It's Just Money

20/20 "Flat Broke: Begging and Borrowing in America" Review

Last Friday, John Stossel hosted a 20/20 special report on debt in America.  Admittedly, despite my reminder to the entire PF blogging community, I forgot to set my Tivo.  I tuned in about 10 minutes after the show started, and picked up from there.  Maybe I missed the hook at the beginning, but I was not terribly impressed by the show.  In fact, I thought Oprah's Debt Diet was far more impactful.
You'll have to forgive my weak review, but Tricia at Blogging Away Debt already wrote a very comprehensive review.  She said it far better than I could have.  There are only two things that really jumped out at me that I thought was strange.

First, the focus on debt collectors.  They spent way too much time interviewing and profiling these guys.  They tried to show the "they're not all bad men" angle, and the "look how vicious they can get" side.  I thought this should have been three minutes.  They didn't need to go through the effort to humanize the collectors.  It's not like it changes the reality of the abundant use of debt and easy credit in this country.

The Cyber-begging segment was also unnecessary.  How many Americans can relate to this?  A few hundred?  If anything, it may have encouraged more people to give it a shot.

I did like the quick easy formula that they gave at the very end.  Take your current age and divide by 2.  This is the percentage of your income that you should be saving.  So, at 20, you should save 10%.  When you are fifty, you should be saving 25% of your income.  It's obviously very simplistic, but I like the idea of a savings percent target that scales up.  This encourages people to save their raises instead of just ratcheting up their spending.

Tonight: "Flat Broke: Begging and Borrowing in America" on 20/20

Be sure to tune in or set your Tivo up to record 20/20 tonight.  John Stossel is reporting on Debt in America.  His interviews will include a debt collector, Dave Ramsey, and I'm sure people in debt.  If you miss it, I'll do a write up about it on Monday.

American Idol is Ruining America

I'll admit it.  I watched the opening night of America Idol on Tuesday.  But let's face it, if the numbers are accurate, so did you.  An estimated 37.5 million Americans tuned in for some nails on the chalkboard singing, followed by "What the bloody hell was that?" "No Dawg, wasn't feeling it" and "Sorry Sweetie, it's a no."

It's not Super Bowl numbers, but for a show where we already know what is going to happen, it's rather astonishing.  But it's not the fact that so many are watching that is ruining America.  I mean, perhaps there's a dumbing down factor, but I'm not so worried about that.  After all, I opened this post with my own admission that I watched.

There is another factor, and it has directly targeted America's youth, intentionally or not.  It is a condition that I think we can simply call "overblown expectations."  Today's 15-24 year olds may someday, if not already, be referred to as the American Idol Generation, or the Reality TV Generation.  They are a generation who grew up witnessing Kelly Clarkson blossom from American Idol winner to bona fide pop music star.  Survivor Alum Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck married NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, and currently co-hosts The View along side actual celebrities (like them or not) Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell.  What about Bob the Bachelor?  Booted on the Bachelorette, goes on to be the man in the next Bachelor and hosts VH-1's "I Love the 90s."

Property Ladder - The Bradford bunch

You want to talk about flippers in trouble?  Most of the time, assumptions have to be made about the situation that the flipper has gotten themselves into.  We can find purchase price, days on market and current asking price.  This is all public knowledge.  What we don't know is how much was spent on the renovation and how the purchase and renovation were financed.  Thanks to the boom of house flipping reality TV shows, we know all of the details for some flips.

Property Ladder has quickly become one of my favorite TV shows.  There are a bunch of house flipping shows to choose from, including A&E's Flip This House and Discovery Channel's Flip That House, but TLC's Property Ladder is the clear winner.  The other shows follow the flipper through much of the post acquisition process, including budgeting, planning, demolition and reconstruction.  At the end, however, they generally show the proud flipper standing in front of a renovated property, boasting of their appraised value, and thus the profit they stand to make.  Of course, that profit assumes a quick sale at that price.  A rather big assumption in this market.

Property Ladder follows the flipper all the way to completion of sale, or tells the viewer if they have been unable to sell the house as of production or airing of the episode.  They also do a great job showing the trials, difficulties, and frustrations of the flippers along the way, something minimized in the other shows.

The latest episode tells us the story of the Bradford Bunch, a brother and sister team and their significant others.  They are in an area that I am somewhat familiar with, Westchester, CA.  Shortly after college, I lived in an apartment in that area.

Could a reality show based on Personal Finance succeed?

I was watching TV the other night, and somehow the remote got stuck on a show.  I dunno, maybe the batteries died or something, but the channel wouldn't change.  I obviously would not watch this show voluntarily.  What am I supposed to do?  Get up?  Yea, right.

Okay, so the show is called, "How to Get the Guy."  And no, I wasn't taking notes or anything.  I'm happily engaged.  It's this show about four women living in San Francisco, dating and trying to "get the guy," I suppose.  The show's two hosts also serve as advisers to the women, giving them tips, advice and setting up the rules of the process.

NBC's Windfall: Looks like a flop of a show, but raises an interesting question

We have talked about the lottery here before.  The usual questions, what would you do with the money, should you take cash value or payments?  NBC's summer drama, which apparently is code for, "this wasn't good enough to release during the regular season against real shows," Windfall presents 20 friends who win a share of an enormous lottery jackpot, and the woes that follow.

Why is American Idol so popular?

Okay, I'll just admit it up front.  I watch American Idol.  No, I don't just watch.  I Tivo.  I vote for my favorites, I participate in a friendly pool among friends.  I'm kind of into the show.  By the looks of it, I'm not alone.  According to the most recent Nielsen ratings, American Idol's two shows took the top two spots last week.  I'm pretty sure that's a weekly occurrence.  Even third place was House, which benefits tremendously from it's AI lead in.  By the way, this post is off topic (am I supposed to announce that at the beginning?)

So, what's the draw?

My Favorite Commercials are...

Oddly enough, they're both car ads.  One isn't actually a commercial, it's a more of a multi media ad.  And that's what I love about it.  More later.

Have you seen the series of VW ads with people driving, talking, going about their lives in fairly mundane, everyday situations.  Then BOOM!  Glass breaks, metal bends, airbags deploy!  All in under a second.  Cut.  Fade in.  Guys standing around the crashed car, clearly unhurt.  "Holy Sh"  Cut.  Fade to picture of the car with the words, "Safe Happens" above it.

I definitely wakes you up.  Most of us have been in at least a small accident, and we all know how shocking that can be.  This grabs your attention like few other ads I have seen.  Some may find the ad a bit distasteful for those who have lost loved ones in car accidents.  However, the ad does two things.  It reminds us to pay better attention on the road, and it reminds us of the importance of safety features.

Oprah: Living on Minimum Wage

Don't look now, between this and the Debt Diet, I feel like I'm becoming an Oprah fan!  As long as I can honestly say that I never saw the show with Tom Cruise jumping on the couches proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes, I think I'll be alright.

In all seriousness, this was a very interesting show.  Much of the show (too much, in my opinion) spotlighted Morgan Spurlock and his girlfriend who lived on minimum wage for 30 days.  Morgan is the same guy who made the documentary, Supersize Me, in which he ate nothing but McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days.  He also the creator of the f/x show, 30 days, which challenges people to live outside their comfort zone for 30 days.

Top Ten Game Shows of All Time

Our recent discussion of games shows prompted me to wonder, what are the greatest game shows of all time?  Now bear in mind that I am in my early thirties, so this really only encompasses the games that I grew up watching, or still watch today.

10.  Deal or No Deal - it's new to American TV, but I'm hooked.  See my commentary on the contestants' decision making skills.