My boy Nate randomly texted me this the other day and I can’t stop thinking about it…

Such pros and cons either way!!

Would you rather…

Have unlimited money to buy things online but you can never buy anything in person (can’t go to restaurants, shops, movies, games)

Or have unlimited money to buy things in person but you can never buy anything online (can’t get anything delivered, but could walk onto a car lot and buy a car with cash)

******

I immediately shot back “In person 100%!” and then had to marinate on it to make sure it was the best answer?!

He quickly reminded me this means “No Amazon! No buying things from around the world and no deliveries or Ebay!!” and I’ll admit that last one would be hard as it is where I find all my old rare books and coins I collect! However, with *unlimited money* I can just FLY TO ALL THE PLACES and look for them in person, lol… Or do anything else I wanted in person for that matter!

I could eat anytime I want in person. Buy anything I want in person. Buy things for other people or donate lots of $$$ in person. With UNLIMITED MONEY you can live as rich a life as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett once did just 30 years ago before Amazon or the internet was even a *thing*! Lol… It was normal life to buy everything in person!! :)

If you were tied to *online* purchases you’d also find yourself in a pickle more often than not… When you’re out and about and you get hungry? Sorry – no food for you! If you see something for sale (or even worse – your kids find something for sale – like Pokemon cards!) or you just want to grab a coffee on the go – nope! And if you’re traveling the world to far exotic places which you probably will be with that much money, good luck!! I hope you’re a master planner and organizer ‘cuz I sure as hell am not, lol…

And God forbid the internet goes down or you lose your phone… You better have back ups for your back ups! Also hope that you can pay your rent or mortgage or anything else you need/want in life online, though I suppose these days you’re 80% in the clear already with probably another 5-10 years until there wouldn’t be anything you couldn’t buy online?

So really the question comes down to what you prefer to have more of in life – in person interactions, or online interactions? There’s massive pros and cons to both, and with unlimited money you’ll be just fine either way, haha, but I know at least for me I’d much prefer going back to human life than digital if I can help it. Which is probably why I answered “in person 100%!” right away. I don’t want to lose myself more online!! I want to be in the real and flesh!!

That’s what my gut is telling me at the moment anyways :) How about you? Which would you prefer if you had to make a choice: unlimited money to spend online only, or unlimited money to spend in person only? Or do you prefer to opt out of the whole silly option and just keep everything the way it is with your current money and all the freedoms in the world??

Fortunately for those who choose the latter you already got your wish, but a fun question to ponder regardless ;) Never know when you’ll have to for real decide!! Lol… Leave your thoughts in the comments below or hit “reply” if you’re reading this in email and let’s keep the discussion going!

Your friend both online, and especially in-person,

PS: Some other fun Would You Rathers to digest:

• Would you rather… Win $15,000 in dollar bills, or win $20,000 in quarters?
• Would you rather… Have your student loan debt wiped away or FREE healthcare forever??
• Would you rather… Have $250,000 in cash but also $250,000 in debt -OR- Have $0.00 cash and $0.00 debt?

[This post, Would You Rather… Buy Everything Online or Everything Offline Only?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Good mornin’, wealth builders! 

I have an absolute DOOZY of a topic for discussion today. This is based on a situation someone I know is dealing with currently…

Would you cosign a loan for your best friend so she can freeze her eggs?

Now before you say “Hell no!” like I yelled immediately when I heard the question, listen to the full story first…

OK, here is the situation. Picture this…

Your best friend calls you up one day asking for your help… She is 41 years old, super smart, has a great job, but hasn’t been a great money saver in life.

More than anything in the world, your friend wants to have a baby. But she hasn’t met the right partner in life yet and is worried that her chances of getting pregnant naturally are shrinking as she gets older.

So, she wants to have elective surgery to freeze her eggs, which costs about $30k.

As of now, she has about $10k from savings and from her parents chipping in money, but she needs to borrow the additional $20k to have the surgery and whatnot paid for.

There are a few loan options available for the $20k… The first is just a personal loan from a bank, with interest rates around 7+%.

But, even better, there’s a non-profit organization she found that will loan her $20k *interest free* on a 4-year term. This specific nonprofit was set up to help people with these types of charitable situations, so the $20k would be interest free and repayments would be $416 per month for 48 months.

There is one problem though… This nonprofit does not take collateral for their loans. They REQUIRE someone else to cosign for every loan. That’s the only way your friend can get the money interest free.

So, your friend is asking YOU to cosign for the $20k loan – so it will be interest free.

Other relevant information

• The reason she can’t have her parents cosign is because they don’t have a strong relationship, and she was brought up to never discuss money with family.
• If she goes through with surgery, there is still no guarantee that it will result in a successful pregnancy later in life. Not to mention meeting the right partner and beginning a family.
• Freezing eggs not only has an upfront cost for surgery, there’s also an ongoing fee for safe storage (about $1000 per year).
• Her car is paid off, and she has no other personal debts. From what I understand about her annual income/expenses, $500 per month payments is completely doable.
• Did I mention this is your BEST friend? Like, as in, you grew up with her together and she means more to you than anyone else in the world. Deep down inside, you trust her.

