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Nike Generates $3 Billion in Market Cap After Siding with Kaepernick

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Lately, we’ve seen a number of brands becoming increasingly political. While companies supporting or siding against political parties and politicians aren’t a new thing, never before has our country seen this type of social branding. It’s so strong that a single move, pulling a product from development, actually increased the market cap of that company.

Usually when a product gets pulled, there’s a potential impact to someone’s health or they simply discontinue making it in favor of something else. In this instance, one person spoke out and said a pair of shoes might be damaging to some people, as it represents a time of white supremacy and slavery.

The shoe was the Air Max 1 USA, which revealed the Betsy Ross 13-star flag. The flag itself was from the Revolutionary War, back when the U.S. only had 13 colonies (hence the 13 stars). The flag itself has no connection whatsoever to slavery and white supremacy and was made during a time when America wasn’t even a country.

It was May of 1776, several months before Independence would ring out. George Washington, George Ross, and Robert Morris asked Ross to make a national flag. Ross, who was a widow and worked hard to keep her upholstery business going, agreed. Each colony had their own flag, many of them similar to the British flag considering many colonists at that time still considered themselves English citizens living in America.

A Connection to Slavery?

Fast forward to 2019 and social awareness is all the rage. As America neared the 4^th of July holiday, 243 years since the Betsy Ross created her flag, Nike decided it would create a shoe that showcased the original Ross flag design, the circle emblem with 13 stars. Colin Kaepernick, Nike’s major sponsor and outspoken former NFL player, said Nike should get rid of that shoe because it brings us back to a time when there was slavery in America.

As a connoisseur in modern-day America, where having a social conscience is part of doing business, Nike agreed and immediately pulled the Ross flag shoe. It created a lot of controversy, just days before Independence Day. The right was especially infuriated, seeing this as an attempt to tear away all history, even if it doesn’t specifically relate to slavery at all.

While the move certainly could have backfired, it would seem as if it was the right financial move for Nike. They gained 2% bump in stock value, which equals around $3 billion in total market value. That means Nike is now worth $136.38 billion.

“What I’m beginning to learn about Nike,” Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank told TMZ Sports, “they know how to take controversy and blow it up into advertising.” O’Leary is right. When Nike first decided to sign Kaepernick, they saw an additional $43 million worth of additional media exposure as a result of their new ad with him as the new face of the company.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Real life

You may look at the title of this article and wonder how hamburgers prove that the value of the dollar is way too high. But when you look at it, the value of a dollar is what determines how expensive things are comparative to their worth. For this reason, you’ll find products that are cheaper or more expensive in other parts of the world. Burgers are yet one indicator to show exactly what we mean.

The Economist put together what they called “The Big Mac Index.” This index was their way of showing exactly how high the dollar is valued compared to other currencies. It looks at what it costs to buy a Big Mac burger in other countries and how much we would pay for that same sandwich here in the United States. The Big Mac Index is quite revealing.

The exchange rates we see with the dollar versus other currencies really reflect the value of goods across the spectrum. It allows us to see which currencies are over or undervalued. The indicator put together during the Big Mac Index revealed that the dollar has been growing increasingly stronger over the past few months and it was pretty strong to begin with.

The Cost of a Big Mac

With the Big Mac Index, we can see how different currencies stack up against each other. For example, the Euro has fallen in recent months. You can get a Big Mac at McDonalds in Europe 19% cheaper than you can in the states. Just 6 months ago, it was 17% cheaper, so you can see how the currency has lowered in value. It’s also a good indicator of just how inflated the U.S. dollar is comparatively.

In Russia, you can buy a Big Mac for $2. That’s because their ruble is 65% undervalued compared to the dollar. The cost in the U.S. is about $5.74, so you can start to see the differences and how much the value of our money can impact prices. We wonder why prices seem to continue to go up, and this is why.

