Constantine Maroulis

Anyone remember Constantine Maroulis? Constantine Maroulis was a contestant on American Idol Season 4, and after elimination went on about building his own solo career. He’s recorded and toured on his own solo album, but his biggest success was found starring in Broadway and off Broadway plays, typically musicals. Recently, he was routinely hailed as the lead of the musical Rock of Ages, a musical set to some of the greatest hits of 80s rock, including songs by Twisted Sister, Journey, and others. His performances were so good that he netted a nomination for a Tony Award. Maybe it would be worth some short term loans to see Constantine Maroulis perform.

Jack Wilson

Jack Wilson will be trading in whatever weather they get in Pittsburgh, and trading it for rain. Jack Wilson, along with Ian Snell, have been traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Seattle Mariners. Wilson ironically had lambasted the Pirates for their habit of trading notable players, and now has had the same done to him. The short stop has been invaluable on defense, and dangerous on offense, leading the National League in triples hit in 2004, and in double plays by short stops in all MLB. It’s a good move for Seattle, who will likely put Jack Wilson to good use, as a great fielder and hitter is a player worth giving a cash advance for.

KeePass and Dropbox: Two Tools for Managing Your Electronic Life

Over the past few months, GRS readers been recommending two applications that I haven’t found time to mention — until today. These two utilities perform simple but important tasks. One is a password manager, and the other allows you to share your documents — including financial documents — across multiple computers.

KeePass
Here, for example, is an e-mail I received from a reader who asked to remain anonymous. He’s one of the many to sing the praises of KeePass.

This tool might be part of your paperless personal finance system:

I set up all of my online passwords in a program called KeePass on a memory stick; it has some clever functions that let you avoid typing in URLs, login names, and passwords on public computers and thus defeat keystroke-capture fraud agents. I’ve found it very useful — it's much faster and easier than using the old password log in my PDA.

KeePass is a free open source password manager that runs on all major operating systems: Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. According to the website:

[KeePass lets you] put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known.

For the curious, here’s a list of KeePass features. To me, this page mostly reads as “blah blah blah blah blah“. I skimmed the major feature headings, and only browsed the bullet points for the sections that were important to me.

Note: I’m a Macintosh user of moderate technical savvy. (I spent a year as a C++ programmer under Windows/Linux.) I got KeePass to work just fine, but it took a bit of effort. It’s a very Linux-y process, and the instructions on the KeePass website are obscure in the best Linux tradition. I guess what I’m saying is: Yes, this works, and it’s keen, but it’s not as simple as just downloading a Mac app and installing it. Windows and Linux users should be fine.

Dropbox
Several GRS users have also sung the praises of Dropbox, an app that allows you to synchronize files across multiple computers and access them from the web. (This reminds me of .Mac/MobileMe for Macintosh — only better.) Dropbox also allows users to share files and folders with others.

This screencast describing the featuers of Dropbox pretty much sold me on the product. Dropbox is free for low-volume use (under 2gb of space) and premium accounts are available.

In February, Oliver wrote that he uses KeePass and DropBox together:

KeePass is really great for encrypting passwords but as well as keeping the username and password for each account, I also keep all the account numbers, other passwords, security questions/answers, phone numbers in the notes field.

KeePass allows me to keep all this info (and my other passwords) behind one password and with Dropbox I can back it up for free and have the file available anywhere.

I want to live in “the cloud”, but Apple’s MobileMe just isn’t robust enough. As a result, I’ve recently I’ve recently begun to embrace Google’s suite of online tools. But Google doesn’t offer file storage. Dropbox looks like the perfect compliment to Google Docs and its siblings.

Postcript: After I finished writing this article yesterday morning, I went to lunch with my friend Will. As we were eating, the subject turned to cloud computing. “Oh, J.D.,” said Will, pulling out his iPhone. “Have you seen Dropbox? It’s amazing.” He gave me a guided tour on his iPhone. I laughed and told him I’d just finished writing a post about it just an hour before.