Soooo…  Given all this information, would you cosign for the $20k loan?

I look forward to hearing all your opinions and whatnot in the comments below. Here is what is going through my head…

Reasons to not cosign a loan for your best friend

My default answer to cosigning a loan would be NO! Here are a few reasons why…

• She might default! Obviously, if my friend doesn’t make payments, I’d be on the hook for paying the $20k! (or monthly payments of $416 for however long the loan has left). The fact that she’s over 40 and can’t scratch together $30k concerns me.
• Potentially ruin the friendship: Whether it works out or not, things can get weird cosigning or lending money to friends.
• Future expenses: Let’s say 2 years from now she actually wants to have the baby… If she can’t afford $20k now, how is she going to afford future surgeries, baby delivery, and upfront child costs later? A favor now could be a slippery slope for giving more money later.
• It’s just outside of my comfort zone. I’ve done well in life by following a specific set of money principles. Cosigning loans is NOT one of them and is not great financial advice.

Reasons to say YES

Before shutting my friend down completely, let’s look at the opposite side of things…

• The gift of a baby! Maybe my emotions are running high because my wife and I are exploring the idea of children ourselves right now… Personally, I would love nothing more than to help a friend have a kid, in whatever manner they feel is best for them. Family in life is more important than money.
• I’m financially stable: Although $20k is a shitload of money, losing it wouldn’t break me. What’s the point of accumulating all this money if I can’t use it to help family and friends?
• It might cost me nothing. If my friend makes all payments on time, this situation would cost me zero. 
• If I say no, she’ll do it somehow anyway: She’s probably going to get a loan regardless, so I want her to get the interest free one as it’ll be cheaper for her.

Meet-in-the middle options

Now that I’m thinking about this more, here are a few other out of the box ideas…

One idea could be to ask my friend for collateral somehow. I could cosign the loan, but if she could give me something of value then I have some security. For example, she could write a promissory note for her car. Not sure how that would hold up if things got ugly, but just the fact that I have some leverage might incentivize her more to make all the payments.

Another idea would be to tell my friend to get a $20k personal loan from the bank… But, as a gift, I could cover all of the interest payments. If she was charged 7% over a 4 year term, interest would total about $3k. She would end up with a $20k “interest free” loan and I would pay $3k to help a friend. That’s not a bad idea. I’d give $3k to my best friend.

Maybe I could encourage her to wait 1-2 years and try helping her save up the money in cash?  (She’d be 43 at that point, and I know age can be an issue).

All in all, I’m not 100% opposed to the idea. But I still think at this stage in my life, I would still probably say no. As sad as it is… I just wouldn’t feel comfortable.

What about you? Tell me what you’d do in this situation…

Happy Friday,

Joel

[This post, Would You Cosign a Loan for Your Best Friend So She Can Freeze Her Eggs?, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

Hmmm. Interesting question.

Back in the day, my wallet was the most important thing I carried around. I still remember my first wallet, one of those waterproof tri-fold velcro ones that carried my student ID and some train tickets. (Maybe also a few cut-out pictures in there from skateboard magazines — you know, the important stuff).

But that was before everyone had cellphones. These days, my wallet is probably the least valuable thing I carry. Since the invention of Venmo, virtual insurance cards, virtual coupons, and “the cloud,” I don’t carry too much important stuff on me physically. It’s all on my phone.

Interesting question, though … what hurts more — losing your wallet, your phone, or your keys?

I think the question comes down to how hard it would be to replace each one. Let’s look at the time, effort, and money it would take …

Losing My Wallet

Things in my wallet right now:

• Drivers license: Dang, losing this would suck the most. Just the thought of lining up at the DMV in Santa Monica makes me cringe. Even with a scheduled appointment, I’ve waited in line there for two hours. The ID card replacement would be a small fee, maybe $25, I’m guessing.
• 1 x debit card: Pretty easy to replace. A 10-15 minute phone call to the bank and I’d have a new one in the mail in three days. No cost to me.
• 3 x credit cards: Not hard to replace. It’s more a pain in the butt to change the CC *numbers* because my bills are auto-deducted on my main credit card. This is probably an hour or so of work. No cost to me.
• $139 in cash: Oops, I didn’t realize I had so much on me at the moment! I usually keep about $60 in cash on hand — mostly for garage sales and quick Craigslist buys :)
• The wallet itself: I’d say this would cost about $20 to replace and maybe 20-30 mins to search for a replacement. The one I have now I got eight years ago from a Kickstarter campaign — they promised it would last 10 years, and I think it will!

