Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because his boss thought he lacked creativity.

R.H. Macy opened — and closed — four businesses over a 12-year period before finding success with his Manhattan department store.

And Colonel Sanders was turned down 1009 times over a two-year period before he finally found somebody who was willing to invest in his famous fried chicken.

The bottom line: Success isn’t measured by how often we fail — it’s measured by how many times we try.

Photo Credit: Official US Navy Imagery

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• Another Happy Day In Blogville…

Of course, I offered up the obligatory sympathy. “Bummer,” I said. “What did he write you up for?”

“Oh, I didn’t get a ticket,” she said matter-of-factly. “He clocked me doing 57 in a 45 zone, but he let me off with a warning.”

I couldn’t believe it. “He let you off with just a warning?”

“I know, huh?” she said, practically giddy at reliving the moment.

Unbelievable. I’ve been pulled over for a moving violation four times in my life, twice for speeding and twice for making an illegal left turn. I’ve also been stopped for a fix-it ticket or two — but I’ve never had the good fortune to have been let off the hook. Not even once.

The last time I was stopped I even presented the cop with an old Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free” card that I used to carry in my wallet for laughs. He wasn’t impressed.

Anyway, being a glutton for punishment, I decided to press the issue. “So, Jenna, how many times have you gotten away with a warning?”

“Three.”

I didn’t know what to say. Then again, I really didn’t have time to say anything because, before I could begin gnashing my teeth, Jenna corrected herself.

“No, wait! Four!”

I know.

It turns out Jenna’s primary tactic for avoiding a ticket is crying. By her own admission, crying doesn’t always work. But the fact that she was able to weasel her way out of three — no, wait; four! — tickets surely saved her hundreds of dollars in fines. Not to mention increases in her auto insurance premiums — especially if she drives an expensive luxury car she can’t afford.

According to Insurance.com, insurance premium increases depend on the type of infraction you are written-up for. Which ones are responsible, on average, for raising your insurance rates the highest? Here are the top 10, according to Insurance.com:

1. Reckless driving (22 percent rate increase, on average)
2. DUI first offense (19 percent)
3. Driving without a license or permit (18 percent)
4. Careless driving (16 percent)
5. Speeding 30 mph over the limit (15 percent)
6. Failure to stop (15 percent)
7. Improper turn (14 percent)
8. Improper passing (14 percent)
9. Following too close/tailgating (13 percent)
10. Speeding 15 to 29 mph over limit (12 percent)

For those who are interested, Insurance.com also has an interactive “Uh-Oh!” calculator to help you anticipate potential insurance rate increases the next time you end up getting pulled over by the highway patrol.

Well, assuming you aren’t able to cry yourself out of the ticket.

Photo Credit: Dave Hosford

Related Articles:

• 100 Words On: How to Get an Instant Raise (without Kissing Up)
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• What Goes Around Comes Around: Rising Interest Rates Are Inevitable
• When Pigs Fly: How I Fought My Parking Ticket and Beat City Hall
• Professional Indemnity Insurance Defined

Of course, the pressure to stay on top is huge, and coming up with innovative ideas that people will embrace isn’t easy, as illustrated by the countless number of market miscalculations and abject product failures developed by some of the biggest and most respected brands in the world.

How many of these misguided products — most with mercifully short shelf-lives — do you remember?

Gerber Singles

Launch Date: 1974
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Super-sized baby food portions for adults.

The Lesson Learned: I can almost forgive the person who came up with this idea. I said “almost.” After all, who doesn’t sneak a taste or six of baby-jar applesauce, custard, or mashed bananas when they spoon-feed their kids? I know I did. Even so, that doesn’t mean us grown-ups want to eat adult-sized portions of pureed Mediterranean Vegetables or pulverized beef Burgundy.

Jimmy Dean Chocolate Chip Pancake-Wrapped Sausage on a Stick

Launch Date: 2006
The Not-So-Bright Idea: For those who like their breakfast on the run, microwaveable chocolate chip pancakes and sausage. On a stick.

The Lesson Learned: Apparently, somebody in the Jimmy Dean marketing department read one too many Popular Mechanics articles. This embarrassing failure just goes to show that even though we have the technology to marry chocolate chip pancakes with sausage and put it on a stick, it doesn’t mean the resulting product will sell like, well, if you’ll pardon the expression … hotcakes.