—
Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• Free User Manuals For Electronic Equipment
• 15 Tools Every Homeowner Should Own
• Do the Tools of Personal Finance Actually Work?
• Can One of You Afford to Quit?
• Money Market and High-Yield Savings Accounts

Read more about KeePass and Dropbox: Two Tools for Managing Your Electronic Life…

Alice in Wonderland Trailer | Looks Like Were in for a Thrill

Personal Money Store Videos on Youtube

Many web sites have had to yank the Alice in Wonderland trailer because of copyright issues, and several seasoned YouTube users have created fake Alice in Wonderland trailers. And some pranksters have done such brilliant and creative things as labeling a Rick Astley music video as Alice in Wonderland trailer. However, I think I have found the real thing.

Of course, even before I saw the trailer I was planning to spend the $9 to see it when the time comes. Tim Burton plus Johnny Depp plus one of my favorite children’s stories is sure to equal bizarre brilliance. Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland does not follow the storyline of the original.

Instead, IMDB reports: Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn’t remember.

For more information on this article and others like it, please click on the following link:Personal Money Store: Alice In Wonderland Trailer

iPhone Virus Can Wipe Out Your Bank Account

With calls and SMS fees, that is

Oh no! Not an iPhone virus! (Photo: www.thehenry.net)

I am an iPhone enthusiast. It’s mightily expensive, but I’m hooked. I haven’t had to take out payday loans or cash advances to finance my habit, but it does occupy a significant portion of my budget each month, particularly since I have the unlimited data plan. If the time ever came that I was taking out loans to help finance my iPhone usage, I know that I would scale things back. But since that doesn’t happen (and I do tend to use my phone for business as well as personal things), I have no plans to change. However, if the iPhone virus ever comes to my phone, I might reconsider.

Yes, an iPhone virus

All of this time, one of the major selling points Apple has used for products that run off their brand of OS is that it is less susceptible to viruses than Windows. While that may be true, I’m sure they aren’t happy to know that an iPhone hacker can shut down or take control of somebody’s iPhone simply by sending an SMS message.

Elinor Mills reports for CNET News that there is a known iPhone SMS hack in which a special kind of SMS message can be sent to do its malicious work. Researchers have even demonstrated publicly how this works, at the Black Hat security conference. There is currently no correction patch to fix the issue. This would be forgivable if this iPhone virus is something Apple just discovered. However, they were notified about this iPhone hack at least six weeks ago, writes Mills. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "iPhone Virus Can Wipe Out Your Bank Account"

Failing Forward: Transforming Mistakes into Success

Sometimes the best personal finance books aren’t about personal finance.

In June 2006, for example, I shared a brief review of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. Ostensibly this book is about creativity and overcoming procrastination, but I found its lessons valuable for pursuing my financial goals. Last year I read Mastery by George Leonard. On the surface, this book has nothing to do with money, yet it’s one of the best books about money I’ve ever read.

John C. Maxwell’s Failing Forward is another of this ilk. It’s not meant to be a personal finance book, yet I’m willing to bet that more of you can improve your financial lives by reading it than by reading The Automatic Millionaire or Personal Finance for Dummies (though these are both fine books). Why? Because books like Failing Forward apply to your entire life rather than just one part of it.

Failing forward
I clearly remember a period during the late 1990s during which I felt like a failure. I felt washed up. I felt like I was sleepwalking through life, accumulating debt, eating too much, working in a job I hated. Every time I ate a hamburger or bought something on credit — or worse, bought a hamburger on credit — I felt this failure meant that I was a failure.

But what I eventually learned was that failing at one thing is not failing at all things. And, in fact, failure is a necessary part of growth. Life is filled with trial and error. In order to walk the path to success, you need to make some wrong turns along the way.

What I learned, to use John C. Maxwell’s terminology, was to “fail forward”, to use each mistake to make myself better. He writes:

One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind. [A successful baseball player] doesn’t look at an out that he makes and think of failure. He sees it within the context of the bigger picture. His perspective leads to perseverance. His perseverance brings longevity. And his longevity gives him opportunities for success.

