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This Statistic On Greed Will Shock You: Have Less? You’ll Give More.

By Frugaling 8 Comments

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Paul Piff is enemy number one for those who hoard their money. He’s a researcher at the prestigious University of California, Berkeley. What he’s found is that social class predicts “unethical behavior,” and he can show you over a game of Monopoly.

Piff hypothesized that Monopoly could be a powerful proxy for real life — modelling wealth generation and headstarts. Essentially, some people are born into wealthy families, while others aren’t. In a lab setting, Piff gave one participant more money to start, with some wealth generation benefits. The other participant was forced to play with one die — mimicking the many constraints and disabilities that a person may suffer through life.

Despite these artificial constraints, wealthier participants tended to hoard their money and would often refuse to share in their winnings. They tended to enjoy and laugh at others’ troubles. Being poor was seen as a bummer that the wealthier individual needn’t change.

This all centers on a fundamental question about generosity. When you have more, you actually tend to give less as a percentage of your income. That can be shocking to find out, when people see tremendous dollar amounts being given from select individuals.

Nothing captures this phenomenon better than the preceding video. In it, Sam Pepper — a YouTube personality — attempts to get a piece of pizza from paying customers. After being told “no” multiple times, he decides to ask a homeless person. Despite having very little, that individual willingly obliges.

We need to fundamentally change our understanding of what it means to be generous and wealthy. Too frequently, we aim for wealth generation without thinking about the responsibility we simultaneously have to give back. People universally deserve equal opportunity for a better life if we are all considered equal as humans.

Making money cannot be the end goal, but what should be? What’s driving you to succeed? What motivates you?

Filed Under: Social Justice Tagged With: Charity, Giving, money, monopoly, occupy, research, rich, Wealth, Youtube

I Am LaTisha Styles, Founder Of Young Finances, And This Is How I Work

By Frugaling 7 Comments

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Latina Styles Headshot
Latina Styles

Over the last couple months I have interviewed a growing number of top bloggers and writers to get their input on personal finance (e.g., the founders of Budgets Are Sexy, The Broke And Beautiful Life, Frugal Rules,Debt Roundup, and Modest Money). Today, I’m excited to share with you another terrific interview with one of the top personal finance writers on the Internet.

LaTisha Styles founded a popular website called Young Finances. Since 2010, she has become an Investment Analyst, entrepreneur, and was featured in a variety of publications. Here’s my interview with her. Thanks again, LaTisha!

What inspired you to begin Young Finances?

I started Young Finances because I graduated college in 2010 and I was having a hard time finding a job. I had a degree in Finance and learned a lot about the correct way to manage personal finances after recovering from several bad decisions I made with my money. I decided to start writing about what I learned to help other young adults.

How did people (friends, family, etc.) react when you first started? How long have you been blogging?

Almost all of my friends were supportive. I used to share each post on Facebook and I got a lot of good feedback and encouragement. I started the site in December of 2010, but I have been blogging much longer. I started an e-zine when I was 14 and I just found an old issue! It was such a blast from the past.

What was your experience with design, code, web work prior to starting your site?

I graduated with a business degree, and had to learn the basics of HTML and CSS in our business information systems class. We had a group project that involved creating a single page website from scratch using Dreamweaver. I later taught myself more using W3 Schools to understand the basics of PHP and Javascript for WordPress. I personally did a few customizations to my site but on the next redesign I would probably hire a professional coder.

What advice would you give to those thinking about starting their own site?

logoYTDon’t be afraid to just get started. You don’t have to know everything when you are first starting out and you won’t know everything. If you don’t like the name of your site you can always change it. More than once. I started out as Financial Success for Young Adults then moved to Young Adult Finances and now my happy home is Young Finances. I think this is where we’ll stay.

How do you make money from your site? Where does most of your revenue come from?

My site generates revenue primarily through affiliate marketing. When I first started, I sold text links and sponsored posts but I decided to focus on more stable revenue. If you’re like me and interested to see income reports, I share the income that comes from my web properties each month at TravelTish.com. Mostly I learn about the best financial tools and I test them out for myself before recommending them to my audience.

What do you think you’ve learned from your readers and fans?

I’ve learned not to be so scared. I used to be really scared about putting personal information out there and sharing my money mishaps. But once I starting sharing, more people (and even close friends!) started reaching out to share their stories about money. It makes me sad that personal finance is such a taboo subject because I think that we could all learn a lot from the mistakes and successes of others.

How I Work Youtube Latisha Styles Office
LaTisha’s workspace where she films YouTube videos

How can somebody in lower incomes best overcome financial hurdles and prosper?

I can only speak from my own experience here. I come from a low-income family and I was determined to set the bar high for myself. I was fortunate that my parents made school a priority and taught me smart study habits. I decided to learn about how money works and how banks and businesses make money. Learning the system is the best way to beat it.

Wherever you are starting, you can do it. I always imagined that someone held me back at the starting line of my financial life, but I just had to exert that much more effort to win and achieve my own financial success. And I’m still gunning for first place.

I had to be willing to be different. Turn off the TV, start reading about successful people, figure out the formula. It will take time but you can do it. And look for role models and mentors. Tell them about your goals.

