Queercents

Imagine this scenario…

Joe and Fred live in the same city, work at the same company, do the same job, and have the same salary.  They both have been with their significant others  for the past 10 years.  Joe happens to be married to Sally while Fred has been in a domestic partnership with Bob.

Their company offers healthcare benefits to married couple Joe & Sally.  This same company, like the majority of Fortune 500 companies, offers domestic partnership healthcare benefits to Fred & Bob. However, come tax time, Fred’s W2 reports a much higher wage.

Why is this so?   They both contribute equally to all of the other benefits that their company offers, yet Fred’s W2 is much higher.  There are a lot of tax inequalities; this scenario just highlights one of them. Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, I’ve been drowning in taxes, thank goodness for my DVR.

I have to say, now that we are 4 episodes into this show, I’m pretty disappointed.  The judges seem to be mere celebrities, or maybe just Oprah’s friends.  I would rather have known philanthropists or financial experts on the show.  I also think that we don’t see enough of a teaching philosophy that could really be used to help people.  I give an award each episode of what moment best highlights the old adage “you can give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats for life”.  Unfortunately this award is sometimes very hard to give.

Anyway, enough about my rant.  This episode was filled with money moments, just not too many financial moments.  This week, the teams headed to Miami.

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

Oprah’s Big Give moved to Houston this week. There weren’t too many money moments as the episode seemed to be about pure philanthropy. However, we did see a lot of fundraising by the teams. Show spoilers to follow…

This week’s episode had the remaining contestants split between two teams. Both Teams were given a school that needed help. The teams were also supported by a celebrity.

Team A – Cameron, Eric, Stephen, Brandi AND professional skateboarder, Tony Hawk
This team was selected to bring a “Christmas” event to their school. While they did not use their celebrity as effectively as they could have, they did show their continued ability to have the community open their arms. It even appeared that Target may have donated more than $16,000 worth of toys. Since we’ve seen Target helping in a past episode, it deserves to be noted. Read the rest of this entry »

I know this may not be a popular post, based on the fact that a lot of people tend to hate State Farm(and most Insurance companies) due to their Katrina handlings. However, I have had to file two separate claims and have had good luck with both.

I think most of the animosity towards State Farm is due to the fact that they tend to have the largest market share in their areas that they cover. When you have more customers and a disaster hits, you have more people going through the recovery process. This, obviously, results in more people going through the process and more opportunity for things to go wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

This week Oprah’s Big Give moved to Denver.  While I’m glad they got out of Los Angles, I almost wonder if United Airlines is a big sponsor and that we will see most of United’s hubs as the destinations.

Today I had to drive from Indianapolis to Nashville for work and it had me thinking, I really hope that at some point the show heads to rural America.  There are a lot of folks in rural America that could use some help.  I’d like to see a small independent farm gain a bit of support from the “city folk” on the show. 

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

This Sunday a new show premiered on ABC TV entitled “Oprah’s Big Give“.  Ten people have been given the chance to participate in a show that aspires to change people’s lives.  These participants have to find creative ways to help people in need.  In the end there will be one person who will be labeled the Biggest Giver and will receive a $1 Million prize

I plan to review and critique each episode.  These reviews will contain spoilers, so don’t read them until after you’ve watched the show.  The show has celebrity judges, but I want you to help me be the judge.  Please comment on your thoughts and ideas.  Do you feel the player did the right thing?  Did they give their recipient a fish?  or did they teach them to fish on their own? What about you? Do you have an idea that could have helped the recipient?  What were some of the creative money options that you noticed?

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought that I’d take a little break from business and have some fun, with money.

As a kid I learned how to make a T-shirt with a dollar-bill. This was a pretty fun party trick with my friends as it typically lead to learning other origami creations including a dollar-bill shaped ring and a dollar-bill sailboat.

We all know that giving cash as a present is far and away one of the easier gifts to give. It is also one of the most desirable gifts to receive. However, the problem with giving cash is that it isn’t nearly the most memorable gift someone can receive. (If my friends are reading this, trust me – high dollar gift amounts are very memorable) One way to make a gift of cash far more memorable than a walk to the bank is to create a piece of art with that money. In the past, I’ve given picture frames with valuable hearts, photo albums with money on the pages, and other small gifts with hidden cash. It makes gift giving more fun all around! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve decided to start a new thread on Queercents where I review business books. I’ve decided that these books could fall into a few categories, including productivity, advice, retirement, economics, taxes, etc…

Fortunately, I have always been a fan of these types of books and I have plenty of them lying around the house. I’m also always open to reviewing a book that you may recommend, so please let me know.

Freakonomics:

“Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work – whereas economics represents how it actually does work” – Freakonomics

I have had Freakonomics on my reading list for quite some time. The book seemed interesting when I first learned of it a few years back. I finally had a chance to read it and I was generally impressed. Read the rest of this entry »

While Jason and I are still enjoying our new house, I want to talk about another real estate experience we encountered.

During the fall of 2006, my partner and I looked all over Indiana for a vacation property to enjoy for the summers to come. We finally settled on Nineveh, a small Indiana town about an hour south of Indianapolis. Nineveh has a series of small lakes with cute properties on its waterfront. After viewing over a dozen properties, our realtor finally decided to show us a neglected foreclosure that needed some work. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend I surprised my partner with a little trip away.  We were heading to St. Louis to explore a city that neither of us had ever visited.  This was going to be about a 4 hour drive from our home in Indianapolis.

That morning in my daily Indianapolis business update, I had read an article about ChaCha and their new text messaging service.  We both became addicted to this service as we were on this long road trip.  As ChaCha mentions, our phones had become smarter! Read the rest of this entry »