There’s a reason that one of Get Rich Slowly’s core tenets is: Failure is okay. As I was paying off my debt, I made lots of mistakes. I still do. When I bought my Mini Cooper, for example, I didn’t do everything I could have done to get the best deal possible. That’s okay. I try not to let mistakes drag me down. Instead of focusing on the things I did wrong during that transaction, I remember that in the Big Picture, I’m doing awesome. And I’ll try to use my mistakes to do better next time.

Seven ways to fail forward
In Failing Forward, Maxwell writes that there are seven key abilities that allow successful people to fail forward instead of taking each setback personally. Successful people:

1. Reject rejection. Successful people don’t blame themselves when they fail. They take responsibility for each setback, but they don’t take the failure personally.
2. View failure as temporary. “People who personalize failure see a problem as a hole they’re permanently stuck in,” writes Maxwell. “But achievers see any predicament as temporary.”
3. View each failure as an isolated incident. Successful people don’t define themselves by individual failures. They recognize that each setback is a small part of the whole.
4. Have realistic expectations. This one is huge. Too many people start big projects — such as paying off their debt — with the unrealistic expectation that they’ll see immediate results. Success takes time. When you pursue anything worthwhile, there are going to be bumps along the way. And remember: The perfect is the enemy of the good.
5. Focus on strengths. This was one of the biggest lessons I took away from Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. When I interviewed Ferriss last year, I asked him to expand on this idea. He told me: “Focus on leveraging and amplifying your strengths, which allows you to multiply your results. Fix any fatal weaknesses to the extent that they prevent you from reaching your goals, but perfection isn't the path to your objectives; finding ways to cater to your strengths is.”
6. Vary approaches. “Achievers are willing to vary their approaches to problems,” Maxwell writes. “That’s important in every walk of life, not just business.” If one approach doesn’t work for you, if it brings repeated failure, then try something else. Maxwell is saying that to fail forward, you must do what works for you, not necessarily what works for other people.
7. Bounce back. Finally, successful people are resilient. They don’t let one error keep them down. They learn from their mistakes and move on.

These seven points form a firm foundation for dealing with failure in all parts of life, including personal finance. As you pay off your debt, as you learn to invest, as you cut your spending, remember that some failure is inevitable. But you are not your mistakes. Own them, learn from them, and move on. Continue to pursue your goals.

Stepping stones to success
Maxwell peppers his book with anecdotes from celebrities, entrepreneurs, and famous people like Edison and Mozart. He uses their stories to illustrate how successful people don’t let failure trap them; they “fail forward” instead. He also cites scientific research and shares stories from his own life.

Failing Forward is a motivational book, one that helped me break out of a funk and put me in the right frame of mind. Reading this helped me realize — again — that failure isn’t an end. It is, as Maxwell notes, just a stepping stone to success.

Related reading:

• Zen Habits: Why you should celebrate your mistakes
• Get Rich Slowly: How to build confidence and destroy fear
• Get Rich Slowly: The power of yes: A simple way to get more out of life

Note: I listened to the audio version of this book, and did not read the print edition. I have a print copy that I referred to while writing this review, but the version I audited while strolling through the neighborhood was abridged. Though I think it unlikely, it’s possible that the print edition is padded with filler.

—
Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• 10 Common Money Mistakes
• 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed
• The Fundamental Rules of Investment Success
• The Four Pillars on Index Funds
• The Rise of Suburban Farming

Read more about Failing Forward: Transforming Mistakes into Success…

Tennis is a very fun game to play

I just learned how to play last summer and I’m excited to get back to playing this summer. There is a lot of technique that goes into playing well. You have to get the serve in or you can’t even play at all. It’s best to use your hips on the serve. That way you can get a lot of power and force into it with the torque from your body. One of the hardest things to do is a backhand shot. This is when you turn your racket so the back of your hand is facing the opponent and the racket is on the opposite side from where it usually is. It’s a hard shot because you’re using different muscles than what you’re used to. But with practice, you can become a good player and master all the tough shots.

I love roads

I can't imagine having to live in a time where we don't have roads and cars. I was talking to someone the other day about how new the interstate system is. It is insane how people used to have to drive on highways all the time. Highways are only bothersome because the speed changes on them so often. I hate having to slow down and speed up over and over. It is really annoying. I am really glad someone came up with the bright idea to make it so that people only have to slow down to get off the freeway or slow down for traffic. It makes everything so much simpler.

