Tag: jobs

linklings, the next house edition

Another week’s gone by, with big movements for the Blap family. We found a house we liked here in Florida, put in an offer and are sitting around (Saturday evening) wondering about whether it will be accepted or not. It’s an odd feeling - you’ve found a place you like and you want to know whether it’s going to be your home or not, based on your (to your perception) perfectly reasonable offer. It’s odd to move to a new area, and suddenly find that jobs are easier to find, nice housing is easier to find, schools are better, stores are cleaner, public services are better, commutes are shorter, costs are lower - and it was always here, all the time you were struggling away in a place you didn’t like at a wage that didn’t work for a lifestyle you didn’t enjoy.

On to the links:

For a Good Time Call 1-800-829-1040: Great resource on taxes, and the title just sucks you in. Pardon the implication…

This article - Another Pet Reminder - and this one - Dog Day Care or Not Dog Day Care… - reminded me of one of the most important personal finance tips: don’t have pets. Period. It’s not in the cards for my family, ever. I love dogs, like cats, am fond of guinea pigs and fish and turtles, but you know what? I’ll play with the neighbor’s dog when I feel the need. Me as an owner? Not in this lifetime.

Are You Planning Your Life Around Money? and Asking Why: The Purpose Behind your Financial Goals:

House and Rent Update: Having avoided this scenario ourselves recently, I wonder whether we could have rented out our Jersey place. I am glad we never had to find out.

A Biodegradable Credit Card?: True, my credit card will exist for thousands of years after my death. Is this a “green” issue that keeps me up? Honestly, no. I am cool with a non-biodegradable card. If it has great benefits AND it’s biodegradable, I’ll take it.

Time Is Money, So How Do You Spend Your Day?: I linked to this on my other blog (hunt through my blogroll, you’ll find it if you want to) and as I opined over there, it’s an amazing graph.

Top Ten Songs About Money - The Frugal Dad Soundtrack: He had me at #2. All time favorite band gets personal finance cred.

Library Fines Don’t Support Your Library: I found this slightly disappointing. I guess it doesn’t surprise me, but it saddens me - a little bit like the time I found out that John Carter never actually went to Mars.

How to Enjoy a Tax Free Vacation: Great idea. I don’t do nearly enough of this, and I should - I have an aversion to conferencing, and I shouldn’t. Some great tips.

I really liked Syd’s posts here: Luxury Vacation Envy and Luxury Vacation Envy-Part II. Great reads and I get her point: would I have enjoyed Vladivostok (for example) more or less had I been in a nicer hotel? I don’t know - I suspect the experience and my remembrance of it were more formed by the place than my hotel room, despite my thinking at the time.

The Power of Resourcefulness: A Guide to Peeing in the Shower: Good concept, good execution - and a hard sell. Great idea, though.

Why Bail From Success?

By Curmudgeon

In the first installment of this series, I noted that I am approaching the 30 year point in my career, and certainly have a mixed track record in the many and varied jobs that I’ve held. In my last post, I focused on my failures.

Today I’d like to talk about success, those jobs at which I have been damned good. I’m in one of them now, which is largely a good thing, given that comparable jobs are likely to be difficult to find in today’s environment.

What makes me damned good at these jobs? In at least one case, one of my successes was very similar work to one of my failures, so while my effort (or lack of such) may have been a factor, it doesn’t seem to be an overriding one.

Like I did when I described my failures, the corporate culture has a lot to do with it. I joined this company just over a year ago, and had a couple of colleagues that I had known from years past who were able to clue me in. And I had a new colleague who unexpectedly helped make me more comfortable in developing my role.

But I was also able to define my role expansively. Not all companies let you do that; in some cases, departments and individuals jealously guard their turf. There were plenty of things to do, and in general not enough people to do them. So I pitched in. That accomplishes two things. First, I gained more experience in the business as a whole, and was able to better integrate my core activities into the business goals. Second, it made me known to others in the organization, outside of my niche, and let me develop a network of people who knew me and knew my work. We would trade favors, getting work done without having to use the ubiquitous chain of command.

The natural question is why did I ever leave such jobs? In most cases, I was paid well, worked in a decent environment, and most important was highly thought of. In most cases, that led to one or more promotions and significant pay raises.

