Lazy Man and Money

I Can (Still) Ride My Bike With No Handlebars

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Today, I’m refreshing a weekend post that turned 12-years old this week.

We need it.

I thought it was relevant in 2008, but it is even more so in 2020.

If you can relate to this, I’d appreciate it if you could also turn back the clock to 2008 and leave a comment. (Blogger love comments – it makes their day.) Also, consider spreading the video (and this article if you choose) on social media.

no handlebars
I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars

Like almost all of my weekend posts, I try to highlight something that’s not necessarily related to personal finance. Maybe it’s a small detail of something that’s going on in my life. Earlier this week, I was driving to the store to do some shopping and I heard an unusual song. It caught my attention because I would categorize it as rap, but I don’t listen to channels that typically play rap. Perhaps it’s a lot like one of my favorite bands, Cake, that mixes in spoken word within the song.

I went home and found the video on YouTube. I showed it to my wife and she agreed that it was even better than the song itself. What do you think:



The video is not loading on my phone, so here’s a link to YouTube

That’s a great story about the paths that you can choose… how power can corrupt… how you can choose to create, build and help people… there’s lots of great symbolism.

This is the reason why I miss MTV showing music videos.

A Look Around the World of Personal Finance

Continuing along with this historical look, I decided to preserve what used to be called “link round-ups”, which were highlights from partner blogs.

Only one of these blogs is still active – Million Dollar Journey. Interestingly, their article from June 25, 2008 is titled, “RBS Predicts a Global Market Crash.” It begins: “I read a report from RBS predicting that there will be a global market crash could come at the end of summer/beginning of fall 2008.”

I’ve removed the links that no longer link to the exact article, but a surprising number of blogs are still serving (even if they are dormant).

And now some links from The Money Writers:

Links from other great blogs:

  • Flexo points out that the IRS now allows you to deduct miles at 58.5 cents each. This is helpful for my wife, who occasionally drives pretty far for her work. We expect they’ll update their reimbursement to match. Perhaps this should have a regional aspect to it as well.
  • No Credit Needed reports on StreetRead – an interesting new site for stock quotes and financial information .
  • Mighty Bargain Hunter has found a great site to share with all of us who love to eat out. You get $35 in Restaurant.com gift certificates for only $4. Perhaps the prices at the gas pump won’t hurt so much with this sweet deal.
  • More gas-saving tips are offered this week by Free Money Finance on top of Money Smart Life’s post. These pertain more to trip taking than every day.

This article was originally published on Jun 28, 2008 at 09:50

What it’s Like to go on Vacation During Coronavirus

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kids smores
Our annual s’mores dessert.

Today’s article is brief… expect a couple of longer ones next week and in the future as the kids go to camp (if camps still happen as planned)

So like everything in 2020, this is going to be a weird article to write. It’s especially odd because coronavirus cases are spiking across the country… except for two states, Connecticut and Rhode Island which are declining. We’re lucky enough to live in Rhode Island. We never got a big spike in our area and now things are on the decline.

I still don’t see nearly enough people wearing masks, but what’s in place is working as well as… what’s working in many European countries when you see the charts.

It’s so strange here, that we did something that few Americans can think about – go on vacation. Last week, we went on our annual trip to Block Island – a small island ~15 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. It’s only accessible by ferry and has a tiny population of ~1000 people. It’s where (allegedly) Billy Joel and Christopher Walken sneak off to if they want to get away from the celebrity life for a bit.

Block Island hasn’t a coronavirus case yet. (Now that I think about it, their “hospital” isn’t really much and I can’t imagine they do testing.)

In a role reversal, the bed and breakfast that we stay called us up and asked if we wanted to come this year. Their usual clients from out of state, couldn’t come as a practical matter, because of the state’s 14-day self-quarantine mandate.

So we did what the 30-year old song said to do:



“Sail away on the Block Island Ferry, leave all your troubles behind… take a trip back to carefree times.”

For the most part, it lived up to its promise.

Our Own Block Island Gotchas

This section is likely to go over like a lead balloon. After all, we’re already in the win column by having any kind of vacation at all.

It seems we weren’t the only people looking to take this trip. While we were able to book the hotel easily enough, the ferry itself wasn’t taking reservations for awhile. When they finally started, car reservations were filled up for the first day except for the last one at 7 PM. That would be a loss of a whole day of vacation. That’s significant when you are only staying 3 nights/4 days.

We decided to park the car and go across ourselves in the morning. I took the ferry back at 2 PM to pick up the car and bring that across to the island. I was originally disappointed by this run-around, but it’s the first 6 hours I had without the wife and kids in about 4 months. I was only disappointed that when I got back, everyone (especially my wife) was ready for sleep. I can’t blame her with two kids and the dog.