Heinz Easy-Squirt Ketchup

Launch Date: 2000
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Colored ketchup for kids.

The Lesson Learned: Heinz decided to cater to kids who love to play with food by offering their popular ketchup brand in multiple hues including green, purple, and blue. The gambit was wildly successful the first couple years. At the end of the day, however, most people still like to see red ketchup on their hot dogs, so the fad eventually died out. The last bottles of off-color ketchup were pulled from store shelves in 2006.

Ore-Ida Funky Fries

Launch Date: 2002
The Not-So-Bright Idea: French fries for kids with wacky flavors and colors.

The Lesson Learned: Hoping to capitalize on the initial colored-ketchup craze, Ore-Ida invented French fries with a twist: Now kids could really gross out their parents by dipping cinnamon-, chocolate- and sour cream-flavored or blue-colored spuds into their purple ketchup! Unfortunately for Ore-Ida, it’s Mom and Dad who do the grocery shopping — and they tend to prefer their fries golden brown and seasoned with salt. So it’s no wonder that Funky Fries were discontinued after only one year.

Frito Lay’s WOW Potato Chips

Launch Date: 1998
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Offer low-fat low-calorie potato chips to health-conscious consumers.

The Lesson Learned: The idea of a healthy fat-free potato chips seemed like a no-brainer at the time. In fact, Frito-Lay’s Wow chips ended 1998 as the year’s top-selling new product in the US. However, reports quickly spread of people getting stomach cramps and diarrhea from the olestra-laden chips — so many that the FDA eventually required a warning label on every bag of Wow chips. Talk about a sales killer.

New Coke

Launch Date: 1985
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Increase sales by changing the famous Coca-Cola formula to a sweeter version of the original.

The Lesson Learned: After nearly 100 years of market domination, Coca-Cola executives decided to switch over to a new formula after blind cola taste tests conducted in the 70s and 80s suggested that more people preferred the taste of Pepsi to Coke. Bad move. The resulting switchover to the new formula was an immediate flop — despite Coca-Cola’s own research that showed New Coke was preferred over Pepsi and classic Coke. Within three months, Coke had announced the return of Coke Classic.

Pepsi A.M.

Launch Date: 1989
The Not-So-Bright Idea: A super-caffeinated breakfast cola.

The Lesson Learned: Believe it or not, Coke doesn’t have a monopoly on dumb cola ideas. Why would anyone bother drinking a cup of coffee, Pepsi executives asked, if they could start their day with a nice, refreshing can of carbonated cola that has 25 percent more caffeine? Well, because carbonated colas don’t go well with oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, eggs or cereal. That’s why.

Colgate Kitchen Entrees

Launch Date: 1982
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Capitalize on the popular Colgate brand to sell a new line of frozen dinners.

The Lesson Learned: When they work, brand extensions can be highly successful. For example, Arm & Hammer was able to successfully leverage its baking soda brand into oral and laundry care products. Sometimes, though, brand extension attempts can go horribly wrong — like Colgate’s ill-advised brief foray into frozen food. I know. After all, who wants to associate spearmint toothpaste with their Swedish meatballs?

Coors Rocky Mountain Bottled Spring Water

Launch Date: 1990
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Provide Coors with an opening into the bottled water market by offering Rocky Mountain spring water.

The Lesson Learned: Another example of brand extension gone awry was when Coors tried to cash in on the bottled water boom. On first blush, the decision to sell water from refreshing Rocky Mountain springs seemed like a logical plan with the potential for big profits, but it was not to be. Legend has it that the Coors label on the bottle only managed to confuse the public. Whatever the reason, sales languished and Coors’ bottled water experiment ended quickly.

Maxwell House Ready-to-Drink Coffee

Launch Date: 1990
The Not-So-Bright Idea: Create a convenient new way for consumers to enjoy piping hot coffee.

The Lesson Learned: Maxwell House executives assumed that coffee drinkers would find it easier to pour this refrigerated ready-brewed coffee into a mug and then heat it up in a microwave, than to pour an already piping-hot cup of joe direct from the coffeemaker. Consumers begged to differ and refused to buy their product. Ironically, this ready-brewed java may have been a wild success if only Maxwell House had marketed it specifically for people who enjoy their coffee cold, but hate having it diluted by melting ice.

