Children Privacy - what is it worth? According to Disney, three fast passes.

I read this article (At Disney Parks, a Bracelet Meant to Build Loyalty (and Sales)) today from the NYT.

Essentially Disney will be offering wrist bands that will hold your information for easy transactions (credit card info, ticket info, etc) and personalization of your Disney experience. Now where ever you or your child goes in the park where you tap your band (which is everywhere since there will be many interactive stations), Disney will know where you were.

This is amazing for data mining. Disney will be able to see if your child enjoyed a ride so much they returned to it right after or after three other rides. What other rides took his attention. What ride drew him back. Was he standing next to the ride right before he decided to return? Did he just buy a ride related drink?

Now some parents are a bit wary of allowing this much information to be exposed to Disney. So beyond the convenience, Disney is offering three fast passes that you reserve BEFORE you enter the park (loaded onto your wrist band, I assume).

Would you sell your child's information for that?

Though I don't have kids, I would. But then again, I love data.

I heart TripAdvisor!

NYT photo

Photo from technorati.com

I love review sites. I believe they're changing consumer spending in so many ways. Research is showing an extra star on yelp creates an increase in revenue for non-chain restaurants. And amazon reviews have gotten high levels of interest with people paying for reviews and mass reviewers.

But what about a wider scope review site such as TripAdvisor?

I'm not in the hotel business but I hear that TripAdvisor can make or break a hotel. As my generation become dependant on review sites, hotels must change the way they treat TripAdvisor.

Hotels are getting reprimanded for encouraging good reviews (one hotel was even caught offering five dollars for a good review). But I believe the best way to interact is to speak to the reviewers. If you had a bad experience, wouldn't you appreciate a comment from the owner of the hotel?

NYT's article almost sounds like a advertisement for TripAdvisor (which was singing to the choir) but I do agree that the comments do end up biasing me. If I'm forced to go to a restaurant that I read bad reviews for, I do try to see the same negativity.

What do you think?

Mayan Weather Forecast

Considering we're doing our holiday party tomorrow and flying on Friday, I sure hope the Mayans are wrong!

Very Viral image: only credit I have is from George Takei's site. 

What I love about this image is Saturday...no weather.

Another shooting - is it time for gun control?

Today's shooting is horrific. I hate to say that children's lives are worth more than adults but it hurts and stuns me more that at least 18 children have passed from this shooting. Obviously there is no information on who the shooter was or what demented mind reasoned this out but I cannot image a rational person wanting to hurt random children.

Here we are in 2012 where there was a Akron shooting at a batman theater and a shooting at a Sikh temple, the high profile shooting of an NFL player and now a shooting at an elementary school.

I thought this must be the worst year but I quick google search showed that there were even more in 2009:

March 2009 - a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.

March 2009 - a heavily-armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.

March 2009 - six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.

April 2009 – An 18-year-old former student followed a pizza deliveryman into his old dormitory, and shot the deliveryman, a dorm monitor, and himself at Hampton University, Virginia.

April 2009 - a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.

July 2009 - Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston.

November 2009 - U.S. army psychologist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

Link for data
In fact 2007, 2008 and 2009 have had five and six mass killings culminating to 2009 with these seven. People are blaming the economy but during the worst of it 2010, there was only one shooting and 2011 also only had one shooting. Perhaps an election year is a more attractive year to gain more attention (which sounds horrible).

Is it time for gun control? I'm assuming that if the 2007, 2008 and 2009 spree didn't result in a change to our gun rules, I doubt these will. I doubt we can ever become a country that doesn't allow guns but perhaps we can create stronger rules to gaining a gun.

I have friends who hunt, we are in Texas, who saw that bullets and guns in general are being hoarded these days because they believe that the gun rules will change.

We need to protect innocent people and the most innocent, the children, should be our first concern.

My prayers to all those who were affected by this shooting. Both those who lost children and those who's children survived and will relive this day over and over again.

“We were in the gym, and I heard really loud bangs,'’ said the boy, as he stood shivering and weeping outside the school with his father’s draped around him. “We thought that someone was knocking something over. And we heard yelling and we heard gunshots. We heard lots of gunshots. We heard someone say, ‘Put your hands up.’ I heard, ‘Don’t shoot.’ We had to go into the closet in the gym. Then someone came and told us to run down the hallway. There were police at every door, there were lots of people crying and screaming.'’ NYT

Buying TOO Much for the Holidays

Does anyone feel like they're just buying too much?

Especially after yesterday's post on all the deals I (so far) this season, I'm wondering if I already bought too much. For me it's a weird mix of getting good deals and needing to get gifts for friends and family.