Before our trip, we got the news that my wife’s friend’s father had died. The funeral was the morning of the last day of our trip. We had planned to stay the full day, but we were able to change our ferry time and leave in the morning. (Few people leave the Block Island first thing in the morning – the ferry was almost empty.)

A four-day vacation turned into about a two day one. That’s still 2 more days than most people have during these times, but it was disappointing nonetheless.

The Block Island Vacation Itself

There isn’t a lot to do on Block Island. That’s kind of the point. There are outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, and beaching. There are some nice tiny boutique shops. Finally, there are the restaurants. The outdoor activities are exactly the same during coronavirus – except that you bring your mask with you just in case. There aren’t many people around, so there’s not a big need to use it.

We usually go hiking and hunting for glass orbs. There’s a deal with the tourism industry on the island and a local glassmaker to hide around 500 of these on the island every year. They are extremely hard to find, and we haven’t found one in 4 years now. This year they weren’t hiding them until late July. Instead of hiking, we brought an inflatable kayak and took that out for a little while.

We didn’t get to do any boutique shopping. I’m not a big fan, but sometimes there’s something in the 75% bin that’s a good deal. The biggest reason why we didn’t get to do any is that our 6 and 7-year-old kids wouldn’t allow it without ruining the whole vacation. There’s simply nothing fun for kids in boutiques. If we had a longer vacation, we could have split up, but it didn’t work out that way.

The restaurants are very different during coronavirus of course. They were just starting to open up distanced indoor dining when our trip started. It didn’t seem like any restaurant operated the same way. A few took temperatures. Some took our name and phone number. Some had menus. Some asked us to take a picture of a menu with our phone and use that to order from. However, once again, many people don’t have an option to eat at a restaurant.

At the end of the day, the best thing about Block Island is simply unplugging from day-to-day life. It’s nice to not have to worry about a to-do list that never gets done or laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.

If we wanted to be more frugal about the planning perhaps we would have come back the evening before and saved the last night at the hotel. That would have saved us a couple of hundred dollars. However, we would had spent a lot of the last evening cleaning and packing for our trip, which would have cut down on our vacation further.

The Tim Wakefield Towels

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Tim WakefieldChances are you don’t know who Tim Wakefield is. That is unless you happen to be from Boston or a huge fan of baseball.

Tim Wakefield was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He was known for throwing a knuckleball – a slow pitch that “dances” on the way to the plate – if thrown well. When a knuckleball is dancing it is almost impossible for the hitter to hit. It can be difficult for the catcher to catch. When a knuckleball isn’t thrown well, it doesn’t dance, and major league hitters tend to blast it out of the park for a home run.

Tim Wakefield was a polarizing pitcher for Red Sox fans. Some didn’t like him because he was fairly average statistically and a few bad pitches could erase a lead very quickly. Others, such as myself, liked him a lot. There aren’t many minor league infielders who go on to win 200 games in the majors as a pitcher.

My favorite thing about Tim Wakefield though was his ability to “eat innings.” That’s a baseball expression for pitching a lot. Most starting pitchers can pitch every 5 or 6 days. However, Wakefield could pitch every 3 days. The knuckleball doesn’t put nearly as much strain on the shoulder, so recovery is a lot faster. He could even be used to relieve other pitchers in between stats.

Trust me, there’s a real money lesson coming. I wouldn’t waste 200 words and your time if there wasn’t.

I always believed that inning eaters had a lot of value to the team. If the team is down 8 to 1 and there’s not much of a chance of coming back, you could always “surrender” the game with an inning eater. Why would you do that? It helps keep the teams’ best players rested. Wakefield didn’t perform this role too often though. He was good enough that you didn’t want to waste him on a lost cause game. However, because he could pitch more often there were times when the Red Sox could use a roster spot on an extra hitter. It was a great insurance plan.

The Tim Wakefield Towels

A couple of years ago, we somehow got two free Tanger Outlet swim towels. I think they were a gift to military members who signed up for their reward program. They are very thin. They’re white with a big Tanger Outlet logo on them. They are the bare minimum of what you might consider a towel.

We use those towels ALL the time. The kids have been through two summer camps with them. It’s almost impossible for anything to last through a single summer camp.

The fact that the towels have almost no value is what makes them valuable. Replacement towels would cost us actual money. If we bought good towels, I’d be concerned that they’d get ripped or lost. They get the job done and “eat” summer camp days like Tim Wakefield ate innings.

There are a number of similar items to those towels in our house. We’ve got a lot of reusable takeout boxes for food storage. I supplement it with a few from the Dollar Store. Rather than send our good silverware to school, I bought a couple of sets from the Dollar Store as well. The kids haven’t lost too many pieces of silverware, but one would be too many. The cheap metal ones are better than throwing away a bunch of plastic forks and spoons each day.

