This year, for Super Bowl XLII, a handful of companies will spend millions of dollars hoping to impress America in 30 seconds.

Some dotcom and tech companies' Super Bowl spots have been flops (Apple's 1985 "Lemmings" comes to mind), but others will continue to impress and amuse us for many years to come. Here’s to the cream of the tech crop:

7. Monster.com's "When I Grow Up" (1999)

"I wanna be a yes man!"

6. GoDaddy's "Wardrobe Malfunction" (2005)

GoDaddy had two spots set for the 2005 Super Bowl, only to have the second one pulled by the NFL after this one aired.

5. CareerBuilder.com's "Promotion Pit" (2007)

My favorite line: "You're a delivery guy...you don't even work here!"

Promotion Pit

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4. Apple's "Hal" (1999)

"Hello Dave. You're looking well today..." Creepy.

3. E-Trade's "Wasted $2 Million Bucks" (2000) Plus Part II (2001)

Hilarious. Priceless.

And the follow-up in 2001 after the dotcom crash…

2. Xerox's "Monk" (1976)

"Does it all at an incredible 2 pages per second." Uh, did we mention the machine is the size of a small bus?

1. Apple "1984" (1984)

Often considered the greatest Super Bowl ad of all time.

Lending Club Super Bowl Ad Next Year?

While it's not likely we'll see a Lending Club Super Bowl ad anytime soon, you never know. The good news is that you can still take advantage of an incredible 5% cash bonus when you lend $5,000 or more before Feb 5th. What are you waiting for? Sign up as a lender today before it's too late, and start earning some of the best interest rates around!

High interest rates and fees are increasingly leading many people to consolidate their credit card debt with more affordable options such as person-to-person loans from Lending Club. There are more reasons than interest rates and fees to avoid using a credit card though, such as the ease with which a thief can use your card.

Most credit card merchant agreements require that no other form of identification is needed to make a purchase. That means that any store that required credit card users to show an ID would be in violation of their agreement and could lose the privilege of accepting credit cards. There are obvious exceptions to this rule when tobacco, alcohol, or other age-restricted purchases are made.

As card-scanning devices within the consumers’ reach are now the norm, most cashiers never even get to see your card. They should be asking for the card to verify the signature, but even stores where a “Hold Card for Cashier” message appears rarely do. Scanning devices further complicate the problem because the signature pad often makes it hard to sign or see what you’re doing. My signature on such a device is rarely consistent and certainly different from the signature on my card.

There was an old trick of writing, “Ask for ID” in the signature area of the credit card. The idea was that when checking your signature, the cashier would then request your license, so that only you could use the card. By requesting the verification yourself, you made it permissible for cashiers to do so without violating their merchant agreement. As most cards are not valid until signed, some people would write the request in addition to their signature, or place a sticker on the back of the card. I had a friend that used this method and he said that the frustrating part was how infrequently anyone would ask for ID. If you’re not asked for ID very often, then a thief would not be either. Again, this is even less effective now that signatures are rarely verified.

If validating the user of a credit card is not going to be done by merchants, then once again you are in control of protecting your card. It’s extremely important to report a missing or stolen card as soon as you are aware of it. Even though your liability is limited for unauthorized purchases, reporting quickly can save you the trouble of having to later dispute any claims.

As stereotypes go, those who create and follow a budget are often considered financially obsessed by those who don’t. To help you live up to that label, I offer the following idea:

One way to improve your budget is to take on even finer granularity. In addition to using more specific categories in your budget, you can also break down shopping trips in greater detail. You can see a classic example of this when you examine how you categorize your grocery shopping. I had traditionally categorized the entire purchase at the grocery store as “Food: Groceries.” The problem with such an approach is that I buy more than just food at the grocery store. Trips to Super Target, which has a full grocery store along with a regular Target, can get really complicated.

The easiest way to separate out food purchases from non-food purchases is to reconcile your receipts in your budgeting program as soon as possible after the shopping trip. Making this part of your shopping routine, perhaps as soon as you’ve unpacked the groceries, will make it seem like less of an inconvenience. I’ve tried collecting receipts and then entering them on a weekly or monthly basis, but that never seems to work as well for me. Even though doing so might take less total time, I’m more likely to have a few minutes after a shopping trip than a block of time to do all of my receipts later. Also, entering items when they’re fresh in your mind makes splitting receipts easier.

The extent to which you record your purchases is a personal matter. Some people are happy with basic tracking, while others like to drill down to the finest detail possible. With more detail comes more accuracy, so I urge you to create as many budget categories as is practical and then split purchases that fall into multiple categories appropriately. This way, you can get a handle on your finances by having the most accurate budget possible. In the process, perhaps you’ll find some extra money that you can lend out to Lending Club members.

For the longest time, I have wanted a personal assistant.

My life is not necessarily busy or hectic, so my secretary would not have to work very hard. But I find it incredibly appealing to wake up in the morning and tell someone, “Hold my calls; I’ll be playing Madden for the next three hours.”

As time passes, I become more and more certain that this scenario will never play out anywhere other than my dreams, so I have started yearning for little tastes of the good life. I tell myself that Google Calendar is similar to having a robot work my social calendar. Pop-Tarts-to-go is like having a personal chef who really gets me. But my greatest personal relief would be someone to go to work for me everyday.

As it turns out, I shouldn’t have been searching all this time for someone so much as something.

Making Your Money Work

I’m not a wealthy individual by any means, but my money can go to work for me and actually bring back a steady income. Good for it! I was getting tired of responsibility and creditors.

There are several different ways to make a nice return on your investment, and the options provide a veritable job fair for your cash. With greater risk comes greater reward, which I believe was a line from Spiderman but also fits in nicely with investment strategy.

