Is It Crazy to Spend $1000 a Month Buying DVDs?

Now that the economic crisis has become a fact of life, there is no shortage to news articles about people cutting back and trying to save money, spurred by the fact that their homes are worth less. On the front page of today's New York Times, there was an article about a town in California where most homeowners are underwater on their mortgages: A Town Drowns in Debt as Home Values Plunge. Almost 90% of the homeowners in Mountain House, CA owe more on their mortgages than their houses are currently worth. Ok, that is scary, but here is the part of the article that made my jaw drop:

Kenny Rogers, a data security specialist, moved into Mountain House last year, buying a foreclosed property on Prosperity Street for $380,000. But the decline in values has been so fierce that he too is underwater.

He has cut his DVD buying from 50 a month to perhaps one, and is waiting until the Christmas sales to buy a high-definition television. He does not indulge much anymore in his hobbies of scuba diving and flying. “Best to wait for a better price, or do without,” Mr. Rogers, 52, said.

Whoa-- he bought 50 DVDs a month???? I read that and thought this guy must be insane!
Now, granted, this is my personal bias. I don't own a TV and though I enjoy watching movies, I'm perfectly happy to have the cheapest Netflix plan where you rent a maximum of 2 movies per month. I own a boxed set of Greta Garbo movies because I'm obsessed with her, and one of these days I'll ask someone to give me some James Brown concert footage DVDs too, because that seems like the kind of thing that is worth owning-- and I acknowledge that I am nuts in this respect. But otherwise, I can envision very few instances where owning DVDs is really necessary. And even if you are a huge film buff, do you really need to buy 50 DVDs a month? How do you have time to watch them all!? And how much is a DVD to buy, anyway-- say $20 on average? That would be $1,000 a month on DVDs!

But my point here isn't really to trash DVD buyers-- it's more about the judgments that different people make about others' spending. I still get lots of backlash on a post where I dubbed MBT shoes a don't-buy (and to those commenters may I just say that I never criticized the comfort level of these shoes, I just thought anyone who bought them expecting to have their cellulite melted away was wasting hundreds of dollars. And I stand by my personal opinion that MBT shoes are ugly-- sorry!). Many people have no problem spending lots of money on MBT shoes, but they might think I was nuts for having spent an equivalent amount of money on a Treo PDA. And the 50 DVD guy might think it's crazy to spend $1,800 a month to own a 2-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.

We can all aim to live our lives without judging others' spending habits, but let's face it: we do it anyway! Has your jaw ever dropped when you heard how much someone else spends on something that you think is unnecessary? Or do you feel you have to spend money on something that other people find absurd? And in these current economic conditions, are these spending habits changing?

Papa's Got a Brand New Daughter

My man JB is in the news again: a woman in Houston has had DNA testing done that shows she is James Brown's daughter, probably one of many!

Ms. Brown, a 45-year-old retired flight attendant, may be forgiven if she places particular emphasis on her last name, or if she seems especially eager to claim God’s gifts. Laboratory tests recently confirmed what she was told by her family for years: that her father was James Brown, the Godfather of Soul.

Since Mr. Brown’s death on Dec. 25, about a dozen people have come forward, asking for their DNA to be compared to Mr. Brown’s, said Albert H. Dallas, a trustee for Mr. Brown’s estate. So far, three tests have come back with positive results, Mr. Dallas said. A woman from Florida and another person have declined to go public....

...Lawyers fighting over Mr. Brown’s assets say the news that author of “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” wrote from experience is hardly a surprise.

“I don’t think anybody had any doubt that Mr. Brown might have fathered other children, let’s just put it that way,” said Robert N. Rosen, a lawyer in South Carolina who is representing Tommie Rae Brown, Mr. Brown’s disputed fourth wife and her son, James J. Brown II.

But the discovery of more potential heirs has further clouded the disposition of the entertainer’s estate, and it is unclear what, if anything, confirmation of James Brown’s paternity may be worth.

I find it a bit sad that James Brown lives on not just in his music but in news about the fights over his will-- his wife at the time of his death was not named in his will and is fighting for half of his estate. Also, the managers of a charitable trust his will funded have been accused of abusing their authority and using the money for their own gain.
If there is anything to be learned from this, I guess it is that one should always have an up to date will that clearly spells out all one's wishes... and that using contraception is probably a good idea if you happen to be a Sex Machine!