“When you really want something to happen, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it.”

That’s from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho one of my favorite books.

Who are your financial role models?

I admire the stories of ‘regular people’ as my financial role models. People who started with nothing and worked hard. Author J.K. Rowling who worked day and night on a book that helped pull her out of poverty and rapper B.o.B. who came from humble beginnings in Decatur, GA and played no name venues as he gained his fan base. I really admire that strong work ethic that unites successful people.

What personal finance sites do you read?

As a personal finance blogger, I like to read the sites that are very different. RomeoJeremiah.com has interesting posts about life and personal finance. I really enjoy reading AffordAnything.com. Paula really appeals to the rebel in me. I discover new blogs everyday but these are two that I come back to often.

To be honest, I would love to see more video personal finance bloggers. I enjoy watching FatGuyOnYoutube.com and of course, YoungFinances.com/tv.

What else would you care to share with the readers of Frugaling?

I would love to share my dancing skills! (And a bit of business advice). Please head over to this video and watch me do the hustle: youngfinances.com/sidehustle

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Affiliate Marketing, Business, Entrepreneur, Income, LaTisha Styles, low-income, Side Hustle, TV, wordpress, Young Finances, Youtube

Why Google Wallet Needed To Release An Offline Debit Card

By Frugaling 4 Comments

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Google Wallet Card Balance Phone DebitLast week, I wrote an article bringing attention to the Google Wallet Card. This decision to print and give away a free debit card will usher in a new epoch of payments, banking, and budgeting. But when I finished writing the story, I realized there was a missing piece to all of the current press: Why did Google release an offline debit card in the first place?

Google Wallet was announced in 2011, and released as a smartphone app in September of that year. After over two years of development and company expenditures, critics suggest the experiment has failed:

…Google Wallet is a dud, at least to date, despite the company’s expenditure of an estimated $300 million in real money on its development… (USAToday)

Earlier this year, rumors began swirling that Google would be releasing a physical debit card to be paired with its Wallet service. Unfortunately, ahead of the company’s major press event, Google I/O, they scrapped the release and went back to the drawing board. Despite being considered a “dud” by some analysts, Google Wallet was already beginning to catch on – largely credited to the payment processing of Android apps and Google Play purchases.

Google is already sucking in that purchase data on many fronts — between Google Play payments, Google Checkout on the Web and also advertiser payments — in addition to the dedicated Google Wallet project. (AllThingsD)

Google Wallet Debit Card Swipe Image

On November 20, 2013, Google decided to follow through with the release of a physical debit card (issued with a Mastercard logo). Commentators and speculators suggest that the Google Wallet platform needed to increase users’ payment options. As much of what we buy in stores takes a physical swipe of a card, these stories suggest that the debit card would help pay for physical goods. But tech writers have questioned Google’s decision to enter the physical world:

It’s surprising because Google exists to get people off physical media and into virtual digital everything. They’ve also been a leading force in mobile payments with both Android and Google Wallet. (ComputerWorld)

The persistence of plastic suggests we’re a lot farther than we think from a world where true mobile payments are the norm. (Washington Post)

Thus far, the primary hypothesis seems to center on the idea that Google has admitted to the failure of its online-only payment platform – it’s kowtowing to the payment processing gods and issuing a physical card. These articles and writers don’t give enough credit to this decision or Google’s business acumen. The company is in the payment processing business for the long haul. Much like their advertising platform, which is considered to be the best ad system in the world, payments give vital details about user habits, transactions, and life outside Google. There’s money in that big data and Google is about to start drilling.

With the release of a debit card, Google Wallet is not admitting defeat nor is it suggesting we have a “lot” further to go before mobile payments become the norm. Rather, the Wallet platform is injecting itself into the current psychological modality for purchasing goods for evolution down the road. Users of the product will begin to natively track and spend via the online platform. This will likely cause people to start defaulting to this payment system.

Meanwhile, Google has laid a diverse framework and future for the payment system by interlinking it with Gmail, Google+, and a growing number of online services. Now, you can send money via Gmail, swipe for gas, and receive a payment – instantly and securely. But Google needed a card to segue purchasers to this mobile platform. Eventually, when people are convinced that the online, digital model works better than physical, debit card swipes, Google will win.

Every recent service Google has announced has required a segue from the search model. From Drive to Plus to Wallet, these services have been built-in to a diverse set of products. Drive is now caked into Gmail attachments. Plus is a necessity for YouTube comments. And now, Wallet… Necessary for Google Play purchases and about to grow into another multi-billion dollar industry for Google. Making a physical card was just another segue for Google to make users’ switch to a mobile payment model more seamless.

An era of mobile payments is nearly here. In the next 4 to 5 years, we’ll likely see a massive switch to digital payments. Just like the banking industry today, there will be multiple players and competition. The major difference will be that tech behemoths will compete directly with big banks. What’s clear is that the players that can create a natural blend of on and offline payments now will win later.

Filed Under: Best Credit Cards, Save Money Tagged With: Banking, Bitcoin, Card, Debit, Gmail, Google, Google Wallet, money, NFC, PayPal, Plus, Youtube

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