Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Propaganda Alert: Visa Direct Deposit Prepaid

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There I was driving home from work, when an ad on the radio catches my attention.  It was an ad for a Visa Direct Deposit Prepaid card.  Apparently not satisfied with a plethora of prepaid cards that are terrible for users (some are O.K., just not most), Visa would now like you to believe that it’s the next best thing to sliced bread to have your paycheck direct deposited to a prepaid visa card.  Yeah, you read that right.

Prepaid Direct Deposit

The radio ad is the voice of a woman, and she talks about how she has her paycheck direct deposited to a Visa prepaid card.  She goes on to talk about how she doesn’t have to drive all the way downtown and stand in a line at her bank to cash the check.  Not content to simply portray the card as a time saver, the ad goes on for the woman to say that because she’s not driving all the way downtown and standing in line, she now has so much more time with her daughter.  Now, the prepaid direct deposit card is not only a time saver, but a family bringer-togetherer.  No, that’s not an actual word/phrase.  I don’t care.

I have a friend from college that used to make fun of infomercials by saying that all they really did was demonstrate how terribly impossible common everyday tasks can be and then show you a miraculous new gadget to “fix” that impossibility. The problem is that most of those every day tasks aren’t all that impossible.  Most able-bodied humans can do them easily without any help from the gadget.  It loses a little something without his “demonstration” of the whole situation.  Obviously, the tactic works though, or we wouldn’t have those infomercials.

Welcome to the Infomercial-ization of Prepaid Cards

Not that we haven’t seen some of this done before.  Heck, the level of celebrity endorsements of prepaid cards with outrageous fees is still amazing to me.  But, this goes a level further.  They aren’t just banking (see what I did there?) on your needing a card with Justin Bieber’s face on it anymore.  No, they’re going right for your heartstrings.  After all, what parent among us doesn’t desire to spend more time with our children?  And this card can deliver it to you!  (You should read that last sentence in your best Billy Mays voice.  R.I.P. Billy.)  In fact, maybe they need the Sham-Wow guy to do the next voice-over for a commercial!

Visa Direct Deposit Prepaid : Solution to a Problem that Doesn’t Exist

Visa Direct Deposit Prepaid Card

Much like those infomercials, the problem that they claim the card fixes just doesn’t exist.  Direct deposit isn’t a new service.  Most employers offer it.  In fact, most actually require it now.  It’s just easier for them.  No lost checks to try and track down.  No delay in mailing a check from a payroll service.  And, most of the time, if they direct deposit the check, it gets deposited into a checking account.  And, do you know what most of those checking accounts have attached to them as a service?  A debit card!  It’s exactly like a prepaid visa card, but without most of the fees!  Mine has no fees.  I’m not sure there are many places that do have fees, in fact.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe there’s a whole population of the country who’ve been waiting patiently for someone to come along and solve this very problem.  Maybe they still bank at an institution that keeps their account records on old green ledger books.  If that’s so, I’d like to introduce them to the amazing egg shell separator that I’ve created.  Yes, it looks exactly like the lip of a mixing bowl.  But, it doesn’t have the added bulk of the bowl!  It’s just a convenient shard sized device that helps you separate your egg shells without having to have the whole mixing bowl there!  Yes, I came up with the idea when the bowl I was cracking eggs into suddenly grew heavy in my arm and fell to the ground, breaking into lots of small pieces.  And one of those pieces was the prototype for the amazing egg shell separator!

What do you think?  Am I wrong?  Was there a need for a product like this?  Or is Visa just pulling on emotional strings to get more cards in peoples’ wallets?

original img credit: classic visa (the inception of the “we’ve got you covered” campaign) : london underground ad (1988) by torbakhopper, on Flickr

The Joneses and Jealousy

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We spend a lot of time, while talking about finances, talking about the Joneses. We often talk about how most of us make the mistake of trying to keep up with the Joneses by buying cars that are new, houses that are bigger, and generally spending our way into oblivion.  What we seldom talk about is what really is motivating us to keep up with them.

The Joneses and Acceptance

The reasoning that most people assume is really being put to work is that of acceptance.  And, surely, it does play a part.  Humans are, at our most basic, a tribal animal.  We’ve long been conditioned to be that way.  Historically, we lived in tribes, and what was good for the tribe was also good for the individual.  If any individual of the tribe stepped out of the accepted norms, it was likely to get that individual killed, or other members of the tribe killed.

