Home prices were getting out of hand in some markets, particularly on the west coast. Most things in life run in cycles – it was time for the residential market to catch its breath. Unfortunately, it was an abrupt halt. With so much of our economy tied to residential, the ripples spread. However, this is a great opportunity for homebuyers to upgrade or make their first purchase. It is also a good opportunity for investors to buy battered stocks such as banks and homebuilders. The current situation may not end soon, but rest assured, it will not last forever.
Being comfortable about our finances. much like the secret to life, lies in knowing in our minds, hearts, and souls that we have enough today. It's a matter of addressing our fears and finding contentment, peace of mind, and safety.
You've raised a great point about how, in too many situations, people are dysfunctional in their communication about money. Discussions within families about finances are very important to providing the necessary skills to manage and grow wealth. If that discussion does not occur a sense of the topic being taboo because something is wrong. The important skills to be effective and productive can not be learned unless a forum for learning exists. Openness is an important and necessary ingredient
Our firm often facilitate meetings with multiple generations of a family to start the discussion that has not yet happened. The outcomes of these meetings is a sense of relief that the topic is finally out in the open. A greater sense of closeness and openness with each other about money and other issues is an important outcome as well. Generally this was a subject that no one brought up and the emotional baggage was never dealt with until the meeting. Now they can discuss issues and understand more fully the reasons decisions have and will be made.
Of course, not everyone is on a "need to know basis" with finances. Let's face it some who are in our circles of friends may not be able to handle it and they may view those discussions are in effect "bragging" etc. Also, too much openness can lead to others taking advantage in a variety of ways. Being safe and how to be safe is also an important skill set to teach in a family situation.
I'm always surprised when fellow music teachers seem PROUD of how little they make. Becoming a skilled music teacher requires at least as much focused study, experience, and interning as becoming a successful psychiatrist or any other professional. I think that music teachers need to focus on strategies for making it a more profitable profession, not measure their dedication by their poor prospects for retirement and their inability to have any luxuries.
One of the best way for organisations to fundraise - and for donors to give - is to embed donating into an activity already part of your daily routine.
Given the ubiquity of the internet, switching to a charity search engine can raise funds for your favourite cause easily and without actually costing any money - so if you want to make a separate donatation, you can give twice over!
[Disclosure: I'm CEO of the charity search engine, Everyclick.com]
Thanks for this good article. I have frequently been on both sides of the interview table in my career, and it can be a fascinating experience, especially for the interviewing team.
I too peg someone who admits no faults, or has never had a conflict in the workplace as either a liar (depending on other factors) or seriously out of touch with the reality of the workplace(even the 'laid-back' people have conflicts--they just may choose not to acknowledge their existence!)
I recently didn't hire someone, who otherwise had great qualifications, because they couldn't give the interviewing team even a passing answer at 'your deficits as an employee'. It was embarrassing watching the person struggle with the question, and that told me all I needed to know. How I read it: this person does not know herself at all OR she has had major deficits as an employee and doesn't want to reveal them.
The better answer for this question for this potential employee would have been something like: 'In the workplace there are always conflicts born from differing priorities, paradigms and practices. My style has always been to steer as clear of conflicts as possible, but to take them on when I see that my integrity is being put to question in some way. I suppose you could say that one of my growing edges as an employee is to learn how to better know what conflicts I should engage and which I should look at as gossip-driven and have no part in. I'm working on this." (Of course, only if this is true!)
Thanks again for a good article, particularly for those new in the job market. I will be using the article as reference material for teaching interviewing skills in a local high school that my Rotary club has become involved in as a project.
One of my ex-husbands told me that poor people and rich people talk about money, but the middle class avoid it; my family certainly always kept things secret. We were raised very frugally and when I applied for financial aid for college, I was laughed out of the office when my parents' score came back.
When it was time to talk with my elderly mother about finances, I took a leap of faith and told her my net worth. She promptly told me hers, which makes life so much easier than having to guess whether my folks would have enough to see them through their medical/lifestyle challenges.