The circumstances are different in each case. In one, the schedule was undemanding, but normally required working in the afternoon and evening. After I got married, such a schedule proved to be unworkable with my home life.

In a second, the handwriting was on the wall for the office I worked in for years before it was actually closed. Resources were being devoted elsewhere in the company, and our business was in decline.

The important point about all of these circumstances is that things change. Your life changes, or the company changes. We can’t expect everything to stay the same over the course of years, let alone an entire career. If we’re already in a great situation for our skills and personality, chances are that those changes will be for the worse.

If you can engage in your job, and reach beyond what you were hired to do, you are likely to be considered a high performer. Don’t let that go to your head (the subject of the next post in this series). Your needs, or your employer’s needs, will change over time. Instead, use the opportunity to broaden your skills and your network, and to think about what might be next.

And recognize the potential costs of that engagement and subsequent effort. You may be working many extra hours, perhaps out of enthusiasm or a sense of accomplishment, and giving up your personal life. You may associate your own self-worth with that job, and when it goes away (it will someday), it may perhaps take that part of you with it.

I speak of obsession. You can do a fine job without being obsessed with it. Knowing when you have done what you can is perhaps the most difficult skill to learn, but if you want to be damned good at your job, you must master it. Otherwise, long term success with remain an elusive goal.

Photo by AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

how much emergency fund is enough?

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The term “emergency fund” is misleading. Is a new tire for the car an emergency? Is a new TV, when your last good one dies? Most of us have a good idea what an emergency means when we consider the extreme case: a sick child, a roof with a gigantic hole allowing the rain to come in, a car that won’t start. When you get to the more “iffy” emergencies it gets a bit tougher. Is it an emergency when you need a new dryer? I mean, you COULD hang clothes out to dry for a while.

I’ve read many times that you should have $1000 in an emergency fund, or that you should establish a three month or six month or eight month emergency fund before investing. Should you start thinking about Roths versus traditional IRAs as soon as you have $1000 in an emergency fund? Should you even be thinking about paying down your credit card debt that quickly?

We just went through seven months of a “zero-income” household, although we did have a few sources of alternative income. Neither my wife nor I were working jobs or earning money in our fields, and although we had to tighten our belts to a small extent, we were able to live more or less normally the entire time. Why? Because we had an enormous “emergency fund”, equal to more than a year of expenses.

I know there are people who can live on the razor’s edge, dancing around on margin and leveraging their next income-generating venture. If you’re that type of person, more power to you. I’m not. I’ve been able to rest easy and take my “mini-retirement” thanks to saving whenever we could in our emergency fund. It’s a lifestyle choice, but I’d argue that if you’re the type of person who gets nervous when the money runs out, you’re better off having an adequate stash laid by when times are good. When times are bad, you won’t be sorry you have enough - or even more than enough - saved up.

The argument against this might be that you can’t build wealth by keeping your money in cash (or “almost cash”). You need to put that money to work. True - but nothing is more of an impediment to building wealth than hitting a hard patch that causes you to go back into debt. In this economy it can happen quickly, and the length of time without income can be extensive. Nothing would derail your future prosperity worse than going into debt during a sudden but protracted unemployment.

So think twice before accepting the idea that a three-month or six-month emergency fund is enough. It’s never really enough. I’d love to have a three or four YEAR emergency fund. Cash in the bank is, well, cash in the bank.

photo by Paul Keleher

You Call This a Career?

By Curmudgeon

shadowtree

This coming fall I celebrate (if that is the right word) 30 years as an adult professional (for an idea of what that means, watch this). In that time I have held eleven jobs, and have been unemployed a total of seven weeks (one of which was intentional). Of those eleven jobs, I’ve failed at two of them, was no better than mediocre at two, and was good to damned good at seven. For the last eighteen of those years, I’ve had my own LLC and side business that has brought in anywhere from a few thousand a year to the high five figures.

Is this a typical career today? I have no idea. But I would like to do several postings for Steve over the coming weeks of some things I’ve learned in the process.

Today I’d like to focus on failure. When I say that I’ve failed at two jobs, I mean that I’ve gotten criticized, demoted, fired, and in one extreme case, sued.