Final Thoughts

This article isn’t really about Tim Wakefield or towels. It’s what they represent. It explains how I approach certain spending decisions. If I have a need where quality plays a minimal role, I’ll get by spending the least amount of money possible. The money I save can be funneled to other purchases where quality is more important or saved for later investing.

Fathers, Get the Best Electric Razor Deal that I Missed

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I only write about deal 3 or 4 times a year. I only want to share the best of the best deals and this certainly qualifies.

A few months ago, my electric razor died. It was a Norelco three circle blade one that did its job for 5 years. Overall, it was a great value for $50.

I did some research and it seems like all the reviews pointed to electric razors that were around $200. That seemed like a lot for a frugal person like me. There was another razor in the $50 range that got some decent editorial reviews, but all the Amazon reviews seemed to say it was trash. I felt like I might be throwing $50 away.

In end, I got some sage advice on Twitter than said, “If you are going to be using it for a number of years, the expensive one is the better value.” It’s true. Sometimes it is worth paying more for the top quality.

Plus to paraphrase Danny Glover’s character in Lethal Weapon, “I’m too old for this suboptimal product.” Hmmm, maybe it was something other than “suboptimal product.”

I delayed the purchase for awhile and it started to cause me stress. With COVID-19 bringing me down and a birthday, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the $200 electric razor.

Today in my inbox, I got an email alert that it’s now available for $149. I would have waited, but it doesn’t seem like it ever goes on sale. It simply doesn’t have to, because the reviews are too good. It turns out that it actually went on sale a couple of weeks ago, in preparation for Father’s Day I’m sure.

Here’s the product:


For those who have ad blockers turned on their browsers, it’s a Braun Series 7 with Cleaning and Charging Station. I paid $200, you can buy it now for $149. That’s like Apple giving a 25% discount on its best iPads… it’s unheard of.

I’ve been very happy with my Braun Series 7. I used to only use an electric before stepping in the shower and following up with a real razor. Now if I don’t shave for a couple of days, I can just use this and move on. With one touch of a button, the razor is cleaned in its charging station and ready to go.

If this is the kind of thing you are interested in, I’d buy it right away, because it may go away now that Father’s Day is here.

What do you think, maybe give yourself a Father’s Day present today?

Note: The links on this page may earn me a commission on Amazon if you choose to buy this. However, I honestly love the Braun Series 7 (and you can see from the reviews that everyone else does too) and this is an exceptional deal.

MLM Scams and “a Few Bad Apples”

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This may not be the right time for this conversation. Many may say, “Don’t we have enough on our plates with COVID-19 and addressing centuries of racism.”

I wouldn’t argue that. That’s where our attention should be.

However, the topic of “a few bad apples” got surfaced as part of the racial injustice discussion. Rhis Chris Rock video below specifically addresses the problem of “a few bad apples” with regard to cops when reacting to people of color:

That’s a clip from 2018, which shows that it wasn’t a George Floyd reaction. This isn’t new.

Clearly the conversation now (well way before now) should be about systemic racism. Chris Rock in the video above makes a great point that in some jobs (such as the police), you just can’t have any bad apples. Pilots from the video is great example.

In addition to that Vox Media addresses the “few bad apples” with regard to George Floyd. That’s a tremendous article and I recommend that everyone read it.

For this article, I’d like to focus on just this small somewhat insignificant paragraph:

Curiously, the people who recite this trope rarely reflect on the second half of the expression: “A few bad apples spoil the bunch.”

That’s where I’d like to transition this and apply it to MLM. I’m not trying to steal from this discussion. (I’m not sure a small blog as insignificant as mine can do that.) I simply know that if I don’t write about this now, I’ll forget about it. I have the attention span of a tsetse fly and the grit of a sloth.

There has been some discussion about a “few bad apples” for a long time in the MLM space. I’ve spent too much of my life addressing it in comments. I understand if MLMs aren’t your thing, or something you are particularly concerned about at this time. If that’s the case, please feel free to move on. I have broader personal finance content planned for later this week.

Imagine a career, like pilots, where there can’t be any bad apples. That’s one side of the spectrum where I think we can safely agree that success depends on being a good apple. If you are a bad apple, you probably aren’t going to be a pilot for long. (We just hope it ends safely, right?)

But let’s look at the career thing that an MLM distributor does. Since MLM is not a business it would be too much of a stretch to say it can qualify as a profession or career.

The MLM distributor is the opposite of the pilot. The most successful (in terms of making money) have recruited the biggest pyramid below them. The FTC doesn’t go after many MLMs, but when they do, the top distributors with the biggest pyramids are quick to go down too. You can often them in videos on YouTube making illegal business opportunity claims such as, “You too can make 6 figures”, when the truth is that it is mathematically impossible for that to be generally true.