Would seem far more sensible to use a bucket and forget the shower bit. I favor #20's idea above about heating the water first if possible. You then take your time and work on your parts, ha-ha, and dry yourself now and again as you go to keep from freezing. You don't have to rush that way. Don't use a ton of soap. Do the hair first. I now take a bath daily, my one luxury, and I never fill the tub too deeply. And I do my hair in my big kitchen sink twice a week, never could understand why any woman would want to wet her hair down daily in a shower if she didn't need to. Phooey on showers. My ex and I did a lot of camping in Kentucky years ago and I managed fine the bucket of water way. Not only that, when we were first married and I moved into my ex's house (who is a journeyman plumber, by the way) he had not finished the bathrooms and believe me, I did the bucket routine for far longer than anybody would care to (and which is one reason why we eventually divorced, ha-ha, long story).
I personally think it's far, far better to give locally and give of yourself. Best to join a local church and become more personally involved and to be certain the one in need is getting the bucks. I'm amazed that people will see some picture of a child in need in some hole of the wall country and immediately get their charge plate out. Or run to China to adopt a child when there's more than likely a child very close by in just as great a need and who's dying for that kind of attention. We are a strange people in this country. Big hearts maybe but so temporary. We throw bucks at stuff to make ourselves feel better for the moment.
Its interesting that you talk abt money disclosure. I'm Asian and work in Singapore, its quite different here. Here its not that uncommon for peers and colleagues in the same company to know what each other make.
When I joined a US MNC, during the orientation talk the HR director (an American) asked me not to disclose my salary to my colleagues and he said he's astounded that pple do that here. Of course nobody listened to him and we all have a gauge of what's the salary range. One guy even left his opened payslip on his desk on purpose because he was unhappy about his pay. It was his last day at work and he wanted to make a point.
I'm not condoning his behavior but I personally find disclosure healthy. Why hide? It gives the employer more leverage and more opportunity to screw you over.
There's a book called "Fireless Cookery" by Heidi Kirschner that goes into a lot of detail on this topic. Out of print, but available in libraries. She lived in VT, but learned about fireless cooking as a child in Switzerland or Germany, I don't recall which. Kirschner gives a lot of details for making insulated boxes. You can also find a fair amount of other info in a Google search of "fireless cooking."
When I was young we had about seven chickens in our yard. They produced about four eggs a day. It was actually really good because eggs are kind of expensive. Then the Asian Olympics came to China and we could no longer have chickens within city limits so my parents made all the chickens into soup. I loved one particular hen with a fuzzy head.
My friend and I were talking about the exact same topic yesterday. Basically he hit it on the nail when he said, "if we aren't open about money, the rich people win". What he means is that the rich people know how to make money and if they don't share then others can't make money. Also, the rich are in control of the banks and institutions that govern money in this country, and if people never learn about how these powerful institutions work then they will never understand what controls their lives.
There is one clear beneficiary to the practice of keeping incomes secret, and that's bosses. If they can get all their employees to keep their wages secret, they have a pretty good shot at paying some employees much less than they're worth without losing them.
Most workers know where they stand in terms of productivity, and will accept being paid less than more productive workers. But let an employee find out that less productive workers are getting paid more, and you'll have a very unhappy employee.
Only when workers can be counted on to keep their incomes secret, can bosses hope to give lousy raises and still retain valuable employees. If they can pull that off, then it gives them some extra money to either raise profits or pay out to retain employees who, although less valuable, are worth keeping if a higher wage will do the job.
Yep--compared to alternative nutrition sources, even expensive eggs are cheap. They're just so much more expensive than they were a year or two ago....
Hey Ed... I may be re-joining the freelance world yet again. After six years working for a non-profit trying to make a difference in the world, it has gotten me no where and office politics and all the BS that is attached to it has tipped me back over in wanting to do it on my own again.
You make some very valid points, and thank you for your comment. With regards to the risk involved with using credit cards and experiencing job loss, my hope is that the responsible credit card user has also taken measures to avoid such circumstances being a problem....with the use of an emergency fund, and always having cash on hand for payments.
True - life happens when you're busy making plans, but a truly responsible CC user will make sure all payments to through well before interest can be levvied, they have enough to cover off unexpected emergencies, and that they'll always remain a "deadbeat" in the eyes of the credit company!
And as long as I don't erroneously charge more to my credit card than I would normally spend just so I can get reward miles (that is certainly important given that we are aiming to be frugal, not spend thrifts), I still see no need to curb my charging habit. Like I said, I've flown around the world so far (admittedly after years of banking points), and I'm still going strong!
