Millionaires In the Making

By MoneyBlueBook

I enjoy reading and following the personal financial journeys of individuals. It's the individual that puts the "personal" in personal finance and makes the subjects of money and investing so human and genuine. There is no denying that money is a very essential and pervasive element of our lives. Some people just don't have enough. For others, money is sufficient but the difficulty comes when deciding how to best protect and manage it. Lack of money can cause people to fall into debt, while at the same time it can be the liberating savior to some of life's problems.

CNN's Family Profiles

One of my favorite reads is CNN's Millionaires in the Making series. Every few weeks they provide the profile of a new family or couple, complete with all pertinent and interesting demographic information such as their individual ages, occupations, salaries, and a complete listing of their financial assets and liabilities. The articles even provide a picture of the family or couple being profiled that also frequently includes them with their children.

Maybe I have a natural voyeuristic fascination, but I like to read their profiles and see how I match up. I must commend the couples and families for being so willing to provide their photos and reveal so much personal information about their finances that most people, including myself would normally be sort of reluctant to provide in its complete entirety. Although most personal finance bloggers like to include profile snapshots of their financial situation, many are reluctant to provide photos

By MoneyBlueBook

Whenever two Goliaths want to duke it out for supremacy, I'm the first to grab some popcorn and a front row seat. I can't help but watch and be entertained. Like watching a cafeteria brawl back in high school, it's just too fascinating to pass up.

Fox News' Not-So-Secret Secret

Yesterday,Fox News confirmed that it will be releasing its long overdue 24 hour cable business news channel Fox Business Network by the end of the 4th quarter of this year. In doing so, Fox News will be launching itself into a head on battle between the current dominant business news channel, CNBC (one of my favs).

Back in February 2007, Rupert Murdoch raised my eyebrows when he indicated that his new Fox Business Network channel would be more business friendly than CNBC" which he complained was quick to leap on every scandal". Fox News president Roger Ailes also indicated in a separate interview, that "Many times I've seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be," and adding that "We don't get up every morning thinking business is bad."

I certainly hope this doesn't mean Murdoch plans on creating a business news network that will operate with a particular preconceived and slanted agenda, an allegation some have levied against his current news network.

To Succceed Fox Business Network Will Have To Find Its Niche

The advertising market and demographics for Fox News compared to the other cable news channels such as CNN

By MoneyBlueBook

The newest trend among expecting parents is to choose a name for their kid that hasn't yet been registered as a domain. Parents today want to give their children a head start by jump starting their future digital identity as early as possible. These days with prices of domain registration falling to only $9 a year, it is very easy to run a quick domain availability search and reserve it before someone else does. Some older parents might not see the wisdom of having your own custom domain, but I assure you, your future tech savvy children will thank you for having the foresight.

Celebrities Think Ahead

Just look at actress Angelina Jolie. When she and Brad Pitt had their baby daughter Shiloh Nouvel last year, Angelina immediately reserved over 24 variations of her daughter's name. Internet registration files show the web addresses "shilohjolie," "shilohpitt," "shilohjoliepitt," "shilohnouveljolie," "shilohnouvelpitt" and "shilohnouveljoliepitt" - with the extensions ".com," ".org," ".net" and ".info" - were all reserved as of May 27, 2006 the baby's birthday.

Domains I Would Have Wanted Have Already Been Taken

I wish the internet was around during my parent's time, but then again, I doubt they would have had the technological foresight to reserve my name. Unfortunately, my full name, and its myriad of combinations have all already been taken by others. This is also true for popular e-mail services such as Yahoo Mail and Gmail. Simple and common names just as mine have already been taken. The only choice left is my name followed by

By MoneyBlueBook

Microsoft released Halo 3 - its highly anticipated Xbox 360 video game on Tuesday to much hype and acclaim. In case you didn't know, some enthusiasts have called it the biggest day in entertainment history. I think the only other game that could possibly top Halo 3 in the future is Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming Starcraft 2, but that's a story for another day. The Halo series have been very fun to play, and many people are going to be forking over their money to buy this must-have game. Although I used to be a big computer gamer and still enjoy the occasional video or computer game, today I prefer to just read about it and follow the industry spectacle.

Blockbuster Games are Big Money

According tomedia reports, when Halo 3 comes out Tuesday, the video game is expected to pull in more than $150 million in sales in the first 24 hours, outshining the $151 million that the Spiderman 3 movie did during its entire three day opening weekend in May.

What does this all mean? It means that the video game industry has finally flexed its muscle and shown that it's a force to be reckoned with. Popular blockbuster video games have become extremely profitable, with profit margins up to 90% compared to 40% or so for big time successful movies. Highly anticipated games can now easily outsell at retail what movies rake in at the box office.

Video Games Trumping the Movie Industry?

This made me wonder. Has the video game industry finally exceeded

By MoneyBlueBook

On the heals of my last post about the Mega Millions jackpot, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I won something. I've been notified by the folks over at Wise Bread that I'm the winner of their weekly "Ask the Reader" drawing. My prize, a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate!

I wish I could say that my comment entry was chosen from a large competitive pool of reader comments and that mine was selected as the best, but alas, it was a completely random drawing. But you can still read my comment entry if you'd like.

By MoneyBlueBook

Okay, not really. In fact I didn't even play this time around. Come to think of it, I've only played the lottery twice in my life before. I'm writing in response to today's lottery news announcement that four winning tickets were sold for the estimated $330 million Mega Millions jackpot, one each in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia. After taking almost half of it out for taxes and splitting the pot four ways, that's barely $50 million apiece. Mere chump change. :)

My Powerball Tickets

I remember the last time I bought a lottery ticket a few months ago - it was a Powerball ticket and it was when the Powerball jackpot had ballooned to a ridiculously high amount. Since Powerball wasn't sold in my state, I had to drive across the border into a neighboring state to snag one. After looking around, I finally found a gas station that sold Powerball tickets. My greedy and overeager brain sprung into action. Why buy one ticket when I can quintuple (five times) my chances by buying five! Delighted at my own ingeniousness and completely oblivious to my faulty mathematical logic, two minutes later I was walking out of the gas station with a potential winning ticket in my hand. On my drive home I started thinking about what I'd do with the money if I won, and then I started to get really excited. New house perhaps, how about 2? A new car maybe, get 2 as well. Never having to work again