MLM Distributors and Bad Apples

In the comments of my MLM articles, I always get the same excuse that Chris Rock mentioned… “it’s just a few bad apples.”

Here are some examples:

From my Beachbody Shakeology article:

“There is no denying there are really crappy, horrible MLM’s out there that are legitimate pyramid schemes. And it definitely sucks because the business model of MLM can be used for extortion and theft. But; so can regular businesses (Enron? etc.). There are bad apples in every bunch and they sour it for the rest of us. The danger is when you start painting with a broad brush without looking at intent.” (Source)

Note: It was soon obvious that Nick himself was a bad apple.

Next we have this from my DoTerra article:

“There may be many ‘bad apples’ in the network marketing business, but until doTERRA does ‘it’ whatever ‘it’ is, you can’t claim they are a scam or fraudulent. (Source)”

I had only mentioned the things that doTERRA had done and my opinions to the best of my knowledge. That included a warning letter from the FDA back in 2014. Additionally, just a couple of months ago, they were warned by the FTC for COVID-19 claims.

I think we can all agree that the FTC is calling doTerra out for having “bad apples.”

(I don’t even want to address how anyone using the term “network marketing” is a bad apple for trying to hide that it is MLM.)

Next we have this from my ASEA article:

“The Asea has done wonders to relieve chronic spasms in my entire back, making it possible for me to be on my feet for much longer than I’ve managed for years! I’m a real person, not being paid to do this, but want the real truth to be told about this product. It’s not a scam. It’s literally changed my life and has given me some life back. There are always bad apples in the mix with anything, sad but true. Always some that don’t do all of their homework or even try it for themselves or see what it can do for others around them.” (Source)

That sounds like a convincing testimonial, until you realize that ASEA was debunked in 2012 as being $70 salt water. The commenter may not have been a bad apple, but it’s easy enough to say, “Get the product approved for the medical condition if it works.” If there is anyone who isn’t taking the MLM company to task with that… they are a bad apple in my book. The company itself is a bad apple if they aren’t getting their product FDA medically-proven for back spasms (in this case). I hate to be the bearer of common sense here.

Finally we have this from my Visalus article:

I am looking for a unbiased article or blog and for me if you are totally down i.e. your summary is it’s all bad or it’s all good. There is something wrong, some kind of agenda. There are bad apples in everything banking, schooling, non-profits, government, hospitals, business in general. However, there are also good apples. (Source)

I’d love to read his review about domestic violence. I wonder if he’d say there’s some good in it? What about his view of pickpockets? It’s hard for me to see the positive side of pyramid schemes preying on the disadvantaged.

BTW, ViSalus imploded as well. In 2012 they were in the advanced stages of going public, but reports came out that they were a pyramid scheme.

I could probably go on citing commenters from many of my other articles such as Le-Vel Thrive, Plexus, It Works, and Shakeology.

Instead of boring with all that, the former Chairwoman of the FTC, Edith Ramirez made a blistering keynote at the 2016 MLM convention (misleadingly titled the Direct Seller Association, which doesn’t address the MLM aspect).

She goes into great detail about how bad the bad apples are in MLM. She cites that when the “business opportunity” to recruit people into Burnlounge was legally taken away, interest in the product “plummeted from over $475,000 to less than $11,000.”

Feel free to check my math, but it seems that the MLM consisted of 97% bad apples. From my reading it seemed that Edith Ramirez held that out to be a typical example.

Celebrity as MLM bad apples

It’s not just the distributors who are bad apples. Celebrities can be bad apples in sponsoring pyramid schemes. Here are some examples:

Jenny McCarthy pushed Vemma’s scam and the FTC took them down. Drew Brees pushed Advocare’s scam and the FTC took them down. Even my beloved Red Sox pushed Monavie’s scam and… it imploded before the FTC acted on it.

I give the celebrities a bit of a break. They probably don’t have the time to do all the research into these pyramid schemes. That’s why we need the FTC to actively investigate them instead of waiting 10-25 years and then acting… which unfortunately isn’t unusual.

Final thoughts about MLMs and a “few bad apples”

One may claim that the people who appear as “bad apples” just didn’t get the right training. I don’t believe that, but if I were to play Devil’s Advocate, that’s a systemic problem with MLM. MLM assumes that the person who recruited a distributor can train that person. The problem with that is that a bad apple spoils the barrel as the bad training spreads down the line. It’s like the children’s game of Telephone gone wrong – all the misinformation that can recruit people are spread like… well… to bring it into recent terms… COVID-19.

John Oliver did one of the best comedy routines about MLM, because it delivered real information. I’ve found it exhausting covering the “what about this one” of the 1000 out there. There are systemic problems in MLM scams and I covered them here.

I invite you to click on that link, but also enjoy the John Oliver video below.

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