This is interesting!  Do you realize that nearly 1/3 of multi-million lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after their big win.  I’ve always believed that if you give a fool any amount of money, they will blow it.  Some people are prone to lose money!

The top ten lottery losers are listed below:

10. Vivian Nicholson – won £152,300, lost five husbands
9. Willie Hurt – won $3,100,000, lost everything
8. Evelyn Adams – won $5,400,000, lost all but her caravan
7. Shefik Tallmadge – won $6,700,00, lost his Ferrari
6. Michael Carroll – won £9,700,000, lost everything but his reputation
5. Rhoda Toth – won $13,000,000, lost her disability claim
4. William Post – won $16,200,000, lost his family
3. Janite Lee – won $18,000,000, lost her money but bought a seat in heaven
2. Billie Bob Harrell – won $31,000,000, lost his life
1. Jake Whittacker – won $315,000,000, lost his car insurance

Visit TimesOnline for the complete story.

Want to make a lot of money? One good way is to convince people that you have a fail-safe secret plan on how to make money.  Tell them that for a few hundred or thousand dollars you can teach them how to “easily” make money in real estate, network marketing, affiliate marketing, the stock market, the Internet, etc. with just a few hours per day of work.  In your advertisement show pictures of yourself sitting in an expensive car, on a yacht, before a mansion, with beautiful people around a pool and with you holding up a check with a huge amount of money!  You’ll persuade a lot of people to buy your services.   On the other hand, the savvy consumer will not buy into the hype and will first do some research.  They may then be surprised to find out that the get-rich-marketer doesn’t own the car, yacht or mansion.  The check maybe legitimate, but it’s deceiving because the get-rich-marketer doesn’t reveal how he really made the money.  

Training Seminar Hype
The reality is most training seminars are fraudulent, deceiving, or just not worth the money.  Many get-rich-marketers don’t tell you the full story about what they are selling.  For every 1 person that maybe successful, 1,000 will fail.  However, the 1 successful person will be shown as proof that their system works.  The reality also it that most of the information get-rich-marketers try to sell you can be found on the Internet for free or in books at the library and/or book store.  Get-rich-marketers know that when it comes to money, people get emotional, so they can be easily convinced to sign-up and spend their money.

There are stories about get-rich-marketers advertising their classes by showing a big check from an affiliate company.  When people see the image of a $96,000 check they immediately think to themselves, “This guy must know what he’s doing.  I’m buying whatever he’s selling.”  Who wouldn’t want a $96,000 check?  Well, in reality the $96,000 check was gained by spending $120,000.  Here is how it works. The get-rich-marketer advertises an item on Google where he will receive a commission for each sale made at an affiliate website.  This is called affiliate marketing (read more here).  However, for ever $1 spent on advertising he makes $0.80 in commission.  So he loses $0.20 per $1 advertised.  That’s okay because he plans on making his money back later.  So when he spends $120,000 he makes $96,000 in commissions with a loss of $24,000.  He then creates a training class with books and videos (that he may outsource) and sells the training class for $99.99.  As proof he the show’s off the big check.  People seeing the $96,000 check are impressed and quickly sign-up with their credit cards.  Within a few days the get-rich-marketer sells a million dollars worth of training classes and laughs all the way to the bank!

CEO Hype
Over the years I’ve watched the financial markets, which include watching interviews with CEOs. As a result, I’ve come to the conclusion that many CEOs are deceitful or outright liars.  Most are salesmen who focus on telling you the positives while hiding the negatives about their companies.  After all they don’t want their company stock prices affected by negative news, which will affect their bonus.  I’ve watched CEOs tell the public that the future of their company is bright and that things are going well only to then release horrible earnings results a few weeks later.  I’m certain if you researched CEO statements for many of the companies currently in trouble (Countrywide, GM, AIG, Citigroup, etc.), you will hear the CEOs giving glowing statements about their companies.  Remember WorldComm and Enron?  Their CEOs got in trouble for misleading investors with their hype. Never buy a stock based on the CEO statements!  Let the company’s financial statements and market research do the talking for you!