The U.S. dollar is so overvalued that there is only one country that is higher currently. The Swiss franc is 14% higher than the dollar, which makes the cost of a Big Mac there $6.60. It’s quite interesting to see the disparity of prices around the world for the same burger. There’s no wonder why President Trump and 2020 Democratic candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren have both come out in favor of lowering the value of the dollar.

If goods are more expensive here in the states, it really hurts the economy. Wages and jobs are still growing each month, but if goods become too expensive, it can really damper how much we are able to buy. Quite frankly, when the always reliably cheap McDonald’s starts bumping up their costs, more families are going to think twice about eating out there.

We Can Expect a Lower Dollar Soon

One debate currently raging right now is whether the Fed will cut interest rates later this year. The higher dollar makes it difficult for the U.S. to continue their dominance on the world market. It gives us a disadvantage and allows other economies to catch up. That’s why politicians across the spectrum believe a weaker dollar is good for the country.

During his campaign and even as president, Trump has long accused several countries of being currency manipulators. Russia and China are two of the worst ones, but even Europe has been deploying the tactic as of late.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Business , Real life

After a year of investigations and months of negotiations, the Federal Trade Commission has officially decided to punish Facebook for their multiple privacy violations. It was announced last Friday that the mega social media website will have to pay a $5 billion fine. This is the largest fine any company is ever received, but there’s a good reason for that.

The US tech industry does a lot for the US economy. It employs many thousands of people and helps to advance our country and civilization as a whole. For this reason, Facebook and many other companies in Silicon Valley have mostly been unregulated. There haven’t been too many rules set to help protect the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans who use their websites.

While Silicon Valley is indeed unregulated for the most part, the US government has shared its intention of pushing back a bit. Some presidential candidates, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, I’ve talked about breaking up the major tech companies. They’re raking in billions of dollars while violating the trust and security of the American people.

While this FTC fine is the largest ever given to any company in the history of our country, it’s being done to set a precedent. It’s getting word to other social media websites that they better fix their privacy issues right now. If they don’t, that even larger fines may be levied in the very near future.

The Impact of Facebook

Full details of the fine and have been released as of yet. Neither Facebook nor the FTC has come out with any comments either. The Justice Department still has to get together and review the terms of the fine, so it isn’t 100% official just yet. There are still a lot of different questions that need to be answered regarding social media and the law that protects the privacy of its users.

The decision they’re trying to make is understanding whether Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg can be held personally liable if the company itself violates the privacy of its users. A lot of it has to do with Facebook’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election. The fight really began as a result of political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtain information from millions of people improperly.

The data was taken and sold without the knowledge of Facebook users. While some users did give their permission and voluntarily downloaded the app that collected personality information, it also collected the same information from their friends without permission. This led many to wonder exactly how much power Facebook has been whether they enforce any privacy policies that all.

The thing is, Facebook promised the FTC back in 2011 that it would never share data with any third-party companies without the consent of the users. They made this agreement with the FTC after it was found that Facebook was purposely deceiving the people about their own privacy practices

A Drop in the Bucket

While this is the largest fine ever levied against any company, many critics say it’s only a drop in the bucket for Facebook. In fact, they made over $15 billion worth of revenue in the last quarter alone. A $5 billion penalty is nothing to them it may feel as if Facebook can decide to continue violating user privacy.

If all that’s going to happen to them as they get a slap on the wrist, what rules do they really have to follow? Over 2 billion people across the world use Facebook, which generates many billions of dollars every year. Social media marketing is prevalent among many tens of thousands of businesses which uses Facebook for their own success.

“They can issue a really big fine, which is just a parking ticket,” Matt Stoller, a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, recently told WIRED. “We don’t think a fine matters. We need a structural solution here.”

In a letter to the FTC in early May, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) argued that the FTC should “compel sweeping changes to end the social network’s pattern of misuse and abuse of personal data.”

“Personal responsibility must be recognized from the top of the corporate board down to the product development teams,” the letter read. “If the FTC finds that any Facebook executive knowingly broke the consent order or violated the law, it must name them in any further action.”

