Couples Paid To Stay Married

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.

Crime and Criminal Facts

1. On average, 80 people shoot at the Goodyear blimp each year.

2. In Miami in August, Levon Howard lost a shoot-out with his roommate Edwin Heyliger. Howard broke into Heyliger's room, angry that someone had drunk his Kool-Aid, and in the ensuing argument, both scrambled for guns.

3. In June 1995, in Liberty, Ohio, police officer Bradley L. Sebastian, tired of waiting for his food order at Denny's, stormed into the kitchen, held his gun to the cook's head, and told her he would kill her if she didn't hurry up.

4. Chances that a drug offense by a black U.S. juvenile with no prior jail time will result in imprisonment: 48 in 100,000. Chance that a drug offense by a white juvenile with no prior jail time will do so : 1 in 100,000

5. In 1471, a chicken in Basel, Switzerland, was accused of being 'a devil in disguise' after laying a brightly colored egg. The chicken stood trial, was found guilty and burned at the stake.

6. The LAPD purchased 40 semiautomatic paint-ball rifles in preparation for this the April 2000 Democratic convention.

7. Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 on Good Friday and in 1995 Good Friday was also on April 14. When Booth shot Lincoln, some people thought it was part of the play.

8. A frightened Englishwoman rang the police emergency line, she could hear burglars, she was sure, drilling into her house from a building site next door. However, when the law arrived they found the rapid thumping noise was caused by a faulty sex toy, that was humming along all by itself in a bedside cabinet.

9. One Saturday, police received not one or two or ten but thirty five emergency calls from Razorback Stadium. The local team were "battering the oposition" (final score 58-6), but there was no clear emergency happening. Eventually the calls were traced to a fan with his trendy little cellphone tucked into a back pocket. Every time he stood up to cheer, and sat down he was hitting the 'one button dial' feature.

10. According to one study, people who keep guns at home nearly triple their chances of being murdered, usually by friends or relatives, but fail to protect themselves from intruders. However, Paul Blackman, research coordinator at the National Rifle Association, criticized the study, "These people were highly susceptible to homicide," he said. "We know that because they were killed."