Money Blue Book

For those who haven’t seen it before, MTV’s “My Super Sweet 16” is one of the many things in television pop culture today that is seriously messing up the minds of kids today, leading them down the path of excessive consumerism and obsession with wealth and entitlement. The MTV reality TV show follows and documents the 16th birthday celebrations of upper class teenagers. Now these are no ordinary birthday parties. We’re not talking about a day at Dave and Busters or the bowling alley. On this program we have stretch Hummers, horses, live dancers, famous rap stars, decked out ballrooms, and budget rolls in excess of $300,000. Everything is paid for in cash or with quick obligatory swipes of the parents’ trusty Amex Black Cards or Visa Black Cards, indispensable and exclusive tools of the trade. You won’t see any “paltry presents” like Apple iPods or Gap clothing here. Instead, the doting parents of these spoiled rotten kids prefer to give them top of the line BMW’s and Land Rover’s, capped with red bows on top to quench their material thirst. The show, although quite entertaining, proclaims the non-stop need to spend, spend, and spend to the utter collective delight of all luxury car dealerships and luxury boutiques everywhere.

Spoiled Bratty Kids Come In All Sizes

The show features spoiled teens of all race, nationality, and even sex – black, white, Persian, and even shockingly, a few teenage boys among the mostly teenage girls. The show follows the same template, tracing the excitement and expectation of throwing a “sky’s the limit” 16th birthday bash. We get to know the teen as she brags about her wonderful lifestyle and how much she owns in the way of material possessions. The majority of these “daddy’s little girls” stomp their feet and pout until their rich dads buy them the dream party that they want. The mothers that usually accompany these prissy little girls are no different – encouraging and stoking their behavior. In one episode, one mother even ended up trying on the same expensive dress that her daughter was trying out, sending the daughter into an angry and competitive tail spin tizzy of materialistic proportions.

The Excessive Lavishness Knows No Bounds

The show always starts with an elaborate ceremony usually complete with stretch limos and servants to hand out the official decorative invitations to chosen members of the teen’s high school in a manner befitting a royal coronation. The party usually takes up an entire decked out ballroom, with servers, dancers, and show-stopping celebrity singers. $75,000 jewelry and dresses line their wardrobes, adding to the excessive opulence. Throughout each episode, the birthday girl’s teenage guests scream and “woohoo” about the historical nature of the event and how it will go down in history as the best party ever and how everyone will always remember this – to the collective eye rolling of every single television viewer in the United States, myself included.

The end of each episode is never complete without the mandatory birthday girl walking outside with her guests in faux both-hands-to-the-cheek amazement at the ridiculously expensive luxury car awaiting her. While the girl drives away in her birthday present, her throng of friends and guests are left hollering and cheering her on with lavish love, admiration, and envy at her fortune.

It’s Really Entertaining But Also Really Sad

The alarming thing is not that these teeny boppers expect to be thrown lavish over-the-top birthday parties, but it’s that their wealthy parents are so boastful and encouraging of such a superficial lifestyle. The show proudly shows off the birthday teen’s opulence and extravagance, seemingly suggesting that such actions are perfectly normal. There are never glimpses of the ordinary masses, as the birthday teen’s friends and guests are almost always all filthy rich as well, with material throngs and possessions of their own. We never see any bitterness or ridicule by the guests or outside observers as the critics have all been effectively filtered out.

The show is admittedly quite entertaining, but not for necessarily the right reasons. It instills the wrong values in children and younger viewers today, particularly those approaching their 16th birthdays. Rather than preaching hard work and dedication, the show encourages feelings of material entitlement in the nature of “if you loved me you’d buy this for me”.

However I must admit, My Super Sweet 16 is terribly funny and interesting to watch. But when I laugh at the foot stomping, pouty girls in the show, I am doing so in the same manner that I would while watching a celebrity train wreck such as the salacious paparazzi antics of Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. I laugh because it’s so stupidly funny, but at the same time I feel sad for them – for the type of persons their own parents have groomed them into one day becoming.

As for my own 16th birthday way back when, I got an ice cream cake custom baked by my mom. I rented a few Nintendo games from Blockbuster, invited 4 close friends over for a video game sleepover party, and partied like a rock star at home. I grew up just fine, although getting a luxury sports car as a present would have been nice.

