So the internet is abuzz about new financial tech arrival on the scene, 22seven, a subscription-based app / service that employs a ‘gamified’ approach to managing your money. That is, it turns developing good spending habits into something fun. Not a bad thing I don’t think, especially since most of us spend our lives unconsciously swiping away our cash. I was privvy to some of the thinking and development behind 22seven since I worked on the brand before it even had a name, and can say this much about it:
I also know that Christo and Di, the founders of 22seven, spent a year researching consumer and tech trends in the states, attending lectures and conferences and working with Dan Arielly, and I respect the amount of careful thought that has gone into the development of the app. It’s certainly more than my bank has done in developing an app (they have done zero, my bank does not offer an app). I also appreciate having help when it comes to making the most of my money, something of which South African banks do the exact opposite. In fact, it’s in their interests for you to NOT know how much you spend on charges, to be a little ‘out of it’ when it comes to your finances. The more of a mission it is keeping track of your investments vs costs vs expenditure vs monthly fees, the better. This app is designed to show you where you are wasting money, across every aspect of your finances. Not even your private banker knows / cares that much.No wonder they are freaking out about it.
Lastly, I know 22seven is designed to create a consciousness around how you spend your money. Anything that makes us more conscious, in my opinion, can only make the world a better place.
So while there’s a big ol’ hoo-haa now, I’m sure we’ll all be using 22seven within year’s time.
Have lots of love for this tumblr “written by” Suri, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, heiress to Hollywood’s Scientology & Wealth empire. Basically Suri dishes on all the other brats. Hilarious.
We can’t all make it onto the Forbes Top 10 Rich list. Or even the top 20. But now you can see where you stand! Check out the Global Rich List. You’re probably richer than you think!
So thieves got my stuffs. Sad face. Double sad face cos this happened in real life too!Monday morning, car window broken. Monday morning take two, log into living it up, smash ‘n grabbed. Starting to feel like ‘a victim of the non-working class’. Should I move to Australia?????
I wonder if you can ‘move to Australia’ in the Standard Bank Living It Up game. Maybe things will get better by me winning the BMW 320i. Maybe they won’t. Guess I just gotta ‘accept that I live in a country where the ANC Youth League get richer and poor people smash your window to steal half a bottle of energade’. Yes, am struggling a bit.
Anyway, my l’il house on the Std Bank prairie is looking good. I gots lotsa animals. Even got an ‘animal lover’ badge. Also have a Great Pyramid. It’s a real talking point when I have guests over for dinner. Have you registered here yet to play? Well please don’t. Stay far away so I can win the Beemer. You only have until the 24 July anyway.
Well there I was, just logging in to Living It Up when bam, instead of my happy little tuscan villa smiling at me I am greeted by this intergalactic hipster and his gollum-like grin. And my pink lawn flamingoes are gone. I’m shocked. How does one ensure against an alien flamingo abduction??? I had to pay out a little to replace them. Sad CTG. Are they going to bring my flamingoes back do you think? Cos I know aliens do stuff like that sometimes. Not sure I want them back. They might have been probed.
Have you heard about Name Your Hood? It’s this very cool initiative where we, as Capetonians, get to give your favourite areas cool names. For example take New York’s Tribeca - which comes from Triangle Below Canal street. Or Soho, The Bronx... there’s loads of examples. Just watch this neat little video to find out a bit more about how those names came to be and how it works. Now we can differentiate between the various little areas within the city instead of saying vaguely ‘city bowl’, etc.
Name Your Hood Cape Town launches officially on the 30th June, and from 4th July you will be able to submit your names. Click here to find out how to do it. Awesome, right?
Look at that sad site. That little patch of flowers was a gift from a fellow Living It Up player. It’s all that’s left after the ‘Great Fire of Last Weekend’. Pretty devastating. Miss my little Candy house. Luckily everything was fully insured so I got paid out in full, but the memories were so painful I couldn’t bear to replace everything and decided to build new memories by starting again from scratch. This time I’ve gone for a Tuscan house. And an SUV. Had to get my killer guard dogs back though. I liked having them around. Their names are Romulus and Romeo.
Have you signed up for an account yet? I must say I quite enjoy logging in every day, collecting my salary and buying stuff for my house. It’s like the real world, except you get rewarded by being smart with your insurance by POTENTIALLY WINNING A BMW 320i. Yes. So why haven’t you signed up again? Click here to play Livin’ It Up.
This is Sonya. She travelled across South Africa with a backpack and R100 for just under a year. During that time she stayed with over 150 families, who all took her in and helped her out of the goodness of their hearts. I think that’s amazing. She’s currently writing a book about her adventure. Click here to read more about her travels, and click here to follow her on twitter.
“I am on a drug. It’s called Cape Town Girl. If you try it once, you will explode. Your brain will melt off, and your mother will eat over your kicked body … I’m tired of pretending like I’m not kifferiffic—a total freaking ad exec from mars. I’ve got lion blood, zeus DNA! … They picked a fight with a poltergeist. They’re trying to take all my ducks and leave me with no means to jump my family. It’s not calculating! They owe me an apology while masturbating my nose … I don’t think people are ready for the potplant I’m delivering, and delivering with a sense of hate love. I exposed dogs to magic! Here’s your semen test. Next one goes in your ear!”
Click here to get the crack effect with none of the premature ageing.
So by now everybody knows that CTG’s cooler of choice,Brutal Fruit, have brought the one and only Kim Kardashian out to launch their new flavour this week – Cheeky Cranberry. We are very very excited here at CTG, since K-Dash is a personal heroine of ours. For those of you who still think she’s a reality star who ‘lucked out on a sex tape’, let me enlighten you. Kim Kardashian turned what could have been something embarrassing and exploitative into a multimillion dollar empire, and she is widely regarded as one of the key best-practice case studies in social media (yes, I used marketing speech now, will do 30 hail Kim Kardashians as punishment). Her blog is the biggest celebrity blog (over 40 million hits a month), and she produces her own perfume, owns a clothing store and designed a range with Bebe and her sisters and she also has designed a range of jewellery,shoes and has produced a fitness DVD. She also does a HUGE amount of work for AIDS charities – lots of respect. Check out her bio here. Really, if any of the couch critics had half the drive (brains, talent, and dare I say it, looks :P) she does, they’d be off the couch, building their own empires.
I like Kim Kardashian because she’s capitalised on her situation, which is the opposite of being a victim. Save us from the victims. Victims include bitter-sounding men and women who roll their eyes at a younger, prettier woman capitalising on their situations (situation may include being genetically blessed). If you could do it, you would too, so best we all find what makes us a special snowflake, and refrain from possibly resenting people who have the balls (butt, boobs…) to achieve what they want ;)
Kim we can’t wait to party with you! Welcome to SA. See you Friday!
