New Video Game Simulates Starting a Business

Doctors and lawyers make good money, but it's the small business owners in this country who make serious money. In the US, even people who don't set out to become independently wealthy are drawn to entrepreneurship. It seems that being your own boss and having the ability to set your own hours is a national obsession - but if it were only that easy. The risks involved often drive many people away from hanging their own shingle. Entrepreneurship is one of those facets of life where sometimes ignorance is bliss. Today I was tinkering around with a game called "Johnny Money Online." The game is an online game that was released by the Wharton School of Business.

Johnny Money Online is free and geared at teens interested in starting their own business, but applicable to adults as well. The game gives you a crash course in all the decisions business owners make and how much uncertainty is involved. You play a retail business owner and must make purchasing, advertising, and marketing decisions. I failed miserably at this game and if there are any small business owners who have tried it out, I'd love to hear your opinions. What is representative, good, bad, otherwise?

Image: Kimberly* @ Flickr

Shocker of the Day: Bling is a Terrible Investment

File this under the "obvious" category. The WSJ Wealth Report has a post reporting that even super high end jewelry doesn't hold its value. Given the fact that the value of jewelry is a subjective thing, that's not too surprising. Additionally, buying jewlery is typically an emotional decision and doesn't involve the rational investing approach that other investments might go through. I think very few people say "at least this engagement ring will be worth twice this much if I ever get divorced and sell off assets." The only reason the story is noteworthy is that it backs up its points with figures from famous jewlery pieces that have been sold by some of the big auction houses. So, if you were planning to drop some money on a rapper chain you might want to find a better place to park all that cash.

Image: Swanksalot @ Flickr

The Student Loan Abyss

We've heard the stories about how bad the topsy-turvey student loan market has gotten for consumers, but I recently was able to witness things first hand. In an attempt to consolidate a couple private student loans to make things more convenient, I was only able to find two lenders still offering private consolidation loans (Citi and Key). To make matters worse, the lenders wanted approximately 8% and near 9% respectively for an applicant with excellent credit. The game plan now has moved to not consolidating and paying private loans off as quickly as possible.

Does anyone else have private student loans who recently graduated? What have you done with your loans?

Image: kjarrett @ Flickr

World's Highest Concentration of Millionaires

Boston Consulting has released its most recent Global Wealth Report and it has some information that is probably pretty surprising to most Americans. The report has statistics on where the highest concentrations of millionaires are located in the world. The surprising part for me was which country was on top... Singapore. In Singapore apparently 1 in 10 households have assets in excess of $1 million dollars. The list below has stats on what percentage of the population is worth more than $1 million in each of the top five countries:

1 — Singapore — 10.6%
2 — Qatar — 7.9%
3 — Switzerland — 7.3%
4 — United Arab Emirates — 6.6%
5 — Kuwait — 5.3%

If you are wondering, the U.S.A. ranks sixth at 4.3%...

Link: WSJ Wealth Report Blog
Image: DogFrog @ Flickr

Being Rich Now Apparently Is Harder Than Ever

The Wall Street Journal Wealth Report Blog is reporting that the new thing to do if you're mega wealthy is to have a "family office" to manage your investments, real estate, charitable giving, and travel.  I can't speak from experience, because I'm unfortunately no where near the $100 million dollar mark the article states is the sweet spot for this type of arrangement.  

But, aside from the cachet that having an "office" full of people who report to your every whim and desire -- does having a family office really offer much?  Sounds like this arrangement just brings all the people that average folks already use and brings them in house.  Normal people have accountants, attorneys, bankers, financial planners... and sometimes trust officers or assistants/secretaries.  Anyways, I thought the article was interesting and wanted to pass it on, you can read the entire story over at the WSJ Wealth Blog.

Photo Credit: risastla @ flickr

Link:  WSJ Wealth Blog

Oil Falls Sharply... For Once

Today a couple interesting things happened in the markets that have been rare occurrences in the markets.  For starters the NYSE rallied up more than 200 points (of course it later gave the gains back and then some which is not all that unusual of late).  Also, oil fell to $105 per barrel before settling back just under $110 per barrel.  Third, the dollar ended slightly stronger rising .8% to 1.4501 dollars per euro.  Don't get too excited about a bottom or that we're out of the woods yet.  Come next week it will probably again be "Oil rose on fears of _______ (insert war in a little known country, natural disaster somewhere without running water or any other reason you'd like).  

While the relief in oil prices is great, consumers probably won't see relief at the pump here until refiners ramp up capacity or the vertically integrated oil companies start taking a smaller cut over every step of the supply chain (unlikely to say the least).

Photo Credit: freewine @ flickr

Stats:  Oil Price Plunge @ NYTIMES