Our local health food store sells eggs from a local farm. They are not only truly free range, but they are completely organic as well. We started buying farm fresh eggs a couple years ago and there is no going back! They taste so much better!
I would love to keep chickens, but it's not feasible right now.
One thing that is never mentioned in regards to price, eggs are still cheaper then meat as a protein source. Especially, if like me, you refuse to eat meat that has lived it's life on a factory farm.
Don't know why I hadn't run across this article of yours before, but I just did. It's very timely, because even though we are basically retired, we are considering having David take another job that is a little further south. Various reasons are involved, almost all of which involve taking as much of that income as possible and using it to develop equity and make other investments. We'll need to pick up a place down there, as it is too far to commute. But the salary if it comes through would make it all worth while. This is great advice that we can use to negotiate with. Thanks!
Interesting comments. These comments have been made before and I am sure the credit card companies have planned for the minority of the 30 day wonders into the business model.
A less disciplined/credit junkie will think these comments are sound ideas and stay in debt for the rest of his life and that is his decision. For some of the people who have posted to say they are using the credit card companies money for a free loan is erroneous and understand you or someone else is paying for this "free" loan.
Yet no one has discussed there is a degree of risk involved with using a credit card.
For instance what happens if you lose your job before the month ends? How do you pay your card off? Or how about the one month that the credit card company does not receive your payment on time and the fees and interest one will incur?
Also by using the card every month a person stays in perpetual debt? I thought the goal was to stop sending money to the credit card companies for the rest of one's life.
One can also set up automatic payments for the monthly household expenses using a bank account as oppose to using credit.
For those who talk about the frequent flier and cash back rewards you receive by using your cards, I would suggest if you are earning such a substantial amount in rewards maybe you are overspending and trying cash might not be a bad idea. As always you have a choice and if this working for you so be it.
Tri,
When you said you bought the software package, were you referring to the MMA product or another brand?
Home prices were getting out of hand in some markets, particularly on the west coast. Most things in life run in cycles – it was time for the residential market to catch its breath. Unfortunately, it was an abrupt halt. With so much of our economy tied to residential, the ripples spread. However, this is a great opportunity for homebuyers to upgrade or make their first purchase. It is also a good opportunity for investors to buy battered stocks such as banks and homebuilders. The current situation may not end soon, but rest assured, it will not last forever.
Best Wishes,
D4L
Nora,
Great points and post.
Being comfortable about our finances. much like the secret to life, lies in knowing in our minds, hearts, and souls that we have enough today. It's a matter of addressing our fears and finding contentment, peace of mind, and safety.
David
It would be spiffy if the annual contributions weren't constant but instead increased with inflation...
You've raised a great point about how, in too many situations, people are dysfunctional in their communication about money. Discussions within families about finances are very important to providing the necessary skills to manage and grow wealth. If that discussion does not occur a sense of the topic being taboo because something is wrong. The important skills to be effective and productive can not be learned unless a forum for learning exists. Openness is an important and necessary ingredient
Our firm often facilitate meetings with multiple generations of a family to start the discussion that has not yet happened. The outcomes of these meetings is a sense of relief that the topic is finally out in the open. A greater sense of closeness and openness with each other about money and other issues is an important outcome as well. Generally this was a subject that no one brought up and the emotional baggage was never dealt with until the meeting. Now they can discuss issues and understand more fully the reasons decisions have and will be made.
Of course, not everyone is on a "need to know basis" with finances. Let's face it some who are in our circles of friends may not be able to handle it and they may view those discussions are in effect "bragging" etc. Also, too much openness can lead to others taking advantage in a variety of ways. Being safe and how to be safe is also an important skill set to teach in a family situation.
I'm always surprised when fellow music teachers seem PROUD of how little they make. Becoming a skilled music teacher requires at least as much focused study, experience, and interning as becoming a successful psychiatrist or any other professional. I think that music teachers need to focus on strategies for making it a more profitable profession, not measure their dedication by their poor prospects for retirement and their inability to have any luxuries.
One of the best way for organisations to fundraise - and for donors to give - is to embed donating into an activity already part of your daily routine.
Given the ubiquity of the internet, switching to a charity search engine can raise funds for your favourite cause easily and without actually costing any money - so if you want to make a separate donatation, you can give twice over!
