1. Mom Sues McDonalds: Who’s the Child Here?

    Posted by Michael • December 16, 2010 @ 9:08 am
    1 Comment

    I know this story has been everywhere the last day or so, but I just cannot let it go by without a few words:

    KABC-TV: Calif. Mom to Sue McDonalds Over Happy Meal Toys

    Yes, a California mom has filed a lawsuit against McDonalds, hoping to require the fast-food megachain to either (1) churn out healthy meals for kids, or else (2) yank toys out of their Happy Meals. Why? Because she’s tired of being “pestered” by her kids (a six-year-old and a two-year-old) to go to Mickie D’s.

    In a press release, we get to hear Ms. Parham describe her parental angst:

    I am concerned about the health of my children and feel that McDonald’s should be a very limited part of their diet and their childhood experience. But as other busy, working moms and dads know, we have to say ‘no’ to our young children so many times, and McDonald’s makes that so much harder to do. I object to the fact that McDonald’s is getting into my kids’ heads without my permission and actually changing what my kids want to eat.

    Getting into your kids’ heads without your permission? You mean like EVERY OTHER COMPANY that markets to kids in any way / shape / form? Ms. Parham, I’d suggest you sue Mattel, Disney, Scholastic Publishing, and American Girl, while you’re at it. As well as General Mills, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Kelloggs. (Actually, whomever boxes up those god-forsaken Corn Pops really should be sued. Those things are disgusting.)

    More from Ms. Parham:

    What kids see as a fun toy, I now realize is a sophisticated, high-tech marketing scheme that’s designed to put McDonald’s between me and my daughters. For the sake of other parents and their children, I want McDonald’s to stop interfering with my family.

    Glad to see you’re paying attention, Mom. Now maybe you’d like to take the next step, and TRY TO BE AN ACTUAL PARENT to your kids. They’re two and six, for goodness’ sake. Who runs the show at your house, anyway? It damn sure isn’t you.

    Hey, Wait! I Have a Kid, Too!

    As the parent of an eight-year-old girl, I would like to state clearly, here and now, that I am truly amazed at the masterful job which McDonalds has done in getting kids to want their food. In the world of advertising, the Happy Meal campaign has to go down as one of the Greatest Ever.

    Do they sell crappy food? Yes.

    Do they blatantly target kids? Yes.

    Have they absolutely mastered these tactics? Holy hell, yes.

    And yet somehow, SOME WAY, my wife and I have managed to say no to our daughter’s frequent requests for McDonalds food. Does our kid whine? Yup. Does she moan? Yup. Does it matter? Not so much.

    Am I going to sue McDonalds for bringing out the “I wants” in my kid? Um, no, because Lisa and I are The Parents. Unlike Ms. Parham, apparently, we aim to be In Control. We prefer to raise our child to understand the difference between good choices and poor choices — and also that Mom and Dad not only make the rules, but can also remove every single belonging from your room while you’re at school, lock it all up in storage, and allow you to earn it back, if we so choose. (Which, at one point this year, we did.)

    Of course Ms. Parham has an agenda working, and I seriously doubt that the “It’s for the kids!” angle covers her motivations entirely.

    But watching people like her try to litigate their way through life (and teach her children to do the same) causes great pain in me. Ms. Parham’s primary responsibility should be to be a good parent to her children; nowhere in there does the word “easy” come into play. Dealing with whiny kids ain’t easy.

    And, as Ms. Parham so clearly shows us, dealing with whiny parents is often far worse.

    Filed In: In the News, Whatever

    Permalink: Mom Sues McDonalds: Who’s the Child Here?

    1 Comment


     

     

  2. $10 Million Goes Poof

    Posted by Michael • November 27, 2010 @ 9:40 am
    6 Comments

    Here we have a delightful story which, if nothing else, enforces my theory that $14 $10 million just doesn’t go as far as it used to:

    NY Times: Family’s Fall From Affluence Is Swift and Hard

    What’s new here? Probably not much, if you’re familiar with what happens when people who suck with money actually get some. In this particular train wreck, the Martin family came into big money; they spent big money; they trusted what money they didn’t spend to “bankers and brokers;” they ended up broke and miserable.