Talking Back to the NPR Pledge Drive

My morning routine includes listening to National Public Radio from the time I wake up to when I leave for work. This week my local station has been having the dreaded pledge drive, so I've spent most of those woozy morning hours having an imaginary conversation with the announcers as they plead for donations. Perhaps many other personal finance geeks find themselves having the same response:

WNYC: Your pledge of $75 a year works out to only about 21 cents a day. Isn't all our great programming worth 21 cents a day to you? I mean, come on, it's only 21 cents a day, I lose that much walking down the hallway...
Madame X: I've had days where I picked up 21 cents on the street and was really happy about it... where is this hallway?
WNYC: Think about it, your $100 donation would mean so much to us, and you probably spend that much on coffee...
MX: Yeah, that Latte Factor (TM) will kill ya...
WNYC: And to thank you for your generous gift of $50 and up, we'll send you a fantastic tote bag...
MX: What do I need another tote bag for? Even if I did need one, I could get it for way less than $50!
WNYC: ...or you can choose as your gift a subscription to the New Yorker magazine...
MX: I already subscribe to the New Yorker.
WNYC: ...or you can get a one-year renewal if you already subscribe...
MX: So you want me to voluntarily pay way more than my renewal would normally cost?
WNYC: Think of all the hours of listening pleasure you get out of WNYC-- All Things Considered, This American Life, Studio 360, Car Talk, and of course our in-depth news coverage...
MX: I do love the programs. But radio is free, and you want me to pay for it-- doesn't that kind of make me... a SUCKER?
WNYC: Right now we're having a two-for-one matching donation, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Moneybucks...
MX: Well why aren't they just giving you all that money if they're so loaded? Why are they holding it hostage waiting for peons like me?
WNYC: Public radio gets less and less funding from the government. We count on you to make sure we can survive. And remember, even a gift of $50 a year-- that's less than 14 cents a day-- makes a big difference to us.
MX: Yeah, it better! That 14 cents a day, with interest compounded monthly, will be over $5,000 by the time I retire...
WNYC: And if you call right now, we'll enter you in a drawing to get an iPhone before they're available to the public...
MX: hmmm...
WNYC: [music, guitar chords---"if you leave me--" girls screaming -- "I'll go crazy..."] For $75, you can also choose this wonderful CD, the legendary "Live at the Apollo," by James Brown...
MX: Why have I never replaced that old cassette tape? 21 cents a day... You know, I always have meant to donate to NPR... and it is tax deductible...

James Brown 1933-2006

James Brown, dead at the Apollo. Quite literally, with thousands lined up to see him-- I would have gone too if I hadn't been on a train back to NYC tonight. Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows the man was truly an inspiration to me.
I still can't believe it-- I only just found out this afternoon that he died this past Monday. I had actually thought I'd try to get tickets to see him this New Year's Eve, but I guess God called him to "get up offa that thing," meaning our mortal world. He gave it up and turned it loose. And hey, the man was all soul already. But no matter what, the Godfather of Soul will live on, in his music and here at this blog!

Highlights from the financial life of the "hardest working man in show business", from the NY Times obituary:

Mr. Brown was born May 3, 1933, in a one-room shack in Barnwell, S.C.

As a boy he earned pennies buck-dancing for soldiers; he also picked cotton and shined shoes. He was dismissed from school because his clothes were too ragged.

He was imprisoned for petty theft in 1949 after breaking into a car, and paroled three years later.

He was a stern taskmaster who fined his band members for missed notes or imperfect shoeshines. He was an entrepreneur who, at the end of the 1960s, owned his own publishing company, three radio stations and a Learjet (which he would later sell to pay back taxes). And he performed constantly: as many as 51 weeks a year in his prime.

During the 1970s the Internal Revenue Service demanded $4.5 million in unpaid taxes; the jet and radio stations were sold.
In 1999, Mr. Brown made a deal to receive more than $25 million in bonds against advance publishing royalties. This year, however, he sought to refinance the bonds with a new loan. The banker who had made the original deal, David Pullman, objected to the terms, and Mr. Brown filed a lawsuit against him in July.

One piece of info that I tried to find was some estimate of how much money he made on royalties from the use of samples of his music by various hip hop artists-- I remember hearing somewhere that he made more on that than he ever did on album sales, but I'm not sure if that is true.