[Disclosure: I'm CEO of the charity search engine, Everyclick.com]
Hope that helps!
Polly
Thanks for this good article. I have frequently been on both sides of the interview table in my career, and it can be a fascinating experience, especially for the interviewing team.
I too peg someone who admits no faults, or has never had a conflict in the workplace as either a liar (depending on other factors) or seriously out of touch with the reality of the workplace(even the 'laid-back' people have conflicts--they just may choose not to acknowledge their existence!)
I recently didn't hire someone, who otherwise had great qualifications, because they couldn't give the interviewing team even a passing answer at 'your deficits as an employee'. It was embarrassing watching the person struggle with the question, and that told me all I needed to know. How I read it: this person does not know herself at all OR she has had major deficits as an employee and doesn't want to reveal them.
The better answer for this question for this potential employee would have been something like: 'In the workplace there are always conflicts born from differing priorities, paradigms and practices. My style has always been to steer as clear of conflicts as possible, but to take them on when I see that my integrity is being put to question in some way. I suppose you could say that one of my growing edges as an employee is to learn how to better know what conflicts I should engage and which I should look at as gossip-driven and have no part in. I'm working on this." (Of course, only if this is true!)
Thanks again for a good article, particularly for those new in the job market. I will be using the article as reference material for teaching interviewing skills in a local high school that my Rotary club has become involved in as a project.
Beth
One of my ex-husbands told me that poor people and rich people talk about money, but the middle class avoid it; my family certainly always kept things secret. We were raised very frugally and when I applied for financial aid for college, I was laughed out of the office when my parents' score came back.
When it was time to talk with my elderly mother about finances, I took a leap of faith and told her my net worth. She promptly told me hers, which makes life so much easier than having to guess whether my folks would have enough to see them through their medical/lifestyle challenges.
Would seem far more sensible to use a bucket and forget the shower bit. I favor #20's idea above about heating the water first if possible. You then take your time and work on your parts, ha-ha, and dry yourself now and again as you go to keep from freezing. You don't have to rush that way. Don't use a ton of soap. Do the hair first. I now take a bath daily, my one luxury, and I never fill the tub too deeply. And I do my hair in my big kitchen sink twice a week, never could understand why any woman would want to wet her hair down daily in a shower if she didn't need to. Phooey on showers. My ex and I did a lot of camping in Kentucky years ago and I managed fine the bucket of water way. Not only that, when we were first married and I moved into my ex's house (who is a journeyman plumber, by the way) he had not finished the bathrooms and believe me, I did the bucket routine for far longer than anybody would care to (and which is one reason why we eventually divorced, ha-ha, long story).
I personally think it's far, far better to give locally and give of yourself. Best to join a local church and become more personally involved and to be certain the one in need is getting the bucks. I'm amazed that people will see some picture of a child in need in some hole of the wall country and immediately get their charge plate out. Or run to China to adopt a child when there's more than likely a child very close by in just as great a need and who's dying for that kind of attention. We are a strange people in this country. Big hearts maybe but so temporary. We throw bucks at stuff to make ourselves feel better for the moment.
Its interesting that you talk abt money disclosure. I'm Asian and work in Singapore, its quite different here. Here its not that uncommon for peers and colleagues in the same company to know what each other make.
When I joined a US MNC, during the orientation talk the HR director (an American) asked me not to disclose my salary to my colleagues and he said he's astounded that pple do that here. Of course nobody listened to him and we all have a gauge of what's the salary range. One guy even left his opened payslip on his desk on purpose because he was unhappy about his pay. It was his last day at work and he wanted to make a point.
I'm not condoning his behavior but I personally find disclosure healthy. Why hide? It gives the employer more leverage and more opportunity to screw you over.
I start snacking on junk food after eating less!
There's a book called "Fireless Cookery" by Heidi Kirschner that goes into a lot of detail on this topic. Out of print, but available in libraries. She lived in VT, but learned about fireless cooking as a child in Switzerland or Germany, I don't recall which. Kirschner gives a lot of details for making insulated boxes. You can also find a fair amount of other info in a Google search of "fireless cooking."
When I was young we had about seven chickens in our yard. They produced about four eggs a day. It was actually really good because eggs are kind of expensive. Then the Asian Olympics came to China and we could no longer have chickens within city limits so my parents made all the chickens into soup. I loved one particular hen with a fuzzy head.
