Value Proposition of Movies

Last night, a buddy of mine and I went to go see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It wasn't a horrible movie but it was hardly "art". Two tickets for the non-3D version ran $24. Add in two 1qt bottles of water for $9 bucks (that's $18/gal. for water - even at its peak, gasoline wasn't that expensive) and you're at more than $30 for two hours of mid-grade entertainment.

Today, while at work, a box arrived from Amazon. In that box was the full, 8-movie BluRay set of Harry Potter movies. Sixteen or so hours of quality entertainment. Total price? $60. And that's $60 for unlimited viewings by me and any number of other people that might come over during our ownership of the discs (and, lets not forget loans/swaps with neighbors and friends).

So, tell me, again, why Hollywood thinks that piracy is why annual ticket sales are down by a half-billion seats?

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending money if I'm getting good value. But when every trip to the theatre becomes a $20-$40 gamble whose odds are worse than rolling a hard-8 in Vegas and it should be fairly self-evident why everyone's staying home.

Lottery Fantasies

Ok, I admit it: I'm one of those people that buys lottery tickets. And, yes, I am fully cognizant of the odds of winning and that I'm, essentially, throwing money away. While my odds of winning without having bought a ticket are only slightly less than having bought one, there's still that small chance. Yet, for the price of just $1, I have a brief "hit" of hope. I've got something I can build fantasies about.

Now, my fantasies range from the mundane to the ridiculous. Like many people, I'd:

• pay off all my bills
• take care of family
• help out some close friends
• give to charities
• quit or reduce working
• buy property
• invest

However, I'd consider doing some things that others might not. For instance, were I to win a large lottery (say, a take-home of $100Mn+) I'd hire a posse of angry midgets to follow me around. I mean "why not". It's not something you see every day. Hell... Maybe when I buy that big estate on a defensible hill with enough natural resources to go "off the grid", I could put a moat around it ...and have those angry midgets patrol the moat (instead of stocking it with alligators).

Petty Joys

If I won the lottery, I'd wish for enemies so that I might use my wealth to continually smite them. Well, maybe not, but it strikes me as an amusingly petty thing to do or want.

An Idea Too Late

How do I patent the idea for virtual currency FOREX-type markets?

Funny-money

Fuck FaceBook and their 10 free credits. I'm not going to participate in FB's efforts to create an internal money system. When I was a kid, I always hated when arcades wanted me to use tokens rather than quarters, even if the did (this is dating myself, for sure) give you five tokens for a dollar. I don't willingly do "private money" when I have any other options.

Money Weirdo

Ok. I think I've gotten kinda weird about money - at least, weird for being a member of a consumption-oriented culture like the one I live in.

When I first got out of college, I was accustomed to carrying credit card debt, month to month. However, about ten years ago, I started to look at what I was doing and paying attention to just how much money I was pissing away on debt service. So, over the course of a couple years, I very systematically worked to wipe out all of my unsecured debt. By about my second or third year of marriage, I was carrying no revolving or unsecured debt (not much I can do about mortgage).

As part of that process, each time I cleared debt, the money I had been spending on credit card interest, I redirected towards savings. I put away as much as I can in my 401(k), I put about $300 (or so) per paycheck into my "rainy day" accounts and another couple hundred dollars per month into a brokerage account. Any money I put into my "liquid" account that I don't spend in a given month, I toss into my "rainy day" account.

I've structured most of my bills into predictable chunks. I've got my utilities, my comms (TV/Internet/cellular), insurance and such on "auto-pay" arrangements. I've set up budget billing for things like my utilities. I funnel as many of these things through "rewards" credit cards so that I can  make one, single payment per month and earn points on as many dollars spent as possible. I also try my damnedest to be able to not carry any revolving debt.

Net result: in any given year, instead of paying hundreds in dollars in debt-service or overdraft or late fees, I make nearly $500-$1000/year in rewards.

I've also redone my mortgage a couple times. The first was in an effort to take equity out so I could do some much-needed improvements (and, happened to be able to drop my interest rate by over one percentage point in the bargain). The second was so I could drop my interest rate another one-and-a-half percentage points. So, I'm doing decent there, as well, as far as freeing up funds go.

I even periodically review my expenses and see where I can make the system work for me to reduce outlays or otherwise just increase the value of every dollar I spend.

Basically, even though I make a respectable salary, I act like I don't. Much of my activities, essentially, are hiding money from myself. It's allowed me to have savings, but I've done so in a way that makes it feel like I'm still living paycheck to paycheck. So, when expenses do come up and I do dip into savings, I get the same kind of angst I'd have were I going into debt to others rather than debt to myself. The only way to overcome the angst (and not very well, I might add) is to remind myself that I'm only "in debt" to me. Still: eating into that "rainy day" fund triggers fears about "what if that rainy day comes before you can put yourself back in shape"?

I honestly don't get how people are able to get into big, optional debt piles, given how just reducing my savings makes me feel. Ugh.