The reality is, the critics are right. $5 billion is nothing but a parking ticket; a drop in the bucket. If they really want these mega companies to protect the privacy and rights of the citizens, the government needs to institute a real change and comprehensive reform. A “small” fine like that does nothing to really push for change, but gives the illusion they’re actually doing something.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Business

In today’s marketing world, convenience is king. As the digital world is taken over, it is impacted a lot of industries and businesses that couldn’t compete with the more convenient technological advantage. Look at Blockbuster and how it went out of business once Netflix found its way into the American home. Why go to the video store when you could stream thousands of movies and TV shows right from your couch?

Once Amazon became a staple, we found we can order everything that we want online, including some groceries. Ordering online has become so convenient, that saved us time and money from going to the physical store to buy gifts and other products. It looked as if Amazon can completely destroy the age of the department store at Sears and other major retailers have gone out of business.

In fact, Amazon was even giving Walmart a run for its money is the number one retailer in the country. But Walmart decided that it wasn’t going to accept defeat. They decided they were going to go back to the drawing board and find a way to out convenience Amazon. They revamped their website in a strategic way that brought them back into the fight.

Now, Walmart is leveraging their stores in a way that Amazon cannot. Walmart already has a network of stores in nearly every community in the country. If you do not find it convenient to walk into a Walmart and go grocery shopping, they’ll bring the groceries to you. The best part is, they’ll do everything for you.

Convenience Wins

Going grocery shopping can be so inconvenient. It takes time and energy to shop for an entire family. Most people would rather be doing something else with that time. But last Friday, Walmart announced that they would now be allowing customers to order their groceries online. Not only can they or their groceries online, but Walmart worker will literally drive to their home and deliver that food to their homes.

Not only will Walmart workers drive and deliver groceries, they will put your groceries away into your fridge and cabinet. Food and groceries make up approximately half of all of Walmart’s sales. By offering this service, they do something Amazon cannot do as they simply do not have the network to do it.

Walmart spent the last five months piloting this program in New Jersey to see if it would work. They now decided to expand it and to other cities across the country, like Pittsburgh and Kansas City. There is a small fee for making grocery deliveries, but it is unknown as of yet exactly how much we would have to pay for direct in-home delivery.

It gets even better. If you made a purchase from Walmart and need to make a return, you can leave that return on your counter in the Walmart employee will take it back to the store with them so that you can receive your refund. So, while the battle of convenience rages on, we all win!

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Credit & Debt

If you were to poll everyone in any given room on whether they want to rich or not, it would most likely poll at 100%. We want to have wealth, but mostly it’s the things that wealth gives us: financial freedom. You see, having financial freedom means we don’t have to worry as much. We can relax a bit.

Right now, there are so many people working themselves to near death just to live paycheck-to-paycheck. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, not sure how any disruption in the system tomorrow could set you back financially. Could another recession force you out into the streets? What about all your debt?

You don’t have to be rich to have financial freedom. Here are ten things you can do today to help you reach that point sooner!

1) Determine where you’re at right now.

The simple fact is, you can’t figure out how to get to where you want to be if you don’t know where you’re currently at. Sit down at the table (with your spouse, if applicable) and go over everything. What are you worth? Are you in debt? Are you paying off your mortgage? How long until the car is paid off?

Go through your assets, subtract liabilities, and find out your overall net worth. It can be difficult to see any issues with your budget when you’re not proactive about seeing it all listed together. If you see you’re spending more than you’re bringing in and relying on credit to get by, then you have some important decisions to make.

But you won’t get there until you figure out this step first.

2) Exchange credit for debit

Unless you’re working on building better credit, your credit cards are only holding you back. We get into the cycle of buying everything on credit and paying MORE for it later with interest and fees. Is the convenience really worth spending more in the long run? Try to spend only what you can afford right now, rather than borrowing.

3) Give yourself an allowance.

Even though step #2 says to use your debit card rather than your credit card, you can take things a step forward by using cash more often than cards. Determine what you need ahead of time for regular expenses, pull out the cash, and put the rest into savings. It’s easier to spend, spend, spend when you have a card, but can’t track what you have left like you do with cash.