In more modern times, we talk about it taking a village to raise a child.  We talk about how we’re all “in this together.”  We, as children, are thrown into sub-tribes (classes in school) where we quickly learn that it’s easier to get along with the majority of the other children and not be one of the children that’s ostracized for being a bit “weird.”  As we get older, that need for acceptance grows.  We get to college, and the further splitting of our peers into sub-tribes begins.  Graduates from college quickly find that their college tribe has broken up, and they must find a new tribe.  We begin in the place we spend the most time; at work.  In true tribal fashion, we quickly begin attempting to appease those with the most power in order to gain favor, and thus, not be cast out from the tribe.  We call it getting fired.

And, in trying to appease those with the most power (perceived, real, or otherwise), we learn to buy cars that are similar to theirs.  We learn to buy houses that are as big as theirs.  We learn to eat at the same restaurants, drink the same drinks, and hang out in the same social circles.  All because we have a deep rooted desire to be accepted in our “tribe.”  And because we know that humans have a natural attraction to people who are most like us.  We accept them.

The Joneses and Jealousy

The issue of tribal acceptance is almost a genetic issue.  It’s been conditioned into the human psyche for centuries.  But, there’s another, equally powerful reason that we all try and keep up with the Joneses.  Jealousy.

Masquerade BallThe very same urge that we feel to try and gain the acceptance of those with power (again, perceived, real, or otherwise), also is driven by jealousy.  Survival depends on our acceptance.  And our acceptance is given by those we see as having the power.  And the power we see them with is one that we’d love to wield.  For two reasons.  One, we want the power because those with the power aren’t thrown out of the tribe.  And, two, because those with the power have the ability to throw out those they are enemies with.

It’s a story we’ve seen played out in the news many times.  Some guy (or girl) climbs the corporate ladder and finds him or herself at the top (or near it).  Years later, they have some event that brings them down.  Corruption, greed, or some other malfeasance.  On their way down, we start hearing stories about how all those years they were at the top, they were taking the ideas of those below them and claiming them for their own. Their friends got all the promotions. People who disagreed with them would suddenly find themselves the subject of an internal inquiry and then were summarily fired.  In short, they held the power.  They dismissed their enemies from the tribe.  And, while they eventually fell from power, they wielded it to their advantage for a long time.

Few among us haven’t tasted the desire to have that power.  Whether we intend to use it in a bad manner or not, we’ve felt it.  That desire to have the power.  That jealousy of those that do have it.  And, through our jealousy (and need for acceptance), we learn to buy cars that are similar to the car that those that do have the power have.  And we learn to buy homes that are as big as theirs.  And we learn to eat at the same restaurants, drink the same drinks, and hang out in the same social circles as they do.  All because, you guessed it, we have a deep rooted desire to be accepted in our “tribe.” And what better way to guarantee our acceptance than to be the one who does the deciding?

Replacing the Joneses

Whether it’s through a desire for acceptance, or jealousy of their power, we try to be the Joneses.  We try to be the ones with power.  I’ve felt it.  I’ve done it.  Sometimes I managed to accomplish it too.  Maybe not financially, but socially.  Heck, I’ve still got some of the debt to prove it.  And, I’d bet that there are plenty of you who do too.

Replace the Joneses.  – click here to tweet this.

The only real cure, as many of my fellow personal finance bloggers will attest, is to give up chasing the Joneses.  To stop trying to gain their acceptance, and to let the jealousy go.  But, something that deeply ingrained into our human nature isn’t easy to do.  I’ve gone through times where I’ve done really well with not caring what the Joneses are doing.  And the next thing I know, I walk around the corner, and there’s one of them.  And it comes flooding back in a momentary flash of natural instinct.  Before I know it, I’m looking at big fancy houses that I don’t need, eating at restaurants all the time, and buying gadgets like crazy.  And then my senses return, I realize what I’m doing, and the remorse comes.  Remorse for forgetting that I don’t need that big fancy house.  Remorse at the money I’ve squandered.  And remorse at the lack of will power I displayed.  In times like that, I try to remember that it’s only natural to feel those pangs of jealousy and the need for acceptance.  And I try again.

