desire." Well said, Kosmo!
Investing Toolkit writes how to invest for business growth.
Rich Credit Debt Loan expounds on the meaning of a credit score.
Debt Free 4 Ever asks should you be debt free before getting married?
Midlife Beginnings blogs about selling laptops on eBay.
Get Rich Slowly says small amounts matter.
Moolanomy warns even good debt can be bad!
Tech CU Money Savvy asks if a disaster hits, is your bank or credit union prepared?
My New Choice gives these tips to manage your checking account and save money.
Darwin's Finance discusses family money - fairness vs. favoritism in gifting, wills and more.
Money Crashers gives 3 reasons why you should avoid bankruptcy.
Wise Bread offers 19 tips to cut costs by using your oven efficiently.

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Amazon Friday Sale (Awesome Queen Mattress Sale Edition)

Lazy Man — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:34:08 +0000

As many of my regular readers know by now, every Friday Amazon has a sale. Usually it's a good place to pick up some highly discounted kitchenware. In fact, about half my kitchen was bought from the Amazon Friday Sale. Every week, I hope Amazon puts on a new or unusual product, because, let's face it, reading about a sale on drinking glasses isn't that entertaining. As always, deals are for today only, so attack the deals quickly before they are gone.

~~I didn't spot anything too unique.~~ Check out the Ninja Star Knives below! ~~However,~~ I also thought the sale on a particular mattress warranted a post. Then I found a couple of other items that I thought might be worth talking a bit about.

10 inch Memory Foam Mattress (all sizes) - Memory foam mattresses aren't cheap. If you go with the Tempur-Pedic brandname be prepared to drop some decent cash. The Queen size version of this mattress is usually $1200, but it's on sale for $339... with free shipping. That's a savings of 72% off. If you go for the twin it's only $250 a savings of 75% off. The king size will cost you $550, but that's still cheap considering. The mattress comes well-reviewed receiving and average of 4.5 stars out of 5 from 25 customers. In my mind, there are great deals and then there's something like this that takes it to the next level.
Legnoart Ninja Star Knives - I have always wondered what my kitchen was missing and now I've found it. This product isn't really called Ninja Star Knives, but that's what I'm calling it. I know ninja stars are supposed to be flat, but why deal with two-dimensional weapons when you hurl a three dimensional star of pain at your enemies. Little Billy will quickly learn not to spoil his dinner with cookies with this around.
Calphalon Commercial Hard Anodized 12-Quart Stockpot - We have one of these stockpots for when we make our own beer. Ours might be a little bigger than 12 quarts, but I'd be surprised if it's that much bigger. I believe ours was $30 for cheaply made stainless steel version. Spending an extra $16 for a name-brand quality one like this seems like a no-brainer. With 130 customers giving it an average review of 4.5 stars out of 5, the odds are good you are going to be happy with the purchase.
Cloer Electric 57-Ounce Cordless Water Kettle - We have an ordinary looking aluminum one of these and use it quite often. This is one of those times, that I have to fight the urge to buy something I don't need because it looks so damn cool! Amazon is helping me out greatly by only discounting 10%. If it was 50%, I might be in deep trouble.
Blue Rhino SkeeterVac Mosquito Eliminator - I point out this product, because I wanted one back when I lived in Boston. However, Amazon is giving you less than 10% which just isn't that good for a Friday Sale item. Amazon you can do better.
Space Bag Vacuum-Seal Storage Bags, Extra Large, Set of 2 - This is another quality product. It's well worth the money to reclaim some space. However, at a Friday Sale savings of $1.00 (or 7%), it's as if Amazon is driving me to go look on Ebay for a better deal.

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Is iJango a Scam?

Lazy Man — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:28:19 +0000

I was watching Tech Now this week and the technology show mentioned a scam that's getting the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) attention. I never really cared too much about these scams, because I assumed, like Nigerian princes, people were smart enough to avoid them. However, after realizing that a lot of people are getting scammed by MonaVie, I figured I should write about some scams when I come across them. I figure it might save some reader some money someday - and that makes it worthwhile for me. Today's scam in question... iJango.

What is iJango

iJango bills itself as a "Membership Rewards Community." What does that mean? It means that you sign up to earn rewards and recruit other members. I love earning rewards. I even like recruiting other members for things I believe in. However, there's a problem with iJango... if you want to earn rewards for recruiting other members it costs $150, PLUS $20 a month. Tech Now showed this information on their broadcast, but I can't seem to find it on the iJango website. Several links appear to be broken on iJango's website, so maybe they are having some difficulty on their site today. In fact, the Vicky Nguyen of Tech TV says that iJango admits to often having a broken site as they are constantly upgrading.

What Tech Now and the BBB say about iJango

After fielding 3400 inquiries after their August launch, the BBB gave iJango an F rating. While iJango claims to be a Multi-Level Marketing website, the Erin McCool of the Silicon Valley BBB says "they have extreme suspicions about what they are doing."

