According to a research report by Barclays Wealth and Ledbury Research, women make money from financial markets and they tend to be better at running corporations too!
Why?
Because they take fewer risks and hold on to investments longer.
The study found that although both men and women often feel a certain lack of confidence when it comes to investing, women react differently by exhibiting a greater level of discipline and self control. Men, on the other hand, tend to panic and trade more often – up to 45% more often.
Interestingly enough, an earlier study, from the University of California, found that married men tend to take less risk and trade less often than single men. (insert sexist joke here)
That study found net returns of women are reliably higher by an average of 1.1 percent annually than men.
So, if women are so much better than men at this, how come the financial world, and even the political world for that matter, doesn’t have more women running the show?
Perhaps we should elect more women to positions of power, appoint them to run more corporate boards , or better yet, put one in charge of the Federal Reserve!
I’m serious!
At least for me, it would leave more time for sports and playing fantasy football!
But honey, just be sure to leave some gambling investment money for me because I just know RG3 is destined for a break out rookie year and I’m drafting him in the first round and my fantasy team is destined to win the championship and I promise not to run to the waiver wire at the slightest sign of trouble . . .
BTW, Ben Bernanke is married. So if you believe the research, he’s done better than most.
For those of you who are not die-hard Redskin fans, Rod Gardner earned the nick-name fifty fifty.
He had talent and physical ability, but he never had the attitude or the dedication that some felt he needed to succeed in the NFL as an elite receiver. Add to that the fact that he came across as a bit of a jerk, was seen as a detriment to the team, dropped the ball more than he caught it and one can begin to see how he got a bad reputation.
So much so, that eventually he was cut.
But all that is not the real story of this post. The real story, as told by someone in my extended family who works at an outdoor adventure and skill course is about how 50/50 dropped her and her co-workers each a $20 gratuity tip and they were insulted. But unlike his reputations, I think it was them, and not Rod Gardner, who were behaving as jerks.
It all started when Rod, his lady friend, and his entourage spent the better part of a day at the adventure course touring and trying out the drills. During this visit, they tried out the zip lines, and challenge courses (when they felt bold or coddled enough) and basically occupied nearly 100% of the staffs time.
In the end, he pulls out this wad of money to hand out gratuities to all the staff. Many of the staff thought to themselves . .
“oh boy!” here is a celebrity (at least he acted like one) . . .
loaded with money (he did have a large wad of it). . .“it’s our lucky day!” he’s going to be handing out C notes to everyone and we can “Parrrrty!”.
YEAH! BABY!
Well, imaging their disdain when good old fifty fifty only gave out $20 to everyone.
%$@#!
At this point I thought to myself . . .
Really? Is a twenty spot really not worth people’s time or valuable any more? Or are us regular folks just so enamoured with “celebrity” that we expect people who we think have tons of money to just hand it out like candy?
To be fair, Rod did act reasonably polite to everyone and was gracious enough to sign autographs, t-shirts, etc for those who asked ( which was nearly everyone – I think a couple Dallas or Atlanta Falcon fans passed on the opportunity but who cares about them . . .)
So good ol’ fifty fifty played the “good” role model PR stuff, entertained everybody, doled out autographs and tipped each of the staff!
If you add up the gratuities of autograph signing, and the twenty spot; was it enough?
Or did Rod Gardner act like a jerk and stiff them?
Let’s look at this from a money perspective. I don’t know how much the staff at the outdoor adventure center earn, but I don’t expect it to be much more than minimum wage, so I will be generous here and estimate their salary at $10 / hr. It’s a nice easy number to work with.
If fifty fifty, and his entourage, where there all day (which I highly doubt) that would be $80 of salary for each of them – before taxes.
Just the twenty spot alone would mean the $20 gratuity was a 25% tip.
Add in the autographs, and it’s probably worth $20.50 . . .
But, that was based on salary. Most gratuities are based partly on the cost of services or products received. Taking a quick look at the cost of these courses, I see that the all-day package is $249 / person. Again, I doubt it was all day, but lets go with that.
Assuming there were 4 people; Rod Gardner, his lady friend and two others tagging along for the ride. That comes to $1000. I remember hearing that there were a total of eight people involved with assisting Rod and his party that day. So handing out $20 each comes to $160 plus the autographs = $160.50
That is a 16% tip.
OK, so not as good or generous as the estimated 25% earlier, but hey, I’m just estimating here.
Was fifty fifty out of line with his gratuity?
Or
Are we as a society so enamoured with celebrity that we expect them to be overly flamboyant and perhaps casual with money? Just because we perceive someone to be rich and famous, does that mean they should tip more extravagantly than the rest of us?
After all, if Rod had indeed spotted everyone a C-note, he would have not only tipped some folks more than they earn (salary wise) in one day but he also would have been tipping at a rate of 60%!
Maybe fifty fifty was actually being prudent and fair?
By the way, I am not sure what Rod Gardner is doing now to generate income, or how much of his NFL earnings he has left; but IMHO , it looks like Rod Gardner just might be better at managing himself and his money than some other former NFL attitude receivers – like T.O.
So what do you think?
FYI, during Rods brief six year career, he earned just shy of $8 million. So he just might have a bigger bank account than the rest of us after all. Not that any of that matters regarding gratuities and such.
Oh and if you are interested in outdoor adventure courses (and the product / services offered) you can check this totally cool promotional video!
Eric has successfully graduated, or soon officially will be, from George Mason University with a degree in Computer Engineering.
So if anybody out there could use a good young energetic IT guy who likes network security and database management, let me know! I think I just might know somebody who would love to help you out.