Losing My Cellphone

Right now I’m rocking an iPhone 6s Plus. Got this one about two years ago from a friend who upgraded to a new model. It was supposed to be a loaner, but I never got a new one and my friend never asked for this one back! Ooops

Since I don’t have phone insurance or anything, I’d be up for the cost of a replacement:

• New iPhone would be prob $400 to $600 depending on the model. The latest and fanciest versions don’t really interest me, and I don’t think I’d go with one of those payment-plans or lock-in contracts.
• Secondhand, I’d probably fork out $100-$150 for someone’s old phone that still works. Could grab one online somewhere or ask friends if they have an old one lying around.

My last data back-up was a few weeks ago, but most of my apps and stuff keep data in the cloud so I wouldn’t lose any valuable information. For time to replace, I’d say it would probably take three to four hours to get a new phone, program it all the way I like it, and get used to the new operating system. Grrr…

Losing My Keys

This is an interesting one. Back in the day, keys to my crappy cars were just metal cut-outs. I kept a spare one duct-taped under the wheel hub! But now I drive a Pruis, which needs an electric wireless key. Key replacement options look like:

• Get a *new* key from a Toyota dealer: Wow! Seems to be around $500 to buy and program a new key! I didn’t realize my Prius was such a rare, luxury vehicle.
• Buy a replica FOB key online ($100 to $150) and get it programmed somehow by a local car repair place ($100 to $150). Still hurts!

The other factor here is *where* I am when I lose my keys. If I’m stuck in a random parking lot and need to get my car towed home, I’d be up for tow costs too! Probably $100 there.

All in all, here’s my replacement time and costs:

Lost wallet: 4-5 hours of work and about $180 to replace what’s in it

Lost phone: 3-4 hours of work and $100 to $600

Lost keys: 3-4 hours work and about $300 to $400 for a DIY replacement and car tow

Losing ALL three things: 10+ hours and $480+ minimum to replace all three. Ouch!

Well, I guess that answers the original question (for me at least!): What would you rather lose… your phone, your wallet, or your car keys?

At this point, the least expensive thing for me to lose would be my iPhone. Funny, because I would consider it my most valuable and most used item of the three. Weird!

What about you? What would you rather lose if you had the choice?

[This post, Would You Rather Lose Your Phone, Wallet, or Car Keys?, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

Happppy Monday everyone!!

You’re in luck as I heard a Financial Fairy was going around granting people wishes today – free of charge! – but you could only pick one of two options…

Would you rather….

Have ALL your student loans completely wiped away?! (If you don’t have student loans, you can choose your mortgages/cars/credit card/etc)

– OR –

Get free healthcare from now until the end of your days?

I think I’d take the No Debt option and wipe out my $265,000’ish mortgage as that would free up $2,300/mo on the spot AND we could start enjoying the effects right away!, but wiping out a major concern like that in FIRE would be a helluva blessing too… Both in terms of the insurance itself, but also our own health – as we saw with my poor friend Agatha last week and what she’s now suffering through out of nowhere!! (NOT covered by health insurance, btw…)

And speaking of which – you guys have now donated over $2,000 (!) since Friday – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Cannot wait for her to check her fundraiser page and see the outpouring of love coming in from the community… She’s gonna be so thankful – and it’s all because of YOU!! :)

But back to this magical question – which of them would you pick? Freedom from DEBT or freedom from insurance costs/worries forever?!

Drop your answers below so we can all fantasize with you!

I’m not sure exactly *when* this fairy will be visiting us, but I do know it never hurts to put stuff out there in the world just in case ;)

Just don’t stop making moves while you’re waiting!

As Bruce Lee once put it,

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

And Bruce Lee knows everything. So keep going!

******
PS: Shout out to LendEdu for inspiring this who recently put out a report that found that 40% of Americans would rather have the U.S. completely forgive all $1.61 trillion in student loan debt instead of implementing free universal health care, which was selected by 60% of respondents. Would your answer change here if it meant wiping out *everyone’s* student loans vs just your own?! (And conversely, giving EVERYONE universal healthcare for free as well as yourself?)

More fun Would You Rathers from over the years:

• Would you rather… Win $15,000 in dollar bills, or win $20,000 in quarters?
• Would you rather… Be rich 100 years ago, or average today?
• Would you rather… Have a salary of $50,000 where everyone around you only has $25,000 – OR – Make $100,000 but everyone around you makes $200,000?
• Would you rather… Be attractive as hell BUT you never make more than $30k a year for the rest of your life –  OR – you’re damn ugly BUT you’re as rich as Oprah Winfrey?

[This post, Would you rather have your student loan debt wiped away or FREE healthcare forever??, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Came across this ridiculous study by LendEDU but can’t stop looking at it, haha…

They asked 1,200 employed Americans a series of “would you rather” questions to see what they’d give up in exchange for a 10% raise, and their answers were as crazy as they were entertaining ;)

Here are some of the results – would you do any of these??

*********

40.06% would give up dental care for a 10% raise

(No. F’ing. Way.)

12.2% would breakup with their partner or significant other

For just 10%?? You might as well break up with them now if that’s all their worth, haha….

