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As summer winds down, we enter the fall season of cooler temperatures, apple cider, and Sunday afternoons watching the All-American Pastime. Many football fans prepare to set up their rosters, complete their drafts, and participate in a sport of their own.
Fantasy football, a game of statistics in which participants bet on a virtual team of drafted NFL football players, has rapidly gained popularity in the last few years.
Recent polls reveal that more than 50% of Americans watch NFL football, and nearly 75% of American men. Leagues have become a way for fans to extend their enjoyment of the spectator sport into a competition of NFL player knowledge and predictability.
As with many addictive pastimes, what started as non-lucrative competitions between friends has turned into a billion-dollar industry. Most of this revenue is in the form of league “pay-to-play” fees, which go toward prize money to winning players and teams, as well as membership fees for major fantasy football league website services. Many fantasy league site owners such as Yahoo, NFL, ESPN, and CBS offer automatic point updates after games and allow players to more effortlessly manage their virtual teams.
In spite of its popularity, its legal footing in many states remains shaky. Here’s why: [ continue reading… ]
Are you a Mac person? Or a PC person? Whichever side you’re on, when it comes time to buy a new computer, how do you really get the most for your money?
Benefits of Buying a PC
PC people love their familiar-to-operate computers. Windows is a well-known operating system and is the one most often taught in schools and tech classes. PCs mesh well with most popular apps, and they’re easy to set up with file sharing, printer sharing, and other commonly-used functions. Most people know a few basic PC tricks, like CLT+ALT+DEL, which will bring up a window to stop an unresponsive program or allow you to shut down a frozen computer.
PCs are fairly inexpensive, but you can purchase high-end systems if the desire strikes. The PC crowd often complains that Macs are too expensive and that learning a new Operating System is too much of a hassle. [ continue reading… ]
Do you have a bad habit that’s flushing your money down the drain?
If so, you’re in good company. Everyone has their own set of faults, addictions, and bad habits. Some, however, are more costly than others.
I’m usually not the person to offer the “skip your daily latte” type of financial advice. Recently though, I was thinking about a friend’s smoking habit and just how much money he was wasting.
When I added it up, it was quite shocking. He smokes two packs of cigarettes per day at $6 a pack. Though it may not sound like a lot, that adds up to $12/day, $84/week, and $4,068/year. Now, that is a lot of money!
My habits are a bit different: I tend to purchase energy shots more than I should. This habit is a little less costly than smoking, but is still unhealthy and a waste of money.
One of the most frustrating activities you can engage in is car shopping. (I’m not very fond of any type of shopping, and car shopping is the worst of all.) At least it’s not something you have to do very often.
If you are car shopping, it’s important to avoid the following pitfalls, as they could get you locked into a loan you don’t want:
1. Sitting down to talk numbers
Once you enter the dealership and sit across from the salesperson at the desk, you’re on someone else’s turf. Not only does the pressure to buy go up, but the longer you’re there, the more inclined you are to buy the car. Sometimes the salesperson will even leave to “see what can be done.”
My friend Geoff, who runs FindTheBestCarPrice.com, once told me to negotiate via email or phone — especially for a new car — rather than going in to the car dealership to talk numbers. [ continue reading… ]
Whether you agree or disagree with the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), one important provision of the Act will officially begin on October 1, 2013. As of that date, individuals may purchase insurance through the ACA’s Health Insurance Exchange (HIX).
Here’s a basic introduction to what you can expect through this new marketplace:
Pricing & Eligibility
Many people are suspicious of insurance because of long-standing practices throughout the industry — such as denying insurance to those with pre-existing conditions, assigning higher prices to individuals like the elderly and women of child-bearing age, refusing claims based on pre-existing conditions, and placing annual and lifetime spending limits on health care. [ continue reading… ]
Telematics devices are all the rage with car insurance companies. They promise that if you install a little gadget in your car, you’ll get discounts galore on your monthly premiums. But do these gadgets really save you money? Perhaps not.
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