What did I learn from these failures? First, I learned that I can’t predict them. If I am going to change jobs and go into a new company, even if it’s in a similar role to what I’ve done before, I will always run the risk of failure. Hopefully it is a small risk, but there are many unknowns.

Is it me or what? That is the seminal question. Well, certainly it was in some part my doing. I lacked engagement at the two jobs at which I failed.

Could I have been engaged? That had to be my failure, right? If I’m getting paid six figures (in one of the cases), my employer has the right to expect immediate engagement and productivity. Well, I think in both cases there was an institutional aspect that contributed to my failures.

Fundamentally, in both I lacked an awareness of the culture of the organization. For different reasons, both were cultures with which I couldn’t adapt to. In the first, it was a culture of surprise and attack. In the second, it was a culture of blame. I lacked the skills to respond effectively.

I can’t criticize either, and perhaps I am being harsh in my assessment, but it is certainly true that they were organizational cultures that I lacked the ability to adapt and respond to. Should you wish to avert such a failure, you need to be perceptive to the culture of your company, and whether your own personality is compatible with the way that your employer works. If not, flee while you can.

I do know that failure can be averted, but you need inside help. In my current job (at which I am damned good), my boss asked me to support the firing of a colleague. I refused, and instead delivered a strong defense of her work. Although I didn’t know it at the time, that defense not only saved her job, but also changed the way our senior management perceived her efforts and results.

The moral of that story is to know the people that you work with, their strengths and weaknesses, and more important, what they contribute to your goals. And know what is in their hearts, if you can. If they can make a difference, go to bat for them. And maybe hope that in the future someone does so for you.

But in the course of 30 years, make no mistake – you will fail. It’s not a badge of honor, but nor is it a scarlet letter. If you are reaching, and trying new opportunities, failure is a certainty. You need to let some time pass, and soberly assess and learn from the lessons. But more immediately, you need to move on.

Photo by kevindooley

the four(ty) hour workweek

beachhouse

After reading Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Workweek I was struck by what I viewed as one of his main concepts: work is something to be avoided. The book explains how to set up a business that (largely) runs itself. His idea is to have a passive (for lack of a better word) income stream and then use that stream to back away from work altogether in favor of visiting new parts of the world, learning new things and enjoying what he calls “mini-retirements.” His point that far too many of us hammer away at difficult jobs with long hours during the best years of our lives simply to grasp at “freedom” once we are too old to enjoy it.

I have written many posts about my desire to generate “passive income” or “alternative income.” After reading Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” I spent years wondering whether I, too, could ever achieve financial freedom. I’ve worked my way through a steady progression of what I’d loosely lump together as “financial freedom” books: Your Money or Your Life is one of the best examples. What Ferriss’ book helped me realize is that based on my recent “mini-retirement,” I am in no way ready for the four hour workweek. If you don’t have a sense of what you want to do with the other 164 hours of the week a mini-retirement can be long and unproductive.

Curmudgeon, a frequent contributor to brip blap, wrote this a year ago:

As young adults, we try on various persona, defined by our behaviors and job roles. Not surprisingly, some fit better than others. Hopefully, we gravitate into the roles that fit, gaining an understanding of our own preferences and character in doing so. In doing so, we’ll likely find that we don’t have a true taste for large and fancy homes, luxury automobiles, fine clothes, and corporate ladder-climbing. But many people engage in these behaviors, perhaps because others around them do so, or because of some ill-conceived notions of the meaning of success and belonging.

link: guest post: who am I?

Focusing on lists and goals and “things we’d like to achieve” can be a trap. You may think that “trekking across the Gobi on camel back” is a more admirable and exciting goal than “re-read the Lord of the Rings at least one more time,” and you may tell others (and yourself) that you want to do the former. What you really want, though, is to do something else - because that’s who you really are. You need to understand who you are before you can set goals - I didn’t think this in the past but now I do.