53.55% would give up all social media for 5 years in order to get a 10% raise

I do like this one a lot :) And just shows yet again how much we actually don’t gain from social media despite our hours of addiction to it!!

18.9% would give up access to health insurance for the next five years

Nope nope nope… you’d blow through that 10% in the first year when you break your leg!

55.9% would work an extra 10 hours per week for life

Why not just get a second job??? Where you’d make more than 10% and have your own freedom to change it forever?? This one just doesn’t make sense…

9.13% would give up their child’s or future child’s right to vote in all elections for life

Come on!!

50.65% would give up watching movies for the next three years

I would do that :)

88.61% would give up watching Game of Thrones for life

Yes. Easy! Aren’t we on the last season or so?

73.42% would give up all alcoholic beverages for the next five years

Now THIS one is good… I know I could do it for at least one year – but five?? That is a lot, haha…. I’m sure the extra savings on top of the 10% income boost would help keep you motivated though!

5.33% would eat a single tide pod :)

And possibly kill yourself??

50.4% would work one day every weekend for the next year

Again – same thing as side hustling or taking on an extra job – you don’t need to wait for the Would You Rather fairy to grant you that! Just go out and make it happen!

********

And that last part there is the key ;) You don’t have to give up anything or do something crazy to earn an extra 10% – most of us have the power within ourselves to accomplish this! You just gotta want it enough!

• You can take on an extra hustle
• Be a bad ass and EARN that raise yourself
• Cut back on your expenses so you don’t need an extra 10%
• Pay off your debts to free up 10% of interest
• Or any combination of the above

But of course that doesn’t make for a salacious study, so… ;)

Since we’re on the topic of Would You Rathers though, why don’t we dig up some of our own posed here over the years? We’ve done dozens of them!

Here are some of my favorites:

• Would you rather… Win $15,000 in dollar bills, or win $20,000 in quarters?
• Would you rather… Be rich 100 years ago, or average today?
• Would you rather… Have a salary of $50,000 where everyone around you only has $25,000 – OR – Make $100,000 but everyone around you makes $200,000?
• Would you rather… Continue working where you are right now – OR – start your dream job tomorrow BUT only get paid 1/2 of what you’re making today? ;)
• Would you rather… Have $250,000 in cash but also $250,000 in debt? -OR- Have $0.00 cash and $0.00 debt?
• Would you rather… Be attractive as hell BUT you never make more than $30k a year for the rest of your life –  OR – you’re pretty damn ugly BUT you’re as rich as Oprah Winfrey?

I can play this game allllll day long, ladies and gentleman…

Share your answers below and we’ll continue gawking! ;)

******
[Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash]

[This post, What Would You Do For a 10% Raise? (Plus a half dozen other “Would You Rathers!”), was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Happy 401(k) Day, everyone!

Yup, it’s a real day, and one of real importance too! Given that the bulk of American’s money is totally invested in their 401(k)s and respective counterparts. Trillions and trillions of it! (Don’t quote me on that one as I’m too lazy to research it right now, but I do know it’s a lot! ;))

So before we get to today’s goodness, make sure that the following two things are in place w/ yours:

A) That you’re getting 100% of your FREE MATCHING from your employer because it’s FREE MONEY!! Which is better than NO FREE MONEY, and especially when you don’t even notice the difference of it being deducted from your paycheck!

And B) That the money that’s sitting there is actually invested into something smart, and not ridiculous like cash or other “investments” that are sucking out your money in fees vs compounding it for you. Check out Blooom.com if you don’t even know where to start and they’ll literally log in for you and analyze/move your $$$ around where it makes better sense for you and your goals. They’re awesome, and you can find my mini-review of them here. [The link to Blooom is an affiliate link as we’re partners]

Now with that PSA out of the way, I’ve got a “Would You Rather” for you!

We haven’t done one of these in forever, and thought it would be fun to compare YOUR answers here with the ones we got when we interviewed over 200 financial bloggers for a new project over at Rockstar Finance we just launched (details in a bit).

Here’s the question below. Give it some good thinking, and then leave your answer below in the comments so we can all ogle at. It’s harder than it first seems!

“Would you rather….

Have all the knowledge from every financial book in the world

– OR –

Get $100,000 in cash money?”

Now remember, think on it for a bit before going with your gut answer! What could you do with all that knowledge?? What could you do with all that cash? Does going after one get you closer to getting the other one too? Are they both equally as important?

I initially chose “all the knowledge” myself, because of course you can then turn that knowledge into even more cash money over time, so long as you take action, but after sitting on it for a few I ended up changing my mind on it and here’s why:

If I had all the knowledge from the books I wouldn’t have a reason to read any more! Which is half the fun! And plus, $100k compounding right now means a handful more years closer to early retirement where I can then – wait for it – read more finance books! (BAM!)

Now of course, this is *current* me and not *old* me when I didn’t have 1/100th of the knowledge I do now on money, so our own journeys certainly play their part here.