According to McCool, "People have trouble canceling the service" due to the website's bugs. It's always a bad sign when you get stuck with a $20/mo. bill that you can't get out of.

McCool also said, "We can't shut them down and it's a pain staking policy for the government agencies as well." This is something that has come up in MonaVie discussions a lot. The logic of some distributors is that if they haven't been shut down, it must be legal. Because of the painstaking process, this is simply not true.

What Founder Steve Smith says about iJango being a pyramid scheme

Tech Now caught up with founder Steve Smith and asked him if iJango is a pyramid scheme. His answer was so hiliarious, I've transcribed it below:

SS: It's a little... it's a little... it's a little, different concept because we are bringing customer on who produce revenue for us.
TechNow: How do they produce revenue? So you have partners with companies that pay you?
SS: Yeah for what they do on... on... shopping... and... online
TechNow: Who are those companies? Netflix? I saw you said Netflix... Pricegrabber... are those all companies you have a relationship with?
SS: Those are all companies that we have a relationship with. It's probably not even a direct relationship. This development team that we brought on brings us a lot of relationships. So for us it would be a third-party relationship that brings the relationships with these people that help monetize the customers that we bring to the site.

TechNow: How is this NOT a pyramid scam? Make that easy for me.
SS: Because we produce revenue from our customers. We get revenue, our customers use their tools and utilities, and we are paid part of that revenue share.

The BBB goes on to say that the relationships with Google, Pricegrabber, and Rhapsody don't exist. Here you could take argument with what the BBB is saying. I'm sure iJango has a relationship with these companies through affiliate programs like FlexOffers and Commission Junction. Founder Steve Smith is misrepresenting the relationship when he flashes a Netflix logo during a presentation as if to say, "These big companies are partnering with us, so you have to believe we are the real deal" instead of "No one at Netflix has ever heard of us."

What iJango Users have to say

When asked about how iJango is paying, Paul Bass, iJango user, said:

They haven't started paying out yet because of the problems with the servers. Even if I was dupped and even if they got my $149... [laughs]... that's not a lot of downside risk... and the upside potential...

That's exactly the kind of attitude that pyramid scams want to hear. A lot of $149 and $20 a month bills add up quickly for companies... especially when they don't really provide a product.

Another user Michelle was interviewed:

TechNow: Can you give me an idea, Michelle of how much money you've made with iJango?
Michelle: Absolutely not, that's a private matter.

I suppose it is a private matter, but if it was signfiicant mone, wouldn't she be shouting it from the rooftops?

Why iJango is a scam

By becoming an iJango Community Director, you are basically becoming a salesman for them and their company. You are out there recruiting other people and earning commission on everything that they buy (if they buy anything). You wouldn't pay your own employer to work for them, so why would you pay iJango?

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What if You were Required to Share your Finances?

Lazy Man — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:53:12 +0000

My friend, Kosmo at The Casual Observer clued me into a Associated Press article about Norway opening up their country's tax records. The belief by the Norwegian government is that transparency is the best policy. That transparency comes in the form of releasing a "skatteliste" or "tax list" to the media.

I realize that other cultures have other customs that may seem strange, but imagine this in the United States for a minute. Can you imagine all the privacy advocates in an uproar? (Note: I think I'd be roaring the loudest.) Critics claim that the list creates quite the ruckus in the country. For instance, instead of hearing "My dad can beat up your dad" in the school yard, there's the "My dad makes more money than your dad." I guess children grow up fast in Norway, because I didn't think about money and how much my parents made back then. There's also the fact that robbers can now calculate the highest return for their thieving effort.

For me personally, part of this concept struck very close to home. A few jobs ago, someone found a disk with the complete company's payroll information. This quickly circulated around the company through private email accounts. When it got around to me, I was surprised to see that the person who spent half the day asking me questions was making 20% more than me. She also only worked 4 days a week. I know she was a favorite of the managers, but I still thought that was excessive considering I had more experience. In fact, I hinted at the experience as one of my earlier posts on this site.

In a transparent Norwegian-tax world, I would not have been underpaid that long as I would be able to make an easy case for a raise based on knowing what my peers make (and my managers knowing that I know what they make). So maybe this is a good thing for Norway as it can ensure that people get paid more fairly. What's your take?

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Weekend Links (Cleaning For a Party Edition)

Lazy Man — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:42:13 +0000

This weekend my wife and I did a lot of cleaning in preparation for having The Digerati Life and Stop Buying Crap over for a game of Settlers of Catan. I think we spent 8 hours each day in preparation. I would like to say we split the work 50-50, but my wife probably did more than me. Instead of the usual 90-10 split though, it was probably closer to 60-40, so I'm getting a little better. Plus, I kind of think my wife likes to clean. It sounds crazy, but I actually have been searching online for bleach-smelling cologne - if they make such a thing.

You see when it comes to having people over my wife is like Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother. If you don't watch the show (you should be), after an over the top entertaining party the main characters created a video and a website about it.