Is it just me or is there something very wrong when you have to spend money to buy what is essentially the some denomination as money? Because that’s basically what people are doing when they buy gift cards and are required to pay a purchase fee.

Personally, I have no problem with buying or giving gift cards as a presents. Gift cards are more flexible than the usual pre-chosen gift since the recipient theoretically has the option to determine how best to spend it. But therein lies the limitation and fallacy of the flexibility of gift cards. They’re actually not as versatile and unrestricted as people may think they are. Since most gift cards are only good towards the particular store they were purchased for, they are limited to that one location.

Gift Cards Impose Limits and Purchase Fees

If I receive a Starbucks gift card for example, I am limited to using it at a Starbucks store, even if I prefer the coffee drinks served at the Caribou coffee shop next door. What if I’m not even a coffee drinker? Then what am I supposed to do with this extra card? End up selling it on eBay for a price less than face value like so many gift card holders end up doing? Truthfully, having the gift card actually limits my options.

One of the most frustrating aspects of gift cards is the upfront purchase expense required. If you want to buy a $25 gift card for your friend, think you’re paying $25 for it? Think again! You’ll likely be paying $25 along with an extra processing fee on top of that. Even with a universally accepted American Express gift card, you’ll be required to pay a $3.95 charge just to purchase it, along with an extra $2.00 monthly fee that drains the card after the first 12 months.

Retailers Love Profiting From Gift Card Overspending and Lack Of Use

Retailers giggle like little school girls when customers buy gift cards. Since gift card sales are made at the point of purchase and not when they are actually redeemed for merchandise, retailers profit immediately from the card’s face value and the purchase fees when the cards are bought. Retailers are well aware that recipients of gift cards frequently end up spending more than the value of the cards and that any remaining amount can be chalked up as extra profit.

Consumer statistics indicate that after one year, nearly 27% of gift card recipients haven’t used their cards, with 7% of consumers never redeeming their cards. Common reasons why gift cards go unused include: not having the time to go out to use them, not finding anything worthy of purchasing, forgetting that you even had it (I’m guilty of this one), and losing the card and having it ultimately expire. My advice is, if you’re going to give someone a gift card, you should also hand them the gift receipt for the card. While many retailers won’t allow the gift card to be returned, at the very least they can replace it if it gets lost, damaged, or stolen. While many states now outlaw gift card expiration dates, not all consumers are protected from such diabolically hidden practices.

Best Solution – Adopt The Chinese Practice Of Giving Out Red Envelopes Stuffed With Cash

The most versatile gift is really just plain old cash, which gives you a perfect 1:1 exchange rate without the extra and unnecessary charges. The Chinese really have the concept of cash gifting all figured out and ingrained in their culture. For special events like birthdays, New Years, and graduations – red envelopes containing hard cash are offered as gifts. What a liberating gifting practice!

In Chinese culture, it’s tradition for the older generation to give children and the younger folks red envelopes for special events as a sign of encouragement and love. For kids, getting cash is the best type of present to receive. Cash gifts can even be immediately deposited into high yield saving accounts, thereby serving another important teaching tool of the importance of saving for the future.

I wish we can adopt this type of stigma-free cash gifting in this country. With the diversification and permeation of different cultures, perhaps one day such a custom will be more universally accepted here.

The subject of whether having children is a financially smart decision is a sensitive one that touches many brainy issues, including the meaning and purpose of life. Frequently this discussion is moot since not all births were carefully planned and many were simply unexpected accidents. I’m sure parents have secretly pondered this question before but were afraid to speak too loudly on the subject. No one wants to doubt their decision to have children and everyone instinctively wants to convey the impression that children have brought them nothing but pure joy and lifetime fulfillment.

Since I am not yet married and don’t have children of my own, perhaps I can comment on the issue from the perspective of someone who has not chucked the dice and thrown himself into this path of eternity, so to speak.

Having Children Is Extremely Expensive and Will Deprive You Of Some Of Life’s Financial Enjoyments

Raising a life from scratch into full adulthood is a lengthy and expensive journey. No one can deny that it requires a substantial and personal willingness to sacrifice one’s own personal wants for the betterment of another. Medical and educational costs bear the greatest financial brunt and some parents frequently have to work multiple jobs to provide financially.