How many blades of grass can there be?

If you could count all the blades of grass in the world, how many do you think there would be? There would be a lot–so much that you would be better off at estimating the number to be infinite. Infinity is a funny number. You can cut it in half and it will still be infinity. You can multiply it by two or three or any number you wish and it will still be infinity. If you add one to infinity, it is still infinity. I guess it has to do with limits and comparisons of numbers. You see, compared to infinity, any other number is really small and insignificant that it gets swallowed up in the largeness of infinity. There's no way to win.

My friend is taking finals this week at college

The last week of school can be stressful. There are a lot of finals to take and last-minute studying. Then of course she has to pack all of her belongings since she is going to be moving into a different apartment for the next semester. There is also the end-of-semester clean-check. She has to do a deep-cleaning of the whole apartment and make sure everything is spotless. The big jobs are of course divided among all the roommates to make this process go faster. After everything is packed away and everything is clean, the only thing left to do is to check out. Then, my friend gets to come home!

Robin Quivers' bathing suit

It’s anyone’s guess as to why people are looking for pictures of Robin Quivers’ bathing suit. The idea of Robin Quivers’ bathing suit photos is a bit odd, considering that Robin Quivers is almost 60 years of age. (She will turn 57 this year.) However, some women have been able to become physically fit and maintain a very attractive image at almost 6 decades of age. Robin Quivers, for the low and uninitiated is on the Howard Stern show, and has been the quintessential shock jock sidekick for decades. She was reportedly photographed in a bikini in Miami Beach, but the pictures haven’t surfaced, and some would give payday loans to see pictures of Robin Quivers’ bathing suit.

EPA Disqualifies Shoppers From Cash for Clunkers Program

The Cash for Clunkers Program went into effect recently, but so did changes to the official EPA-estimated mpg ratings of several cars. For example, the 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis, according to CNN Money, was rated a combined 18 mpg last week, but as the program began this week, the rating for this year, make and model jumped to 19 mpg on Monday.

While a change of 1 mpg seems relatively insignificant, the Grand Marquis rated at 19 mpg no longer qualifies as a trade-in worth up to $4,500 under the Cash for Clunkers Program. Since the new legislation was made retroactive to July 1, car dealers have been including the rebate in their deal calculations before the rebates were available. Furthermore, dealers offered the anticipated credit as an immediate benefit to the customer with the expectation of being able to file for the credit. But this change by the EPA resulted in some cars no longer qualifying for the credit already given to the customers and as a result, some dealers have been asking customers for the money back or threatening to take back the new car.

According to the EPA, 78 models became ineligible for the credit after the reassessment of mpg calculations while 86 other models have become eligible, so there may be credits available for some who may not be aware. The recalculations occurred for model years 1985-2007 to use the same calculation that began in 2008. This puts all cars released since 1985 on the same scale, and this was a change required by the new legislation.

My 2004 Honda Civic changed from an official EPA combined estimate of 34 mpg in the old calculation method to 30 mpg in the new calculation method. You can see how your car’s estimates changed at the car finder at FuelEconomy.gov.

The Consumerism Commentary Podcast is in full swing with new episodes every Sunday. Listen and subscribe now!

(Scavenger hunt to win a free IPod? Here is a clue: “smart.”)

EPA Disqualifies Shoppers From Cash for Clunkers Program

Read more of EPA Disqualifies Shoppers From Cash for Clunkers Program…

Meet Bobcat Goldthwait | Watch 'World's Greatest Dad' Trailer

Bobcat Goldthwait’s latest creation

Bobcat Goldthwait

Critics from Indiwire say Robin Williams’ role in “World’s Greatest Dad” is his “his best role in years.” Bobcat Goldthwait has certainly caught people’s attention with his newest film, which he wrote and directed.