Maybe you want a four-hour workweek so you can “play” at writing a book (which is hard work). Maybe you want financial freedom not because you want just enough income to live a moderate existence, but so you can quit your corporate job and concentrate on making “big money” doing something else so you can buy a Mercedes. Maybe you want financial freedom to sit on a couch and complete watching every episode of Doctor Who ever made. Just be honest about what you want. I suspect that dreaming about a fancy car means you are really looking for some other sort of meaning in your life, but for all I know some people might be truly passionate about cars - learning about them, driving them and owning them. I’d like to have an ocean view home - which doesn’t come cheap - but I don’t need that home to be 4000 square feet.

I often dream of “freedom” - but now that I’ve had freedom for the last half year, I’ve started dreaming more of meaningful or interesting work; for lack of a better word, let’s call this a “purpose.” I have fooled myself for a long time into thinking I want free time to do what I really “want to do” but I don’t want free time - I want my time occupied. I think too many people confuse freedom with indolence and that’s why they can’t achieve it - freedom isn’t achieved by lazy people (unless they have the good fortune to inherit it). Laziness may actually guarantee that you’ll work very hard - you’ll just be working hard at something you don’t want to do. Someone who buys a book with a guy swinging in a hammock (as Ferriss’ book does) hoping to find a shortcut will soon realize that a lot of hard work is needed to get to that hammock. I doubt that Ferriss spends his days watching Flintstones reruns.

Ferriss’ idea of work, or purpose, or whatever you would like to call it would simply be learning and traveling. For someone else it might be accounting, or animal husbandry, or selling custom t-shirts. Nobody really wants a four-hour workweek. They want a forty-hour income off four hours of effort, so the other 36 hours can be spent doing what they would do if income was no issue.

photo by Jesse Wagstaff

linklings, countdown now edition

This week Bubelah and I have been furiously packing. You never know how much stuff you have until you try to organize it and put it in boxes. Another challenge is trying to decide whether or not to - for example - throw out an old bathroom mat. You’ll need it, of course, but it’s just one more thing, and it’s old. At least for now we’ve decided to go with the take-everything-possible theory, in order to minimize the amount of new stuff we’ll need to buy immediately.

But since we’re moving this week, don’t expect roundups for a week or two. I’ll keep the posts coming, but the “real time” updates like these will have to wait. I was trying to decide whether moving or having a baby was more disruptive, and I think moving is!

On to the links:

Some dry reading, but worth checking out if you’re looking for a federal job: Government Careers - Applying for Federal and Security-Related Jobs.

Save Money by Turning Off Your Television?: We have canceled satellite altogether this week. We have digital TV (broadcast) and Netflix, and that’s it. I have to be honest - signal quality is fine, we were already down to basic satellite so we didn’t lose much (mainly Nickelodeon and the Food Network) and Netflix is the only TV I really care about watching, anyway. It’s not the point of this article - it’s more about how you will be more successful and wealthy without watching TV - but we’ll see how our experiment in satellite/cable-less life helps us.

How To Save Money - The 1,001 List Of Money Saving Tips And Ideas: A huge list of money-saving tips, and unlike Wisebread’s new book (which, don’t get me wrong, seems like a good idea although I haven’t read it), it’s free!

Credit Card Rewards Programs Illusion Myth: Mr. ToughMoneyLove, who had a few harsh words for me about my post on credit card rewards (see his comment here) has his own opinion. I disagree with it, but see what you think about his take on it.

You can have whatever you like…

And some other articles I enjoyed:

photo credit: roland

early retirement or meaningful work?

endlich himmelblau


For years I have dreamed of early retirement. The idea that someday I would be free to pursue leisure, and have time to do what I wanted, haunted me. It was the driving goal of my investing and saving plan. That was after I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad (yes, I know, but it gave me a new perspective) - but before I left my last employer to become a consultant.

What I’ve realized since then is that I don’t want early retirement. I don’t want to stop working at all. What I do want is to find work I enjoy, or at least tolerate. There are a lot of advantages to work. I’m not talking about 9-to-5 corporate work, but just work in general; freelancing, public service work, contract consulting, whatever you like. If you like 9-to-5 corporate work, fine.

Work gives you a structure and meaning - if it’s good work. Work provides you income, of course, which isn’t a small factor. Work gives you a sense of self - again, if it’s work that you can identify with. Work can sometimes provide colleagues, or challenging opportunities.