It all seems so obvious in retrospect, doesn’t it?Related Articles:

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• Taste-Test Experiment: Bottled Waters vs. Filtered Tap
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• My Ketchup Taste-Test: Upset! Guess Which Brand Topped Heinz.
• 100 Words On: Why It’s Not Poor Etiquette to Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…

Hey, not only is Mother’s Day this weekend, it’s my son’s 15th birthday too, so we’re going to get right to it. I have some celebrating to do!

Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week

Get Rich Slowly- How to Do a Wallet Audit. Donna Freedman got accosted on her way to last year’s Financial Blogger Conference by three punks who figured mugging a tired-looking middle-aged woman would be a good idea. And before I get a verbal mugging of my own from all you Donna Freedman fans, I just want to say those are her words, not mine. (For the record, I always thought she was a fresh-faced twentysomething — just like me.)

Consumerism Commentary - Tavis Smiley: Poverty is a Threat to Democracy. Since Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty in 1967, we have tossed trillions of taxpayer dollars down a rabbit hole trying to eliminate it, but to no avail. Even so, activists Tavis Smiley and Cornel West believe that even more government intervention money is needed. They also claim that one out of every two Americans live in poverty — even though 98.7 percent of all households own at least one television, and more than three in four Americans own a cell phone. I wonder if I can get my hands on whatever they’ve been smokin’.

One Money Design – Do Higher Status Occupations and Incomes Lead to More Stress? Then again, maybe poverty ain’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Surveys show that the positive aspects of success tends to diminish the higher one climbs in status and income. At least I now have a viable excuse for why my life has been an abject failure after all my (twenty-some) years.

Fiscal Fizzle - Getting Frequent Car Insurance Quotes. Says Wojo: Even with a perfect driving record, this 22-year-old male had a fun time finding an insurer that was willing to give coverage for anything less than an arm and a leg. You expect us to believe that, Wojo? Not the arm and leg comment; the other part about your perfect record behind the wheel. The odds are somebody will stumble upon Bigfoot before they find a 22-year-old male driver without a ticket.

Afford Anything – Are You Letting Invisible Scripts Rule Your Life? In this post, Paula rails against those who insist on making us conform to their world views. Or as Paula puts it, those who “crawl out of the woodwork with opinions about how you should spend your money and manage your career.” I wonder who she could be talking about. Nah. Couldn’t be.

Could it?

Nah.

The Way-Back Machine: Past Posts Of Mine You May Have Missed

From April 2011:

The Top 40 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score – It’s no secret that people with higher credit scores get better loan rates. Here’s how you can maximize your score.

Podcast News

My latest weekly roundtable appearance on Average Joe’s weekly financial podcast, The Worst of the Free Financial Advisor, can be heard on Episode 7: Top 5 Annuity Traits.

Credits and Debits

Debit: Uh oh. You probably don’t want to look at your 401(k) balance right now; the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 9.3 percent this week. That’s its worst 5-day performance in five months.

Debit: Just in time for Mother’s Day: The number of women not in the US labor force hit an all-time high after 324,000 women officially dropped out in March and April; at 42.4 percent, it’s the highest non-participation rate for American women since 1993.

Debit: Meanwhile, Greek Finance Minister, Evangelos Venizelos announced he finally found common ground in talks with party leaders from the nearly bankrupt country’s left and right: they all agree Greece is officially screwed! Or something like that.

Debit: By the way, don’t think the bankers haven’t already come to that conclusion; they’ve actually been preparing for Greece’s exit from the euro and a return to the drachma for awhile now.

Debit: Speaking of nearly-bankrupt entities, the US Postal Service lost another $3.2 billion last quarter, spurred by large increases in retiree benefit costs (surprise!) and transportation expenses. Guess who’s going to be picking up the tab.

Credit: Is it too much to ask the post office to run a surplus? You know, like the US government, which this April posted its first monthly budget surplus in 40 months. Whaaaaat?

Debit: Hey, now; don’t get too excited. Thanks to tax collections, the government typically runs a surplus in April. Those federal government deficits are expected to return again, as big as ever, in May.

Credit: The US is lucky that interest rates are as low as they are, or the cost to service the National Debt would be crippling. In fact, 30-year mortgage rates fell to 3.84 percent this week, which is the lowest level ever.