4) Cut spending!

I’m sure you knew this was coming, but it’s true! Right now, in this modern technological age, we spend a lot of money on gadgets and plans. They are all convenient, but do you really need them? Can you survive on Netflix and Hulu while cutting the cord? That’s potentially $100 per month savings right there.

Look at your phone bill. Do you need unlimited everything, or can you survive perfectly fine with a cheaper plan? Can you plan to eat in more often and save more throughout the year? These are all conscience decisions you can make to drastically improve your bottom line. The only way to lose weight is to eat less. The same lesson applies here.

5) Plan your goals.

You probably have the same big goals I do. It’s one thing to have a dream in the back of your mind, and another to actually sit down and do the math. You can’t hope your goals into existence. No, you must plan for it and scrape together everything you can. It will be a journey getting from Point A to Point B, but it should be an enjoyable one.

Where do you see yourself next year? In 5 years? In 10? Think of all your short-term AND long-term goals and write them down.

6) Strategize your plan of attack.

The great thing about writing down your expenses and figuring out what to cut is you can actually see your plan coming into fruition. If you know you can cut “X” amount of dollars from your budget and stick that into a savings account, you’ll have an approximate idea on where those savings will take you.

You may not save a ton, and that’s perfectly fine! It’s always good to have a bit of extra saved in the bank, which brings us to the next point:

7) Have an emergency fund.

It was said recently that most people don’t even have access to $400 if they needed it for an emergency. That’s a sad statistic! We’re so busy living above our means and charging everything to credit (and paying more for it later) that we don’t actually think about our safety. It’s a good idea to have at least $1,000 in savings for an emergency.

8) Check your taxes.

I know in the previous points, where I say you should look at cutting your spending habits, you didn’t think I was going to suggest hiring a tax accountant, but it might very well be worth it in the long run! Let’s face it, most of us are clueless and do our best to file as accurately as possible. Because we’re not experts, so we could be missing out on huge deductions we had no idea were possible!

9) Start paying off small debts.

Think of debt as the amount of weight you need to lose. You might step on the scale and see a large number, causing you to panic. How can you possibly lose all this weight?! The answer is simple, one pound at a time. The problem is, we think about ALL the weight we need to lose rather than the short-term progress and results we’ll experience.

Start cutting into your smaller debts and get those out of the way first. It will build your confidence and allow you to see yourself slowly gaining control of your finances. It’s a cool feeling to free yourself out from under its worrisome burden!

10) Keep your plan with you at all times.

Once you get all your numbers organized, write up your goals, and make a plan of action, turn your notes into canon. Officially recognize your plan as a way to move forward and stick with it. It will be difficult. There will be unforeseen events that pop up. Do not fret! The plan is solid and it will get you through!

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Science

It’s currently the middle of July and this next week is expected to be a scorcher across the entire country. Highs near 100° will reach as far north as Canada. It’s been a very hot season so far for most of the country and many energy companies are doing their best to keep up with demand. In fact, one energy company, Consumers Energy, says that were using our air-conditioning 40% more this month compared to other Julys in the past.

That’s why a lot of energy companies are sending out emails and text to their customers. They want to warn everybody about the warmer weather and what they can do to help protect their bill. The goal is for every individual consumer to use less energy. When it gets superhot like this, we want to crank up the AC, but everyone else is their AC on as well. This can lead to a lot of complications with the power grid.

When it gets hot, it also impacts the air quality. With the soaring temperatures, a lot of the country falls under air-quality alerts as ozone levels continue to rise. This type of pollution can make the situation dire when combined with extremely high temperatures. Most people are advised to stay inside, stay hydrated, and stay cool if possible.

Saving Money this Summer

If you really want to save money this summer, don’t crank your AC that often. The air conditioner, while a modern marvel, is one of the largest budget killers in your home. You’ll notice a tremendous difference in your bill from the cooler spring months when you didn’t run the AC, to months like July when it’s most likely on more often.

