Financial Videos

You’re Cutting Your Cake Wrong: The Scientifically Correct Way to Do It

June 19, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain Leave a Comment

You probably think you know how to cut a cake, but if you want to do it the scientifically correct way, the chances are high you’ve been doing it wrong all these years. If you cut a wedge when you’re ready to plate your cake, you’ve obviously failed to study the finer scientific points to make sure all the remaining cake slices are as fresh as possible the next time you want to have a piece.

The Scientific method for slicing cake was actually a rediscovery. Alex Bellos, the author of The Grapes of Math, was reading an early issue of Nature when he came across the interesting cutting method. About 100 years ago, the Victorian scientist Frances Galton submitted the letter to the magazine explaining a better way to cut a cake. Apparently, people were slicing their cakes incorrectly back then as well. While not a household name, Galton also happened to discover some other things in his life besides the best way to cut cakes, such as drawing the first weather map, fingerprints and coining the phrase “nature versus nurture.”

Instead of cutting out a wedge, which is the way the vast majority of people cut a cake, the scientific method cuts the cake all the way across the middle into a thin slice. The thin slice is then removed from the middle, and the two sides of the cake are pushed together. They’re then sealed tightly together by placing a rubber band around the cake. When this is done, there’s no interior part of the cake exposed to the air which keeps it from drying out. That means the next time you go to eat a slice of cake, your entire piece will be moist on the inside. Watch the video below and see for yourself:

While a method is quite clever, it obviously won’t work with all types of cakes. If the cake or other pastry has been covered with a somewhat hard frosting, as is shown in the video, then this method will work perfectly. If, however, you have your typical birthday cake with a soft frosting outside, trying to put a rubber band around it to keep it together could prove to be quite a mess.

Still, it’s worth giving a try. Even better, the next time you’re with others and get the chance, volunteer to cut the cake. Then watch the eyes of those around you grow wide as you break the common etiquette of how a cake is typically sliced, and put your new cake-cutting scientific knowledge to work.

The Warren Buffett Annual Glide Luncheon Auction Should Top $1 Million

June 1, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain 3 Comments

Warren Buffett 2014 annual Glide Foundation auction

For anyone interested in a private luncheon with Warren Buffett, your yearly chance has once again arrived. The 15th annual Glide Foundation Warren Buffet lunch auction begins today (June 1, 2014 at 7:30 pm PDT) and ends Friday, June 6 at 7:30 pm PDT. The auction has raised over $15 million for the charity since it started in 2000.

In order to be able to bid on the auction, you’ll need to fork over a minimum of $25,000 (the minimum starting bid) and be preapproved before you can make a bid. $25,000 is just the starting point, and the auction is likely to jump to a much higher price in the opening moments. The real bidding, however, is likely to come in the closing hour of the auction.

In 2013, the winning bid was just over $1 million ($1,000,100), but that was considered a huge bargain compared to years past. The 2012 price for lunch with the Oracle of Omaha reached $3.45 million ($3,456,789), the highest ever paid for the lunch, and the highest charity item ever sold on eBay. In the years 2008 – 2011, the top bids all topped $1 million, with most of them topping $2 million. It seems pretty likely that this year’s auction will again reach seven figures with the way that the stock market has performed, and go beyond the amount which was brought in last year.

The money from the auction goes to the Glide Foundation, which provides a number of services to the homeless and poor, including healthcare, housing support and rehabilitation, job training and meals. This is one of the major fundraisers for the charity which has an annual budget of $18 million. In addition to the money raised from the auction, the charity gets a huge amount of exposure from the event.

For the the winners, the topics of conversation at the luncheon are open to almost any topic, except what the billionaire might invest in next. He is more than happy to talk about his “boring” investing advice, his money tips, things that few people know about him, or virtually any other topic that may come up. You might even be able to get an inside scoop on any plans he has for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge in 2015.

If you’re curious as to why Warren Buffett does this lunch auction each year, the Glide Foundation asked him to answer this question in his own words. He saw the transformational power of this charity to those who the world had seemed to have given up on, and they way the charity was improving the lives of others. You can see the video below:

You don’t have to be rich to help out charities that you believe in. There are plenty of ways that you can help your favorite non profit charity for no cost, whether it’s the Glide Foundation or any other wonderful charities out there. All it takes is some of your time and the effort to want to give back. And as Warren Buffett notes, helping doesn’t just change the lives of those who are the beneficiary of the charity, it also deeply impacts those who volunteer and help.

What Does Dave Ramsey Think About Timeshares?