Debit: Of course, when the economy finally does recover, interest rates — and our debt service costs — will begin rising. Only then will the reality of our debt woes finally become apparent to the oblivious and those who are in denial.

Credit: The silver lining to higher debt service costs is that it will finally force the US to massively reduce the size of the federal government. Well, that is, assuming we have a majority of politicians in office who are committed to smaller government.

Debit: Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, renounced his US citizenship ahead of the social networking site’s public stock offering that is expected to earn him over $3 billion — presumably to reduce his tax liability.

Debit: Saverin is proof excessive taxation of the wealthy hurts everybody but the rich. It also illustrates why high tax rates, ironically, result in lower government revenues; one of the most tax-oppressive states of all, bankrupt California, can attest to that.

Debit: California’s onerous tax climate is a big reason why it was just ranked as the worst place to do business in America for the eighth year in a row. It’s no wonder my beloved native state is in such dire straits now.

Debit: Even so, California’s governor, Jerry Brown — backed by the teachers’ union, of course — wants to raise taxes yet again. I know. But it’s for the teachers … I mean children.

Credit: Finally, a Chicago man was arrested after he allegedly stole an excavator and then used it to smash into a dollar-store and steal a couple gift cards and some deodorant. Considering how much Bobcat drivers make, this guy really missed his calling.

By the Numbers

Here’s a few facts on Facebook and it’s upcoming initial public stock offering (IPO), scheduled for May 18:

2004 Year Facebook was launched.

2 Rank in terms of the world’s most-visited websites. (Google is number 1.)

337 million Expected number of initial shares to be sold at prices between $28 and $35 each.

$28 billion Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s expected net worth after Facebook goes public.

4 Zuckerberg’s soon-to-be rank among America’s richest people (assuming a net worth of $28 billion).

7.5 million According to Consumer Reports, the number of children under 13 with Facebook accounts. (That violates the site’s terms of service.)

900 million Number of current Facebook users. (But “only” 500 million people use Facebook daily.)

2.2 billion Number of people already connected to the Internet. (So, realistically, most of Facebook’s growth is probably already behind it.)

Sources: Reuters; Alexa; the Daily Beast; Wikipedia

The Question of the Week

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Other Useless News

Here are the top — and bottom — 5 states in terms of the average number of pages viewed per visit here at Len Penzo dot Com over the past 30 days:

1. Alaska (2.47 pages/visit)
2. Utah (2.36)
3. Deleware (2.35)
4. Iowa (2.18)
5. Kansas (2.12)

46. Nebraska (1.56)
47. Hawaii (1.59)
48. Massachusetts (1.53)
49. New Hampshire (1.49)
50. Mississippi (1.44)

Whether you happen to enjoy what you’re reading (like my frozen friends in Alaska) — or not (ahem, Mississippi, y’all) — please don’t forget to:

1. Click on that “Like” button in the sidebar to your right and become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook!

2. Make sure you follow me on Twitter!

And last, but not least…

3. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too! Thank you.

Letters, I Get Letters

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment – assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not!

Emma passed along something she wanted me to share with all of you:

I was doing some research on people’s opinions of Ticketmaster the other day and found a really great website. I thought your readers might find it interesting …

Let’s see … 93 percent of the reviewers rated Ticketmaster one out of five stars; the other 7 percent gave them two. It’s always interesting when Ticketmaster is overachieving.

I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.Related Articles:

• Black Coffee: Gas, Bad Breath & Frugal Tips for a Romantic Valentine’s Day
• Tip Inflation: We’ve Got Nobody to Blame But Ourselves
• Black Coffee: Why I Avoid Weddings in New York (and Lada Grantas)
• Don’t Feel Guilty Tipping Your Server 15%
• Black Coffee: Yes, I’m Still Here. No, I Wasn’t Ignoring You. (Now Let’s Eat.)

The bottom line: Kids have numerous friends, but only one set of parents. You owe it to them to play the right part.

Photo Credit: E. Yoshio

Related Articles:

• 100 Words On: Why It’s Not Poor Etiquette to Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog
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• Teach Your Kids How to Be Personal Finance Losers! (In 6 Easy Steps.)
• 100 Words On: Why It Doesn’t Always Pay to Do It Yourself
• 100 Words On: Why You Should Never Ever Be Afraid of Failure

Some kids are hooked on Cliffs Notes like a bad drug while others use them in a purely “recreational” fashion. In fact, I’ll bet well over half of you reading this have used them at some time or another.

