Okay, so I was watching Mad Money (Jim Cramer’s Show on CNBC) the other night, and right after it, this show called “The Restaurant” came on. This got me thinking. “The Restaurant” is not REALLY a financial reality show, because the finances involved are so huge, that the average person cannot really relate. SOO…what IF CNBC (a financial channel, after all) decided to create some really neat, finance-based reality shows. Here are a few ideas I came up with. Feel free to comment and post your own.
1. College Finances: Follows a group of High School graduates through their first year at college. Watch them get jobs, spend their parents money, try to afford school, accept credit offers, etc.
2. Graduate Finance: The opposite of the first show, this follows recent College Graduates, dealing with finding their first “real” jobs, dealing with college debt, living own their own, or moving back with the parents.
3. Job Reversals: Daddy does Mommy’s job, Mommy does Daddy’s.
4. Basic Finances 101: Sounds boring, but what about a show that just showed you how to balance your check book, open a savings account, use online bill-pay, etc. I bet tons of people still don’t know how to do this way.
5. Advanced Finances 201: Just like the above, but you learn how to buy a home, buy and sell stocks, choose retirement plans, etc.
6. Startup: Okay, a person gets 50K to try to start the business of his dream. Cameras follow him as he makes choices, decisions, payments, etc. Pretty cool.
7. Broke: This would be cool…find families that are dead broke (hehe…like mine) and just watch them try to get out of debt and get financially sound. The hook? Just like those weight loss shows, you give them financial counseling along the way. I can see this being a big success on TLC or Discovery.
Okay, there are my 7 ideas. Basic, I know, but I think that it would be fun (and informative) to see how people cope in these various situations. Hey, if “Meet Your New Mommy” can survive…well, I don’t see why these wouldn’t be interesting shows.