Work can also drag you down. If you don’t like what you do, early retirement is the best escape. Getting away as soon as possible is the only exit. I don’t think this applies just to people who work in white-collar jobs, either. Some people work at heavy labor or in non-white collar jobs who love it. My father-in-law is happiest doing manual work, for example - gardening or building things. I think he would detest a desk job now, although he worked at one for most of his life. Work doesn’t have to be high-tech or “cool” - just something that makes you happy.

For me, meaningful work is something that you enjoy. I know people who love accounting, for example. They like the complexity, the challenge of figuring out the interplay of accounts and the theology of GAAP. I don’t. I know people who love making things, and corporate politics, and writing, and teaching, and a myriad of occupations. I also know people who do work they hate, and people who do work they love. Most of my life I’ve been someone who worked at something I hate while seeking something I love. I think - but don’t know - I’ve found something I love in writing, but it comes and goes in spurts. I started writing this blog to practice writing, then morphed into a personal finance blog. Putting myself in that box has hampered my writing a bit, so I’m going to try to write on a broader range of topics in the future - because I still want to find work that means something to me.

If you can find something that makes sense to you, as a person, early retirement is pointless. I honestly believe that if I ever find my groove as a writer - I haven’t yet - I could be happy writing up until the day I die. Early retirement would be pointless. I’m not a good enough writer to earn a living writing yet, so I have to supplement with other work. I suck as a writer. I have a long way to go to be - by my own measure - creative, although I tickle my own ego by thinking I’m technically proficient. But I have realized that my real dream is not early retirement, as I often thought it was. I dreamed of days of leisure. I’ve had those days now, as I’ve been unemployed. I don’t want leisure. I want work with meaning. My real dream is finding meaningful work, and it should be everyone’s dream.

photo credit: extranoise

guest post: age is a state of mind

Today’s post is another contribution from brip blap’s most frequent guest writer, Curmudgeon. I like the list he incorporates in this article, and I’m doing alright on 3 of the 4…:

Young & Old, Let's Get it On!
I am fifty years old. More or less (and it is not less). I’m gainfully employed at a full-time job (the last time I changed jobs was just under a year ago), in what might be considered a middle management position, with a salary hovering around six figures. I also have my own business that brings in perhaps half again that amount of income. I live in a moderate-cost area of the United States, and this income is much more than sufficient to take care of my needs and wants. I work largely at home, but have to be somewhat visible to both my employer and my clients, so I get into a car once or twice a week, and an airplane perhaps once a month. More often, I get on webcasts.

Most of the industries I’ve worked in have been volatile. The one I am currently in is most definitely in decline; employment in the industry as a whole has probably shrunk by about a third over the last decade or so. I have certain skills that make me more valuable in this industry, but they also require that industry to pay me more than the average bear. My current employer laid off over ten percent of the company at the end of last year, but my job is secure for at least the foreseeable future.

In a recent post, Steve wonders if his resume is being rejected for new employment because he has, well, too much experience. That has prompted me to answer his muse in some fashion. Have I at all suffered from age discrimination? I have no idea. My standard resume lists jobs going back to circa 1980 or so; the hair that I have left is approximately fifty percent gray, with no artificial coloring. I am certainly a candidate for such a response.

Interestingly enough, though, most people guess my age at almost a decade less than my true chronological age. Perhaps some of that is due to genes (I can guarantee that none of it is due to Botox), but I would like to posit that most of it is due to a high energy level, willingness to question my own beliefs and experiences, and perhaps most important, willingness to learn radically new things. I Twitter (though not under the Curmudgeon sobriquet), have several hundred LinkedIn partners, and IM with dozens of people that I have never met over the course of a week.

My boss is fifteen years younger than me. Does that make me inferior to him? Of course not; it merely means that we have different career paths. I respect him for his position, and he has come to depend on me for my knowledge and experience.

What is the lesson for those of you here who are aging, gracefully or not? Try these:

  1. Keep an open mind. If you don’t honestly consider new ideas and incorporate the good ones into your point of view, you are old whether you are 20 or 70.
  2. Learn something new every day. Don’t skip a day, no matter how miserable you feel.
  3. Exercise regularly and vigorously. It’s not that hard if you set up a routine, and the more vigor that you show in your exercise, the more you show in your job.
  4. Treat everyone as an equal, and with respect. The executives will think you’re one of them, and the twenty-somethings will die for you because no one has ever listened to them before.