    I’m not sure how many money rules they broke, but it was a bunch.

    From the article:

    That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million.

    But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.

    Read the article, and tell me if you think this gentleman has learned much of anything from his trip to rich and back.

    And he [Mr. Martin] recites a quotation he holds dear: “The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again.” Still, Mr. Martin is prone to ruminate over the loss of so much money. He is furious at the banks and the bankers, who he thinks gave him bad advice, and he still sounds angry at his brother and others who decided to sell the company and who he says gave him little voice. Some of them got more than $100 million each, he said, while he got $14 million, as did his father and his sister Ann, because they were all minority shareholders.

    Because I don’t get the impression that he has.

    Filed In: Spending, Whatever

    Permalink: $10 Million Goes Poof

    6 Comments


     

     

  3. Open Thanksgiving Day

    Posted by Michael • November 22, 2010 @ 8:31 am
    2 Comments

    Am I the only person left who admires companies which have the backbone and/or courage to STAY CLOSED on major holidays? (And Sundays, too, for that matter?)

    Everywhere I look, retailers, restaurants, and just about every other entity looking to pad its balance sheet are now keeping open store hours on what used to be lights-off-and-doors-locked holidays. A glance through my local Sears store’s Sunday circular shows the bold print of…

    OPEN THANKSGIVING DAY
    (where permitted by law)

    … and it occurs to me this practice really seems to be getting more and more pervasive.

    For a retailer like Sears, I suppose it’s understandable. I feel a bit sorry for the employees, though I imagine they’re getting “holiday pay” or overtime or whatever for dragging themselves out of the house and slogging in to work on Turkey Day. What boggles me is that there are that many consumers who’ll shop on Thanksgiving, given the way we’ve stamped the day after Thanksgiving as, effectively, a Festival of Consumption. When folks are willing to camp out for prime shopping spots nine days ahead of time … well, it’s pathetic.

    What About Sundays?

    In my neck of the woods, there are still several businesses who won’t open up on Sundays, though their profits would almost assuredly rise if they did so. While I’m not the religious sort, I truly admire these guys. By marking Sundays as no-work days, companes like Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby are telling me that yes, there IS something they hold more valuable than additional revenue. I, for one, am wholeheartedly glad to see it.

    If you’re in dire need of a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, but it’s Sunday afternoon … well, tough s*$t. Odds are good they’ll be open Monday. And they’ll still be happy to make you a sammich and waffle fries then.

    Filed In: Whatever

    Permalink: Open Thanksgiving Day

    2 Comments


     

     

  4. It’s Not a Bargain…

    Posted by Michael • November 20, 2010 @ 6:20 am
    2 Comments

    … if you have to camp out on the sidewalk for nine consecutive days to get it.

    WTSP.com: “Black Friday” First Family Story #1

    13 News: “Black Friday” First Family Story #2

    Hmmm. So let me get this straight:

    If you’re homeless, and you set up a tent in front of Best Buy nine days before Black Friday, you get slapped with a complaint of trespassing, and thrown in jail.

    But if you’re a Shopper On a Mission, and you set up a tent in front of Best Buy nine days before Black Friday, you get free iPads, an award, and TV coverage.

    Yeah. In a country as off-course (“We have to spend more to keep from going broke”) as this one, that sounds about right.

    You know, I’m all about getting bargains and deals, too, but the stories above just make me want to scream. I’ve never once participated in Black Friday consumerism, and have no plans to do so, if I can help it. And I damn sure wouldn’t use it as an excuse to “spend more time with family” as the folks above try to do.

    Nine days ahead of time? Seriously?

    Everyone needs goals, I guess.