Don’t deny it; I know you did.

As for me, I never experimented with Cliffs Notes in high school.

Okay. Maybe I experimented a few times with them — but only as a study guide after reading the books in their entirety.

I know. I wouldn’t believe me either.

Anyway, for those of you who want a quick and easy read on the basics of good personal finance, I’ve put together a series of quotes and general wisdom regarding money and personal finance that are the official Len Penzo dot Com version of Cliffs Notes.

In fact, you can call this my A-B-Cs of good personal finance.

After reading these little nuggets of financial wisdom you won’t be an expert on the subject but, if you take them to heart, you’ll definitely have enough background material to at least get a passing grade. So if you’re ready, here we go:

Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen pounds; result, happiness. Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty-one pounds; result, misery. –- Charles Dickens in his book David Copperfield*

Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying. That’s not just a catchy slogan. It’s the very essence of successful investing. –-J.P. Getty

Content makes poor men rich. Discontent makes rich men poor. — Benjamin Franklin

Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are. — James W. Frick

Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. — Norman Vincent Peale

For a happy marriage, wise is the husband who understands that what’s hers is hers and what’s yours is hers. — Len Penzo

Good habits result from resisting temptation. — an ancient proverb

He is richest who is content with least. — Socrates

If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. — J.P. Getty

Just remember: Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure. — Errol Flynn

Keep an emergency fund of at least three month’s living expenses. — common financial wisdom

Lend your money and lose your friend.– English proverb

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. — Benjamin Franklin

Never spend your money before you have it. -– Thomas Jefferson

October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. — Mark Twain

Plenty of people despise money, but few know how to give it away. — Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Quit using credit cards for making any purchases unless you intend to pay off the balance in full at the end of every month. — common financial wisdom

Rich people plan for four generations. Poor people plan for Saturday night. — Gloria Steinem

Solvency is entirely a matter of temperament and not of income. — Logan Pearsall Smith

The art of living easily as to money is to pitch your scale of living one degree below your means. –- Sir Henry Taylor

Understand that there is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means. — Calvin Coolidge

Volatility in your retirement portfolio can be minimized via diversification. — common financial wisdom

Wants may be easily satisfied either by producing much or desiring little. -– Marshall Sahlins

Xerox stock price on April 17 of selected years (adjusted to account for any splits and/or dividends): 1970 – $14.15; 1999 – $55.13; 2009 – $5.92. The moral of this story is that even buy-and-hold investors need to know when it’s time to sell. — Len Penzo

You’ll be much better off financially if you strive to be anonymously rich rather than deceptively poor. — Len Penzo

Zillow should never be considered an accurate gauge of your home’s value. — Len Penzo

By the way, did you notice the predominant theme among the majority of those quotes? Here’s a hint: It’s the first commandment of my Ten Commandments of Personal Finance.

So there you have it! My version of Personal Finance for Dummies, all wrapped up into a neat little Cliff’s Notes version that I hope you enjoyed. What are some of your favorite words of wisdom or quotes about money?

In the mean time, continue studying these notes — I guarantee that they’re the quickest path to success in Personal Finance 101.

Now go get your A.

____

* From what I learned after reading Cliffs Notes

(This is an updated version of an article originally written on April 19, 2009.)Related Articles:

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According to the most recent US Census Bureau report, there are approximately 5.1 million stay-at-home moms in America; sadly, that equates to little more than one of every five married-couple family groups. I’m not too surprised.

The trouble is, being a stay-at-home mom isn’t for everyone. After all, not only is it one of the most difficult jobs in the world, but it doesn’t come with a paycheck either.

According to a Salary.com study, if the average stay-at-home mom did get paid, her annual compensation in 2012 would be $112,962.

By the way, a similar study by Salary.com in 2011 found that stay-at-home dads put in roughly half the time their female counterparts do. As a result, their compensation — assuming they actually got a paycheck — would only be $60,128 annually. Take that, fellas.

But I digress.

