Exxon is Number One on This Year’s Fortune 500
By JLP | May 9, 2012
For some reason, I have enjoyed looking at each year’s Fortune 500 since I was 14 or 15-years old. Yeah, I was a wee bit different as a kid. I wish I had kept all my Fortune 500 magazines over the years as it would be fun to look back and see how much the list has changed over the years.
Anyway, the new list is out.
Number one on this year’s list is Exxon.
The Fortune 500 ranks companies based on revenues. Exxon had $45.3 billion in revenues last year, beating Walmart’s $44.7 billion (Walmart was no. 1 last year).
As a side, this is the first year I have read the list on my iPad. I have to say, it’s pretty cool.
Topics: Investing | 2 Comments »
Follow-Up to my Kids and Money Post
By JLP | May 9, 2012
I noticed on Twitter yesterday that my Kids and Money post received a mention from a kids money author and expert along with a “This is kind of scary” (or something along those lines) comment.
I didn’t find the kids’ responses scary. I thought the results were age-based. The younger kids were farther off than the older kids.
Did you find the responses scary?
Topics: Kids and Money | 4 Comments »
A Trip to Magic Fairy Land for Some Homeowners
By JLP | May 8, 2012
This makes me ill:
Bank of America Offers Principal Reductions to 200,000 Homeowners
A select group of struggling mortgage borrowers are about to get an offer that sounds too good to be true. Executives at Bank of America say they will begin mailing 200,000 letters offering certain customers mortgage principal reduction.
…eligible borrowers could get as much as $150,000 knocked off the balance of their mortgages. It is all part of the $25 billion settlement reached this year between federal and state agencies and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers over fraudulent foreclosure document processing (so-called “robo-signing”).
Responsible people get nothing.
Regardless, I’m ready to get this stuff behind us.
Topics: Credit Crisis, Housing Market | 23 Comments »
OT: Application for Permission to Date My Daughter (Humorous (Kinda))
By JLP | May 6, 2012
I received this several months ago and thought I would share it (click on the picutre to see a larger version):
Topics: Humor | 5 Comments »
Kids and Money – Kids Answer Some Questions
By JLP | May 4, 2012
Several people responded to my request to have their kids answer some pretty basic financial questions. I had a lot of fun reading the emails.
It’s amazing how much the kid’s age affects their answers. My boys are both in high school and I thought their responses were all reasonable.
NOTE: If you would still like your child’s responses to be included in this post, please send me an email and I’ll add it to the list as I have time.
JLP’s oldest son – age 16 (my comments are in parenthesis)
• What is money? Gives us an economy.
• Where does money come from? Trees
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Headphones
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $400,000 – $500,000 income per year.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No, but well off.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Chemical Engineer
• How much do you think that job will pay? Starts at $80,000
• How much do you think a new house costs? $100,000 – $150,000 (in our area that’s possible but still pretty low) A car? $25,000 – $35,000
• At what age do you think people retire? 65
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? Several million…$5,000,000 – $6,000,000.
JLP’s youngest son – age 15
• What is money? Buys stuff, helps the economy.
• Where does money come from? Trees. You earn it.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Basketball shoes.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $300,000 – $500,000 yearly at least.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? NBA or Chemical Engineer
• How much do you think that job will pay? NBA: contracts yearly are millions + salary. Chemical Engineer: $100,000
• How much do you think a new house costs? $80,000 – $200,000 A car? $20,000 – $50,000
• At what age do you think people retire? 75
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? A million or more.
JLP’s daughter – age 7 (nearly 
• What is money? Change. And you could use it to buy stuff.
• Where does money come from? Copper and Washington D.C.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. A kitten.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? Two thousand ten hundred. (Okay, we still have some work to do on numbers.)
• Would you consider our family “rich”? Sorta, yeah.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Farmer although that’s not really a job.
• How much do you think that job will pay? $5 every day or every month.
• How much do you think a new house costs? Ten thousand fifty hundred. A car? $548,060.
• At what age do you think people retire? Probably 26
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? $500.