Whenever I buy something for our house, I ask myself, do we need this? Or is this just a nice to have? And if so, is this a good gift?

NYT wrote an article on buying too much for children and I admit that we too have bought a lot for our niece. NYT's Motherlode argues that though income has increased 4x, prices on toys and clothing has stayed fairly close to the 70's.

This is a generation of difference. And the prices are close to the same. The gifts my parents were buying me are close to the same prices that I would be buying for my niece! It seems nuts.

She also brings up the fact that when we were children, we got a few toys as gifts but most of the gifts were actually usable items such as clothes, socks and underwear. But these days, those items wouldn't be considered gifts!

I still recall the Christmas that I opened a gift of a wallet with a dollar bill in it. I was ecstatic because it meant I was old enough to be responsible for my money (and that I would have my own money). What happened to those days?

Do I think we'll be able to return to those days? Who knows. As our dollars go farther, we'll have to control ourselves vs have our budgets control us.

The one place I can control is the gifts I get myself. :)

NYT Article: Too Much Stuff Last Year

Things I bought for myself so far:

Great deal on Rue La La and I've wanted them FOREVER (only 60 bucks for six!)

As noted in yesterday's post

Gap on mad sale so it was less than $30

In black and rose from same mad sale for less than $20

I feel like all the purchases were great for what I need in my life but it still seems excessive. But I'm keeping them all! And I know, I'll probably buy more. Sad but true. Perhaps I should have the same reminder that Motherlode has and send it to myself on Black Friday - LESS STUFF!

US Household Debt in Graphs!

NPR did an interesting short article on the current US debt. They added nice graphs as well:

Not that surprising, your biggest assest is generally your home

Intersting: from 2005-2010 we were taking in more debt than income. Well before the collapse.

Interesting: Debt reduction started in 2009 - right after the collapse

Article Link

For the last graph, they explain that the interst rate for this debt went down and as a result the amout people were putting toward the debt was decreasing. But this should still have increased during the years of the recession. Where are all the people who had to take on more debt in order to live?

Comparing Prices at Various Wal-Marts in the Same City

I have always wondered if Wal-Marts in the same city sold items for the same prices or if there was area specific pricing. Well the good people at cockeyed.com figured this out for us! They did comparisons on various groceries (items that would be in an average shopping cart) and found that there was a little variance.

The most interesting discovery, the higher prices were at the stores in poorer neighborhoods!

I also wonder if there is a difference in price between the normal Wal-Mart and the green smaller Wal-Marts. Generally because the smaller Green Wal-Marts are generally in higher traffic areas which I would assume have higher rents. Though, Wal-Mart could easily absorb that cost in order to have a competitive pricing...

NYT: Student Loan Delinquency is Rising

Student Loan Debt Rising, and Often Not Being Paid Back

NYT image from article

So while all other debt is going in a general downward motion, student loan debt is increasing and delinquencies are rising.

Seems odd. But the author notes that during the crisis, a lot of the non-student loan debt had been erased through bank write off vs being paid off. But there's still a strong trend of loans being paid down after the crisis. I understand the lower rate and refinancing the mortgage, HE revolving and possibly the auto loan which results in extra money that can go toward the credit card bill but why not pay down the student loan as well as the credit card? Does it not seem as important?

It scares me that most Americans do not know the many options available to them for student loans. My favorite being the income based repayment system. Pay only 15% of your discretionary income for 25 years and then rest of the loan is forgiven by the government (you will have to pay taxes on that amount though). It's very easy to sign up for this program and you can prepay if you just want it for security reasons (in case you lose your job or what not). Some people are waiting since it appears the Obama administration might change it to only 10% of your income and only 20 years!

Income Based Repayment

Consumer Confidence Difference Two Families: Shop vs Save

NYT image of couple's xmas list that they have budgeted for

CNN is trying very hard to make the American public appear to be in dire need.See below.

I enjoyed this article from NYT better: Two Families Show an Uneven Rise in Consumer Confidence

One family worked an extra shift to have the mother working 100 hour weeks in order to get out of debt and be able to spend more this Christmas season. Last year, there was no gifts or dinner for this family.

The other family chose to allow the wife to quit her job in order to work from home and is choose to have a strict budget on their holiday spending. There was no mention of how hard their economics were last year.

I don't agree with either story. The first family should have strict budget regardless of what they're currently making but the second family should not be considered a hardened American family, they took a huge gift in allowing the wife to quit her job in order to stay at home with her new born (they do note that she is returning to her work soon). As both stories are a little irritating, it is good to note that though they are considered "average" families in America both are spending a good amount of money this season. America is doing OK.