And here's some money-related gems from the lyrics:

After man makes everything, everything he can, you know that man makes money to buy from other man (It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World)

Stock market going up, jobs going down, there ain't no funky job to be found. Tax keeps going up, I changed from a glass, now I drink from a paper cup...save our money, do like the mob, put up your fight, and own the job (Funky President)

Shake your moneymaker (Sex Machine)

Now that, to me, has to be the best financial advice ever. Don't rest in peace, Godfather-- keep makin' it funky!

Why you should always take advantage of free things

Holy Crap. I just read that Prince and Maceo Parker played a concert in Prospect Park last night!

There is a series of free summer concerts called Celebrate Brooklyn. (They suggest a $3 donation if you get into the actual seating area, but you can also sit on the lawn nearby and hear perfectly well, and even see the whole show, depending on where you're standing.) Usually I'll manage to go to a couple of these concerts each summer but I hadn't really checked the schedule yet this year. If I had seen that Maceo Parker would be playing, I definitely would have gone-- I mean, come on, he played with my main man James Brown! And though Prince is not actually one of my huge favorites, I do like some of his music a lot and I'm sure he puts on a great show-- and how cool is it that he showed up at a free concert in Prospect Park as a complete surprise! Apparently word spread fast, as they even announced it over the loudspeaker at the Food Co-op!

I'll have to do a post about all the free stuff that happens in the summer here. Concerts, Shakespeare in the Park, outdoor movies, kayaking, etc etc. There are so many free things to do, I don't know how anyone has time for the things you have to pay for!

Money Music

The financially fabulous SingleMom wants to know what I'm bumpin'!

I had actually been planning a post about this anyway, so it's perfect timing. Here's my ever-evolving personal finance iPod playlist-- these songs are not all explicitly about money but they all have lyrics that have something to do with money, consumerism, greed, aspirations, and dreams of the good life, or at least sound like they do when taken out of context! (I know I'm missing some obvious candidates, but these are my personal favorites-- it's not intended to be an all-encompassing list of songs about money.)

There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street, I went in to see her as a kind of joke, And she lit a candle for my love life, and eighteen bucks went up in smoke.
Song for Sharon-- Joni Mitchell

You ain't got no money, you just ain't no good.
Hit the Road Jack-- performed by Shirley Horn

In a college town, away from home a new identity I found, said I was born elite with maids and servants at my feet. I must have been insane.
I'm Livin' in Shame-- The Supremes

Give me my money back, give me my money back, you bitch! I want my money back, and don't forget... and don't forget to give me back my black T-shirt!
Song for the Dumped-- Ben Folds Five

Once I lived the life of a millionaire, spending my money and I didn't care, takin' my friends out having a good time, buying bootleg liquor, champagne and wine. Ah, but when my money began to fall so low, didn't have a friend and I couldn't go. If I ever get my hands on a dollar again, I'm gonna squeeze it and squeeze it, until that eagle grins, 'cause noboby knows you when you're down and out. In your pocket, not one penny, and friends, you haven't any.
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out--Alberta Hunter

All the money in the world won't buy you peace of mind, you can have it all but you still won't be satisfied.
Money Can't Buy It-- Annie Lennox

Don't even like it, but you've just gotta try it, you don't even want it, but you're gonna buy, gonna-gonna-gonna buy it.
Swine Fever-- The The

You just haven't earned it yet baby, you must suffer and cry for a longer time.
You Just Haven't Earned it Yet Baby--The Smiths (also as performed by Kirstie MacColl)

Speak to me of universal laws, The whores hustle and the hustlers whore, All around me people bleed, Speak to me your song of greed.
The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore-- PJ Harvey

I am a man of means, of slender means.
Nowhere Fast-- The Smiths

Don't be mad 'cause I got it made, diva-hatin' waitin' snake in the grass, look me up and down when I pass, vibin' with your girlfriends, jealous of my dividends and my Benz...
RU Ready-- Salt-N-Pepa

I'm not the type to look for a man with cash...
Nature of a Sista-- Queen Latifah

Oh if you work hard you can be the boss, But if you don't work at all then that's nobody's loss, There's room on top - if you dig in low, And the idea is what they reap you sow.
The Lodgers-- The Style Council

We know where our hearts are--right behind our wallets, yes, and that's where they're staying.
Sugar and Stress-- The English Beat

Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a style, rich man in a poor man's clothes...
Junk Bond Trader--Elliott Smith