“World’s Greatest Dad” puts Robin Williams in a familiar role — that of a high school poetry teacher. At a private school. Where the kids wear uniforms. You can check for more similarities between “World’s Greatest Dad” and “Dead Poet’s Society” by watching the trailer at the bottom of this post. I haven’t found any others, so leave your comments if you notice anymore parallels.

More about Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie

While Robin Williams’ character, Lance Clayton, seems like the kind of guy who always gets the best personal loan rates, even the short glimpses of him in the “World’s Greatest Dad” trailer show that his life hasn’t turned out the way he imagined him.

He is a writer who has never had anything published. He has one son, who is described on IMDB as “an insufferable jackass who won’t give his father the time of day.” His girlfriend doesn’t publicly acknowledge their relationship. Sound like a comedy? Bobcat Goldthwait promises that it is.

Meet the maker

One critic on Rotten Tomatoes calls “World’s Greatest Dad” “an amazing work of dark, dark genius.” Aaron Hillis from the Village Voice says “Goldthwait wrings tender humanity from disturbing premises.” ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Meet Bobcat Goldthwait | Watch 'World's Greatest Dad' Trailer"

Michael Vick Has Been Reinstated Into the NFL

On a conditional basis, Vick reinstated by football

Justice. (Photo: Infidelsparadise.com)

Anyone who commits a crime should be held responsible for their actions. This includes celebrities and superstar athletes who frequently find themselves in a position where they are held above the law. No special plea bargains, no special privileges,  no skating where normal people would be put away for hard time. The time in which high-powered attorneys and PR teams can confuse juries by obfuscating the truth and wage war on those who sue their clients - beating them back via pure attrition - must end. The dog fighting crimes for which Michael Vick was arrested and served time were heinous, resulting in the careless death of many animals.

Now we see news of Michael Vick reinstated by the NFL. This is a colossal mistake and I hope that fans boycott whatever team signs him (there will be one, as he is an athletic talent, if not a great quarterback). That would include all of said team’s sponsors. Hit them where it hurts, where a team will notice. Put them in a place where they need cheap loans for quick cash. However, if you attend their games, watch them on television or purchase the merchandise of Vick’s new team, you are labeling yourself a barbarian. You are saying that it’s ok to maim and kill animals for your amusement. You, sir or ma’am, would label yourself a disgusting excuse for a human being.

Commissioner Goodell has lost his mind

Mark Maske reports for the Washington Post that on behalf of the National Football League, Commissioner Roger Goodell has agreed to a condition-laden reinstatement of Michael Vick. Currently, Vick is allowed to attempt to sign with a team and participate in their training camp activities. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Michael Vick Has Been Reinstated Into the NFL"

You Too Can Find a Job Online

Photo: ChiBart

Eric Barker

Last month, Eric Barker received his MBA. Unfortunately, he still lacked a job… So he hopped on Facebook and spent $50 on ads targeted at people who worked at Microsoft. As he describes it:

…it’s been wildly successful. My ad got over 50K impressions, over 500 clicks, and more than 20 people contacted me directly offering everything from a LinkedIn connection to the email addresses of recruiters to sending me the job description for specific roles in their division that they offered to submit my resume for.

Eric isn’t the only person receiving job offers through social media. Maia Bittner received job offers as a result of her activity on Brightkite, Twitter, and Yelp.

Brightkite is a social networking tool where users check-in at their current location and they can see people nearby:

I updated my status on Brightkite to indicate that I was at the DMV to register my car–apparently, Going.com sent up an alert system anytime someone checked in near them. They checked out my profile on Brightkite, saw my personal website, which includes my professional background, and sent me an e-mail saying, “Hey, can you come talk with us about a job?”

Then, last February, she tweeted, “Going to my last day of work at Spock.” A friend at Apple knew someone at Zecco who was looking to hire a community manager, and introduced them via Facebook. “We met up, but the job description wasn’t a good fit, so I passed.”

Finally, a few months ago, an entrepreneur trying to launch a competitor to the online review site Yelp ran across a bunch of reviews Maia had written about Boston restaurants. “He found my homepage via my Yelp profile, and contacted me asking if I’d be willing to write a bunch of reviews under contract.”