CNN did this video on a Thanksgiving worker: I work Thanksgiving Day

After half of the video is spent on her account of how hard her life is, she eventually notes that her  Thanksgiving shift was voluntary, she has a full time job (which I would assume includes benefits) and while she's tending to her daughter you can hear her iphone ringing.

I'm sure there were many people that CNN could have interviewed that had much harder circumstances, why did they chose this person, who is obviously doing pretty well for herself. She gets a bit teary eyed when she realizes that she'll be at dinner late that night and asks her daughter to save some potatoes for her...ie she's still making it to dinner at some point!

Maybe this is CNN's objective, to make us realize that the poor really aren't doing so badly and we can look forward? Either way, this is bad journalism.

Life After an Affair

NYT's Modern Love is my ultimate favorite read on Sunday. This Thanksgiving weekend, the essay was about a woman who stayed with her husband after an affair. Though I hope to never go through this in my life, she did it so well and eloquently, I hope I will always love my husband as much. I'd hate to give away more of this excellent essay but please read this excellent life story and how an event like this can change everything.

Target vs Wal-Mart: Economic Indicators?

image from webpicks.com

Wal-Mart and Target: A tale of 2 discounters

Two discount retailers but with very different customer bases. How each is fairing in these past couple of months have been indicators on how each customer base is financially.

Wal-Mart, who's customers have an income range of 30k to 60k, has been showing some signs of falter. For stores open for more than a year, there was a growth of 1.5%, .3% below estimates and a slow down from the 2.2 and 2.4% from earlier quarters of this year.

Target on the other hand, with a consumer median salary of 64k, has been fairing quite well. It's year or older stores are increasing sales by 2.9% and is surpassing expectations with an increase in earnings at 1.64 to 1.74 vs the investor prediction of 1.51. A lot of this increase will be due to high expectations for the holiday season with their loyal higher income customer base. Wal-Mart on the other hand increased their holiday numbers by lowering the cost for layaway and starting earlier on their layaway program.

Are the higher crusts of the middle class doing better? Are the lower income Americans doing worse? Are those Americans who were hit hard by the recession regaining their income and moving back from Wal-Mart to Target?

Obviously we'll need more data than a few quarters to determine all this activity but it is an interesting "back of the envelope" study.

Cost of Motherhood: NYT rebuttal

A bad rebuttal by NYT's motherlode. Where the first article was a good general analysis of the cost of motherhood, the motherlode decided to become a money spender if she didn't have children and based this as her response. Very non-analytical and quite frankly silly.

The Benefit, in Dollars, of Raising a Child (She does not, in fact, state a dollar price).

Cost of Becoming a Mother

NYT article shows more than just the cost to house and feed a child. The real changes that come into your life as a woman chooses to become a mother.

The Cost, in Dollars, of Raising a Child

She includes college tuition, assumed contributing to the child till 25 and (most interesting) her loss in pay as a mother. "half a year of forgone wages while on maternity leave and earning 73 percent of what men earn instead of 90 percent like nonmothers (or in my case, the equivalent fraction of my current salary) for the remainder of my career, according to aColumbia University study on the motherhood wage." 

I was shocked to hear this stat. Yes, we would be busier and need to go home early a few times to pick up Junior, but to lose over 25% of your salary potential because you had a child!

On the flip side, a father's income increases by 4%.

At the end, for her family income of around 100k and in the NY area: $1.8M. I'm assuming this isn't per child but rather for the first child.

The author of this article writes a longer essay about choosing to have a child or not on a financial side. If you feel no maternal urges, should you even have a child?

Opting Out of Parenthood, With Finances in Mind

I read another article on the marginal cost of each additional child and it wasn't much more. At least for the day to day stuff.

The Marginal Cost of Children

Highly interseting reads considering more and more of America's educated are marrying older and are therefore delaying this decision.

Foreclosure discount going away. Phoenix and Vegas have no foreclosure discount

It appears that as the housing market is improving, the discount you get by going through the foreclosure process is decreasing.

SFGATE Article

The article is showing that areas with the highest demand will, obviously, have the lowest discounts:

Where in some places there is no discount such as Las Vegas and Phoenix. That could be because homes are already so reduced, that foreclosures cannot go much lower. It would be interesting to find a more in depth study on this. As much as I like Zillow, sometimes their data can be a bit skewed.

So in areas with little financial incentive for a foreclosure, I guess people must fall in love with a home or it has the best options for them in a tough market to deal with a bank vs a private seller.

Are you in one of these low foreclosure discount cities? What are you seeing?

