How do your values influence your spending?

March 3rd, 2011

A lot of different things can influence how you spend your money – your account balance, your blood sugar level, the weather. But one of the most important and overlooked factors is your personal set of values. That’s right. Values.

Take this quick quiz and see how you stack up against others (who may have similar values to yours) when it comes to how you spend your money.

Now look at your last bank or credit card statement. What portion of your money goes to experiences? How about material objects? What kind of experiences and objects do you tend to spend the most money on?

Used Mobile Phones More Valuable Than You Might Think

March 2nd, 2011

“More companies are jumping into the business of refurbishing and reselling the used cellphones and other electronic gadgets clogging Americans’ drawers and closets.

Within a few years, the used market could account for a fifth of all cellphone sales in the U.S., says Stephen Manning, chief executive of ReCellular Inc., one of the largest U.S.-based cellphone refurbishers.”

What do you think?

What do you usually do with old cell phones and other electronic items?

Family Investors? More Like Donors.

March 2nd, 2011

“Experts generally advise entrepreneurs to ask for an amount that their loved ones can afford to never get back, and say the recent recession is in some cases proving this point.

‘The reality is most companies do not succeed,’ says William D. Bygrave, a professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College who co-wrote a 2010 study on the expectations and motivations of informal start-up investors, including family, friends and strangers.

Dr. Bygrave’s findings show that about half of such investors anticipate a positive return on their investment, while the other half expect to lose part or all it. ‘The closer the relationship between an entrepreneur and an investor, the lower the expected return,’ his research concludes.”

What do you think?

If you borrowed money from a family member for a business venture, how likely would you be to pay it back? Would you sign a formal agreement or try to keep the loan “casual?”

Makers of SunChips Appeal to Both Environmental Concerns and Delicate Ears

March 2nd, 2011

“Frito-Lay hopes its new SunChips bag will please consumers who complained in droves last year when the company rolled out a “green” bag that could be tossed into the compost bin.

Snackers said the new bag was simply too noisy and detracted from the chip-eating experience. (Translation: In other words, it drowned out the TV and was harder to keep late-night secret chip eating a secret.)”

What do you think?

Would you ever refuse to buy a snack food because the packaging made too much noise?  For that matter, would you take the time to complain to a company if you thought their snack packaging was too crinkly?

“Woooah There, Economy!”

March 2nd, 2011

apartment-buildings-china.jpeg
(photo credit: Jakob Montrasio)

China’s economy was on fire even as the rest of the world melted down into a financial puddle. But growth like that can’t last forever, and economic officials are starting to hose down the beast before it gets out of hand.

  • China’s Premier, Wen Jintao, is about to unveil the nation’s next 5-year economic plan, and it seems like there are some serious changes in store for the people of the People’s Republic.
  • Massive growth in the last 30 years brought heavy pollution, widespread corruption, and greater income inequality than ever before. And most of the growth relied on selling goods overseas, which left the local economy underdeveloped.
  • Premier Wen says that the government’s new economic goals are to avoid inflation and restructure the economy so that it doesn’t rely so much on exports. Policies will also try to address the inequality that resulted from billion-dollar industries springing up overnight.
  • Shifting resources to the local economy may mean slower growth, but it may also result in a lot more jobs, as the new service industry can employ more Chinese than factories can.

Facts & Figures

  • China is changing its annual GDP growth target from 7.5% to 7%
  • Over the past 30 years, the annual GDP growth rate has been around 9%
  • Between 2000 and 2009, employment grew by less than 1%

Best Quote

“We’ll never seek economic growth rate and big size at the price of environment. That would result in unsustainable growth featuring industrial overcapacity and intensive resource consumption.” – Premier Wen

What do you think?

If China devotes less of its economy to manufacturing and exporting cheap goods, do you think prices will rise here in the U.S.?

How do your values influence your spending?

March 2nd, 2011

A lot of different things can influence how you spend your money – your account balance, your blood sugar level, the weather. But one of the most important and overlooked factors is your personal set of values. That’s right. Values.

Take this quick quiz and see how you stack up against others (who may have similar values to yours) when it comes to how you spend your money.

Now look at your last bank or credit card statement. What portion of your money goes to experiences? How about material objects? What kind of experiences and objects do you tend to spend the most money on?

(btw, YourMorals.org isn’t a religious website – it’s a collection of surveys put together by seven social psychologists to explore how morality and political values interact. Once you register, you can take and save your results for any number of surveys.)

What the Unemployment Rate Really Means

March 2nd, 2011

When they say the U.S. unemployment rate is 9%, does that mean that only 9% of all possible American workers are out of a job?

Nope. The official unemployment rate doesn’t count people who have given up looking for a job. It also doesn’t include people considered “not in the labor force,” like students. And it definitely doesn’t tell you much about the millions of people who are working part-time but can’t find full-time work. (They’re called the “underemployed.”)

Contrary to popular belief, the unemployment rate has nothing to do with how many people are applying for or receiving unemployment benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data by actually going out and asking people about their employment status.

Click the chart for Matt Berger’s explanation.

How do you fit into this chart?

What the Unemployment Rate Really Means

March 2nd, 2011

When they say the U.S. unemployment rate is 9%, does that mean that only 9% of all possible American workers are out of a job?

Nope. The official unemployment rate doesn’t count people who have given up looking for a job. It also doesn’t include people considered “not in the labor force,” like students. And it definitely doesn’t tell you much about the millions of people who are working part-time but can’t find full-time work. (They’re called the “underemployed.”)

Contrary to popular belief, the unemployment rate has nothing to do with how many people are applying for or receiving unemployment benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data by actually going out and asking people about their employment status.

Click the chart for Matt Berger’s explanation.

How do you fit into this chart?

Screening is…

March 1st, 2011

Screening is the way you evaluate potential investments based on certain criteria.  While the criteria is different for different objectives (for example, respect for human rights when looking for socially responsible companies or low price-earning ratios for value stocks), the process of making the list smaller based on specific criteria is the same.

Screening is an integral part of socially-responsible investing (SRI). It refers to the way you evaluate potential investments based on certain social, environmental, and good corporate governance criteria. When you screen companies for social responsibility, you’re checking to make sure that they have respectable employee relations, strong records of community involvement, excellent environmental impact policies and practices, respect for human rights around the world, and safe and useful products.

Get Spent!

March 1st, 2011

Ever wonder how people end up homeless or hungry? It’s easier than you may think.

Think it could never happen to you? Play SPENT to get a sense of what life is like for the 55% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck.

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