Many energy companies, including Consumers Energy, recommends that you turn your thermostat up when the days get superhot. The recommended temperature setting is 78° for these warm days. It’s estimated that every degree that you turn up your thermostat, you’ll save anywhere between 1% and 3% on your bill. Not to mention, you’ll be helping out the environment by using less energy.

The lower your thermostat on these extremely hot days, the more times it will kick on throughout the day. It’s not uncommon for big cities to have brownouts or even blackouts during the hot summer months when everyone’s trying to crank their AC.

Energy Saving Tips

If 78° is a little warm for you, there are a few things you can do to still save energy. It’s a good idea to keep your shades and blinds closed during the day to keep the heat of the sun out of your house. You could also use fans. A fan in front of the AC might help push cooler air throughout your home. If possible, consider ordering out on the hottest of days you have to use your oven or dishwasher. And when night comes, open the windows and let in the cool night air.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Saving

For a lot of people, shopping at a thrift store is a big no-no. Who wants to wear pre-worn clothes? What a lot of people are finding, is that thrift store shopping can be extremely helpful. This is especially true if you’re trying to save money. The thing you should remember is to not jump into judgment too quickly. You can find a lot of great items at a thrift store without dropping your entire paycheck just to find some pretty clothes.

Finding quality items in a thrift store can take some work, but there are plenty of items for you to look for. Yes, this is stylish clothing and no one in the right mind would be able to tell that you bought it at a thrift store. So, why not save a lot of money if you’re struggling financially? Especially when no one can tell.

Let’s look at three tips for finding stylish clothing and saving money at a thrift store:

Tip #1: You Can Find New Clothes

It may seem strange, but there’s plenty of new clothing being sold it thrift stores. You can find sweaters, shirts, blouses, and other clothes donated by people who never even wore them. It’s not so odd, as plenty of people buy stuff on impulse. If they see sale, they tackle that sale, and stuff their clothes away in the closet and completely forget about it. Maybe the clothing was given as a gift and it sat in the closet for years, unworn and untouched.

Tip #2: Take the Time to Browse

Yes, you’re going to find a lot of duds at a thrift store. It might come across a pair of pants with a few coffee stains on them, stretched out sweater, or shirt with a hole in it. But that doesn’t mean that all the clothing there is going to look the same. To the contrary, as stated in Tip #1, you can find new stuff there. You just have to take the time to look and browse. Even if it’s pre-worn, you might find something you would like to wear.

Tip #3: It’s Okay to Honor Your Boundaries

Maybe buying a pair shoes is somebody else’s worn crosses the line for you. That’s perfectly okay! There’s no shame in bypassing the few items that might gross you out to wear. No one is saying you have to wear secondhand pair of underwear from some stranger you’ve never met. You might come across a few items that you consider buying, but if it bugs you even just a little bit you should probably refrain or you’ll end up wasting money on something you’ll barely wear.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Technology

The internet is rapidly changing the way we live our lives and even do business. We often see more and more real-world jobs being replaced with machines and advancing technology. Thanks to the internet, more people are making their way online to make a few extra bucks. We buy everything from the internet now, including the essentials, like food and clothes, so why not use the internet to add to your bottom line?

You can see that desire stretched out on the faces of millions of potential entrepreneurs who keep Googling for new ways to bring in a little cash. In fact, there are people getting rich online right now by trying to show other people how to get rich. Most of those, sadly, are just empty promises designed to get you to sign up for a pyramid scheme or webinar training.

If you’ve ever spent any time online trying to figure out how to make money, it can seem like a lost cause. You will often wonder if this link is legitimate or just another scammer trying to feed off your desperation. And while there are plenty of frauds out there, there are many other legitimate jobs out there right now for the picking if you know where to look.