Okay, now here are the submissions from AFM readers:
John’s daughter – age 13
• What is money? I think money is a type of currency.
• Where does money come from? Somewhere in Washington, D.C.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Candy
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? I don’t know… over 1 million?
• Would you consider our family “rich”? I would consider our family between “rich” and poor.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Detective or teacher.
• How much do you think that job will pay? Ummm…. $12,000 a year?
• How much do you think a new house costs? about $250,000 A car? about $100,000 (depends on car)
• At what age do you think people retire? Probably around 67 or something.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? I don’t know…. maybe $500,000?
Don’s son – age 12
• What is money? Money is what everyone uses to pay for items they want or need.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from factories that mass-produce it.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. If I had $100 I would buy a lot of steak
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? He couldn’t name a number that it takes to be rich. He said that it depends on where you started. If you were really poor, it wouldn’t take as much, but compared to Justin Bieber it takes a lot.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? I think our family is rich. We can buy what we need.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be an Air Force pilot
• How much do you think that job will pay? It pays about $15,000 per year
• At what age do you think people retire? A new house costs $250,000 A car? a car costs $15,000-40,000
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire at about age 63
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? You need to have $400,000 saved to retire
Don’s son – age 10
• What is money? Money is what you use to get something.
• Where does money come from? Money is made in a money factory. Made out of paper.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. If I had $100 I would buy a computer.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? It takes $1 million to be rich.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No, we are not rich. We are in the middle.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be in the Air Force.
• How much do you think that job will pay? The job will pay $500/day.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A house costs $1000 or more. A car? A car costs $500.
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire whenever they really want to.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? It takes a lot of money to retire. About $5000.
Anonymous’ daughter – age 12 (nearly)
• What is money? Money is paper, green paper.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from the bank and the economy.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. I would buy make up if I had a $100.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $1000 would make us rich
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No I don’t think our family is rich.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be a nurse.
• How much do you think that job will pay? A nurse gets paid $25 per hour.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A new house costs $1000 or more. A car? A new car costs $5000 or more.
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire at 60.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? I don’t know how much money I need to retire but a lot.
Anonymous’ son – age 9
• What is money? Money is paper.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from trees or a company.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. I would give my $100 to a childrens’ hopsital for kids who need help or an I Pod.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? About $2,000.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No our family is not rich.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? A brain surgeon.
• How much do you think that job will pay? $10,000 dollars every two months.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A new house costs $800,000 for a mansion; $20,000 for a smaller house. A car? A car costs $1,020 for a Mustang.
• At what age do you think people retire? 62 to retire.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? $900,000 saved for retirement.
Topics: Kids and Money | 6 Comments »
Chart of the Day – Research in Motion (Downward Motion, That Is)
By JLP | May 3, 2012
This chart begins January 1, 2008 and goes through today’s current price…
Compare that to Apple’s chart over the same time period:
What happened to Research in Motion?
I think…
1. They got complacent. They didn’t take Apple’s iPhone seriously.
2. They didn’t think ahead. Every phone they have come up with seemed to be playing catch up to every other phone.
3. The Playbook was a joke.
I still like BlackBerry. I have a Torch. Other than a few glitches, it has been a good phone. I’m resisting the iPhone because EVERYONE HAS ONE and I like to be different (even if it means I have an inferior phone).
Topics: Chart of the Day, Investing | 5 Comments »
The Kids Post Will Go Live Tomorrow Morning
By JLP | May 3, 2012
I just wanted to let everyone know that the responses to this post will go live tomorrow morning.
If you still want to participate, please send me an email (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com) with “Kids’ Project” in the subject line of your email along with your child’s age and answers to the following questions:
• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”?
• Would you consider our family “rich”?
• What job do you want to do when you grow up?
• How much do you think that job will pay?
• How much do you think a new house costs? A car?
• At what age do you think people retire?
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement?
I’ll include the responses as I get them.
Also, if you’re a blogger and you would like to participate, post your questions and answers on your blog and send me the link to your post and I’ll be sure to link to them. I hope to do more projects like this in the future.
Topics: Announcements, Blogging, Kids and Money | No Comments »