Revenue Hype
Have you ever read magazines articles about entrepreneurs who launch companies that have revenues in the millions?  You may have thought to yourself, “Wow, that’s great.  This guy must be rich.”  Well, not so fast.  Revenues mean very little in giving you a complete picture of a company’s financial health.   Most magazines will not even state if the company is profitable or not.  To get a good feel of how a company is doing, you need to know at least their cash flow, net income and debt.  

There are many companies with revenues in the millions or billions (GM and Chrysler are examples) who go bankrupt.  The next time you read an article about some young guy who started a company with revenues of $10 million dollars, don’t be envious, jealous or impressed because it maybe just hype.  You really don’t know the full story.  You may look closer and realize that the company spent $12 million to make $10 million in sales and the company only has enough cash to last 6 additional months.  At night the owner is up sleepless, worrying about his company going bankrupt.  Most of these new companies you read about will not exist 5 years from now!

Lifestyle Hype
Never envy a man who drives a big car, lives in a big house or have a big job.  You may look closer and realize that you would never do what he did to attain these items or do what he’s doing to maintain them. You may realize that he’s working 80 hours per week in a very stressful job.  He may travel a lot and as a result is never home to spend time with his family.  His wife may be unhappy and is threatening divorce.  I know of people who make a lot of money, but when I ask them about their jobs, I realize that I’d rather make less and have more free time and less stress.  For me the hours worked isn’t worth the money!  The reality is that more money and “stuff” will not make you happy!  After a while the “stuff” looses its appeal.  Have you ever purchased a new car and it felt great, and in a few months the car looses its appeal and it’s just a car?  

Career Hype
I’ve seen many people get better paying jobs or promotions only to have it backfire on them.  I’ve had friends and co-workers who took new jobs, which sometimes required relocating, only to regret it and end up quitting.  The job ended up not being what they expected.  Sure they were making more money, but now they were working more hours, had conflicts with the new boss, hated the new city they relocated to or the job was very boring and not challenging.  

I’ve learned to not always believe the hype.  There are advantages and disadvantages to pretty much every situation.  Before getting emotional about making more money, take a step back and think about it rationally.  Do your research and then proceed with caution.   Many times we as people will deeply desire something, but when we finally get it, we quickly realize it wasn’t worth the effort and that it didn’t make us happy.  So don’t always believe the hype!

Many financial experts recommend having a 3 to 6 emergency fund (of your typical living expenses) in the bank for unexpected events in your life such as a job loss. However, in today’s economy is a 3 to 6 months emergency fund enough?  Many unemployed people are having difficulty finding jobs within 6 months.  It’s now taking some people up to a year to find employment. So it maybe a good idea to have a 1 year emergency fund!

If you don’t have an emergency fund, the hardest part is how to get started.  You know you should have an emergency fund but how can you create one when money is already being tight.  As with most things, it’s all about creating a plan and sticking to the plan.

The first thing is tracking where all your money is spent each month.  If you were to track every dollar spent you’d be amazed how much of that money falls in the “I don’t really need this” category.  You also maybe surprised how much money you spend on small items that adds up to a decent amount of money over time.  That $5 coffee you purchase every morning at Starbucks in a month is costing you $100.  That’s over $1,000 in a year for coffee.  That’s money you could have put towards you emergency fund.

Another strategy is to reduce your 401K contributions temporarily to build you emergency fund.  However, if your company is matching you, you should put at least that amount in your 401K.  So for example if you are putting 10% of your gross salary in your 401K but your employer matches dollar for dollar 6%, your should reduce your contribution to 6% to still getting the matching dollars.  Why lose that money?

Also create a budget and look at each expense to determine what you can do to reduce that expense.  Do you really need to be paying $85 per month for cable TV?  Can you reduce it to $50 per month?  Do you need to spend $100 per month for cell phone?  Can you reduce it to $60 per month? Do you really need that gym membership that you almost never use, saving you $35 per month?  Can you shop around for cheaper car insurance and raising your deductible saving you a few hundred dollars per year?  Can you take your lunch to work instead of eating out everyday? If you look closely at your budget to determine how much money you can save by cutting expenses you will be surprised with how much money you can save!