While Maia–who is currently involved in marketing at Archivd.com–might be an extreme case, more and more people are using online tools to find jobs.

LinkedIn, a professional version of Facebook that focuses on business networking, has experienced a surge of growth. Job searches on the site rose 51% in February over December, according to David Hahn, LinkedIn Corp.’s director of product management.

In other recessionary times, we have seen people lean on education and go back to school. This is the first major recession where you have a tool like LinkedIn and can use your professional network more effectively.

Detroit, home of the struggling auto industry, has been the site’s fastest-growing region for networkers, said Kay Luo, LinkedIn’s senior director of communication. And when Wall Street powerhouse Lehman Bros. fell apart last autumn, Lehman employees tripled their site activity on LinkedIn.

But even as more people are hitting the job boards, the number of good canditates hasn’t increased. Dirk Zondag Jr, a recruiting manager with the Elevate Recruiting Group, says:

We are seeing a lot more noise, in regards to resumes coming in, and people on the job boards. Last summer, from posting jobs, I would receive maybe 8 resumes a day from direct applications, and now may see upwards of 50 a day. The number of quality and relevant resumes seems to be the same however. For example, last summer, 8 resumes would give you 1-2 good, relevant people, where now, 50 resumes, may as well result in just 2 quality, relevant people.

In a great blog post titled, “Why hiring is paradoxically harder in a downturn,” Auren Hoffman wrote, “the amount of resumes from C-Players massively increases while the amount of resumes from A-Players probably remains the same.”

With all this noise, how can you be sure to stand out? According to Dirk, it’s all about consistently broadcasting yourself:

People can better utilize social networking by keeping constant, and keep updating. You need to be constantly 'broadcasting' your radio signal. LinkedIn even has a status update section much like a tweet.Now, if you put up just one, it may not get seen by the right person(s) in your network. If every other day, you are putting up something new, or the same thing in a different way, it'll eventually get noticed. Same goes with Twitter and Facebook. Not only can recruiters find you on these networks, they can also contact you quickly without needing your e-mail address.

It certainly works. While researching this post, I ran across someone on Twitter looking to do some free-lance writing, and connected them with my editor. (Unfortunately, he didn’t have room for another writer.)

According to executive coach Doug Peterson, while being active on all these sites is good, it’s also important to have a focused message:

People come to me and say “I need a job.” They’re scared that focusing too tightly will close off potentially great opportunities. But the opposite is true. As you’re more specific on your job description, your network is more likely to suggest somebody who can help. They’re not being mean, they just don’t know how to help until you clarify, “This is what my ideal job looks like… can you suggest two people I should talk with?”

Is it really worth all the hassle to maintain an updated online presence? For Connie Bensen, who blogged about working remotely for Techrigy, it certainly is:
All of my jobs online have come to me thru social networking venues. Since November 2006, I’ve worked remotely from northern Minnesota, and my earning capacity online is double what is available locally. My message is that if I can do it, anyone can create their own opportunities.

Even if you expect your job leads to come through face-to-face interactions, expect people to research you on Google. It’s worth the time to keep adding people you know offline to your online networks–multiple times, I’ve had an acquaintance contact me and say, “Hey, I’m considering working with John Smith on a project. I looked him up on LinkedIn and saw that you know him… do you think he’d be a good fit for this position?” (Similarly, these online networks are an excellent way to research a hiring manager before an interview.)

As more people become comfortable using online tools to research jobs and potential hires, expect your professional network to become even more important. As I told a friend recently, “The internet doesn’t replace your reputation, it just accelerates it.”

Did you know? Mint is hiring…

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Big Pappi's Grille Opens Today | David Ortiz in Restaurant Biz

Big Papi’s Grille a family restaurant

Image from WBZ Boston

David Ortiz, known to baseball fans as “Big Papi,” now has another revenue source — not that he needs one. Today marks the opening of Big Papi’s Grille, the Red Sox slugger’s own family restaurant.

“We decided to open a place that people can come and, without spending a lot of money, they can have a good meal and with their family, have fun, get to know the other part of myself, my teammates,” said Ortiz.

