Before we start, I really want to draw your attention to one of my favourite blogs:
Must Read: Whoever has the gold, makes the rules. I couldn’t have said it better than the Girl with the Red Balloon.
She is inspirational and absolutely right.
That same semester I was sitting outside Mom’s office waiting to go to lunch when I overheard her say that she and my father expected me to be more independent than I was. And she and her coworker laughed. To my 18 year old self, it didn’t sound like a joke but instead an insult.
She probably wouldn’t even remember that conversation now, but I remembered it. After that first semester, I no longer accepted financial help from my parents for tuition, books or bills. Last year was the first year I’ve been able to accept gifts (in the form of our two shopping trips) without logging the dollar amount and paying her back.
I realized that, if I wanted to live my own life with my own rules and be able to hold my head up as an “independent” person, I’d have to take on the responsibility of paying for it myself. I took on a part-time job, which then became a full-time job. School was partly sacrificed in the process, but having the freedom to do it all on my own was worth that sacrifice.
Read more here.
Moving on!
If you don’t already listen to This American Life, you should give it a shot.
They release new podcasts every week and for the most part they are funny and interesting.
Here’s an episode you can stream and listen to for free, or buy for $0.99 to download to support This American Life.
I really want you to listen to the Prologue, which was an interesting story (for me) about business in general, and copycatting.
Teaser:
Hanco’s and Henry’s are two restaurants in Brooklyn that sell Vietnamese sandwiches and bubble tea.
Their menus are identical, down to the order of the items, the layout, the fonts.
Ira Glass investigates, and finds out about Henry’s million dollar idea.
I also liked Act Four (the last story) about Michael Larson (whom I had never heard of before).
Teaser:
Shawn Allee tells a story of the oldest kind of million dollar idea, the scam.
Or was it an honest venture?
Back in the 1980s Michael Larson made the most money ever on the game show Press Your Luck.
And it was no accident.
Larson had a plan to get rich that surprised everyone.
Big thanks to Stacking Pennies for reminding me that you don’t have to buy the MP3 if you don’t want to, you can just stream it.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I just got This American Life Season 1 from the library. It's a lot of fun even if I heard the stories before. I guess I'm an NPR nerd. I heard this a while back and the Press Your Luck guy was good! He found a way to beat the system, but it sounds like the rest of his life didn't turn out too well.
I read Red's post and I guess that's up to each family. I think my family is a lot closer than the usual American family and my parent paid for all the kids' education. They are not rich and struggle to pay the bill like everybody else, but they value education the most and acted accordingly. Of course this is not free, I am sending them money to help with living cost now and the kids will take care of them when they can't work anymore. This is perfectly ok with me and my brothers.
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Another interesting informative post, keep em coming
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I saw a documentary about the Press Your Luck guy. It's quite the story. If I remember right, he got to keep all that money. Good for him, figuring out a way to outsmart the system.
I love Red's blog too. 🙂
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Isn\’t she great? 🙂
I of course, love your blog too. You\’re on my permanent RSS Feed list.
I'm a huge TAL fan, and when I studied abroad for a semester and had no American TV (or TV at all), I'd regularly stream old episodes via the internet while I was getting read or whatever. It was a little slice of home! 🙂
I'm also a big fan of Girl With The Red Balloon! 🙂
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I think it's kind of sad that parents feel as though they can hold something like paying college tuition over a child's head. Granted, my son isn't there yet, but I have no intention of dictating to him what he should major in in college even if I'm paying for it. As long as he does well, that's what matters. Now, if he ends up getting bad grades, etc., then I'd have to say something. But as for gifts, when kids get to a certain age, it's up to them how they spend it. We can only hope to teach our children to handle their money wisely.
I\’m glad you can say that, because I can\’t.
Which is why my kids will have to pretty much earn their way through college and understand what kind of debt they\’re taking on, and then before graduation we\’ll re-evaluate (if I have the money to pay for all of them, that is. Not just to cherry pick one or two.).
Wow, FB! Thank you so much for featuring my post! That was a REALLY nice surprise this morning. 🙂
You know I love your blog 🙂 I hope you get lots of traffic.
I am a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE fan of This American Life. I've listened to all the podcasts since 2009 and am making progress towards the earlier ones. have you seen the showtime tal shows? they are streaming on netflix, I was unsure on how tal would be on film, but it was good. all the stories were engaging and entertaining (like the radio show). but anyways, about 6 years ago, gameshow network (yes I am a nerd) did a special "report" on michael larson and that was one of the most interesting psedo-documentary ever.
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I haven\’t seen the showtime TAL shows. I don\’t have Netflix either… but I\’m glad you love TAL!
I can definitely relate. If your parents hold the purse strings then they're still the boss of you even in adulthood. My mom was paying for my college when I was 18 and telling me to major in things that I didn't care about. At that time I wasn't going to college for myself, I was going to college to please my mom. Needless to say I wasn't very happy. Now in my late 20s, I'm going back on my own because I want to, and paying for it on my own too.
Once in a while my mom + stepdad will give me money such as during my birthday and xmas but that's it, the money is free for me to use however I want. However that's the only money gifts I get from her and my stepdad. Although in return, I send them visa gift cards for xmas and special occasions. I also think that women that work in a relationship have more equal say than ones that don't. It makes you more egalitarian in the relationship.
I\’m on board with everything you\’ve just said. Whoever has the money, makes the rules. Cash is king. These phrases are everywhere in our vocab.