After man makes everything, everything he can, you know that man makes money to buy from other man.
It's a Man's, Man's Man's World-- James Brown

If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat, if you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Taxman-- The Beatles

I'm about to give you all my money and all I'm asking in return honey is to give me my propers when you get home.
Respect-- Aretha Franklin

We want the best, we won't settle for less. Don't be a drag, participate-- clams on the half shell and roller-skates!
Good Times-- Chic

Move on up and keep on wishin', remember your dream is your only scheme, so keep on pushin'.
Move on Up-- Curtis Mayfield

Say it loud... he's in the black and he's proud

One of the great things about the personal finance blogging community is seeing people achieve their goals, in dramatic, tangible ways. I'm a little late in coming to the party, but I wanted to join the chorus of congratulations to No Credit Needed for eliminating his debt.

And this week, Caitlin of Clutter2Cash hit 100% on her 2005 Roth-o-meter. (I listened to my entire James Brown boxed set but I couldn't find a song that worked quite as well for that one. But Caitlin, if you ever do a post about buying luggage, I promise I will link to it under the headline "Mama's Got a Brand New Bag." And whoever eliminates their debt next will get "The Payback"-- that one's easy. Ooh, and the next time Jonathan does a Reverse Carnival of Money Mistakes, he'll get "Super Bad." But I'm going to have to save "Sex Machine" for something really special... bloggers, I dare you to deserve it!)

And every month, thanks to Neo's charts and graphs, we can see a lot of people edging ahead, forging ahead, and leaping ahead in their net worth. Sure, sometimes we have months where our net worth might decrease, but temporary setbacks don't seem so bad when you see things moving forward overall. The visibility of everyone's progress is inspiring. I guess you could say it's in sight, and also "Out of Sight."

So I send out cheers and thanks to everyone who is saving, striving, investing, blogging, and all that stuff.
I got you. I feel good.

Contemplating a Time Machine (while the iPod is on shuffle)

If I had ever been here before I would probably know just what to do... don't you? If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel I would probably know just how to deal.

I always have these moments when I regret decisions and delays and wish I could turn back the clock and do things differently. And don't we all think about what we'd do if we could travel back in time? To change things we've done, or experience things we missed... My first priorities might not be financial actually-- I think I'd want to see James Brown at the Apollo in the early 70s, (shake your moneymaker), see some early shows by Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Clash, and I would have to dance to "Push Push in the Bush" at Studio 54. I'd also have to somehow meet Greta Garbo, spend some time in Shanghai in the 1920s, and see what ancient Egypt was really like. To bring this closer to my actual experience, I would have worn something less sorority girl-looking and not been carrying a foil "Happy Birthday" balloon, a Halloween trick-or-treat sack and a large turqouise duffel bag when I saw the Dickies at CBGB in 1986 (waaayyy too long a story... and on second thought, I don't think I would change a thing-- it wouldn't have been as memorable any other way!)
...but then let's see, there was 2001 when I got my first home cash-out check for $50,000 and said "I think I'll just bank this, real estate is too expensive right now." (To do myself full credit, I have to say that even then, it's not that I thought real estate would become cheaper. It's just that I didn't have much other money at the time, and I had this notion that I might be about to chuck it all and move to another country for a while, which I of course did not do.)
Then there was the phone conversation in around 1994 or 1995, I think, when someone told me about this great coffee company that would be big soon, and I said "Star-what? Never heard of it." There were also moments when I contemplated buying stock in Apple, Amazon, Home Depot, etc. It's so annoying when your watchlist on E*Trade does better than your real portfolio! And as for my actual portfolio, I would have bought more than 200 shares of Lucent at $1.69, since it's up about 75% since then.
I also find it ironic that my aptitude for and interest in technology and geeky math stuff didn't develop until about 20 years after those junior high school lessons in Basic. It's probably just as well, since I had plenty of other ways to be nerdy, but people my age, including a couple of college classmates, were exactly the ones who were just the right age to get jobs at Microsoft, work like dogs for a while and then somehow mysteriously manage not to need real jobs for years afterwards. (Can we hit it and quit?) If I had a do-over, I might paid a little more attention in math class, and maybe taken freshman economics in college, and ended up in some wildly more remunerative profession.
Ah well...
Non, Je ne regrette rien
Non, rien de rien, non, Je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait, ni le mal
Tout ça m'est bien egal
Non, rien de rien, non, Je ne regrette rien