    Filed In: In the News, Spending

    Permalink: It’s Not a Bargain…

    2 Comments


     

     

  5. Generational Kick-the-Can

    Posted by Michael • November 16, 2010 @ 8:37 am
    2 Comments

    JLP at All Financial Matters put out a few thoughts yesterday regarding the Fiscal Commission’s proposals for reducing the country’s deficit and debt, regaining a sound financial footing, eliminating the road-tar-like aftertaste of Diet Dr. Pepper, ensuring that Bolivian forest fairies are allowed to vote on Dancing With the Stars, and … yeah. Whatever.

    My opinion? I’ll believe spending cuts — and I’m talking meaningful cuts — when I see them.

    Regarding the proposal, JLP pointed out a snippet from its introduction which I too would like to comment on:

    Throughout our history, Americans have always been willing to sacrifice to make our nation stronger over the long haul. That’s the promise of America: to give our children and grandchildren a better life.

    It’s pathetic that a mere three paragraphs in, I’m forced to stop reading and call the proposal’s authors what they are, which is bald-faced liars. Americans as a whole haven’t been about “sacrificing for the future” since movies were still being made in black and white. Certainly there’s been no “sacrificing for the future” in my lifetime.

    No, all we do is play generational kick-the-can. We in the U.S. use our “full faith and credit,” coupled with our dollar’s advantage of being the world’s reserve currency, and we leverage these puppies to the max at every opportunity. Rare has been the expenditure deemed truly out-of-bounds by our elected officials. I contend that most of us below the age of, say, seventy, wouldn’t know true sacrifice if someone poured it in our Cocoa Puffs.

    Are these guys serious? “Sacrifice to give our children and grandchildren a better life?”

    Bullshit. I can pretty much blow off the rest of that 50-page proposal right there.

    If I Were Supreme Dictator For Life…

    Just off the top of my head, here are a folder-full of changes I’d love to see Washington undertake. Which, of course, they won’t. But it’s fun to think of the chaos that’d ensue.

    • Eliminate the mortgage-interest tax deduction. That’s right; I said it. And yes, I’m a homeowner. Doesn’t matter — I want this stupid incentive gone.
    • Eliminate the child tax credit. Yep, I said that, too. When you’re trillions in debt, just putting the shovel down ain’t enough.
    • Social Security / Medicare / Medicaid / Welfare? Start Cutting. All of Them. Blasphemy, I know. Reread what I said about the shovel. Pay now, or pay later.
    • Education / Military? Start Cutting. And Big. You see where I’m going with this, right? You don’t even want to know what I’d do with the Department of Education.
    • Financial Reform. Run a Wall Street firm or TBTF bank that falls on hard times? Damn the bad luck. The concept of “privatize the profits; socialize the losses” just went bye-bye. And I hope you have a good lawyer, because…
    • Corporate Welfare & Bailouts? HA! How ‘Bout Jail Time? This one ought to be fun: I want to see bankers, regulators, and anyone else knowingly party to financial fraud on a sizeable scale doing the Perp Walk. Get a few hundred of these on the nightly news, and I bet the “profit is all that matters” attitudes change pretty quickly.
    • Create Decent Tax Incentives for Non-Retirement, Non-College Saving. Talk about a pipe dream. Encouraging people to save would crash the economy, don’t you know. One positive side effect: “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke’s head might just explode.
    • Federally-Backed Student Loans? Severely Limited, If Not Gone. Guess what happens to college tuition when Uncle Sam’s unlimited pocketbook snaps closed? Hint: It won’t keep rising like clockwork. Another positive side effect: A lot of mediocre professors and administrators will be forced to visit the Real World for more than an hour or two per day.
    • Sam’s Club Will Be Required to Carry Tiramisu Year-Round. Okay, fine. I’d settle for just this one.

    There you go. I figure signing off on those items would pretty well fill up the first two hours of my Supreme Dictator office-ship. Yes, I might bring the economy to a screeching halt before any of us have had our morning coffee. Yes, I would find myself in the crosshairs of a great many lobbying groups and monied interests. And yes, I would almost certainly have people brandishing rusty farm implements in the streets.

    But hey — at least when I talked about “sacrifice,” I wasn’t blowing smoke up your patootie.

    That is all.