You can’t stop the forces of Time. But you can behave in a way that does you credit, no matter what your age. Give it a try.

photo credit: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

linklings, too old for the factory edition


Another week goes by and another spate of bad job news. I’m beginning to suspect that I may be in the “old enough to be difficult to hire” category - many of the manager positions I’ve looked at quickly turn me down. I doubt it can be my qualifications or me personally - since many of my applications don’t even make it to the phone interview stage - but perhaps they think “senior manager guy’s gonna want big money.” Or maybe my last five years consulting on Wall Street don’t look as nifty as they did a year ago - hah. I’m casting about for direction, and still hoping that one of the consulting contracts I’ve got very strong leads on will work out, so I can avoid reentering job world. I don’t feel that I want to do it, and of course that mindset doesn’t help, either.

When you are moving, life drifts into a bit of stasis. A lot of ideas about starting this or doing that get paused and filed away with “I’ll get that done after we move.” I’ve been meaning to start an LLC - but now I think I’ll wait until I’m closer to moving to Florida. I’m going to pursue some sort of certificate education (teaching? financial planning?) at one of the local colleges… down there. I’m going to start a small business, hopefully, doing some kid’s party entertainment - but now I’m just researching and won’t get started.

Of course this is just procrastination. I could start all of these things today if I felt pressure to do so. But with so many things to organize for the move these ideas seem destined for the shelf for the time being. I doubt it’s a characteristic of a successful person, but then again maybe I’m just being organized and prudent. Time will tell.

Some links for weekend reading:

My Tenant: “I’ve Lost My Job and I Can’t Pay You…”: Words that would give any landlord a sinking feeling.

Can One Choose Not To Participate In A Recession?: This is an interesting idea from the always-interesting (if not, in my opinion, always correct) Dave Ramsey.

Your Home Office: Ideas To Set Up Your Place of Work: Oh, to have a home office. I know, I am wishing for more space and a bigger home, and I know that’s verboten in the personal finance blogosphere. I sincerely hope that sometime in the future I’ll have a place with a room that can be devoted solely to work (and by work I mean blogging, writing and consulting). With a door. The door is key. Having a computer in a corner of the open-floor-plan living area is in no way conducive to getting work done during the day or putting yourself in a work mindset. My office, however, would not need to look like Gore’s. Yikes.

How Long Does It Take Your Broker to Answer Your Call?: I only have experience with three brokerage firms in the last 5-6 years. TD Ameritrade (where I keep my retirement and brokerage accounts) is terrific. They answer the phone almost immediately, and I have yet to have any trouble with my account (I say that while furiously knocking on wood).

Did You Miss the Stock Market Rally?: I don’t think March was a real rally, to be honest. I think we’ll see another dip, and I need to see one more strong runup before I’ll believe the market troubles are over. And I have to vent on a pet peeve: the market and the economy are NOT the same thing. The economy’s going to be in the dumper for a while. The market may come back long before the economy does - and by the economy I mean jobs, productivity, real estate and so on.

The 80/20 Rule and How it Applies to You: The Pareto Principle is a great way of looking at almost everything in life - if you don’t know what it is (but if you read this blog, I am sure you do), check it out.

Taking Control of Your Life By Finding Balance: I probably worry far more about balance than I should.

Poll: Generation X Feels Unprepared for Long-Term Care Costs. Are You Prepared?: I’m not. I’m one of those people who’s buried his head in the sand a bit on long-term care.

How to Save on Digital Services: We drop a LOT on digital services, although much less than we did. Probably the biggest waste? A landline, which we need because of (a) a security system and (b) we use DSL, so it’s cheaper when bundled. I’d love to have nothing but high speed internet and a Roku Digital Video Player.

How To Become An Expert: It’s true that 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert, I suppose, although I’d argue that you may not need to be an expert to be successful - these are two different things. Practice does work, though. I’ve been learning to juggle and after spending one hour mastering the basics, I’ve been doing it every day when I have a few free minutes. 10,000 hours will be a long time in the future, but the 5-10 hours I’ve put into practice have already made me a decent three-ball juggler.