Much to the dismay of a lot of treasure hunters seeking out a quick buck, there is no ‘get rich quick’ scheme out there. You’re not going to find a formula and start reeling in thousands of dollars tomorrow. But if you truly dream of one day quitting your day job and working from home, while gaining financial freedom, it is possible! For it to happen, though, you have to work at it, learn from your mistakes, and keep plugging away.

Let’s look at 5 ways you can make money online:

Quick Money Maker #1: Shopkick

Shopkick is another retail app that pays you to go shopping! If you love to shop, then you’ll need to download this app right away on either your Android or iPhone. You earn “kicks” simply by walking into a store like Walmart, Target, Walgreens, and others. If you buy things at those stores, you’ll make more “kicks” if you take a picture of your receipt and turn it in.

You can then turn your kicks in for a PayPal deposit or even gift cards to any of your favorite stores. In a lot of ways, if you’re making money just from shopping, then you’re always getting an employee discount, so to speak. The more you shop while using these apps, the more you’ll get paid.

Quick Money Maker #2: Rewardable

Rewardable is one of the higher paying apps you can download on either Android or iPhone, that will give anywhere from $4-$7 to complete tasks while you’re out shopping. It may not be anything more than sharing the price of a product at your local store or snapping a photo of a display for a certain product. Once it’s been confirmed, you’ll get the money sent directly to your PayPal account.

Quick Money Maker #3: Groupon Snap

Groupon is already a popular way to save money online. People can go on their site, www.groupon.com, and find all kinds of savings at various stores and find huge deals in your local area. The Groupon Snap app takes that deal-making to the next level! You can get money back on a lot of purchases you make at the grocery store.

Simply download the app, find the items you plan on buying that offer cash-back rewards, and shop! Once you’re finished, snap a picture of your receipt and submit it to receive your money via PayPal. That’s all there is to making money while shopping!

Quick Money Maker #4: Perk TV

Available on both Android and iPhone, the Perk TV app will allow you to earn points you can trade for gift cards to your favorite stores and restaurants. How do you earn these points? By answering trivia questions of all your favorite TV shows, movies, and even current pop culture references.

If you’re someone who is big into entertainment and watches a lot of shows, then Perk TV might be the perfect way for you to make extra money. Every week they will add new trivia games each week and there will always be opportunities to win in their big prize giveaway. Who would’ve thought you could make money by watching TV?

Quick Money Maker #5: AppTrailers

If you enjoy watching trailers online, then there’s a way to make money doing just that. These may not be movie trailers, but when companies put out new apps, they want to test the market to see if there’s any interest. In order to get reward points, you watch the app trailers. That’s all there is to it. To get even more points, upload the video to Facebook and every “like” it gets, you’ll be given even more reward points!

Once you reach enough points, you can turn them in to get gift cards to all your favorite stores, like Walmart, iTunes, Amazon, and others. Getting paid to watch a few app trailers doesn’t sound like a bad gig, considering when you’ll have the opportunity to be on the ground floor of all the new stuff soon to be available.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Business

Prime Day is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated sales days of the year. It’s almost kin to Black Friday, but it’s in the middle of the year instead of the end. And out of every other sales event Amazon has, the 2019 Prime Day was the biggest in the company’s history. There are at least two reports from experts who estimate that Amazon sold as much a $6 billion worth of goods over the extended Prime Day sale.

Of course, everyone loves a great deal. While Amazon sold more than $6 billion worth of goods, is also estimated that purchasers also saved about $1 billion by jumping right into these amazing deals. Amazon itself has said that this year’s Prime Day was “the largest shopping event in Amazon history.” They made it so by expanding the day an additional 12 hours, extending well into the July 15^th and 16^th.

Amazon says that they’ve sold over 175 million items over those two days. That 75 million more items to be sold last year. Among the top sellers for 2019 include a lot of Amazon-branded products, like the Kindle Fire, Echo Dot, Fire Stick, and many other devices that use their signature Alexa voice-enabled technology. It wasn’t just a boon for Amazon though. Third-party sellers who took part in Prime Day topped $2 billion in sales, up from $1.5 billion last year.