    Filed In: In the News

    Permalink: Generational Kick-the-Can

    2 Comments


     

     

  6. Poll: What Matters When Buying a New Car?

    Posted by Michael • November 15, 2010 @ 8:35 am
    1 Comment

    There’s a new poll out from Rasmussen. Apparently, Americans have become more origin-conscious when it comes to buying new vehicles.

    In a similar poll from 2008, roughly 51 percent of Americans said the most important factor in buying a new automobile was getting the best deal. Today, however, that percentage has dropped:

    Two years ago, only 32 percent of respondents placed more importance on “buying American.” So it appears there’s been something of a mindset-change.

    There’s a snag, however. Just what exactly does “buy American” mean? As the article tells us:

    But Americans are divided on what exactly American-made means. Forty-one percent (41%) believe buying a foreign brand that is built in the U.S. is the same as buying American, but 42% do not. Another 17% are not sure.

    Still, a majority (59%) of adults consider the “Big Three” — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — to be the only American car companies. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree, while 12% are undecided.

    For my part, while my employer is a GM-centric auto group, my household has purchased only Hondas and Nissans in our vehicle-buying history. I was never a big GM fan to begin with, but after seeing everything that’s gone down the last several years, I can safely say that I will never purchase a GM or Chrysler product. (I have no qualms with Ford, though, and might actually consider them if I needed, say, a new full-size truck … though that’s extremely unlikely. Actually, I greatly respect Ford for NOT stepping up to the taxpayer trough when their two counterparts limped into Washington with their hands out. After all, that would’ve given Ford all the cover in the world to get in on the taxpayer action.)

    Obviously, my fellow Americans (1) have very short memories, and (2) have no problem purchasing cars and trucks from companies that have proven themselves to be miserable failures, over and over again, and who have been direct and unrepentant beneficiaries of taxpayer bailouts.

    (And oh yeah — they’re brazen liars, too.)

    Filed In: Automobiles

    Permalink: Poll: What Matters When Buying a New Car?

    1 Comment


     

     

  7. Food Stamps: Where Does Your State Rank?

    Posted by Michael • November 8, 2010 @ 8:31 am
    1 Comment

    Last month, I posted about the fact that roughly one in every eight Americans will participate in food stamp programs in the coming year.

    Now the Wall Street Journal presents us with an article, and accompanying chart, regarding each state’s participation in the program:

    WSJ: In U.S., Some 14% Rely on Food Stamps

    Turns out that my state, Oklahoma, shows up at #15 in the ranking of states with the highest percentage of population on food stamps. I can’t say I’m surprised that 16.5 percent of Oklahomans utilize food stamps, as the Sooner State has never been noted for any sort of widespread affluence. (We do likes us some crappy Easter baskets, though, uh huh.)

    Filed In: In the News, Poverty

    Permalink: Food Stamps: Where Does Your State Rank?

    1 Comment


     

     

  8. Happy Voting Day!

    Posted by Michael • November 2, 2010 @ 7:58 am
    No Comments

    Not that you probably need any motivation from me, but GET OUT THERE AND VOTE TODAY!

    (Even if you have to leave some ballot fields blank, as I generally do. Voting for the “lesser of two evils” just doesn’t do it for me any longer. It’s sad, but true, that often, the people who we’d actually WANT and trust to hold public office are the same people who would never, ever do it.)

    Filed In: Whatever

    Permalink: Happy Voting Day!

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  9. Note to ‘My Yahoo’ Subscribers

    Posted by Michael • November 1, 2010 @ 8:20 am
    3 Comments

    Those of you who follow Money Musings via My Yahoo should know that, for whatever reason, Yahoo hasn’t retrieved this blog’s feed in several weeks. (As of this writing, it still shows my latest post to have been on October 19.)

    I don’t know if Yahoo’s feed API is broken, or what. I’m a My Yahoo user myself, and clicking REFRESH under Money Musings’ feed OPTIONS does nothing. I do most of my feed-reading in Google Reader, though, and it’s updating just fine.

