Couples who sign up with uTango spend online and get cash back each year for spending habits as well as larger bonuses for every 10 years they stay married.
Many married couples are signing up for a program that offers them big rewards to stay married. The program called uTango is an online rewards program that urges couples to stay together through financial perks. As they spend money online at one of 300 companies, they earn points. These points add up to cash back bonuses at the end of the year and even larger bonuses when couples reach marriage milestones. These bonuses can add up to a million dollars. All they have to do is stay married.
The company is headed by CEO Jim Miller who believes that couples who stay married deserve extra perks for their accomplishments. Single and engaged couples are also permitted to join as well as newlyweds. If and when these couples do decide to marry, they can use their cash back bonuses to pay for their wedding expenses. Married couples who join must be married less than three years.
Different plans require different online spending requirements each year, promoting online spending as often as possible. There are three types of plans that users can choose from. These include the $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 rewards plan. Each plan names the amount that couples receive when they hit their 30th anniversary. Each has a different yearly online spending requirement with $5,000 being the minimum on the lowest plan and $20,000 with the highest plan. Once married, couples get $10,000 on their 10th anniversary, $100,000 on their 20th anniversary, and those who sign up for the most expensive plan can get up to $1 million on their 30th anniversary. If they get divorced, the cash stops coming.
There are 15 shopping categories to choose from on the site to help couples reach their spending requirements. These categories range from clothing to travel and include toys, jewelry, electronics, and lawn and garden. Such a service is likely to be a success in this country which has growing numbers of online buying practices. According to a recent online shopping survey conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project last year, online buying increased from 22 percent to 49 percent since June 2000 to September 2007. In fact, about 66 percent of Americans who have internet access have purchased at least one item online. The uTango service may be one of the services that help increase the number of online spenders as well as promote long term marriages, blending modern technology with traditional values.
Couples Paid To Stay Married
Ten things you probably didn't know about Africa:
- The Nile is the longest river in the world, flowing through Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt - if all the bends in the river were straightened out, it would flow from the Equator right up to the Scottish Highlands.
- Many children in Africa don’t get the chance to go to school. If you grew up in Mali in west Africa, for example, you’d only have a one in three chance of being able to go to primary school. Puts things in perspective rather yes?
- Four of the five fastest land animals live in Africa – the cheetah, which can run at an amazing 70 miles per hour, wildebeest, lion and gazelle.
- Lake Malawi in southern Africa is home to around 500 different types of fish. That’s more than anywhere else in the world! Gosh!
- Africa is almost an island. Its only connection to other land is the tiny Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
- Africa is the home of the Human species, which developed there about 5 million years ago.
- More people are killed in Africa by crocodiles than by lions. We probably should include crocs on our scary stuff page .. oh well, too late!
- The banjo as we know it originated from a single-string, gourd-bodied African lute (sometimes called the "hodu") which the Griots of West Africa played to accompany storytelling. Now, bet you feel better for knowing that!
- Only three countries in the world are bigger than the Sahara Desert – Russia, Canada and China. The Kalahari Desert in southern Africa covers an area larger than France.
- The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace prize winners is in Soweto, South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street.
Lakshmi -- Amazing child with 8 Limbs
Partway through a mammoth 40-hour operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, surgeons in India said the procedure is going according to plan, with no problems encountered.
The conjoined twin stopped developing in the mother's womb, and has a torso and limbs, but no head. It was joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis.
When Lakshmi was born into a poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals waited in line for a blessing from the baby.
Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, named the girl after the Hindu goddess of wealth who has four arms. However, they were forced to keep her in hiding after they were approached by men offering money in exchange for putting their daughter in a circus.
A team of 30 doctors began removing the extra limbs and organs on Tuesday, surgery that if successful would give her a good chance to live past adolescence. The procedure included separating the fused spines along with removing the extra limbs and the rest of the "parasite," said Patil, the orthopedic surgeon leading the operation.
Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India, like the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from, are often viewed as reincarnated gods. The young girl is no different — she is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.
The complications for Lakshmi's surgery were myriad: She was born with four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities.