My mom was a stay-at-home parent and I still marvel at all the things she used to do. Mom did it all: cooking, cleaning, shopping, paying bills, yard work, running errands and shuttling me and my sister all over town — even when she wasn’t feeling well.

Mom also was responsible for a lot of our home maintenance too. For example, when the walls needed a fresh coat of paint, she was on it. I even remember one year she spent the entire summer painstakingly stripping and restaining all the woodwork in our house (and there was a lot it).

As a child growing up, I can’t tell you how comforting it was for me knowing that my mom was going to be home when I finished my day at school. It was an even bigger treat on the days I’d come home to find fresh-baked cookies or pie on the counter. After all these years, those memories are still fresh in my mind and, let me tell you, they are truly special.

Needless to say, after debating the pros and cons of one income versus two, the Honeybee and I decided to go the stay-at-home mom route about 14 years ago. Yes, we’ve since forfeited well over a quarter-million dollars in lost salary over that time — but it’s a decision neither of us regret. Not for one minute.

If you’re thinking about being a stay-at-home mom, here are a few financial tips and considerations you’ll need to keep in mind:

Determine your expenses. Ironically, for some families, the benefits of having an extra paycheck are often almost completely offset by additional taxes, childcare and other work-related expenses. Even so, before making the jump from two incomes to one, you’ll first need to evaluate whether you can live within the confines of a reduced income. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to determine all of your non-discretionary expenses; things like your mortgage, utilities, insurance, groceries, and retirement contributions. Be sure to set aside money to handle unexpected expenses like car repairs or pop-up medical issues. Once you’ve done that, you’ll know how much you have left for the discretionary spending like vacations and entertainment.

Don’t forget to subtract your work-related expenses. Remember, by staying home, you will end up saving money by eliminating work-related costs like childcare, commuting expenses, clothing, and lunches. And because you’ll have the time to cook more meals at home, the odds are you’ll be eating out less too for even more savings.

Consider your alternatives. If you’ve cut your expenses to the bone and still can’t seem to make the bottom line work, don’t despair. If you are truly committed to having a stay-at-home parent there are alternatives to making it work even while both parents are still working. For example, perhaps one parent can take advantage of 4-day/10-hour shifts or work only part-time.

Don’t stop networking. Because job loss is always a concern in a one-income family, it’s important that stay-at-home moms — and dads — continue networking after leaving their old jobs. Stay in touch with your old coworkers and business partners and, if you haven’t already done so, create a profile on a web-based networking site like LinkedIn.

Being a stay-at-home mom can be extremely rewarding, but sometimes it’s just not possible. However, if you are fortunate enough to be in a position to make it work, I urge you to give it a shot.

I promise that it’s one of the greatest gifts you can ever give your kids.

Photo Credit: Dustin and Jennifer Stacey

Related Articles:

• Are Two Household Incomes Really Better Than One?
• 10 Thankless Low-Paying Jobs That People Often Accept Anyway
• My 2008 State of the Household Financial Report (Part 2)
• Immunize Yourself from the Layoff Bug
• How Misplaced Financial Priorities Lead to Lame Excuses

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…

Happy Cinco de Mayo! The holiday, by the way, is practically ignored in Mexico. (If they only knew what they were missing.)

Anyway, after I’m done here I plan on getting this party started with a celebratory taco and una cerveza Mexicana fría o dos today. Who’s with me?!

Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week

Don’t Quit Your Day Job – The Efficient Market Hypothesis Is Flawed. This hypothesis essentially states that in an efficient market, it’s impossible to buy any stock at wildly inflated or discounted prices because everyone has access to the same information. Riiiiight. Of course, that reminds me of a related joke about the economist and his buddy who were walking down the street one day. The buddy spied a $100 bill laying in the gutter, but when he reached down to pick up the hundy the economist stopped him. “Don’t waste your time!” the economist said. “If it was real money someone would have already picked it up.”

My Journey to Millions - Why I’m Not Sure I Believe in the Efficient Market Hypothesis.  Coincidentally, Evan only began to question the validity of the same hypothesis after Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ stock price lost almost 50 percent of its value on Thursday. Apparently he never heard the joke about the $100 bill in any of his Economics classes.