So go ahead and get started.  Time is of essence.  Start today!

Related Articles:

• Surviving a Layoff
• MSNBC 10 Tips to Save on Your Cell Phone Bill
• Video: Dave Ramsey’s Advice on Financial Success
• Think and Act Like a Business Owner

I’m always looking to save money and am seriously considering getting rid of my land-line and instead using the Magic Jack.  Magic Jack was launched mid last year and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the service.  (See 2 videos below).

Magic Jack works by first purchasing a phone jack that you plug into your computer via the USB port.  You then plug your home phone into the jack to make your phone calls.  It’s that easy.  The service includes free local / long distance, free directory assistance, free phone number, free call waiting, free voicemail and free caller ID.  Additionally, you get a Magic Jack phone number that people will see on their Caller ID.

The phone jack costs $39.95 plus $6.95 for shipping and handling.  After the one year of free service, it’s $19.95 per year for the phone service.  That is a fantastic deal.

Visit MagicJack.com for more information.

Magic Jack infomercial

Magic Jack Review

The higher education law passed by Congress last year requires that all colleges have net price calculators on their websites by 2011 to determine out-of-pocket cost and financial aid packages available.

The calculators ask for a variety of information similar to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).  The calculators then use this information to deterrmine how much a student or family is expected to pay. 

Additionally, the calculators will highlight the cost to attend that specific school and financial aid package the school might offer to make up the different between the student/family out-of-pocket contribution and the total bill.

There are several universities that already have calculators which include:

• Williams College
• Princeton University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Yale University
• Amherst College

WaMu Bank, who is being taken over by Chase, if offering $100 cash bonus when you open a WaMu free checking account and set up direct deposit or make five debit card purchases.  The offer expires 6/16/09.

There is no monthly service fee, free ATM cash withdrawals at any ATM, free checks, free online banking and bill pay and one overdraft fee refund annually.

To qualify for the reward, you must open a new checking account with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by WaMU). Also, within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit such as payroll, pension or Social Security, or have at least five debit card purchases (using your PIN or signature) posted to your account.

The reward will be deposited into your new account within 2 weeks after the initial direct deposit or the five debit card purchases have posted to your account. Limit one personal checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year.

Visit Bonus.WaMu.com to get your $100 Cash Bonus.

JetAmerica today started selling $9 non-stop one-way seats on its new flights between six U.S. cities. The first fights take-off on July 13. During a time of massive cutbacks in the airline industry, JetAmerica is about to spread its wings.

The new low-fare, big-jet air service kicks-off its “Let’s Get America Flying Again” campaign at a news conference today at Toledo Express Airport. JetAmerica is now offering some of the best-buys-in-the-skies above the U.S.A. Its inaugural roundtrip flights launch from Lansing, Michigan, Melbourne-Vero Beach, Florida, South Bend, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio to New York- Newark, New Jersey. Jet America is also flying roundtrip flights from Toledo and Lansing to Melbourne-Vero Beach. Starting August 14, Jet America will fly roundtrip from Toledo to Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Currently, passengers flying these routes are cramped into small turbo-prop planes and regional jets. They also must make connections, endure long layovers and pay expensive fares. JetAmerica will provide full size, fuel-efficient Next Generation Boeing 737-800 series non-stop jet flights at fares 50 to 70 percent less than major airlines traveling similar but indirect routes. JetAmerica expects to be profitable because it is serving secondary cities where there are few flight options and minimal competition. Furthermore, JetAmerica is stimulating markets with some of the lowest air fares in the nation that will encourage business travelers as well as people who fly occasionally or do not fly at all to start flying from their hometown rather than from larger out-of-of-town airports, which previously offered better deals.

If JetAmerican doesn’t fly to your city, the company has several cities under consideration for 2009.  They include Charleston, WV, Chicago/Rockford, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Columbus, OH, Dayton, OH, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/Highpoint, NC, Pittsburgh, PA, and St. Petersburg/Clearwater, FL.

To get your $9 seat visit JetAmerica.com.