Giving up the Joneses isn’t an easy thing to do.  In fact, it’s nearly impossible to do.  What you’ve got to do is to replace them instead.  Get a different tribe.  That ladder climbing, socialite-ing, money spending tribe isn’t the only one out there!  Just like our ancestors, the modern human race is divided into many tribes.  Find one you want to be in.  Find one whose leaders are living the life you really want to be living, and gain your acceptance there.  Surround yourself with people who have the same passions as you do, and make them your tribe.

Replace the Joneses.

img credit: Jaguar Ahlan! Masquerade Ball 2012 by jaguarcarsmena on Flickr.

Is Recycling Bullshit?

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Show of hands.  How many of you actively participate in recycling endeavors in your community?  You schlep around your empty cans, jugs, and bottles.  You pile them up with your used papers, then sort them all into bins so some poor schmoe down at the recycling center doesn’t have to.  All so your city can save a few dimes on an already expensive endeavor. Ok, now show of hands, who thinks recycling is bullshit?

Let’s think about this honestly for a minute.  Because, I think we’ve got our terms confused.  What, exactly, is recycling?  It’s the taking of something that’s already been used, and putting it back through the manufacturing cycle so that the material can be used again.  That extra cycle is where the term recycling comes from!  But, what is the cost of that extra cycle.  Let’s break it down a bit.  We’ll ignore the first cycle, since it’s going to get used for the first cycle regardless.

Let’s consider a plastic bottle.  It’s been created, and used.  It’s empty, so has no further use in it’s first cycle.  You collect it with similar bottles, then submit it to the local recycling center.  We’ll discount the energy that you use in collecting the bottle, as it really isn’t that much more work than you would use in throwing the bottle away.  But, what about the energy that will be used in picking up or dropping off the bottle.  You’ve got to either have someone pick up the bottle, or you have to drop it off at the recycling center.  Once the bottle has been taken to the recycling center, it then has to be shipped to a factory where it can be broken down in a way that makes it recyclable.  More energy wasted in transportation.  Once it’s there, at the factory, it then has to be broken down.  Depending on the process, that could involve melting the plastic under heat.  It could mean squishing, cutting, and making the plastic into threads.  Even more energy wasted.  Once it’s been broken down, the resulting product must be taken to yet another factory that can then turn it into the “recycled” product.

By the time it’s recycled, it’s been through a manufacturing process three times.  Does the extra cost in energy, pollutants, and work make it worth our while?  I’m not sure that it does.  Want to take a deeper look at some of this?  Take a look at this video.  Now, arguably, the show is called “Bullshit”, and anyone who uses that as the name of their show (or as a title for an article) is out to be a bit sensationalist.  And, certainly, I don’t know that Penn and Teller count as experts.  But, I do think they make some interesting points.  There’s three parts to it, so it’s a bit long, but worth watching, I think. When you’re done, we’ll continue on below. P.S. as you can imagine, a show whose title is “Bullshit” has some NSFW language in it.



I admit, I like sensationalism. And, I’ll make another admission. I’m not entirely against recycling. But, I tend to think that the first two parts of the motto “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” are far more useful and important than the recycling. By reducing the amount of energy and products that we use, less needs to be made. By reusing the things that we can, we reduce the amount of products that will need to be recycled or thrown into a landfill.  Instead of expecting someone else to ease my conscious, and take away my trash to be converted into something usable, I’d rather reduce the amount of trash I make.  Less paper plates.  Less non-reusable water bottles.  Less stuff.

The one thing that I collect to send off to recycling is soda cans.  Mostly, because I can drop them off at the local Humane Society where they take them to a scrap metal yard and sell them for cash.  It’s an extra way to give to one of my favorite charities.  Here’s some more sensationalism for you.  The Humane Society is, essentially, a pet recycling center.  People take their unwanted and used pets there, so that they can be washed, fed, given their shots, and sent back out to a new family.

I’ve gone on about recycling long enough.  Now, it’s your turn.  Is recycling bullshit? Scroll down a few inches on the screen and leave a comment.  Do you agree that recycling might be bullshit?  Do you recycle religiously?  What steps do you take to reduce, reuse, and recycle?  Heck, you can let me have it in the comments too, if you like.  One small caveat in doing so, is that any excessive NSFW language will likely get edited out.