Either way, mull it over for a bit as you read the next batch of words I type into the computer here, and then come back and leave your answers down below in the comments :)

Our New Rockstar Project: A Crowdsourced Report (and Directory!) of The Best and Worst Personal Finance Books as Rated by 200+ Bloggers!

Some of you may have already seen this if you’re a fellow blogger and/or follower of my sister site RockstarFinance.com (where we do a lot of curation and collaboration), but basically this week we finally launched a project I was DYING to get out and was super proud of in doing so :)

After letting the words from that killer book, Essentialism, seep in for a while, an idea finally clicked on how I could use my one unique “super power,” as they say, to really do something cool in the space. And not only cool, but also HELPFUL for our entire community!

And that was harnessing the collective minds of the financial blogging community to pump out insight on one targeted financial topic each and every month, to give us a SOLID resource from people who love and obsess about this stuff the most.

And we kick-started it with a report on the best, and most overrated, BOOKS on personal finance, as well a slew of other interesting nuggets such as that Would You Rather above as to not turn it into a snooze-fest ;) You can see a sneak peek of the report here before you click over:

But here’s the second cool thing that came out of it all – not only do we now have this nifty report to scan through, but it also gave us the ability to build out a new directory of BOOKS to compliment our Blogger directory too! So now EVERYONE can access this collective mind-meld of recommendations to better help them in their journey towards financial knowledge. Win-win all around!

So all that said, here are the two places you can now visit anytime you’re looking for a great new finance book to pick up (or ignore – hah!):

1. Our new directory of the best finance books!
2. Our in-depth report of all the polling data after interviewing over 200 bloggers

And again – that’s just month #1 :)

We’re already in the works of building out the next report and directory based on another focused category, and our goal here is to continue producing these 1-2 punches monthly until we either cross them all off, or more possibly bloggers get tired of answering all our questions, haha…

In either case, I’m thrilled with how our first run went, and I thank EACH AND EVERY ONE of you who participated and made this fun little idea a reality!

Getting this new project off the ground was just the burst I needed to feel energized again, so I thank you all mucho from the bottom of my heart and can’t wait to do more :)

Please enjoy your weekends out there, and we’ll see you back here on Monday for another riveting discussion on money, money, moneyyyyy!

XOXO,

PS: Just like 401(k) Day, that $100,000 note above is also real! It’s a $100,000 gold certificate that was used for government inter-agency transactions back in the day and since retired, bearing the mug of one handsome Woodrow Wilson. It’s also very illegal to own in a personal collection (it was never meant for the public), so if you ever see one in real life it’s either fake or you’re hanging with the mafia :) You can visit one at the National Museum of American History though!

[This post, Would You Rather… Have All The Knowledge in The World From $$$ Books – OR – $100,000 In Cash?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Happy Friday y’all!

As you know, I’m a big believer that knowing your personality plays a HUGE role in how you manage your finances – for the better or the worse. It’s no secret that I personally choose paths that excite me more than other, possibly “smarter,” financial routes, but I also know myself well enough that if I can’t stay motivated then none of it really matters in the end.

The way you answer today’s question will say a lot about yourself as well, and particularly how you trust yourself around money.

Let’s see how much harder this one is to answer than our last one on whether you’d go to jail for a year for a million dollars in return ;) Something tells me you’ll have to think a little longer on this one, haha…

Okay, here we go…

Would you rather…

Have $250,000 in cash but also $250,000 in debt?
-OR-
Have $0.00 cash and $0.00 debt?

POW! Good one right? In both cases the end result is the same here ($0.00 net worth), however each side comes with a heavy set of circumstances. And for arguments sake, let’s assume that the interest rate on this debt in option A is equal to what you can expect to get back in the stock market long-term (8%’ish), and that it also doesn’t come with an asset you can sell to quickly wipe it away. It’s just straight up debt that you have to pay off the old school way ;)

How do these two routes make you feel? Which has the best potential for long-term success with your history? Which one *excites* you more?

Personally, I almost always choose option A in these cases. The idea of having *something* saved up/invested vs nothing almost always outweighs everything else to me. Cash is so powerful – and empowering! – that it brings not only a world of opportunities to your fingertips, but also a world of confidence at the same time.

Just knowing you have the money for opportunities is also an incredible feeling. Anyone can spend money, but to store up cash like that? Completely different story. And with being able to kill all your debts at any point you want too just adds to the empowerment. Even if all you do is invest it all (of course if you don’t trust yourself to use it wisely then we all know which option you should choose!)

So to me it comes down to not only the confidence/exciting factor, but also the fact that most people have a much harder time saving money than they do spending it. Even if it’s “good debt” like a home or education/etc. If you start at a level playing field with $0.00 and $0.00 (which, btw, WE ALL DO!) the odds are stacked against you unless you were smart enough to read blogs like this from the start ;) Something I didn’t even do myself, and brought a staggering $350,000 of debt to the table (mortgages) before I began paying attention to my own finances, ugh.

Again, much easier to spend than to save.

