John Oliver hates the penny too

Comedian John Oliver has his anti-penny rant on Last Week Tonight here.

Saving Pennies for 45 Years

So there have been quite a few online articles like this one about this guy who saved his pennies for 45 years and just cashed them in a few weeks ago.  He had over a half a million pennies and got just over $5100 for them.  Doesn't anyone else think this is a pathetic amount to have saved over a 45 year period? All the articles are telling us how awesome this is.  I'll admit it is interesting, but spending the last 45 years doing something only to get $5000 just does not seem worth it to me.  Warehousing something (if my calculations are correct) that weighs around 3000 lbs and takes up about 10 cubic feet of space is not cheap.  The smarter option would've been to deposit the pennies into an interest-earning savings account. Earning 1% per year he would have over $6400 now and even if he only got .5%, he'd still have over $5700, instead of the $5100 he received.  I think the most interesting fact is that to save over a half a million pennies in 45 years, you've got to collect about 950 pennies each month, more than 30 pennies each day on average.  Holy cow, that's a lot of pennies! And even though it may have been more economical for him to just deposit a ten dollar bill into a savings account each month, I can't deny him the joy he has had throughout his penny-saving experience. Maybe he's a better man now, than he would otherwise be without the experience. Don't forget, "Life is a journey, not a destination." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

No more pennies in Ireland

This Slate article let's us know that Ireland is beginning to phase out it's 1 and 2 cent Euro coins. I like it when the articles are a little humorous like this one.

All the Pennies

Here is a feel good song by Mindy Gledhill.