Tuesday Reading 11/13: Perfect Turkey, what would you save from the flood, , Romney is President

The perfect turkey (SFGATE - perfect turkey recipe)
StubHub teams with AEG on ticket sales (SFGATE - Stubhub will be the official secondary ticket seller for many new venues)
Victoria's Secret marketing goes own way (SFGATE - think about it, who else does a runway tv show and is still highly dependent on a catalog system?)
Store-Branded Gift Cards Carry Fewer Fees (NYT - best value is now in store branded gift cards)
What I Saved From the Flood (NYT - a writer of disaster victims dictates what she saved when her house flooded)
 With Airfares, Fliers Trade Clarity for Greater Choice (NYT - lack of clarity in airline fares results in airlines having control on what discounts they want to present to which customers)
A Flight Delay That Ended in Marriage (NYT - it didn't end his marriage. he enjoys flying as it gives him some peace)
More Companies Are Tracking Online Data, Study Finds (NYT - trackers and cookies are being found in higher frequency in just the last five months)
Bundled Households (NYT - though there are less children living with parents vs last year, there are still a lot who are vs 2007)
Cholesterol Tests May Not Hinge on Fasting (NYT - study shows fasting not needed for cholesterol tesitng. scientist confident more studies will show the same)
Romney Is President (NYT - Romney is the president of white, male America)
Black Thursday is the new Black Friday (CNN - as i've said before, I hate this. I think everyone would rather have it on Friday or Wedensday. Let us have Thanksgiving for our family and remember what the holiday is about).
Sandy victim faces insurance nightmare (CNN - insurance agencies are not paying up. claiming anything in basement is not insured that is not for the house. claiming ground floors partially enclosed as basements)
Texas secession petition grows on White House website (Houston Chron - stupid. Makes Rick Perry look even dumber)

Monday Reading 11/12

The good news in the rising jobless rate (CNN - jobs! Rate of unemployed increased due to people who stopped looking for jobs returning to the search. Confidence is higher)
U.S. to become biggest oil producer - IEA (CNN - with natural gas surge, US should be highest producer by 2020)
Confessions of extreme Black Friday shoppers (CNN - not really confessions or even a how to, just this woman's team of shopper for last year (?)' s Black Friday)
Toys R Us to open early on Thanksgiving (CNN - Black Friday turning into Thursday. I hate this trend but as long as people encourage it, it'll continue to start earlier and earlier)
Weighing the merits of an online MBA (CNN - how to determine if an online MBA is legit)
Child’s Education, but Parents’ Crushing Loans  (NYT - parents struggling with student's college loans under their name. Examples of parents living with children, BK and one who committed suicide over the loans. Hard read.)
Remember how AT&T swore it needed T-Mobile to expand LTE? Funny story. (arstechnica - AT&T somehow able to gain spectrum with out T-mobile. FCC was right.)
Elmo puppeteer accused of underage relationship (SFGATE - Elmo puppeteer and voice accused of underage relationship. Accuser is now 23 but claims there was sexual relationship when he was under 17.)
Can rude service become a virtue? (SFGATE - Does rude service make people want to come there more? Think of Soup Nazi on Seinfield)
Movin’ Out (NYT - data showing more children are moving out of their parents' homes)
Anti-virus pioneer John McAfee wanted for murder in Belize? (SFGATE - yes that McAffe. What a crazy story!)

Apple (AAPL) Rotting?

Intersting short article from SFGATE on what's going on with Apple Inc.

Something's Wrong At Apple (AAPL)

Considering how successful this company  has been, it's surprising how quickly the trend has been changing. I hope they were not all steve jobs.

I understand the need for change with a new CEO but it appears it is more a trial and error situation vs a planned out system of events. We'll see.

A new report says 75% of smartphones out there are Android phones, and only 15% are iPhones.

For the first time ever, iPhone customer loyalty is declining.

Scott Forstall was suddenly booted from the company last week. He was the creator of iOS,  Apple's most prolific inventor, and a former "CEO-in-waiting."

The stock is cratering. It's down to $576 after peaking above $700 in min-September.

Apple whiffed on iPad sales during its fiscal fourth quarter.

Recent "refresh" of all big products has left them looking at 6 to 9 months of dead time. 

After hiring a new retail boss ~6 months ago, Tim Cook fired him last week.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Something-s-Wrong-At-Apple-AAPL-4008952.php#ixzz2Bdtrs5LJ

Friday Readings 11/9 - So many good reads!