Seriously feel free to contact me. . .
Eric had the same deal that all our kids have. If you stay home after high school, you WILL go to a local college full time and earn a degree. The alternative, other than going to college someplace else, in which case we would help up to a point financially, was not particularly attractive to either him or us.
Needless to say, he picked George Mason and lived at home.
This worked out well for everyone. He got a degree with a lot less expense (no college room and board fees), very little debt and we got a live-in who would help with the kids and shopping from time to time.
A win-win situation if you ask me.
Now the deal is done and sorry Eric, we love you, but the real world awaits! Go get it!
Regarding my car and the 300K mile club. . .
I have a 1997 Acura 2.2 CL which despite its Brand Name is an American Car. In fact, the CL was the first Acura to be built in the United States. All CL’s were built at the Honda Marysville, OH plant. I bought it second hand back in 2002 from a local used car dealer and yes I approached my purchase with a certain amount of skepticism and I had a plan.
The car, remarkably, sat on the lot for well over a month, actually nearly two. I think I first saw it and test drove it after about the 3rd week that they took possession. Of course, the price the dealer had was, IMHO, a bit high and more than I wanted to spend and yes he used many of the standard “sales” tactics to try and convince me otherwise.
But, like I said, I had a plan.
I kept coming back every Monday to see if it was still there and negotiate a better price. I actually had spent quite a bit of time looking at different cars and ended up liking this particular CL the best. Not because of the price, not because of the reliability, not because of the performance, but rather the reason I liked this car the best was that it was one of the few I could comfortable sit in and drive. I spend up to 2 – 3 hours every day driving so I better be comfortable while doing it.
I knew I wanted this car. I also knew I did not want to pay the dealers price.
The dealer knew I wanted this car. It was just a matter of time to see how all this would play out.
The longer the car sat on the lot, the better my negotiating hand became.
I ended up taking it on more than one test drive; in fact, I conveniently dropped it off at my favorite mechanic during one of those “test drives” and got a clean bill of health from him.
So, on my last weekly visit, which happened to be the last week of the second month for the dealer, I nonchalantly said, “I see it’s still here” .
It was at that time, after at least 3 -4 weeks of me coming back in, that a price I felt I could afford was negotiated and the prize was mine. I have enjoyed it and comfortably sat in it ever since!
And the best part, I knocked nearly 25% off the dealers original price.
Free Agency is about to start in 10 minutes so time for a quick shave and shower before the action starts.
Oh, crap! I can’t find a good razor.
But wait, there is hope !
Taking a hint from Netflix, a new startup is counting on your daily hygiene, vanity, lust for saving money, and desire for automatic – set it and forget it – deliveries to make some money. And, they are turning to humor to promote their product!
For a $1 / month, the Dollar Shave Club will send you brand new razors in the mail every month for the rest of your life. According to them, that is nearly a $300 yearly savings.
- Does this commercial make you want to sign up?
In the first 24 hours after the online ad went live, the company received 5,000 new subscriptions.
The video cost them $4,500 to produce. So they have already covered that cost.
- Will you remember the video more than the product?
?
- Will they make a profit?
Will you be the next to sign up?
- Their next campaign will be for creams and moisturizers.
So you can expect another tongue and cheek video from them in the near future.
The Dollar Shave Club is one of a handful of start-ups to launch from Science, a tech studio that supports and funds start-up companies. It was founded by the former CEO of MySpace.com. According to the Los Angeles Times, Dollar Shave Club has received nearly $1 million in venture capital and angel funding.
So what do you think? Another great idea? Or just another internet viral video?
Do you prefer to carry cash? Do you carry smaller bills ($1, $5, $10) or larger ($20, $50, $100) bills?
If you make a habit of carrying a bunch of $1 and $5 dollar bills, how long do they last. Or Once you do break that $large bill that has been in your wallet for ever, does the rest disappears quickly?
Truth is, people tend to think about money, and saving it differently depending on the value of the note and or the cost of the purchase.
Small bills tend to get assigned to something like a mental petty cash account, and so we’re willing to spend them on petty things. Larger bills, in contrast, are naturally thought of more as “real money” and so we’re reluctant to spend them on things that aren’t of real importance.
For some reason, I don’t think this applies to kids. Case in point, I was standing in line at a Walmart last month and a father and son were at the register in front of me. The boy was about 7 or 8 and had a RC car in one hand and a rolled up bill in the other. At the last second he saw some of his favorite candy and grabbed a bag to include with his purchase. He asked how much it was and the cashier said it would cost him another dollar. He promptly put the rolled up bill, the RC car and the bag of candy on the counter and asked his dad for another dollar.
The rolled up bill was a $100 dollar bill.
My guess is that if he had had several bills, he probably would not have thought he needed another bill and would not have asked his dad for more money.
The $100 dollars was his Christmas money so he could spend it as he saw fit. I was rather impressed that he did not spend it all in one shot. But I was also curious that he forgot how much he really did have.
Afterwards, as I was walking out, I was glad to see the dad and son sitting at a table counting out how much he had left.
So, where do you fall in the psychological scheme of things?
I know folks who do keep a large amount of cash with them, say $300. This is their way of budgeting. They give themselves a weekly allowance and use it for gas, food, shopping, etc. When it is gone, it’s gone.
I, on the other hand, tend not to keep much cash at all in my wallet. Yes it is usually in the form of smaller bills. But I do it for a much different reason. I like to be able to keep track of my expenses and spending. By using a debit card (not credit), most every transaction is recorded.
Put a woman in charge.