May 13, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain 16 Comments

Dave Ramsey hate timeshares not investment

While I don’t always agree with the financial advice that Dave Ramsey gives to his listeners, we’re both on the same page when it comes to timeshares. Ramsey doesn’t have a high regard for them, and he believes that people should stay as far away as possible from them. He doesn’t mince his words when it comes to these vacation options and views them as an outright scam. In his own words, this is what he has to say about them: “Timeshares are one of the biggest scams on the market today. Once you are stuck in one, you are stuck in a black hole.”

Below are some of the reasons that he feels timeshares are one of the biggest scams in the vacation industry:

They’re Not Affordable

For the mass majority of people who are targeted by marketers to buy timeshares, they’re not consumers who can really afford one. There are quite a few expenses that come with owning a unit, and these expenses are perpetual. In fact, they can increase over time. Just because the sales person who’s trying to sell you a unit tells you that you can afford it, that doesn’t make it reality. They’re an expensive vacation option, and the truth is that most people’s finances are not in good enough shape to be able to afford one.

They Don’t Make Financial Sense

Even if you have your finances in order and can afford to buy one, Ramsey points out that it still doesn’t make financial sense to do so. The average cost the timeshare is about $15,000 these days. It makes much more sense for you to invest this money than buying a vacation resort unit. The calculations become even worse if you have to borrow money to buy the unit, because you’ll likely end up paying double-digit interest rates to do so. Ramsey points out that if you invest that $15,000 instead of buying a unit with it, it would be worth over $1 million in 40 years.

Terrible Investment

There are still far too many people who believe that purchasing a timeshare is a good investment. Ramsey wants to make it clear to everyone that a timeshare is not an investment. What you’re actually doing when you buy a unit is prepaying your future hotel expenses each year for the rest of your life. Even worse, you’ve prepaid this amount whether you end up using it or not. Combine all this with the fact that they’re a depreciating asset, which will lose its value year after year (much like a car does), and it means that if you do end up buying one, you’re going to end up losing a lot of money in the end.

Selling Them Is Difficult

Another important reason to avoid buying one of these units is due to how difficult they are to sell when you no longer want one. The law of supply and demand rears its ugly head for anyone who owns a timeshare. There are far more people who want to sell than those who are interested in buying. This can mean that in some instances, you won’t be able to sell even if you want to, forcing you to continue to pay yearly maintenance fees.

It can even be difficult to give yours back to the resort, which is what Ramsey suggests owners try to do. Even if you offer it to them at no cost, the resorts have little incentive to do so if they still have inventory, since keeping you as an owner will mean you have to continue to pay the yearly maintenance fee. The bottom line is, when you want to sell, you’re going to have a difficult time, and if you are ultimately successful in selling your unit, you’re going to lose a lot of money doing it. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) notes that you also need to be careful of the many reseller scams that are out there.

Don’t fall for the marketing tactics which resorts will use to try to convince you that buying a timeshare is a good deal. Take the financial advice of Dave Ramsey, and remember that it’s one of the biggest travel scams out there. Below you’ll find a video with some more of Dave Ramsey’s thoughts about timeshares:

Finally, if you want to get a better handle on your finances, consider getting a copy of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. The book outlines some basic truths about money and is designed to improve your financial habits. The book has sold something like 5 million copies – so it is well worth the read.

If you went against Dave Ramsey’s advice and now own a timeshare that you want to get out of; reach out to Newton Group Transfer at 1-888-549-4154 today. They are standing by to make the resell of your timeshare as smooth as possible.

How Mark Cuban Became a Billionaire

May 3, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

One of the best ways to learn about how to make money is to look at those who have been successful at doing it. It’s important to listen and learn from the advice of people like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Taking the advice that they have to offer can help you do better with your own personal finances, and help you reach the money goals you have.

Bloomberg put together a video about Mark Cuban that’s well worth a look. You can learn a bit more about how he became a billionaire, and also take away some lessons that can be of use for your own personal finances.

Here are five big takeaways from the video that you can learn from and apply to your own success:

Look for Opportunities

Opportunities are out there and you need to be on the lookout for them. Cuban began to do this from an early age. One of his first entrepreneurial exploits was with postage stamp arbitrage. Cuban discovered that he could buy stamps for as little as $0.25 and then resell them for as much as $50. He became so good at it that, according to his brother, that a neighbor gave him $5000 to buy stamps at a stamp show in New York for him.

It Takes a Lot of Work

Success doesn’t just fall into your lap. As Cuban says, he looks at business as a sport, much like football and basketball. The difference is while those games are played 60 minutes and 48 minutes respectively, business is played 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You aren’t going to be a success unless your work your heart out, and put in more effort than the other competitors out there.