    I would kindly request that readers please check your feed-reader URL for Money Musings and, if it doesn’t already do so, please make it point to my current feed URL. I should add that you’ll certainly want to do this if the feed URL you’re following has “feedburner.com” in the domain, as I’m going to nix that feed shortly.

    And users of My Yahoo might wish to do what I did quite a while back — which is to find a better and more stable feed-reading service! (As mentioned above, I’m a Google Reader fan.)

    Filed In: Whatever

    Permalink: Note to ‘My Yahoo’ Subscribers

    3 Comments


     

     

  10. Quicken: Cash Flow Forecast

    Posted by Michael • October 25, 2010 @ 8:40 am
    3 Comments

    Over the years, Intuit has added lots of tools to Quicken — mostly, I would argue, to encourage its users to adapt an annual upgrade cycle of the software. While I adore Quicken for its performance at tracking accounts, spending, and net worth, I find myself using very few of the additional tools that its Deluxe and Premium versions offer. (As of this post, I’m using Quicken 2010 Deluxe.)

    One such tool — brought to my attention by an email a few months back — is Quicken’s Cash Flow Forecast. It’s meant to help with long-range (say, a year out or more) cashflow planning. Quicken’s Help Files explain it like this:

    For long term forecasting use Quicken’s Cash Flow Forecast feature. A cash flow forecast lets you project your cash flow for the future, based on scheduled bills and deposits and estimated amounts. Quicken can forecast your spending patterns for up to two years, and displays your account balances in a graph.

    You can get to the Cash Flow Forecast via the menubar:

    PLANNING → CASH FLOW FORECAST

    When I select that, Quicken displays a graph like this:

    That awfully smooth, upward-sloping line is meant to show me how my bank-account balances will steadily increase over the next year IF my monthly “Income Items” and “Expense Items” meet the parameters I’ve set up. (Displayed figures above have been certified by the Congressional Budget Office. So you know they’re, uh, reliable.)

    Forecasting: It’s a Lot of Work

    The graph is all fine and dandy, I suppose. However, it took me a patience-testing hour or so to get Quicken’s Cash Flow Forecast set up in a way that’d reflect anything close to reality. Initially, Quicken’s “brain” had taken my next year’s worth of Scheduled Transactions, combined it with my average monthly categorized income and expenses, and applied all of that to my household financial cash flow in a manner that I can only describe as MADDENINGLY RANDOM.

    Some “income items” appeared twice. Many “expense items” appeared three and four times. Now, I’m all for conservative planning, but come on. Those initial figures were a disaster, and way out of whack.

    I can’t imagine that any large chunk of Quicken users would be willing to plow through their incomes and expenses, category by category, Scheduled Transaction by Scheduled Transaction, just to get this thing running at a somewhat realistic clip. I did it, but only because I’m a money dork. The rest of you probably have lives.

    Just Start Over?

    The Cash Flow Forecast allows you to create and save different scenarios, which is probably pretty useful IF you have a few hours to kill. I wasn’t even willing to approach this feature, given what it took just to get the thing set up. (When making changes, income and expense items aren’t even listed in alphabetical order, for crying out loud. Who the hell came up with this?)

    I think that, if I were going to rely on the Cash Flow Forecast at all, I would start by scrapping ALL of the estimated items Quicken creates. I’d then simply enter the categories I wanted, by hand, starting with my largest categories (taxes, food, insurance, etc.) first. I’d likely keep the “Known Items,” as Quicken creates these from Scheduled Transactions, which ought to be fairly ironclad. (Ironclad, that is, IF you’re good about setting up all your recurring transactions as “Scheduled Transactions.”)

    Like a lot of Quicken “tool” offerings, there’s probably some value in the Cash Flow Forecast … but if you’re like me, it might take you so long to rebuild the Forecast data that you simply ignore it altogether.

    Sorry, Intuit. I’m opting instead for dumping a few months’ of Quicken report data into Excel, and working from there!

    Filed In: Quicken, Saving, Spending

    Permalink: Quicken: Cash Flow Forecast

    3 Comments