Every now and then I need some inspiration for an article. I could write the 8,243,412nd article about “10 ways to reduce spending”, but I know my readers don’t want that. If they wanted bland, generic articles, they’d go to CNN or somewhere else equally lame.
So instead of throwing my brain into overdrive and figuring out what my readers might like me to write about, I made it a lot easier on myself. I asked my twitter and facebook followers what they want. Here’s what I got:
I do really like this idea of engaging with my readers and writing about whatever they want. And since I’m a fan of alliteration, I’m declaring Wednesday to be Whatever Wednesday from now on (until I change my mind).
On Tuesday nights from now on, I will ask for topic ideas on my twitter and facebook pages. I will always write about the first response from both Twitter and Facebook (so make sure to be the first!), and I’ll also pick anything else that sounds interesting. Sound good? Great. Let’s go.
Welcome to Whatever Wednesday!
Money Issues are the #1 cause of Divorce
I’ve heard this before, and I have two theories that I can’t support with any data.
Theory #1 – In low or moderate income couples, I believe a lack of money makes people unhappy in general. Then I think this general unhappiness can cause divorce. I’ve been dirt poor earlier in life, and I’m currently doing pretty well financially. I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that having money to pay the bills makes life easier. So if you don’t want money to break up your marriage, make sure you have enough of it that you can pay your bills comfortably.
Theory #2 – How people spend money is a reflection of their priorities. When you are single, your spending reflect only upon yourself. When you are married, your spending reflects upon you and your spouse as a couple. When two people who have very different personalities or interests get married, it can spell trouble.
For example, sometime people disagree on how much to spend on a sick pet. The key to ensuring money doesn’t become an issue in a relationship is to make sure husband and wife agree on most priorities and have discussions about where they differ BEFORE marriage or keep separate accounts during marriage.
Boobs
These things can be huge money savers for women! They help ladies avoid cover charges and/or earn free drinks at a bar. When used properly, they can get a lot more out of a guy than just a few drinks (see the golddigger section below). And most importantly, they are a natural way to avoid buying baby formula!
On the down side financially, ladies have to buy bras. They also might want to “enhance” their chest, which costs thousands of buckaroos. And women have the unfortunate distinction of a much higher probability of getting breast cancer than men.
Overall, I can’t decide if boobs are a financial positive or negative. But I have decided that I’m glad they’re there.
Golddiggers
Speaking of boobs and using them to get money, some women make their living on doing just that. And call me crazy, but I say more power to them.
A golddigger is looking for a rich man to spoil here, and some rich men are looking for women to spoil.
If a man is with a golddigger, it’s because he decided to be. I’d never personally date a golddigger (and I know for sure a golddigger would never date me) and don’t really understand why any man would, but if two people decide to be in a relationship and both are forthcoming about their expectations, then who am I to judge?
The Debt Reduction Super Committee
Stewart thinks this committee is “horrible” in his own words. I think it’s laughable.
They are supposed to find $1.2 trillion in savings against the budget over the next 10 years.
So we have a national debt of $15 trillion dollars (100% of our GDP), and annual deficits of well over $1 trillion from 2009-2011. The deficit in 2012 is projected to be over $1 trillion, and the only reason projections say the deficit will reduce to around $700 billion in 2013 is because estimates are expecting a huge economic recovery and increased tax revenues. I’d say we’re realistically looking at between $7 and $10 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years.
And this commission is only trying to find $1.2 trillion over that time frame? Is there a point to this?
Does anyone really think there’s a practical difference between $7-10 trillion or $6-9 trillion of deficit spending over a decade? If you do, you might want your head examined.
We need to make a decision as a country. We could go full communist, start taxing everyone 50% and balance the budget with massive spending and taxes. Or we could go the way our founding fathers intended and reduce the size of the federal government, giving power back to the states, and cutting spending while people keep more of the money they earn. I prefer the latter.
But to think that the government can spend like communists while the citizens are taxed like a free market society is completely and utterly insane.
EDIT: For a real plan to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, including $1 trillion in cuts in ONE YEAR, check out Ron Paul’s Plan to Restore America.
This Super Committee is more like a Stupid Committee.
Happy Whatever Wednesday!
There’s my first Whatever Wednesday and I had a lot of fun with it. I’m definitely doing it again next week, so make sure to keep an eye on twitter and facebook next Tuesday and tell me what to write about!
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
I think I’m going to like whatever Wednesday! I think it will be fun to see some off the wall crazy topics.
And you’re right. You regular readers probably don’t want another rehash of 10
ways to reduce spending! … That’s so hundredaire.
My cowriter wrote this little gem about the debt limit agreement: “[It’s like] a 400-pound man who is gaining 50 pounds a year who plans on being 850 instead of 900 pounds in a decade while his doctors warn him of losing weight too fast.”
The whole thing is a ridiculous dog and pony show which is just a setup to kick the can a little further down the road and let some other Congress/President combination deal with it. In 2007 Government outlays were $2,728,702,000,000. In 2010 they were (estimated (pdf)) at $3,720,701,000,000. So… $1.2 Trillion was saved, but in 2010, almost $1T more was spent than in 2007.
But yeah, gold diggers, haha. I do enjoy your idea for Whatever Wednesday!
I liked your bit on the debt super committee, good stuff. Keep it up!
I love it!!! Actually, I really love seeing my picture up above! 😀
87% of the Federal budget is comprised of spending that no politician will concede needs to be cut, and there in lies the problem. Social Security: 25%; Medicare & Medicad: 20%; Defense: 20%; Benefits to former gov’t employees (including former military personnel) 17%; Interest on outstanding debt: 5%… I am all for spending cuts, but where would you like to begin? They’re busy arguing over the remaining 13% which euphemistically speaking is a drop in the bucket. Show me someone who has a realistic, and applicable plan for cutting spending (yourself included). Otherwise it’sjust political verbiage and window dressing for the sake of listening to yourself speak.
www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/ron-paul-plan-to-restore-america/
You’re welcome.