And so it begins …: Jacob is doing what a lot of us aspire to and “retiring” early. Extremely early, hence the name of his blog. Jacob’s blog is thoughtful and doesn’t focus solely on any one aspect of his life. Although he takes a different approach than I would in many areas, I’ve found his blog thought-provoking, which is the best reason to read any blog.

Why Achieving an MBA is No Longer My Goal: What? Don’t let too many people hear this - someone else decided that going into debt for a degree he didn’t really want or need wasn’t worth it because his real-life experience in building a company was - gasp - more interesting and more profitable. My master’s degree in accounting is nothing more than a resume padder at this point - think that corporate income tax course I took in 1994 is worth anything now? The code’s changed so many times since then it’s ridiculous. I didn’t mind getting my master’s since I got a free ride (graduate scholarship and a teaching assistant stipend), but would I go $40,000+ into debt to get one now? No way. MBA’s aren’t worth what they were 20 years ago.

I Am Just A Blogger, Damn It!: Amen.

4 FREE Videos for INO TV!: If you have any interest in trading actively - which I wouldn’t for retirement savings or the bulk of my investment accounts, but do engage in with smaller amounts - here are some free technical videos.

photo credit: TheeErin (great photo! — Steve)

linklings, I like to move it move it edition

Ringtailed Lemurs in Berenty

If you don’t have kids and don’t know the Madagascar movies, you won’t get the reference. My daughter has been exposed to many more TV shows and movies (unfortunately) than my son was, simply because when he was younger he didn’t have an older sibling watching movies around him. Little Buddy loves Cars and Madagascar and the music that accompanies both - including the “I Like to Move It, Move It” song. Pumpkin just began to walk this weekend, haltingly, and three days later is careening about the house. She likes to move it, move it - she likes to wobble around in time to the music.

When you’ve been in the position we’ve been in for the last few months - struggling with finding a new place to live, new jobs or other sources of income, and assorted other stressful incidents - watching children toddle and dance gleefully is a gentle reminder that as long as you have your health most things are all right. There will be music, there will be sun, there will be laughter. My family is victim to the recession, deeply. We’ve been a zero-income family for four months now, and if it weren’t for our (relatively) frugal lifestyle, alternative income and large emergency fund we’d be suffering much more than we are - but we still have the future, and we can still have a few laughs dancing to music sung by a dancing lemur.

About the site:

I really want to ditch the current design of brip blap. If you’ve been reading since the beginning, you’ll know that I’ve gone through several redesigns. I am tired of the current layout. I am completely open to ANY suggestions about design. Too busy? Too white? Like/hate the layout? Any comments are appreciated…

Some links:

Ask the Readers: Is Your Home an Investment?: I don’t think so - your home is a place to live and hopefully, coincidentally an investment.

Self Employment Tax Lessons Learned: Ugh - another tax lesson I am learning too late, as well.

Exclusive Interview - CEO Reveals Thoughts on Executive Bonuses: Those fun-lovin’ CEOs - they deserve every buck they pull in.

Here’s Another Broke Multi-Millionaire: Another person we should feel sorry for… or not.

Save Money on Medicine: A few good tips on saving money on medicine, always worth considering.

Living In A Small Home: Pros and Cons of Downsizing Our House: You can downsize your house, or you can read…The Final Decision on Downsizing.

What Happens to Your Car Warranty if GM or Chrysler Goes Bankrupt: I haven’t been too worried about this since my Pontiac’s easing into “post-useful” stage anyway (and long, long since out of warranty), but it’s worth considering if you have a newer car.

April is National Financial Literacy Month: I forget, sometimes, that financial literacy isn’t something many people grow up with. I was lucky enough to have lessons about financial literacy early and often in my life, so it’s been something I never had to think about as something to learn.

fringe benefits of being employed: The socialization, however annoying at times, is worth a lot - Western society seems to lean on “work friendships” quite heavily these days. Since my college years, most (if not all) of my friendships have been acquired through work.