Here's the making of the video. It's not the one from the show (as I couldn't find it), but imagine a montage of pictures of the website above:

Poor Silicon Valley Blogger and Cap don't know what they are going to be walking into.

Later on today, I hope to post the details of my wife's homemade frugal hummus recipe. It will save you bundle if you plan to use it to attack your mayor.

For now, let's get to the links:

Money Writers:

Brip Blap writes about how to make yourself an expert.
Digerati Life posts on the national unemployment statistics: job losses at record highs.
Frugal Dad asks about investing in gold – is now the right time?
Generation X Finance shares a list of the best things to buy in the fall – find the biggest discounts and sales on these items this fall.
Million Dollar Journey gives tips for buying and selling on Kijiji (or Craigslist).
Money Smart Life asks what was the best $100 you’ve ever spent?
My Dollar Plan tells readers about 10 surprising things you can turn into cash.
Sun’s Financial Diary says 2010 401(k) contribution limit won’t be adjusted.

Top PF Posts:

Free Money Finance posts about another broke and unhappy lottery winner.
Bank Saver asks should you get branded retail credit cards?
My 1st Million At 33 asks time to change your auto insurance company?
Get Rich Slowly says pay yourself first.
Saving Advice writes spend now to save in the future.
Blogging Away Debt shares ways to get by while on unemployment…
Rich Credit Debt Loan blogs track your money with Excel.
Moolanomy offers up 25 frugal Halloween costumes.
All Financial Matters says your 401(k) might be better off than you think.
One Frugal Girl saved over $1000 on groceries so far this year.
My Money Blog shares thoughts about bailouts and bonuses.
Enough Wealth asks will the AUD be worth more than the USD?

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Follow the NFL at 30,000 Feet for “Free”

Lazy Man — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:23:26 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, on our trip to The Wedding that Wasn't, I realized something that made me sick to my stomach. We had booked our return flight to San Francisco during the three-hour span that the New England Patriots were playing. I have very few rules, but one of them is that when my favorite team plays roughly 16 games a year, it's worth planning your life around. Another of those rules is that sports are not the kind of thing that you can DVR. DVR is even an option for me as I don't have DirecTV and live in California. If I want to watch the game, I typically have to go to the sports bar. Sadly, sports bars that offer all NFL games via DirecTV are not part of Delta's in-flight service.

However, there is something that was part of Delta's in-flight service... wifi via Gogo. Gogo is available on a handful of airlines. It's similar to paying for Internet access at a hotel - for about $10 you get it on your flight. Their pricing is actually more complex depending on flight time and all that. I lucked out and Delta was letting people try it for free if you used a promo code.

With wifi available, I was back in the game. I was thinking about all the potential possibilities for how I can follow the game in real-time. I had my computer handy, so I do something like ESPN GameCast (or equivalent) and follow a simulated game. This is better than nothing, but reading, "Tom Brady pass to Moss for 12 yards" is very bland compared with watching it or even listening to it. That's good, but what about the battery on my laptop? It's only about 2 hours and a game goes 3.5 hours usually. My wife's computer was there too, but her battery is worse than mine... it would be cutting it very, very close.

Enter my Palm Pre. I remembered there was an NFL application that came with it. I looked into it and it offers real-time audio for all the teams. Patriots broadcasters Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti pumped into my ears at 30,000 feet? Are you kidding me? I can't be this lucky. It turns out that I can. My next thought was, "Damn, my Palm Pre is going to run out of battery streaming the radio over wifi." Enter my computer as a portable charger. With it in hibernation mode and my Palm Pre plugged into it, I had more than enough to not only cover the Patriots game, but also enough to root against the Jets. With the Pre's multitasking, I was able to keep three web browsers open and follow two of my favorite Patriots blogs (for injury reports and the like) and other scores from around the league.

You'll notice that I had quotes around "free" in the title. I obviously had to pay for my cell phone and Sprint's monthly fees. I lucked out by not having to pay for Gogo due to their promotion. I also lucked out in that Gogo was available on my plane. I hope they get their service on all airlines soon. Despite all this luck, I thought it was a worthwhile story to tell that might help a help a fellow sports fan at some point.

As a final side note the Jets fan next to my wife was able to watch the first half of his game on his computer because he had DirecTV at home. His battery wore out after that.

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Don’t Forget to Get your Free $50 from CollegeAdvantage

Lazy Man — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:27:28 +0000

Since my servers have been having staying up today, I'll just give a quick update to remind everyone to get a free $50 for opening a 529 educational plan. You don't need to have children to take advantage of this. We don't have children and I signed up under my own name. If we have children some day, I'll transfer it to their names. If not, perhaps I'll go back to school myself or give it nieces and nephews.

CollegeAdvantage has one of the best 529 plans out there, so I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't sign up. (Well, unless your own state gives some tax advantages to using your own state's 529 plan.)

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