I know couples who made the conscientious decision not to have children, but sometimes I wonder if they are happier as a result. I have an uncle and aunt who decided a long time that they were not going to have children. They never caved to family pressure and didn’t succumb to “accidents” (*hint hint, wink wink*) and now they live a financially admirable life. They have a beautiful massive house, big screen TV, and they take frequent vacations to lavish destinations – things that they would not have been able to enjoy if they had children in their midst.

But Children Bring Intangible Happiness That Cannot Possibly Be Duplicated By Anything Else

Now whether they are truly happy with only their material possessions to show for their efforts is a different matter. I’m sure that their material possessions have brought them a certain level of financial happiness. They get to enjoy all of the newest and coolest technological gadgets, and get to visit places that others can only dream and hope to save up for. But as they eventually approach old age, I wonder if they will find a void missing. Having children provides a type of life purpose and joy that money and material possessions can never full replace. I know it is a tremendous financial and social sacrifice, but I personally think the potential fulfillment is so great that is hard for me to understand why any couple would choose to give up this very humanistic desire to create a reflection of yourself and to instill it with love.

It’s interesting that this type of lament and reflective thinking usually occurs closer to old age, but I can see myself pondering this question down the road already. I enjoy making and planning a financial fruitful life, but when the time comes to make the financial sacrifice for my family and children, to give up my expensive hobbies, my computer, my big screen TV, and to be willing to forsake my own material wants, I think I’ll be ready to make the right choice.

The Internal Revenue Service is at it again – trying to steal our hard earned dollars. Just kidding. This time it’s not really the IRS, but someone trying to masquerade as them. Recently I’ve been receiving spoofed emails from someone trying to impersonate the IRS to solicit confidential financial information from me. Screenshot of the Scammer’s E-Mail Message – looks real doesn’t it? But it’s a fake.

Spoofing and Phishing

Spoofed e-mails are forged messages where the e-mail header is altered to appear to have come from someone else other than the true source. Many of these spoofed e-mails come from scammers who send these messages out on a massive scale to unwitting recipients to try to get people to respond to them. Spoofed emails are frequently disguised to be from places of authority such as government agencies or banks, usually asking for sensitive and confidential data such as name, login, password, credit card numbers, and social security information. This disguised request for sensitive data is known as phishing and is a frequently used tactic by scammers to fish for and steal confidential information. Be careful, once confidential financial data has been harvested, the stolen information is usually used for criminal purposes.

I’ve seen so many of these types of spoofed e-mails from scammers over the years, mostly disguised to be from well known banks like Wells Fargo, Citibank, Sun Trust, and other major online sites like PayPal, eBay, and now the Internal Revenue Service. Through the untrained eye, it might be easy to fall for these types of spoofed phishing attempts but if you know what to look out for, you’ll be better prepared to distinguish faked messages from legitimate e-mails.

Things to Know and To Look Out For:

1. First of all, be aware that they exist and that more likely than not you will receive them at some point or another, particularly if you ever give out your e-mail address for any online service.
2. Keep in mind that most legitimate companies will rarely solicit confidential data from you directly. In fact, most banks and credit card companies routinely remind customers that they will never ask them to send personal or financial information by, or in response to, via a link in an e-mail.
3. Know the type of sensitive personal and financial information that scammers attempt to phish for – passwords, pins, credit card validation codes (the three digit number on the back of your card), debit or credit card numbers, bank account information, and social security numbers. Always safeguard this information closely.
4. When you do receive a seemingly legitimate email that asks for you to click on a link or if it asks for any personal information, ask yourself, was the e-mail solicited or not? If it was not requested by you, chances are it may be a spoofed email from a scammer.
5. Avoid clicking on links from unsolicited e-mails altogether. The safest and most trusted way to visit a website is to go directly there by typing it into your web browser and bookmarking it.
6. If you do want to click on a link contained in an email message, check out the link’s website address (URL) before proceeding further. Does the revealed website address match the company’s true domain name? In the case of the email that I received, the address was listed with the number zero for the letter “O” in “IRS.GOV”, a red flag indicator that the e-mail was originating from a spoofed domain.
7. Scammers are lousy spellers as many of them are located in scam and fraud friendly countries such as Nigeria, Romania, and Indonesia. The scammers from these countries tend to have either horrendous English language skills or have a tendency to unnecessarily overuse big words in their writing. If there is even a single spelling or grammatical mistake, your antennae should go up immediately and put you on alert.