For those of you who haven’t really understood the ins and outs of leaving tips, here is a short “Rule of Thumb” guide for people living in the Unites States. The reason this is only for the United States, is that different regions in the world have differing opinions on tips, the amounts, and even whether they are legal or not.

Photo Credit: brockvicky

So starting off, here are some benchmarks on tips:

Restaurants

This isn’t as simple as it may look. Many restaurants charge a service fee, and so tipping the waiters might be  a little above what is correct. Also remember that you are charged tax on the bill. The commonly accepted practice is to give 15% of the bill minus service charge, and taxes.

Wine

It is commonly understood that the markup prices for wine can be 200% - 300% of the cost of the wine. Tipping in this case, is understood to be less than for other foods - Usually 5% of the wine bill

At a Bar

You will want to tip the bartender if he or she shows you particular consideration, and gives you quick service even when the bar is full. Give as much as you think the extra service is worth. It can be quite a lot.

Home Delivered Food

The standard is 10%. If the delivery boy has to travel through rain, or other bad weather, it is customary to give more.

Keep in mind that some restaurants forbid you from giving tips at all!

Warren Edward Buffett, legendary value investor, turned an ailing textile mill into a financial engine that powered what would become the world’s most successful holding company.

The Early Years
Buffett was born to Howard and Leila Buffett on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Making money was an early interest for Buffett, who sold soft drinks and had a paper route. Unimpressed, Buffett left after two years, transferring to the University of Nebraska. Harvard rejected Buffett, but Columbia accepted him.

Upon graduation, Graham refused to hire Buffett, even suggesting that he avoid a career on Wall Street. Buffett’s father agreed with Graham, and Buffett returned to Omaha to work at his father’s brokerage firm.

The Foundation of Value
Once in New York, Buffett had the chance to build upon the investing theories he had learned from Graham at Columbia. In 1956, he returned to Omaha, launched Buffett Associates, Ltd., and purchased a house.

In 1985, Buffett shut down the textile business, but continued to use the name.

Buffett’s mystique remained intact until technology stocks became popular.

He remained married to Susan Thompson for more than 50 years after their 1952 wedding. They had three children, Susie, Howard and Peter. Buffett and Susan separated in 1977, remaining married until her death in 2004. Before her death, Susan introduced him to Astrid Menks, a waitress. Buffett and Menks began living together in 1978 and were married in August of 2006.

If you’re Warren Buffett, you give it away.

Buffett’s donations will come in the form of Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock. Buffett’s 2006 donation was 500,000 shares, valued at approximately $1.5 billion.

At a June 2008 share value, the entire donation to the Gates Foundation is worth about $37 billion. Buffett expects stock price appreciation to increase that amount over time. Another stock donation of more than 1 million shares will be evenly divided among three charities run by Buffett’s children.

While the donation to the Gates Foundation was certainly a big surprise, Buffett’s charitable endeavors are nothing new. He’d been giving money away for 40 years through the Buffett Foundation, renamed as the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.

For all our readers out there who have been following our blog about money, I would like to share with you one of my own favorite blogs on money, namely http://www.mymoneyblog.com.

The blog author is a down to earth everyday man whose name is Jonathan. He has been blogging regularly right from December 2004, and he deals with just about everything interesting that has to do with money.

One of the really unique features of his blog, is that he puts up his own net worth and actual financial status right out there for every one to see! It’s like he’s going out of his way to ensure that everyone can see that he practices what he preaches, and this lends a ton of credibility to his already great site.

Very many of the blogs are highly researched such as one he posted last month comparing Employee Sponsored life insurance to individual life insurance. Problems and decisions like that are faced by the overwhelming majority of us, and here is a guy just like us, who has had the same problems, and has given us a way out, and to discuss these issues with other like minded guys out there.

So go ahead and subscribe to his feed. It’s a treasure trove of money topics that you can relate to and share your views on.

We all know that money can’t buy happiness. It’s one of the staples of our economy’s culture that people are affirm very strongly that it cannot. But does the reverse apply? How rich are happy people? In other words, Can Happiness buy Money?

Photo Credit: Hanataro

There are plenty of books that teach you to be happy. It seems that all agree that to be more happy is better. However, John Templeton has opined that “Maybe a little bit of dissatisfaction is OK”

Why would he say that? According to data from the World Values Survey, people who rank themselves as “Very Happy”, or score the highest on the Happiness scale earn less, and perform in a financially poor manner compared to those who were classified as “Just happy”.

The accepted reason for this (Perhaps not so expected) result, is that those who rate high on this scale, are over optimists, and tend to underestimate future risks. This leads them to put away less money for the future.  In addition, they were also less disciplined than their “Just Happy” counterparts. Also, it turns out that these happy individuals don’t have enough drive to make them adapt to situations that would be financially better for them. After all, if they’re happy, why change?

So this is a hint for those who dream of financial nirvana. Don’t get too satisfied wiht yourself, or you might see a drastic decrease in your bank balance.