Everyday Tips and Thoughts – When Something Is a Great Deal, There Is Usually a Reason. Forget the Efficient Market Hypothesis. Kris has her own theory when it comes to buying and selling: You can’t expect to get a deal on something and then then be frustrated when it is not perfect. Uh huh. I may be going out on a limb here, but something tells me Kris’ investing club dumped their shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters months ago.

Sweating the Big Stuff - How Much Did I Save Living at My In-Laws? Nope; that’s not a typo. I know. (By the way, I made sure to block this article’s Internet link on both my kids’ computers.)

20 Something Finance – Income and Happiness Studies: How Much Is Enough? If you’re the type that doesn’t mind living with your in-laws, I suppose it’s not very much at all!

The Way-Back Machine: Past Posts Of Mine You May Have Missed

From March 2009:

Evaluate Your Options When Selling Gold Jewelry – If you’re looking to sell some of your unwanted gold jewelry for cash, keep in mind there is more than one option out there to consider. In this post I evaluate the pros and cons of five of the most common ones.

Credits and Debits – Cinco de Mayo Edition!

Credit: On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to its highest level since December 2007. ¡Ole!

Credit: Meanwhile, on Friday the government announced that the US unemployment rate fell a tenth of a point to 8.1 percent. ¡Ole, ole!

Debit: Even so, the stock market was in full retreat by the time the markets closed at the end of the week. ¿Quéééééééé?

Credit: Economics 101: the unemployment rate can be reduced by increasing the number of jobs or decreasing the number of people in the labor force. ¡Sí, es verdad!

Debit: Unfortunately, the unemployment rate continues to fall because the number of people considered by the government to have stopped looking for work increased yet again. In fact, the labor participation rate hasn’t been this low since 1981. ¡No trabajo, hombre!

Credit: The good news is if every one of the 29.7 million folks currently out of work “officially” quit looking for a job, our unemployment rate will fall to zero. No estoy diciendo. Sólo estoy diciendo.

Debit: For what it’s worth, if the labor force participation rate simply remained stable since the “recovery” officially started in June 2009, the “official” unemployment rate wouldn’t be 8.1 percent — it would be 11 percent.

Debit: Regardless, the U6 rate, which includes the unemployed and underemployed, is currently at 14.5 percent. Que no es bueno.

Debit: Then again, there are others who insist that real unemployment is somewhere north of 22 percent. Que no es bueno, también.

Debit: The dismal jobs picture won’t be helped anytime soon by the US manufacturing sector, which saw factory orders last month post their biggest decline in three years.

Debit: With all this bad news, it’s really no wonder Yale economics professor Robert Shiller — the man who famously predicted the dot-com and housing bubbles — thinks we’re in the middle of a “Late Great Depression.” Que es muy mala.

Credit: Of course, even I predicted the last housing bubble and the resulting stock market collapse that followed, which is why I pulled out of the stock market 10 months before it collapsed in 2008. Maybe I should get a job at Yale. Or not.

Debit: By the way, Shiller is also the co-creator of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. He also thinks deficiencies in the US housing market are so extensive that it may take another generation before it finally rebounds.

Debit: If you think Professor Shiller has a bad attitude, think again. He seems rather optimistic if you consider that one in seven people now believe the world will end during their lifetime. I know, amigo.

Credit: Then again, maybe those doomsayers are on to something: an exploding meteor showered bits of fire and brimstone over California last week. ¡Ay caramba!

Credit: It ain’t all bad though. The day after it happened, one woman out for a walk in her neighborhood accidentally stumbled upon a small piece of the resulting space rock debris. Its approximate value: $20,000. ¡Que es mucho dinero!

The Question of the Week

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

By the Numbers

A few financial facts for those of you considering a career as a meteorite hunter:

$1000 Price per gram for the rarest lunar and Martian meteorites.

$52.79 The closing price per gram for gold on Friday, May 4.

$0.50 The price of the most common iron meteorites.

$1 Typical price per pound of meteoritic material before museums and universities began widely collecting them.

0.2 The weight (in grams) of a one-carat diamond.

$25,000 The price per gram of a top-quality grade-one diamond.

Source: Geology.com

Other Useless News

Hey! If you happen to enjoy what you’re reading — or not — please don’t forget to:

1. Click on that “Like” button in the sidebar to your right and become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook!

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And last, but not least…

3. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too! Thank you.