And where is Ron Paul in the polls? Not to mention that one of his key campaign points is to end the Fed (which I am also personally in favor of) and the best I can tell you have a pretty positive opinion of the banking system and equity markets in the US. What happens exactly to the banking sector, or the entire equity market for that matter, when you abolish the Fed?
Nice! Keep it going! Big boobs do not mean no baby formula. It’s a misconception according to our baby doctor. 😉
Hmm…here’s a female perspective to this Whatever Wednesday post.
Money disagreements among other things ended of my marriage of 14 years. When we married,we had nothing-literally. We were a young couple just out of school and starting a family. Over time, I became more frugal as I was raised from childhood, but my husband continued to increase spending as the pay increased.
Simple decisions, like what(where)to eat became huge battles over the spending. When I refused to sign on any more car & RV loans, he found other ways to purchase to the detriment of our family budget. He even over drew our checking account to force me to move money out of savings to cover the bills. The rationale was that he makes the money, so he should be able to spend it, but our combined income was only $60,000 each contributing equally. We were on the fast track to bankruptcy & I wanted off.
Fast forward a few more years, the short sale of our house, & 2 attempts of marriage counseling. I had just lost my job due to a company merger. My husband decided to cash out all of his 401k to keep from losing his truck.
At this low point it was time for a financial reality check. A business man in our church offered to help with some financial counseling, but my husband refused. A few days later I met for the financial counseling alone. He recommended that I begin separating our finances and set up a new checking account for my unemployment checks & divide the bills. My husband & I fought constantly until he told me that I was holding him back in his life.
A few weeks later, my children & I moved in with my parents. I came into the marriage with nothing and came out of the marriage with a negative networth. It has been 5 years and I have paid off the debts accumulated in the marriage. I am building a positive networth for the first time in my life. I live on a $30,000 a year salary & drive a 11 year old vehicle. I hope to buy a house within the next year. My x-husband owes $6000 in back child support. He moved out of state & keeps changing jobs to keep from paying child support. I pray for him often.
I am not wealthy, but finally I am now balanced. Money didn’t seem like an important issue when we first got married since neither of us had any to speak of. Should I marry again,it will only be with a man who is balanced & of a frugal mindset.
If only our government could make the drastic changes need to become balanced as well!
Rhonda, thank you for sharing your story. Not only does it show how important it is to have the same financial goals, but it also shows people change over time and not always for the better. Glad to see you got your debts from your marriage paid off. Keep it up!
This is the best financial post on boobs I’ve ever read.
Now that I think about it, this is the ONLY financial post on boobs I’ve ever read.
So…I have to admit that this is the worst financial post on boobs I’ve ever read.
I like PKamp3’s comparison of the government budget with an obese person losing weight, as it’s a perfect example of how only cutting spending doesn’t work:
1) Cutting calories by itself does no good, because the body’s metabolism will just slow down to accommodate the lack of calories in order to maintain it’s current size (see “set-point theory”). Cutting government spending drastically without additional tax revenue or economic growth will mean a significant amount of people will be laid-off of government jobs, driving up unemployment and causing a further downward-drag on the economy, resulting in even less tax revenue, which will lead to bigger debt.
2) Significant cuts in consumption of calories is also futile due to the human mind: People don’t usually accept drastic change. Congress is much the same way, in that it is a slow, lumbering beast that is often at odds with itself, addicted to political fast-food of corporate subsidies, making easy short-term fixes that don’t fix the underlying problems, and can’t accept drastic changes over long periods
3) Increasing caloric consumption through exercise only is just as futile, as although you are revving up your metabolism to burn more calories, you still aren’t addressing the problem of pumping in more food than you need. Increasing taxes and flooding the economy by printing more money is much the same thing, as it just promotes an economic heart-attack via hyper-inflation.
Weight-loss veterans that take it off and keep it off rely on a mixture of both reducing calories eaten and increasing calories burned. In addition, they are aware of the psychology of the issue, and make small, gradual changes that they know they can accept and ingrain into their lifestyles over the long-run, knowing that all the little things add up. Our politicians could learn a few things from them, by stop wasting time looking for economic magic bullets, and start making small, but lasting change in our government’s spending habits, and promoting growth by avoiding political fast-food of subsidies for international corporations that will just offshore their jobs and taxable profits anyway, and promote companies in the US that ONLY do business in the US.
With great power comes great responsibility. Boobs must be used with care.
Funny to see that 50% taxes = communism 🙂
Where I live (the netherlands) taxes are MUCH higher than in the US, but I’d hardly call us communists..
0- $25500 – 33.1% taxes
$25500 – $76000 – 42% taxes
76,000 > 52% taxes
After that you of coure pay VAT, wealth taxes (you pay taxes over money you’ve paid taxes over but haven’t spend yet), road taxes, house taxes, sewage taxes, environmental taxes, home owners taxes.
And sure enough they’re looking into a new tax bracket of 60% for income over 134,000.
Which still means that someone who earns 100k has _a lot_ more take home money than someone who earns 50k.
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I’m not saying everything is better in NL due to this, but it seems that there’s a lot less troubles with budget deficit (eventhough we have some too), houses being short sold, and a lot less debt/loans in general. Also, health insurance is obligatory (extra next to the tax). But I just hardly ever hear of anyone in real financial troubles.