But of course, choosing option A also means you now have to deal with that nasty-sized pile of debt too. And there’s something to be said about having a clean slate and starting from the ground up – even if you have no padding to fall back on. I’ve never had any debilitating amounts of debt before so fortunately I don’t know what that feels like, but I’m sure if I had my answers would be quite skewed here. I know many of you are dealing with this in real life now and in some cases have all the debt but none of the savings, so I’m super interested to hear what y’all have to say about this. And I’ll do my best in the meantime to get the magical Would You Rather Fairy over there as soon as possible ;)

All this to say though that our history and personalities play a large roll in how we deal with our money. Not only in answering ridiculous(ly awesome) questions like these, but also in how you manage your finances on a day-to-day level as well. It’s all very much personal, and it all very much MATTERS.

So… Which option are you leaning towards here? Lots of cash with equal amounts debt, or a completely blank slate with none of either staring back at you?

Drop your answers below and let’s watch those brain cells of yours start percolating… I guarantee it’ll be a fun discussion to join :) And quite possible that you’re dealing with this in your life today! Lots to appreciate and work on in both cases.

*******
PS: If you listen to our podcast you might have heard a similar question we posed there as well – but more along the lines of home ownership. Our guest asked us what we’d do if someone gave us $250,000 to buy our dream home outright, and my answer was to take the cash but keep on renting (big shocker), while my beautiful co-host chose to invest the money in rental real estate instead, and the poser of this question – Steve Stewart – chose to actually get the house. No right or wrong answers here, except of course the one that is right for YOU.

[Photo cred: demibrooke]

[This post, Would You Rather… Cash vs Debt Edition, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Have a GREAT imaginary proposal for y’all today ;)

I was talking to an old friend last night about all the random hustles he’s done over the years (eBay flipping, acting, design work) when out of the blue he told me he was once asked if he wanted to be a part of a heist.

“A heist??” I blurted out. “As in, robbing a bank? And get away cars and going to jail when you’re all caught??”

“Yes – that type of heist. Only it wasn’t a bank, and there’s no way we would have got caught.” – He cockily (word?) shot back.

Thankfully we’ll never know because he didn’t end up going for it, but it did lead us down that fun path of what we’d both be willing to do – and not do – in general for money. And particularly a LOT of it. This is when I put on my creative pants and asked if he’d be willing to go to jail *for an entire year* but at the end of it get rewarded with a million dollars in cold hard cash :)

His response was immediate with an “Of course!”

To which I followed with, “Um, HELL. NO.”

For one, I’d probably die on the first day out of sheer panic alone, but even if I survived and didn’t become someone’s bitch in the process (also a high level of certainty) I wouldn’t be able to leave my boys for a year and miss out on that thing called LIFE. The money could help make up for a lot of that of course, but as my wife chimed in when I presented the same question to her – “A million dollars wouldn’t change our quality of life much.”

Which is true in a weird way. If we were given a million dollars today it would literally all go into investments and not affect our lifestyle a bit. On the other hand, a large sum of money like that would shave off YEARS of work down the line, if not decades?, so technically you’d be saving a lot more time in the end when everything’s considered. And you may even be able to retire upon your release! You’d definitely be accustomed to living on less, that’s for sure! ;)

My friend, on the other hand, looked at it more like a research project and felt he was scrappy enough to make it out without a hitch. He also doesn’t have kids or a wife or anyone else to “report to” (nor even a full-time job), so in theory it wouldn’t affect anyone else but himself.

So to spice it up, I then asked if his answer would change if everyone in the jail KNEW he’d be receiving this money too? Because to me that just solidifies my answer even more because the risk levels at that point just shoot through the roof. I always assume the worst when taking on additional risk, however for my friend it only seemed to excite him more:

“I’d use it to get the biggest cell on the block, and then buy my own security while there so no one can mess with me. Everyone would love me! And it would probably only cost about $300,000, leaving me with $700k in the end. “

While he forgets the money doesn’t come until *after* he served his time, something tells me it still wouldn’t work out as smoothly.

At any rate, I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night, so I figured I’d release the question unto you and further help augment my fascination :)

So… Would you take a million bucks in return for one year of prison life? And would it change if everyone there knew you’d be getting this million upon release? For arguments sake, let’s assume a) it’s a million in cash – no strings or taxes attached, and b) you’d be sent off to a medium-secured prison. So not a minor crimes one, but also not a maximum security.

And if those questions are still too easy, try swapping in “solitary confinement” instead and see if that changes your mind :) I could probably deal with that a lot better, but how I’d be feeling upon release would be an entirely different situation, haha… You could literally go insane! And what good would a million dollars be then?

The crazy part is that thousands of people DO go to jail for a lot less money than that, and for a lot longer time than just a year too. So you can’t help but feel blessed just to have the freedom you and I already have regardless of our current financial situations!

Freedom of life trumps freedom of anything else!

*******
PS: If you like questions like these, check out our whole “would you rather” series :)

[Photo by jariceiii]

[This post, Would You Go to Jail For a Year For a Million Dollars?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Welcome to Friday, hustlers.