Business partners

The “we” that Big Papi is referring to there is Peter Sarmanian, his new business partner and the man who owned the restaurant that previously occupied the space that is now Big Papi’s Grille in Framingham, Mass.

Luckily for Big Papi and Sarmanian, they probably didn’t need to take out a personal cash loan to open Big Papi’s Grille. Big Papi has been playing baseball since right after high school. Now he plays for the Boston Red Sox, where he holds the team record for most homeruns in a single season. I don’t know what his salary is, but after leading the team to the World Series in 2004, I’m sure they are paying him handsomely to stick around. I’m sure he could buy all of the restaurants he wants.

Pretty classy

I think it’s admirable that Big Papi wants his restaurant to be affordable. It’s good that he recognizes that not everyone makes millions of dollars playing baseball. Of course, that made me curious as to what his idea of “not spending a lot of money” at a restaurant is. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Big Pappi's Grille Opens Today | David Ortiz in Restaurant Biz"

National Tequila Day

Today, July 24th, perhaps could be a day that will live in infamy – because it’s National Tequila Day. National Tequila Day is a day of commemoration for people who love the spirit distilled from the Blue Agave, a plant native to Mexico that produces large leaves and a large “heart”, the core of the plant which is harvested to make tequila. Once the agave is malted, it is distilled like any other spirit, and barrel aged to make tequila, a drink which is equally praised and blamed the world over. Those who choose to indulge, please do so responsibly (stay away from the worm!) and don’t do anything you’ll need payday loans to repair celebrating National Tequila Day.

Secret Millionaires Club

A lot of conspiracy theorists start salivating in a completely Pavlovian manner if someone were to mention the Secret Millionaires Club. However, put any thoughts of conspiracy, secret handshakes or whatever out of your mind – the Secret Millionaires Club is a web cartoon show. The web cartoon is starring perhaps the most unlikely cartoon voice actor ever, Warren Buffet, who decided to be in the show to teach children about investing basics, and how to look at long term financial issues. The Secret Millionaires club will be available on DVD shortly, and since it seems more vital than ever to educate your children about finance, it might be worth a cash advance to get the show for your children

What Would You Change – Government Improvement Series

Last week when we talked about Obama’s proposed health care reform, there were more concerns about the government running the program than the core initiative of every American obtaining medical coverage. Certainly, this is sparked by our experience of government wastes and inefficiencies but why do we have to feel that way? Why do we settle for mediocrity? Why can’t we change this?

Thicken My Wallet writes:

I often find dragging Canada as a comparison to proposed reforms in the U.S. to be a bad comparison… Ultimately, Americans should adopt a system suitable to the American political system and stop trying to use Canada either pro or con for proposed reforms.

I feel a bit native typing this, but instead of creating a system that fits, why aren’t we trying to change our political system so we can create the best government run programs?

Health care is a huge industry where many companies are MAKING money, but why does it have to COST taxpayer money for the government to run?

Many have reported that our stimulus money hasn’t trickled down to the businesses yet, but why does it take that long? China’s stimulus have already done wonders for their economy, and the stimulus was just as big (if not bigger).

There are tons of negatives about communism, but you have to admire their efficiencies. Remember the SARs scare a few years ago? China built a hospital in eight days. A typical U.S. hospital can’t even approve a change of pencil brands within eight days. Could we adopt some of that in our political system?

I know what you are thinking – we need to debate and make sure that our policies are sound. It’s great to have multiple layers of cross check, but all that happens within our system is for politicians to add more favors for their supporters. Banning excise tax on toy bows and arrows in our bailout bill? Give me a break.

Obama talks about reforms and changes all the time. Perhaps it’s the political system he navigated so well that needs the overhaul. If you could have it your way, what would you like to change?

This is the Government Improvement Series, which are discussed on Friday. Join us next Friday for more, or look through the link above for previously discussed topics.

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Related Articles at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning:

• Government’s Opportunity for Improvement – Intro
• Severe Fraud Punishment – Government Improvement Series
• Tax Law Changes – Government Improvement Series
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• Social Security Reform – Government Improvement Series

Read more of What Would You Change – Government Improvement Series…