Have an Eye for Marketing

Marketing opportunities can come from strange places and you can take those opportunities to leverage them to your benefit. Cuban, as owner the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, told a ref that he wasn’t qualified to manage a Dairy Queen. This upset Dairy Queen which wanted Cuban (and everyone) to know that it wasn’t easy to manage a Dairy Queen, and their managers are highly trained. Dairy Queen challenged him to work in a shop. It would have been easy for Cuban to blow the whole thing off, but he instead took the opportunity to work at Dairy Queen for an afternoon, garnering him a huge amount of publicity.

Be Willing to do Things Differently

In many of the businesses that he has owned, Cuban has gone about and done something fundamentally different than what businesses in that area had been doing up until then. As he says, if you are doing what everyone else is doing, you are missing the future and where those business will be in the years to come. It’s important to not only look at what’s happening now, but to anticipate where things will go so that you’re the one to implement that future.

Luck Plays a Big Part

Even with a lot of hard work, luck has a lot to do with it as well. He ended up selling his company at the right time at the height of the Internet bubble for much more than he ever could have a few years later. While this doesn’t discount all the hard work that you must do to be successful, there is an element of luck that comes into play as well. Cuban considers himself “the luckiest person in the world” and that luck had a lot to do with his overall success.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about Mark Cuban’s business secrets, check out his autobiography How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It. Its gotten an average of 4 stars out of 2,911 ratings on goodreads.com, so its well worth checking out. Pick up a copy on Amazon for under 5 bucks.

Not a Merry Christmas: People Stealing Food from the Needy for Profit in San Francisco

December 19, 2013 By Jeffrey Strain 4 Comments

If you want to get your blood boiling, just take a look at the video below. This took place at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco by a local TV station. It’s the complete antithesis of what the holiday season is supposed to be about. Food that is meant to be given to the needy is taken by a long line of people. But instead of being thankful and taken home to eat, many instead immediately sell the food for $5 a bag to others. It doesn’t stop there. People then go back into line to get more bags of food. Some people even throw out (yes, into the trash) the food that they’ve just been given because they don’t want it for themselves or can’t resell it. Just watch the video and be amazed in a bad way.

This is a classic example of people taking advantage of peoples’ generosity to help themselves at the expense of the people who really do need the food. My guess is that anyone who watches the video will be disgusted, and they should be. But instead of leaving it at that, why not do something positive to help those in need. Here are a few things that you can do:

Donate Food

In my experience working with food banks, it is an exception that abuse like this happens, and not the rule. Most people that use the food banks are extremely thankful and appreciative of the help. Most food banks usually have protocols in place so that the few people who do try to abuse the system aren’t able to do so. With that in mind, donate some food to your local food bank. There is always a great need for it, and unlike the video above, it will go to a family that not only needs it, but greatly appreciates the generosity.

Donate Money

If you have some extra cash this holiday season, consider donating it to your local food bank. When you do this, they are able to get the food that they need most. Often they can get it for a greatly discounted price compared to what you could buy it for at the grocery store. In other words, a dollar given to a food bank will often result in more than a dollar’s worth of food from the local grocery store.

Volunteer

This is an extremely busy time for food banks and they usually can use all the extra help that they can get. Volunteer to help so that the food that is donated really does get to the people who need it most. Part of the issue in the above video was that the church probably didn’t have enough volunteers to help prevent the abuse from happening. This is not to say that there was any fault on the church’s part or that it should have ever happened in the first place. Having more volunteers simply ensures that distribution goes more smoothly.

Help All Year

Consider helping out more than just during the holiday season. There are a lot of things you can do to help any non profit without spending any money, and most are always looking for help in a variety of ways throughout the year. Let the disgust you felt from watching the video motivate you to do more to make sure that help is given to those who really do need it.

5 Life Insurance Commercials That Will Make You Cry

January 4, 2012 By Jeffrey Strain 2 Comments

When it comes to getting life insurance, most of us tend to shy away from really thinking about why we need it. It doesn’t matter whether you fall into the low risk or high risk life insurance category, we’d all rather ignore the reason that it’s purchased in the first place.

For this reason, most people don’t think of life insurance commercials when they think of quality, moving entertainment. They most certainly should when it comes to a series of life insurance commercials created by a Thai life insurance company. It’s not often that media can hook you into a story line in just a couple of minutes, but these commercials definitely do that. They are all wonderfully done and they will make you wonder why more commercials can’t be like this. Prepare to be WOWed and grab a box of tissues — you will likely need it (if you are looking for more videos that will make the tears flow, head over to Damn Onions where there are plenty more)

My Girl

Silence of Love

I Want More Time

Held Just One Time

Grandma

I warned you…

For those that are looking for insurance information, insurance-how-to.com may be able to help.