Top 25 Referrers for April

It’s the first weekend of the month, which means it’s time once again to thank the top 25 referring websites to Len Penzo dot Com.

1. MSN: Smart Spending
2. The Simple Dollar
3. Kiplinger
4. Money Talks News
5. Credit Karma
6. Budgets Are Sexy
7. Afford Anything
8. Green Panda Tree House
9. Monevator
10. (tie) Fabulously Broke in the City
10. (tie) Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
12. Wisebread
13. Time Magazine: Moneyland
14. Wealth Pilgrim
15. Money Help for Christians
16. Lazy Man and Money
17. Sweating the Big Stuff
18. (tie) The Millionaire Nurse Blog
18. (tie) The Free Financial Advisor
20. So Over Debt
21. PT Money
22. Yes I Am Cheap
23. JoeTaxpayer
24. Money Funk
25. First Gen American

Thank you to everyone who refers their readers to this little ol’ blog! It’s much appreciated.

Letters, I Get Letters

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment – assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not!

Fligthkb wrote in to complain about how Google wasted his time by leading him to my site — and also brag about his home accoutrements:

Maybe from your point of view an Infiniti FX50 is a dream car. Well, now i [sic] am 19, and my sofa set is worth more than that …

If only I had my priorities in order at 19 like you do. Trust me; a good quality sofa will come in real handy after you’ve been married a few years.

Estoy Len Penzo y yo apruebo este mensaje. ¡Ole!

Photo Credit: Oakley Originals

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The bottom line: Whenever you’re forced to use an ATM, whip out a debit card instead — your bank account will thank you.

Photo Credit: Frank Hebbert

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Aunt Doris' wedding photo. (c. 1946)

When I was in my early teens, Mum and I moved from Kensington to Notting Hill in London. (Yes, the same Notting Hill as the Julia Roberts movie.) Mum had bought a small sweet shop in a residential area; aside from a nearby corner pub, there were few other businesses in the area.

It turns out our new neighborhood also came with its very own local bully. Everyone moved out of his way quickly and the shop owners dreaded seeing him. He’d poke his head in their doorway, throw eggs or garbage, yell a few obscenities, and then run.

His name was Billy ‘Obbs and he was maybe ten-years-old.

There was no use complaining to his parents – they’d just as soon spit in your eye than talk to you. Even the local police were wary of him. In those days they patrolled the streets on bicycles. Billy would suddenly appear, yell a few curse words at them, and then hurl sticks at the wheels. Well, by the time the bobby had recovered, Billy was long gone.

Billy would often stow away on delivery vans, drop himself off in a different neighborhood and then pretend to be a lost child so he could get ice cream and candy until the police were notified and took him back home.

One day my mum (a little Irish lady) said, “I’ve had it with Billy ‘Obbs!”

Knowing he was around she hid in her shop, behind the door. When he poked his head in she grabbed him by the collar and said, “Billy, if you treat me right, I’ll treat you right. But if you pull a trick I’ll come after you and knock the crap out of you!” (There was no such thing as political correctness in those days.)

Well, Billy knew he had met his match. From then on he treated my mum with respect – even running a few errands and bringing back the change!

He still bullied the rest of the neighborhood though.

Eventually, after setting a few fires, Billy was finally arrested and sent to a borstal – a correctional facility for wayward boys – and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Not for long though. That’s because we were soon faced with a far more evil bully: Adolf Hitler. (My daughter-in-law once told me it was a pity my mum didn’t meet Hitler!)

Anyway, a few years later when I was living in the US, Mum wrote to tell me that Billy ‘Obbs came by to visit her and that he had turned into a nice young man!

Today, when I watch The Simpsons on television and see Bart I think of Billy Hobbs.

When it came to raising kids, my mum would always say, “You don’t have to be cruel, you just have to be firm.”

She also used to say, “Never break a promise, whether it’s a slap or a gift.”

Actually, I was a little scared of my mum!

Love you all,

Aunt DorisRelated Articles:

• A Few Thoughts from Aunt Doris: The Gift of Laughter
• A Few Thoughts from Aunt Doris: Cowboys and Indians
• A Few Thoughts from Aunt Doris: The Same … But Different
• A Few Thoughts from Aunt Doris: How to Make Ends Meet
• A Few Thoughts from Aunt Doris: How to Make the Perfect Cup of Tea