My friend and I were talking about the exact same topic yesterday. Basically he hit it on the nail when he said, "if we aren't open about money, the rich people win". What he means is that the rich people know how to make money and if they don't share then others can't make money. Also, the rich are in control of the banks and institutions that govern money in this country, and if people never learn about how these powerful institutions work then they will never understand what controls their lives.
There is one clear beneficiary to the practice of keeping incomes secret, and that's bosses. If they can get all their employees to keep their wages secret, they have a pretty good shot at paying some employees much less than they're worth without losing them.
Most workers know where they stand in terms of productivity, and will accept being paid less than more productive workers. But let an employee find out that less productive workers are getting paid more, and you'll have a very unhappy employee.
Only when workers can be counted on to keep their incomes secret, can bosses hope to give lousy raises and still retain valuable employees. If they can pull that off, then it gives them some extra money to either raise profits or pay out to retain employees who, although less valuable, are worth keeping if a higher wage will do the job.
Condom Man has the best Valentine's Day deal ... 100 condoms for 20 bucks
http://www.condomman.com/page/C/PROD/VAL100
And for the particularily adventurous, there's 500 for $60
Yep--compared to alternative nutrition sources, even expensive eggs are cheap. They're just so much more expensive than they were a year or two ago....
Hey Ed... I may be re-joining the freelance world yet again. After six years working for a non-profit trying to make a difference in the world, it has gotten me no where and office politics and all the BS that is attached to it has tipped me back over in wanting to do it on my own again.
-- Louis (or as Ed knows me, "Loooooooou")
Hi Terri M!
You make some very valid points, and thank you for your comment. With regards to the risk involved with using credit cards and experiencing job loss, my hope is that the responsible credit card user has also taken measures to avoid such circumstances being a problem....with the use of an emergency fund, and always having cash on hand for payments.
True - life happens when you're busy making plans, but a truly responsible CC user will make sure all payments to through well before interest can be levvied, they have enough to cover off unexpected emergencies, and that they'll always remain a "deadbeat" in the eyes of the credit company!
And as long as I don't erroneously charge more to my credit card than I would normally spend just so I can get reward miles (that is certainly important given that we are aiming to be frugal, not spend thrifts), I still see no need to curb my charging habit. Like I said, I've flown around the world so far (admittedly after years of banking points), and I'm still going strong!
Our local health food store sells eggs from a local farm. They are not only truly free range, but they are completely organic as well. We started buying farm fresh eggs a couple years ago and there is no going back! They taste so much better!
I would love to keep chickens, but it's not feasible right now.
One thing that is never mentioned in regards to price, eggs are still cheaper then meat as a protein source. Especially, if like me, you refuse to eat meat that has lived it's life on a factory farm.
Awesome! Thanks, Philip! This is right up my alley. It's so cool you can print out the store-like label. Really cool.
Don't know why I hadn't run across this article of yours before, but I just did. It's very timely, because even though we are basically retired, we are considering having David take another job that is a little further south. Various reasons are involved, almost all of which involve taking as much of that income as possible and using it to develop equity and make other investments. We'll need to pick up a place down there, as it is too far to commute. But the salary if it comes through would make it all worth while. This is great advice that we can use to negotiate with. Thanks!
Interesting comments. These comments have been made before and I am sure the credit card companies have planned for the minority of the 30 day wonders into the business model.
A less disciplined/credit junkie will think these comments are sound ideas and stay in debt for the rest of his life and that is his decision. For some of the people who have posted to say they are using the credit card companies money for a free loan is erroneous and understand you or someone else is paying for this "free" loan.
Yet no one has discussed there is a degree of risk involved with using a credit card.
For instance what happens if you lose your job before the month ends? How do you pay your card off? Or how about the one month that the credit card company does not receive your payment on time and the fees and interest one will incur?
Also by using the card every month a person stays in perpetual debt? I thought the goal was to stop sending money to the credit card companies for the rest of one's life.
One can also set up automatic payments for the monthly household expenses using a bank account as oppose to using credit.
For those who talk about the frequent flier and cash back rewards you receive by using your cards, I would suggest if you are earning such a substantial amount in rewards maybe you are overspending and trying cash might not be a bad idea. As always you have a choice and if this working for you so be it.