You know how everyone’s always talking about “keeping up with the Joneses,” and how it’s best to not compare yourselves to others? Well, this Would You Rather we’ve got for you today will test you on just that ;) I reckon most of you will vote the financially smart way considering you’re on this site, but do try to answer this honestly so we can get a good discussion going.

You ready for it? Here we go….

Would you rather…. Have a salary of $50,000 where everyone around you only has $25,000 – OR – Make $100,000 but everyone around you makes $200,000?

Haha… Not as clear cut is it? Obviously making more is the best answer for you and your goals/family, but what happens when everyone around you is making double? For presumably doing the same amount of work as you are? (There’s a ton of factors that would go into this of course, so let’s just assume everything else in life is the same besides the salary people are making).

Would you be able to comfortably live your life when everyone’s blowing more $$ on fancier cars, houses, vacations, toys, etc? Which odds would go in that direction since a vast majority of people aren’t as sexy with their money as you are? How would the quality of your life change? Or would it? (Also, what happens to everyone else’s life in the reverse? $25k is not much for most people.)

Initially I chose the $100,000 off the bat, but then I stopped and pictured exactly where I’m living now and pretended that all my neighbors, friends, etc were all making $200,000. Would that make me feel funny? Truthfully – yes. It definitely doesn’t make me feel BETTER, haha… But why? Do I care about fancier stuff or what others are doing? Not really. In fact, I ignore most everyone. But the idea that I’d be the only one with 1/2 of what everyone else gets just feels weird. And again, in this situation it’s not like I could work more or get a better job/etc to pump up the $$$ – we’re all magically stuck at our salaries!

And perhaps that’s the problem I have with this. It strips away the level of effort or smarts we all have. Everyone gets a flat $200,000 instead of those of us who choose $100,000 no matter how awesome or sucky we are at our jobs. You’re forever earning 50% less!

But then I close my eyes and focus on what a lifestyle of earning $100,000 would mean. Would I be able to live an awesome life? Hell yeah! In fact, I’ve earned $100,000 or more two out of the last three years, and I can damn well tell you it’s better than making $50,000 :) The ratio of lifestyle and happiness isn’t an incredible amount (it doesn’t take much for me to enjoy my life), but it’s certainly noticeable. And frankly, much more desirable. With an extra $50,000 you could speed up your goals an extraordinary amount.

[Of course, the main problem w/ this whole question is that we’re not all making the same amount of money right now so depending on where you are on the scale, $100k might sound lame if you’re making more, and $50k might sound incredible if you’re making less. But just play along anyways and assume this morning that everyone’s salaries got wiped away and now 99.9999999% of the world will make the same amount, and then there’s you ;)]

When all things are considered however, I’d opt for the $100,000 in the end. Yeah the emotions might take some getting used to, but ultimately I’d need to do what’s best for me and my family. And we can live a much better – less stressed – life at $100k/year than we could at $50k. We could make $50k work too if needed, but with a magical fairy doubling it on the spot why not? Also, wouldn’t that mean my wife now makes $200,000? ;) Ooooh!!! Yet another factor to consider! Haha…

The Harvard Study: Is More Always Better?

Before I turn it over to you to get your thoughts, let me tell you where this whole thing came from…

I was reading one of my newer favorite blogs, A Wealth of Common Sense, and one of the articles Ben wrote was on a study that Harvard researchers did on how people (and monkeys!) compare themselves to others. They asked this same salary question to their subjects, and here were the results:

In the end 52% of the respondents preferred the $50K scenario. These people would accept half as much money in absolute terms as the second option just so they could make twice as much as their neighbors… Unfortunately, perception matters when money is involved. The problem is that there will always be someone getting richer at a faster pace than you are. Stating the obvious, this is not a great way to live your life.

So more people chose the $50,000 option than the $100,000 option! WOW! I figured it wouldn’t be a total win for the $100k’ers, but to LOSE the battle in the end? Pretty incredible.

If you’d like to see the entire story by Harvard, I dug it up here [PDF]: Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns

There’s a lot of garble in there (ie. stuff that only smart people would follow ;)), but here were some other interesting choices they gave people:

A: You have 2 weeks of vacation; others have 1 week.
B: You have 4 weeks of vacation; others have 8 weeks.

A: Your IQ is 110; others average 90.
B: Your IQ is 130; others average 150.

A: Your physical attractiveness is 6; others average 4.
B: Your physical attractiveness is 8; others average 10.

A: Your child has 12 years of education (high school); other people’s children have 8.
B: Your child has 16 years of education (college); other people’s children have 20 (graduate degree).