Woman fired for Obama racial slur on Facebook (SFGATE - tweeted n-word in reference to president and hope for assassination. Fired from cold stone creamery)
 Where Fox News goes from here (SFGATE - I'd answer that with the house)
Feds sue Senor Frog's for Hawaii sexual harassment  (SFGATE - the waitresses weren't even 21!)
Woman alleges Waffle House CEO demanded sex acts (SFGATE - I wonder what her role was? Receptionist? Admin assistant? VP of a large group? Who knows.)
 Donald Trump deletes parts of Twitter tirade (SFGATE - Trump deletes tweets on revolution)
Kayak selling itself to Priceline (SFGATE - Kayak sold for 1.8B. not sure if it was worth that, but I guess priceline thinks so. How much was each referral worth?)
Romney team accidentally posts victory site (SFGATE - Romney team "accidentally" posts winning site)
401(k) balances hit record high (CNN - finally. I think the everyone is worried america is just not saving enough)
Here comes the Windows Phone Hail Mary (CNN - if they had the apps to go along with it, I would highly consider the windows phone or at least the tablet. I hope there are sales on the tablet for xmas)
JC Penney shares sink on $203 million loss (CNN - I hope JCP can hang on long enough to see Johnson's changes take shape. New brands, new style, he just needs more time for people to go to the stores and see. I wouldn't be surprised if they make smaller stores vs their anchor stores.)
Sears will offer Black Friday deals 5 days early (CNN - I like the idea of segregated deals in order to avoid the rush to enter the store, but five days early is just a sale, not a black friday sale)
Jeans Tight? It’s Sandy (NYT - New Yorkers gained weight during the power outage. Think about having a fridge full of expensive food that is going to rot. Eating what you thought could be your last meal or two or three)
Step One: Nail Down Your Turkey Plan (NYT - butterflying your turkey and various turkey options)
When Breast Isn’t Best (NYT - try your best, but it isn't always in the cards. The benefits of not breastfeeding. I had a friend who went into depression because of this but has two healthy happy children who grew up on formula. Don't beat yourselves up about this moms)
Plus-Size and Blazing a New Path (NYT - there is a market here! Why isn't there a high fashion store for larger women? And I don't mean that Wal-mart should offer better items, I mean there should be a brand and store made for larger women with high end fashion)
Walk in a Mall, Receive a Mobile Coupon (NYT - don't we complain about people walking around and only looking at their phone? I like gaining messages about what's a good buy and a coupon but I wouldn't want to stop at the entrance of a store and block people while I look at my phone. I would also feel rude to the workers of the store.)
Losing Power but Finding a Way to Connect (NYT - New Yorkers finding shelter with friends. A funny read)
Little to Show for Cash Flood by Big Donors (NYT - You can't buy an election. Didn't we learn this four years ago when Meg and Carly tried to buy seats)

Huffington Post "How College Students Save and Spend Money"

How College Students Save And Spend Money (Huffington Post - see below)

I found this very interesting. I had to pay/loan most of my education and was even cheaper than their suggestions.

1. I became an Resident Advisor. Paid for housing and food as well as paid us a small stipend.
2. Also worked while an RA. I was a Teaching Assistant (TA) for elementary algebra and Electrical Engineering 101. Honestly, though this brought in a lot of money and looked excellent on my resume, it was hell.
3. Didn't drink. Sure, I may not have had the "college experience" that others had, but I had a ton of fun, was always going to events and enjoying myself, and made up for the "lost" experiences in grad school. 
4. No car. The bus sucked especially in the snow. It was really hard to get groceries (but I was living as an RA, I didn't really need them!). It was a long ride to the mall. But I went to a college town school. The school was made to have everything in walking/free bus distance. I was out of state so I didn't need a car to go home every weekend 

Honestly, a lot of the items on this infographic is on what I would consider wants vs needs. Not every kid should get season tickets to the football stadium, their own apartment with car and eat out every night. 

By Huffington Post

Thursday Reading 11/8

Baby falls 30 feet from Fremont window (SFGATE - what is going on with all these falling babies?)
The Ambitious Eater's Weekend Guide to San Francisco (Fathomaway - I love SF and this is an excellent way to see it)
David Siegel, Billionaire Whose Letter Promised Mass Layoffs After Obama Win, Gives Workers Raises (Huffington Post - He had to do some positive PR. Also, I heard his huge house project was going to be a documentary about how the rich fall. I guess he rose back?)
The case for taking a real lunch break (CNN - Workers need breaks to work better)
Wal-Mart unveils Black Friday deals (CNN - Intersting, they're doing deals at an hourly basis on Thursday vs Friday)
Desperately seeking co-signers -- on Craigslist (CNN - buying co-signers. There has to be a better way than this)