Tag: cashmoney

The opt-out clause kills the love of the game

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I honestly believe that we will never see professional athletes like Chipper Jones or Derek Jeter ever again – players who spend their entire, legendary careers with one team.

Outside of all things World Cup, one of the more notable stories in the world of sports is that both LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have opted out of their existing contracts and will become free agents.  This basically means that both players chose to leave a whole lot of money over a short span on the table, so that they can pursue new contracts worth even more money over a longer span.

From the financial, personal standpoint, this completely makes sense.  When the day is over, both LeBron and Carmelo know that professional sport have a very finite amount of time, and they’re trying to amass as much money as they possibly can, to ensure the financial security for themselves and their families.

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Good enough to have fooled Vegas

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Just when it seemed like I had nothing to write about today, the outlet known as “life” gave me something that might seem remotely interesting to at least one or two of my six readers.

I have a tendency to sit on cash sometimes.  Sometimes it’s because no reason other than I simply don’t want to take the time to go a bank or ATM to deposit it, other times it’s like a mental challenge; like if I can operate my regularly scheduled life without X dollars in my account, I can always fall back onto this cash as something of a safety net.

Regardless, I spent a little bit of money that warranted me deciding to put the cash back into my bank account to cover for some of the expenditures, grant a little bit of breathing room and give me a little bit of peace of mind.  So I went to an ATM to deposit the cash, and a hundred dollar bill kept getting spit out by the ATM.  I tried it three times, to no avail.  My skepticism was immediately piqued at that point, but there was also the remote possibility that it was ATM sensitivity.

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Uh… who cares?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Source: 78 percent of former NFL players are broke.

The sky is also blue, water is also wet, and human beings need air to breathe.

Missing somewhere, is the part about this story where we, the plebeians of the world, are supposed to care.

78 percent of former NFL players may be broke and bankrupt now, but for that one to ten or more years that they’re actively playing professional football, they will have seen more money than a vast majority of the human race will ever see in their lifetimes, quite likely multiplied by many times.  This goes for any professional athlete who plays their sport at the major level.

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Extending happiness

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A little while back, I read this article about baseball payrolls, and one of the interesting things it pointed out was this little tidbit:

  • In 2001, the Atlanta Braves payroll was roughly $90 million dollars ($91,936,167), and was #1 in the National League and #3 overall in Major League Baseball.
  • Going into 2014, the Atlanta Braves payroll is estimated at roughly $90 million dollars, and ranks #8 in the National League and #15 overall in Major League Baseball.

Considering the cost of a Coke bottle has nearly doubled and the cost of a gallon of unleaded has nearly quadrupled since 2001, it’s pretty clear that the almighty dollar isn’t what it used to be these days.  As anyone can see, spending roughly the same amount as they did back in 2001 no longer makes them the biggest spenders in the league, but pretty much, smack dab in the middle.

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How to use vacation days

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

All through December, I didn’t utilize a single vacation day, in spite of the seemingly good idea that you could parlay them into the weeks with holidays, and get yourself a five or six day weekend if you played your cards right.  Frankly, I didn’t see a point in using my vacation time during a period of time in which work is at its least busy.

Throughout my career, I’ve always loved working during the holidays.  During the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, Atlanta traffic diminishes drastically, and it’s almost daresay relaxing to commute to work in the mornings.  Furthermore, anyone who works in an office environment understands that there are people whose lives have no purpose other than to use vacation time during a holiday period, because it makes them feel like sneaky geniuses when they manage to get nine straight days of no work for the cost of three vacation days during Thanksgiving.  When people disappear from the office, oftentimes so does the work.  When there is no work to be done, then it is an easy day.  Why would I want to burn my hard-earned vacation for easy days?

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The Blue Friday haul

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I said to a friend of mine that one of the grueling challenges that I would have to endure this holiday weekend was trying to get out of it without making one major electronic purchase.  Because I am a compulsive consumer, somewhat easily swayed by the pressure and the hype of Black Friday electronic sales and advertising.

Furthermore, my primary television has an entire line of dead pixels on it.  Granted, it’s maybe ten pixels from the top of the screen, and it’s just one pixel on a 51” screen, so it’s really not that offensive and hardly affects any viewing, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a permanent blemish, and the first sign that the television is going, and that I should consider a new one, immediately, on Black Friday.  Even if it meant dropping anywhere from $500-1,000.

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Happy trails, Brian McCann

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It seems like it was just yesterday, when Brian McCann hit a three-run home run off of Roger Clemens in the playoffs.  And in the metaphorical tomorrow when we refer to next year, the 2014 season, Brian McCann will no longer be a member of the Atlanta Braves, but the New York Yankees, who have historically been known to gobble up players of the highest talents simply because they can afford to.

Contrary to the popular notion that “everyone hates the Yankees,” I actually don’t.  Sure, it’s sometimes frustrating to hear how the rich keep getting richer, whenever the Yankees secure the services of yet another highly talented free agent, but the fact of the matter is that in spite of their organization’s propensity to believe that championships are acquired by amassing the most talent, regardless of how much it may cost, the Yankees are just as subject to the crap shoot of winning baseball championships as would be teams with far lesser payrolls, like the Oakland A’s, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Atlanta Braves.  They’ve won just one championship since the start of the millennium.

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