This must have been one fun study :) Here are the choices I would have made:

• Vacation: More! I could really care less about others here (my wife agreed)
• IQ: I was torn 50/50. I hate feeling stupid around people, even if I’m smart at 130 (wouldn’t the scales not matter anymore if everyone else is smarter than you thus making you not smart?)
• Attractiveness: Same problem I have w/ the rating here too, but I’d def. choose 8 :) Would be hard to erase what we consider attractive after living a life having a perception of it already.
• Child’s education: More every time! As much as I don’t care much about other people in normal situations (ie, not in weird magical land like this one), I DEFINITELY don’t care at all about other children… Wait, that sounded bad, haha… I mean, I don’t care whether they’re smarter/better or worse than mine. I just want my boys to be happy and healthy and live a great life!!

Okay, now it’s your turn.

What would you rather have? $50k while everyone else has a $25k salary, or a $100k salary when everyone else has $200k? What was your initial thought before analyzing it to death like I just did? ;) What do you think about some of those other Harvard questions?

If you want to waste more time at work right now, here are some of our past Would You Rathers too ;)

• Would You Rather… $1 Billion or 15 years of life?
• Would You Rather…. Weight vs Debt
• Would You Rather… Spending Money Qs
• Would You Rather… Saving Money/Making Money

While we’ll never be able to fully test these in real life, they’re great things to consider while working on our money. And a much more fun way too ;) Enjoy the weekend homies.

———-

[Photo cred:  Mark Dodd]

[This post, Would You Rather… Make $50k or $100k? (But…), was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

So I know we just did some fun would you rathers the other week, but a friend of mine just shot a new one randomly my way (probably because he was bored at work), and I couldn’t help but share it with y’all. This is the same friend who got duped by that fake $100 bill a while back, haha..

Here’s the question he posed – I thought it was a pretty hard one after thinking about it for a bit:

“Would you rather have $1 billion dollars now …OR… be able to go back in time to re-live the last 15 years of your life?”

Now at first those 15 years look AWFULLY good as that’s a lot of extra life to get back, especially during your prime if you’re in your 30s like me!), but after taking a few steps back I realized it’s not *as* sexy as it may sound.

For one, you’re messing around with the whole space time continuum or whatever it’s called. The whole “step on a bug and your entire future changes – as does everyone else’s around you” type deal. Just like that Simpsons episode or even that (freaky) movie The Butterfly Effect ft. Señor Kutcher. And I’d hate to go back and F up my past 15 years only to get back to my 30s and have a worse off life than I did. Especially knowing you blew a chance at $1 Billion dollars to top it off!

This would also put me back to my late teen years when I was lucky enough to come out alive during some of the stupid things I did back then. Like drink myself to oblivion or hang out in areas I really shouldn’t be at with people I really shouldn’t have been friends with. I’d be a lot smarter going back in time with the knowledge I have with me now, but that could be even more dangerous ;) Though also very lucrative! (I’d be able to make tons of $$$ before the internet boom, and crash, and boom again, avoid the stock market during the right times, and even know the answers to most big sporting events!). I’d probably become filthy rich and then end up dying on the side of the lone lonely missing all my friends and future baby would-be’s since they’d only be memories of days never to come.

At this point I change my mind and tell my friend I’ll take the Billion dollars now, please :) In hopes of bettering my future instead of screwing up my past (plus: I happen to like how my life turned out so why go back and re-live it?). Of course a billion dollars comes with its share of problems too, as Puff Daddy P Ditty Ditty and B.I.G. once so eloquently stated, but hopefully everyone reading this blog is much much smarter than they were before they got to this site ;) So I’d have faith any of us would be able to safely enjoy a nice future with tons of money in the bank like that.

So as it stands, my answer would be the solid $1 Billion dollars.

Changing it up a bit…

I then threw my friend for a loop and asked if it would change anything tacking on an extra 15 years of life *going forward*, instead of  backwards? So, either $1 billion now, or an extra 15 years to live later?

This brings up a whole other set of variables such as “would you *really* want to live an extra 15 years if you’re like 90 and grumpy??” and “Wouldn’t $1 billion allow me to live a much happier life than extending it for a little while longer?”.

Again it comes down to a question of happiness and the odds of our own mortality. As it stands, any of us could wake up tomorrow and die on impact (I’ll let your imaginations figure out how). So even if you got that $1 billion all your doing is dying a lot richer. You take that 15 years, however, and you just *guaranteed* yourself that you’d be living at LEAST until 2029. And more than likely much longer than that since most of us will still be around this time tomorrow :)

So today I pose two questions for your brilliant minds to ponder.

1) Would you take $1 billion dollars now, or go back in time 15 years and relive your life again?

2) Does your answer change if you gained the 15 years *ahead* vs behind?

I’m still sticking with the $1 billion for question #1, but I’ll happily opt for the extra 15 years for question #2. I don’t think a ton more money would make me as happy as a ton more of time – especially as our babies continues to grow – and it would be nice to secure a daddy for them for at least another 15 years :) And with any luck I’d be able to turn that extra time into more money anyways.

How about you? Which is more valuable to you right now – time or money?

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PS: For more fascinating would you rathers, click here.

[This post, Would You Rather… $1 Billion or 15 years of life?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]