It’s important to note that Amazon does not list or disclose any final sales numbers. Rather, these numbers are based upon metrics and compiled by Wall Street analysts who give their best estimate based upon sales. Most of these estimates found that Amazon had topped all expectations they had for the event. Prime Day fans certainly took advantage of all the amazing deals. They bought everything from pressure cookers to TVs and mattresses.

Amazon’s Overall Numbers

Many analysts expected that Amazon would probably make close to $6 billion during Prime Day. This is about $2 billion higher than the sales last year, which is a lot of money in a good indication of how well the economy is doing. Were still many months away from Christmas, but it being July had no impact on stopping anyone from pulling out their credit card.

“Even before final sales estimates began rolling in, Prime Day 2019 was expected to be the biggest shopping event in Amazon’s history, surpassing Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the previous Prime Day,” CFRA analyst Camilla Yanushevsky wrote in a note last week.

“We believe Prime Day services three primary purposes for Amazon: (1) generating significant volume at a seasonally slow time of the year; (2) driving incremental Prime subscriptions; and (3) providing valuable free advertising,” Loop Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba wrote in a note Monday, prior to the end of Prime Day. “We think Prime Day will also provide an opportunity to highlight Amazon’s recent introduction of free one-day delivery for Prime members.”

Amazon released a statement about the addition of new Prime subscribers who wanted to take advantage of the event: “(we) welcomed more new Prime members on July 15 than on any previous day, and almost as many on July 16 – making these the two biggest days ever for member signups.”

“Overall, we believe Amazon’s Prime Day(s) shopping event achieved key goals of promoting the Prime membership program with fast delivery, as well as increasing penetration of Alexa-enabled voice and other smart home devices,” Baird’s Sebastian wrote in a note Wednesday.

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

Student Loan Consolidation

Most of us have fond memories growing up and playing Monopoly with our friends and family. Sitting at the table or on the floor for hours and accumulating as many properties as you can get, putting hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place while hoping your annoying sister lands right there and gets bankrupt right out of the game. Ahh, memories.

Monopoly is still one of the top best selling games of all time and has maintained its popularity since 1935. This game has been around for so long that they’ve had to release several ‘modern’ versions to keep up with inflation. Even as more kids have given up playing board games in exchange for digital technology, the game remains popular.

What’s really important about Monopoly is understanding that it can be used for more than just a game. You can use it to teach your children simple economic concepts they may not understand. We’ve all gotten frustrated playing Monopoly a time or two when we start losing and spiraling out of control. These can be important lessons for the little ones.

Here are three money lessons you can teach your kids by playing Monopoly:

Lesson #1: Don’t Accumulate Debt

One of the main points of the game involves properly managing your debt. It’s fun when you get involved in building assets and creating a real estate empire. But you’ll soon find yourself incurring debt. That happens when you land on another player’s property and have to pay rent. The amount of rent you owe may turn out to cost more than you have.

At that point, you start selling off your own assets to pay the debt and stay in the game. This is known as a tipping point as soon as your debts outweigh your assets and you have nothing left. Yes, kids will probably get frustrated by getting behind and owing money, but let them work through it. The lesson is the same in life. Don’t get yourself into a lot of debt!

Lesson #2: Entrepreneurial Decisions Are Often a Roll of the Dice

We definitely want to encourage our kids to be entrepreneurs and Monopoly shows us exactly how business ownership is like. We often have to make tough decisions around cash-flow issues. When starting a business, you will make decisions whose outcomes are often like a roll of the dice. You don’t know how it will turn out, either in your favor or not. How do you operate when this happens?

Lesson #3: Borrowing Money from Friends and Family Impacts Relationships

There may come a time in the game when you have to borrow some money from someone else playing with you. Your cash flow may dwindle down and to stay in the game, you’ll have to ask a friend or family member to lend you some cash. But that can become a complicated situation. What if they lend you money, but they need it back before you’re ready to pay it back? What a frustrating situation that can cause and hurt those relationships along the way.

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