It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe …
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.
I’m on vacation — which is why I’ve got another espresso edition of Black Coffee for you this week. I know. But I’ll be back with a mega cup of java for you next week. Promise.
With that in mind, let’s get right to it, shall we? I think I see an empty hammock waiting for me.
Credits and Debits
Debit: In case you were thinking about buying an ad for next year’s Super Bowl, you’ll be interested to know that a 30-second spot is now fetching a record $5 million. I think I’m going to pass.
Credit: On second thought, if the price doesn’t climb too much higher, I’ll probably take the plunge and buy me a Super Bowl ad in 2017. No, really. Er, that is, assuming I can muster a billion new readers before then.
Debit: This past Friday was the 2425th consecutive day that the Fed has kept its key interest rate at zero. Unfortunately, that has only managed to benefit Wall Street at the expense of savers and those with fixed incomes on Main Street.
Debit: How confident are you regarding the state of your personal finances? I’m only asking because Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort survey is now sitting at a 10-month low — and it’s falling at the fastest rate in three years. Uh oh.
Credit: You can be sure of this: There are enough people feeling good enough about their personal finances to ensure that a 128-day around-the-world cruise being offered for $100,000 per couple is nearly sold out — after just one day.
Credit: I’m also pretty sure the bottom-rung employees at Gravity Payments are feeling financially flush after the CEO, Dan Price, slashed his million-dollar pay package while simultaneously raising the minimum pay there for everyone else to $70,000 annually — regardless of the position.
Credit: Then again, you’d think a CEO would have foreseen the inevitable backlash and unintended business consequences of hiking his company’s pay floor on purely emotional grounds — but not Mr. Price. It turns out the road to hell is paved with good intentions in the business world too.
Debit: Meanwhile, in the People’s Paradise of Venezuela, supermarkets are being increasingly plagued by looting and other violence, sparked by long lines and endless shortages of the most basic necessities. This is what happens when socialist governments run out of other people’s money.
Debit: Speaking of grocers, a Whole Foods store in Los Angeles pulled bottles of asparagus water from its shelves this week after a photo of the strange beverage — selling for $5.99 — began trending on social media. Soon after, a representative for Whole Foods claimed that was “a mistake.” No, not the price — the product.
Credit: Apparently, those wacky water bottles — which contained three asparagus stalks each — were actually supposed to hold water that had been slowly soaked with mushrooms. Ah, yes. Now that makes much more sense … I think.
By the Numbers
Today, it’s bottled water or bust for most folks. After all, when was the last time you saw a kid take a drink from a hose — or even an adult fill a water glass from the tap?
167 Bottles of water consumed, on average, per person annually in the US.
$11,800,000,000 Amount spent by Americans on bottled water in 2014.
$60,000,000,000 Amount spent globally on bottled water last year.
$0.15 Average profit on a bottle of water.
10.3% Market share for the most popular bottled water brand in the US. (Aquafina)
$9000 The cost of a typical monthly water bill — if it was priced at the same rate as bottled water.
Source: Statistic Brain
The Question of the Week
[poll id=”74″]
Last Week’s Poll Result
How much is your average monthly electricity bill during the summer?
- $100 to $250 (59%)
- Less than $100 (26%)
- $250 to $400 (12%)
- More than $400 (3%)
More than 600 people chimed in to answer last week’s question. When it comes to summertime electricity bills, almost 3 in 5 Len Penzo dot Com readers pay somewhere between $100 and $250. Last year, my summer electricity bills averaged $500. Now that I have solar panels installed, I fully expect my summer electricity bills to be significantly lower this year.
Other Useless News
Here are the top — and bottom — five states in terms of the average number of pages viewed per visit here at Len Penzo dot Com over the past 30 days:
1. Nebraska (2.35 pages/visit)
2. Arkansas (2.25)
3. Alaska (2.18)
4. Idaho (2.16)
5. Indiana (2.14)
46. Maine (1.58)
47. Wyoming (1.54)
48. Montana (1.48)
49. South Dakota (1.28)
50. Wisconsin (1.27)
Whether you happen to enjoy what you’re reading (my friends in Nebraska) — or not (ahem, Wisconsin) — 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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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! You can reach out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com
After reading my article highlighting the trouble with movie theaters today, Lisa had this to say:
I can’t believe people keep on paying the prices they do for tickets (plus refreshments) to a sub-par experience.
Clearly, movie-goers aren’t a very discriminating crowd — which probably explains the never-ending parade of rotten sequels coming from Hollywood.
I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.
Photo Credit: brendan-c
Hmm those page view numbers make me think I’m the only audience you have in Wisconsin! I feel like I should make some bad joke about beer, cheese, and obesity being the problem but I’ve got nothing…
The $70,000 minimum wage issue should have easily been foreseen. Yes, studies show that earning more than that might not increase happiness but we live in a world were everyone has an ego and many measure themselves by rate of pay. The idea of doubling some peoples pay but then ignoring other valuable employees creates a culture that can’t survive because it doesn’t reward ability, hard work and accomplishments.
I won’t worry about Wisconsin unless they roll off three consecutive months of poor numbers. Who knows? Perhaps the last place finish for Wisconsin was a reaction to the reader letter I printed in the July 11 edition of Black Coffee.
(For the record, during the last seven years, the only state to ever come in last place for three consecutive months is Vermont. Ben & Jerry’s home state also has been last more than any other state, although I’m not surprised; after all, they elected an openly-socialist US senator — and we all know the socialist mindset is about as far away from my blog’s “personal responsibility” theme as you can get.)
As for your comment on pay rates, you nailed it.
Len,
Just watched the Bill Holter interview on usa watchdog.com and he says he doesn’t see things holding together past this fall. The next few months should be very interesting and he says it pretty much hinges on what China does after the IMF pretty much disrespected them in front of the world! he seems to think things will be pretty dire when it happens. He does think that the supply of precious metals could run dry soon also.
Keep up the good work getting the word out!
Jared
I don’t even remember the last time I drank a glass of water. Maybe years ago when I was still a kid and didn’t mind what I was drinking.
I read more and more stories on the downsides of paying all employees the same as noted above and even in terms of the $15 minimum wage. In Seattle there was a story about workers wanting fewer hours so they could keep their government assistance.
When I figure up what a fair salary for myself is and know I’m right at that level, then see someone in another department with fewer and lesser qualifications and responsibilities, and less seniority who makes $15,000 more than I make because I was hired by a savvy businessperson and she was hired by someone with no backbone and even less sense… Yeah, I totally get why Gravity is losing senior employees.
Unfortunately, the ones who deserve the $70k will find it where it won’t feel like a kick in the gut, leaving few experienced, good employees to mentor the young ones into valuable $70k-worthy employees. The ones left won’t take their mediocrity to another company because nobody else will pay them that much. They will do just enough to not get fired, especially after they get used to living on a higher salary than they could possibly command anywhere else.
While I admire and appreciate Price’s boldness and altruism, it will most likely go down in business school studies as a likely business killer.
Wow, Holter hit the nail on the head when he said China was going to depeg from the Dollar! I think this might be what speeds our downfall especially if China comes out and backs their currency with all their gold. Just hope the reset isn’t as bad as Holter thinks it’s going to be.
They haven’t depegged, Jared — yet — but they did devalue by adjusting the trading band (call it a controlled relaxation of the peg). If they ever truly depeg the yuan from the dollar, it would result in the financial equivalent of a 9.0 earthquake in downtown Los Angeles!