The following are several different career paths that your money can take:

• Low interest rate checking account

Barely providing a return on your money, low interest rate checking accounts are not the first choice for portfolio growth. In most cases, money placed in a checking account is money that will soon be spent and in many cases overdrafted. The low rate of interest might only give you a couple of bucks each year, which may be fine if you are saving up for a Dwyane Wade rookie card but not okay if you ever want to purchase a house.

• Savings/money market account

These accounts have as little risk as you could hope for, which is great for your $3,500 but not so much if you want your $3,500 to become $3,800. Interest rates on these types of accounts vary from miniscule to tiny, but there may be some minor growth potential over a period of several years. Money put into a savings account or money market account is available to withdraw at any time, such as when IKEA has its annual sale.

• Certificate of deposit

The highfalutin cousin of the savings account is the certificate of deposit. CDs tend to have a higher interest rate, but due to their extremely low risk, the rate is nothing to jump up and down about. Like a savings account, investing in a CD is virtually risk-free, but it sounds a lot cooler when you tell your parents what you are doing with your money. The reason for the slightly higher return is that money put into a CD is designed to stay there until the maturity of the CD. Terms can run from a few months to a few years, and the interest rate will reflect accordingly. There is typically a fee to withdraw money from a CD before its term is up.

• Bonds

The wading pool of big-time investing would be the bond market, thanks to its relatively safe return and higher interest rates. Like CDs, bonds are issued with a specific term at which point the issuer needs to pay back the bond holders. For sheer elitism, bonds are cool because it feels like you control someone else’s destiny. “Here’s some money for your government research project,” you might say to yourself. “Now make me live forever!”

Assuming you can wait years to have your money repaid, the return on bonds can be rather fulfilling. They are a safe, comfortable means of investing (provided you don’t invest in risky junk bonds), and you and your money should have lots of fun stories to tell when you are reunited. Unless the United States government goes down in a flaming ball of disaster, there is really nothing to worry about.

• Stocks

Weak-hearted investors need not apply. The stock market is a roller coaster ride of greed and corruption, and many people have lost it all in an effort to get ahead in the giant payroll of life. Fortunately, no one has lost anything since the Great Depression, so odds are pretty good you will come out ahead.

Provided the economy is doing well and you have someone smart to invest your money for you, the stock market can be a great investing tool. The return is generally much higher than anywhere else, and owning stock will give you something to talk about with your snooty East Coast relatives.

There are basically two different ways of investing in stock: long-term and short-term. Long-term investors do not panic when stock prices dip one day because they know they are in it for the long haul. These investors are patient and are rewarded with big paydays down the road.
Short-term investors are essentially gamblers in suits. They trade stocks multiple times a day in hopes of getting ahead a few dollars or getting a big break.

• Lottery tickets

For sheer ease and convenience, you can’t beat lottery tickets. Of course, if you are looking for a reputable means of investing, you could do a lot better. There is great risk afforded by those who place their money in the fickle hands of Seven Eleven Cheryl. Powerball, Deuces Wild, and Tic Tac Dough might seem attractive at 10:30pm on a Tuesday night, but you’ll wish you had that twenty bucks back five minutes later. At least you will be giving back to your local state government.

• Peer to Peer Lending @ Lending Club

New ways of putting your money to work arrive every day, so your cash has no excuse not finding a job. Lending Club offers attractive rates averaging over 12%. Plus, if you lend more than $5,000 before Feb 3rd, you’ll get a 5% bonus. Putting your money to work doesn’t get any easier than that! Plus, signing up as a lender only takes a few minutes.

For the time being, it is nice to know that while I may not have a personal secretary jotting down my personal thoughts for a future book, at least I have my money out there doing work I’d rather not do myself. Now if only it would stop and pick me up some Arby’s on the way home.

Due to the fact that I telecommute to my day job, I spend my workdays at home. Despite the reduced number of interruptions from colleagues, I still get the occasional interruption at my front door. A recent encounter reminded me of the way banks try to loan you money.

The specific interruption came from a door to door salesman. He was selling prepackaged meat. The idea was that by buying a huge quantity, you could get a high quality product at a reduced price. He became upset when I declined to invite him, a total stranger, into my home. Things continued to take a turn for the worse when I requested to speak to my wife before committing to a purchase. Needless to say, I did not become a customer.

The whole experience is one that I played over and over in my mind. I knew it reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it came to me: the door-to-door salesman was just like a bank. The main similarity was that both are old-fashioned ways of doing things. There may have been times when the local bank (or salesman) offered you the best option for a particular service. In many cases, they offered the only option. They also both try to shove a one-size-fits-all product down your throat. As a consumer, I don’t care if I could get a great deal on a variety of cuts of meat if the package includes ones I don’t want. I’d be much better off finding a provider who gets me a great deal on just the specific product I’m looking for. Lastly, both banks and door-to-door salesmen benefit from snap decisions. Giving yourself time to think will allow you to consider your alternatives.

Just as there are many more effective ways to make purchases than through a door-to-door salesman, there are better places to go for money than a bank. Lending Club offers a better solution to old needs, namely to borrow and lend money. Lending Club’s low interest person-to-person loans are just the right product for a lot of people at an amazing price. And unlike dealing with pushy salesman, there’s never any pressure from Lending Club either. If it suits your need and can benefit your situation, then Lending Club would love to have you as a member. If you need a different type of product, such as a home mortgage, that’s fine, too. We’ll do our best to help you find the best option through our educational blog posts.

You may find a door-to-door salesman, or a bank, that is offering a product of great value to you. Before making any commitment to purchase anything, however, be sure to consider your options carefully. You’ll likely find an alternative solution that better suits your needs at a better price. Making a poor decision will surely leave a bad taste in your mouth.