So as if the current economic times with soaring health care costs, massive unemployment, obscene government spending, its resulting dizzying deficit and ever increasing energy cost were not enough, someone in their entrepreneurial cunning has thought of a new way to take peoples money. The devastation of Bernie Madoff’s misdeeds has obviously gone unnoticed by both the consumer and the no- gooder.

What are these gifting parties? First, those organizing such parties deny they are pyramid schemes and have employed counsel to argue their position. However, to me believing this would be the same as arguing the world is not round. Each group consists of eight members at any given time. These gifting parties currently are women only. The example in the article explains the pyramid having four members at the base. These are the new recruits and they must give $5,000 to the top member to buy in to the group. In between is a row consisting of three members and another with two members. At this point I am sure you see the irony the actual membership is a pyramid where the new members ( bottom ) pay the top member ( point ) . Never does it mention the gifting party doing anything to create income that is not a direct investment by another recruit. Therefore, you can see that everyone but the top member loses should a group find themselves unable to recruit new members. And as this scheme, catches on the pool for new recruits will dry up.

If you happen to make it to the top, you get $40,000 and can either leave or buy your way back in to the bottom again for $5,000. This works because people feel desperate now and just would do anything for a quick windfall to take care of things until the economy turns around. However, this like the many frauds that preceded it will leave the majority of women who participate worst off than before.

Matt

I have asked myself this same question. Is coffee good for you ? Or is it bad because of the caffeine. Am I going to cause my heart to explode ? First, you may be questioning why I am writing about this on a finance blog. Because obviously taking care of yourself means that you will live longer ( time for your investments to  grow ) and because the healthier you are hopefully the less medical expenses you will incur over your lifetime, meaning more money to save. So health is indeed a very important component.

I remember reading articles about coffee being high in antioxidants. Products containg antioxidants is very big right now, with different supplements and acai juice. An article found at msnbc explains in greater detail those findings. In an article written by Irene Middleman Thomas for Costco Connection they point out benefits from more recent studies. Health benefits are that it causes an inverse association with risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver cancer and liver cancer and disease according to a professor at Harvard. The article goes on to discuss that initial studies find those who consume 6 or more cups a day of regular or decaf coffee reduce their risk of prostate cancer by sixty percent. Saving the best for last it may also help you live longer especially if you are a woman. The only negative to note was it is not good for pregnant woman to consume coffee as it can increase risk of a miscarriage.

Now obviously too much of anything is bad for you but as a coffee drinker myself this is good news. I of course do not see this as an excuse to not eating healthy and exercising but every little bit helps. As mentioned before being healthy means less medical related costs. This is money that can be saved and invested for better returns. So drink up and enjoy.

Matt

I read an interesting article and I am not sure what to think. I wanted to make my readers aware of this important change so that you can make an informed decision. If you have not already you may be receiving literature from your bank to urge you to opt in to overdraft protection. The reason for this is because recent legislation will require come August 15th that account holders make this choice.  Banks are obviously concerned and are willing to spend large sums of money to get those who often use overdraft protection to opt in. In fact a nytimes article states they collected an estimated $20 billion from ATM and debit card overage fees.

How are they pitching this great consumer account feature? By more or less trying to scare people that it is more of a risk to not opt in to overdraft protection. This includes using phrases such as “in an emergency.” I am not sure about you but I cannot remember any instance where I occurred and overdraft fee charge from an “emergency”.  Conveniently this same legislation will not impose a limit on the number of times banks can impose these huge overdraft fees. It would seem to me instead of muscling consumers to opt in maybe offer them literature on budgeting and responsible spending. I would think the rational solution is not offer people a way to live beyond their means but teach them how to track and control their finances. Then again how else will they pay for their big bonuses.

Let me know what you think and if you will be opting in to giving your money away in the form of gross overage fees.

Matt