Blog Posts by CNBC

By Darren Rovell, CNBC.com

When I've gotten a trainer in my life, I've done it for two reasons. The first reason is obvious. They get me to work out harder. The second reason always sounds a little strange to people: I'm paying someone a lot of money, so I have to show up.

Get your App to the gym! Gym-Pact is an App that fines you for missing the gym and rewards you for showing up.Yifang Zhang studied Behavioral Economics and found out that my second thought is actually quite rational and common. So instead of having people pay a trainer at all, Zhang decided to have people fine themselves if they didn't show up at the gym. The result? An app called Gym-Pact.

Here's how it works. You tell the determine your weekly gym schedule and an amount of money you're willing to pay if you don't meet your commitment. A locator device makes sure you check in, so you're not cheating. And if you don't show up, and stay there for 30 minutes, your credit card that you provided gets debited.

"On average, people put about $5 or $10 on the line," Zhang told me. "And we actually have 80 to 90 percent success

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com

Companies are still reluctant to hire new employees and that means productivity is at a premium right now.

Think you're optimized for maximum productivity?

Um, have you seen your inbox lately?

Two words: Digital garbage.

Ever feel buried under a mound of email? You're not alone.The average person gets 100 or more emails a day. And, while no one wants to point fingers, if you're leaving a large number of those emails in your inbox, you are killing your productivity.

I know what you're going to say - "But I keep some of them in there so I don't lose them. What if I need them?" (OK, maybe that was me who said that!)

No one is telling you to delete emails you might need - but what you need to be doing is filing them in the appropriate folder, not leaving them in one giant list (your inbox) that you have to keep scrolling through to get to the email you need. It's an unnecessary distraction.

"I call it the most dysfunctional to-do list in the world!" said Marsha Egan, a workplace productivity coach and the author

By Colleen Kane, CNBC.com

Unusual Dining Experiences

Novelty and theme restaurants seem to be more common outside the U.S., especially in Asia, but we've uncovered 20 unusual dining experiences right here in the USA, serving cuisines from the aggressively unhealthy to whimsical works of art. Some meals come with shows and some with surprises; some of the restaurants transport diners to another time, and one to another planet.

It's a rare diner who will want to experience all of these restaurants, but click on ahead to see how many appeal and how many appall.

See the full slideshow: 20 Weirdest Restaurants in America


B.E.D.B.E.D.
Location: Miami, Florida
Price: entrées $20 - 60, cover charge applies

Instead of breakfast in bed, how about dinner? B.E.D. stands for beverage, entertainment, dining, and that's exactly what you get…in bed!

Executive chef Vitor Casassola's menu includes cold appetizers like camembert tempura and tomatillo guacamole and entrees like surf & turf and Chilean

By Jane Wells, CNBC.com

A website called The Most Expensive T-shirt in the World is selling a tee for 400. Grand. Yes, $400,000. For a T-shirt.Last blog I mentioned a popular t-shirt being sold in Italy based on the shoutfest between an Italian coast guard captain and the cruise ship captain accused of abandoning ship. The tee costs about $16.50.

That's a reasonable price. T-shirts are meant to be cheap. Companies like Ed Hardy have made them fancy and charged you a bit more.

Well...Hardy is hardly expensive enough for those with so much money lying around they need to launder some with their laundry.

A website called The Most Expensive T-shirt in the World is selling a tee for 400. Grand. Yes, $400,000. For a T-shirt.


Full story: The $400,000 T-Shirt

What a dilemma.

Buy a house or this T-shirt?

Lamborghini or T-shirt?

College and postgraduate school...or a really cool T-shirt?

The shirt's manufacturers, based in the UK, justify the cost by saying the tees are made from 100 percent organic cotton. Also, they claim the manufacturing process uses only renewable energy, like wind and solar, which

By Michelle Fox, CNBC.com

When you want your business documents delivered the next day, or the shoes you purchased off the Internet to be delivered to your door right away, you usually rely on FedEx or UPS. The transportation giants deliver almost 25 million packages a day. While most are your run-of-the-mill deliveries, others are a bit more unusual. Just think, someone has to get that panda to the zoo.

We've compiled a list of the most outrageous deliveries, courtesy of FedEx and UPS. Check out the special deliveries that required more than just a box and some packing tape.

See the full slideshow: Most Outrageous Deliveries


Keiko the Killer WhaleKeiko the Killer Whale

Keiko, star of the movie "Free Willy," became the center of a real-life drama when the public discovered his poor living conditions and clamored for his release from captivity. When the killer whale's owners in Mexico City donated him to the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation in 1996, it was UPS that transported him to a temporary home in the

By Jessica Naziri, CNBC.com

What goals have you reached in the last year? Where are you still behind? In challenging economic times, people look for different ways to save money and clean up their finances. While the biggest savings come from limiting your spending to the cash in your wallet, the trick is to set reasonable goals. A good approach is to start with a few things that are so easy to fix that you'll stick with the program. You may be surprised how quickly these small changes can add up to real money in your pocket.

Here are 10 simple resolutions that can improve your financial position in the months and years to come.

See the slideshow: 10 Money-Saving Strategies


Shop InsuranceShop for Insurance

The reason you have to shop every year is that home and auto insurers change their prices based on their claims experience. The insurer who was the best bet two years ago may not be such a good value now. Spend half an hour determining whether you can get a better deal, and you might save

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com

The job market may be showing signs of life but competition remains fierce, so if you're headed to an interview, don't blow it.

No hugging!"The goal of any interview is to stand out from the other candidates and ultimately land the job, but make sure you stand out for the right reasons!" said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.

CareerBuilder recently polled a couple thousand hiring managers and found out that one of the most common mistakes candidates made at job interviews was answering a cell-phone call or text during an interview. Seven out of 10 hiring managers said they'd had a candidate do that during an interview.

They also cited dressing inappropriately, appearing disinterested, appearing arrogant and chewing gum among the most common mistakes.

That list alone should have you outraged on behalf of American job seekers everywhere, but it gets worse! Here are some of the most outrageous things hiring managers said they've seen

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com

Debt can get you into a lot of trouble, as the financial crisis illustrated with an exclamation point, but it's not all bad.

Debt is like a chainsaw: It can help you — or kill you."[T]here are times when taking on reasonable debt is the only way to meet your larger goals," said J.D. Roth, an "accidental personal-finance expert" and author of the popular "Get Rich Slowly" blog.

Roth knows all too well about debt: He calls himself an "accidental" expert, as he learned the hard way after racking up a large amount of debt and digging himself out.

The trick is to know when - and how - to use debt.

"Don't use debt to buy things you can't afford," Roth cautions. "Use it instead to help meet your goals."
"I often say that debt is like a chainsaw," he said. "A chainsaw can be a great tool to help you deal with big problems that might otherwise seem impossible to tackle. But if you're not careful, a chainsaw can kill you."

"Being responsible with your credit is very important," said Stacy Francis, a personal financial