Do or do not, there is no try: Yoda on the scene, 900 year fiend smoking Dagobah green! (Yah, Empire beeyotches!)

photo credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com

linklings, other plans edition


Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. - John Lennon

If you can’t tell from what I’m writing, things are in a constant state of flux for me right now. I’m increasingly convinced that I’m going to have a very tough time finding employment in my current field, auditing, and I’m likewise convinced that I’m going to have a better (but much scarier) time of it parceling together a mixture of contract consulting, hourly consulting and completely-non-related-to-auditing work. “Real” jobs just don’t seem to be coming my way so far. In the meantime, I’m always a-twitterin‘ and worrying about a few other social sites. Not really productive, but as I mentioned this week, it seems to help more than sending off credentials to monster.com for the 76th time.

I’m planning to work on teaching again (if you’re late to the blog, I was a substitute teacher for years and a graduate assistant for a few years, so I do know teaching) but that won’t happen for at least 2 years from - almost exactly - today. That’s my own self-imposed timeline, but until I get back into teaching I am thinking of doing something completely different: financial planning, being a professional clown (seriously, I’m good with kids and I’m learning to make balloon animals and juggle) or something even weirder. Why not? I’m not convinced that my profession has much going for it - read re: The Auditors for a bit and you’ll see what I mean. I can’t really imagine working as an auditor (at least a full-time employee) at this point - it seems like it wouldn’t (a) make much money compared to the number of hours per week it would require and (b) let me live a sane life, which is more important than point (a).

On to the links…

Poll: Have You or Do Use Peer-to-Peer Lending Like Lending Club? and Lending Club Introduces Self-Directed IRA in Peer-to-Peer Lending: A couple of articles about one of my favorite P2P lending sites, Lending Club.

Leaving Full-Time Blogging and Changes That Come With It: One of my fellow probloggers gave it a rest and headed back to employee world. Can’t say I blame him, but I also can’t say I’d be thrilled going back to the 9-to-5 myself.

Tax Deductions for the Self Employed: A few tips for the self-employed… I still consider myself unemployed but I could put a positive spin on it and call myself self-employed, I guess.

All CEO’s are Crooks: What do you think? I don’t think CEOs are crooks - but the boards that determine CEO compensation are.

Hire Me! Will Work For Minimum Wage: From Wall Street To Pizza Delivery: Some clever tips on finding work in a workless economy.

The Purpose of Money: FT opines on the purpose of money. Here’s my take: money is an instrument to achieving comfort. How’s that for a brief definition?

Self Employed Health Insurance Options: I’ll tell you one thing: COBRA may be an option, but it requires huge excess funds. Mine is staggeringly expensive, and we’ll be switching to new insurance as soon as we move.

From Russia with Drive: A grim story of a Russian immigrant who achieved the American dream - an up-and-coming career at a premier Wall Street firm, Bear Stearns. And then: oops. It’s a heartbreaking story, because I see so much of what’s good about America being pumped through the system that is strangling America. People are dying to come here, and then when they break their backs to succeed - a crippled, corrupt system drags them down. It’s like The Firm, only real and without the kindly Hal Holbrook character.

The Big Takeover: This guy was writing for the local English-language rag when I lived in Moscow, and I’ve always liked his work. Read this and weep. America

More Giveaways — Announcing the FMF Newsletter and Reminder: Benefits are a Significant Portion of Your Pay: A new newsletter from FMF and a good reminder that benefits are nothing to be sneezed at - at least until we have some sort of health care in America that doesn’t involved signing over your kidney to get treated for a bladder problem.

photo credit: stoneflower

internet job boards - wasted effort?

loaded for bear


I have tried, over the years, to post my resume to job boards for both traditional jobs and contract positions. I’ve also tried to get hourly consulting work through various boards, too. I have landed jobs through the (now) unlikely source of monster.com, for example. In 2000 I got a job through monster.com. But can you find a job through a job board today?

I’ve tried a number of boards recently, for jobs, contract consulting and “pure” consulting. A short list:

  • monster.com
  • indeed.com
  • simplyhired.com
  • careerbuilder.com
  • sologig.com
  • usajobs.gov
  • theladders.com

That’s just a sampling. I left out a few, though, which have provided me with far better leads, more calls and more interviews:

  • linkedin.com
  • twitter.com
  • facebook.com

Those sites are “social media” sites and I’ve found that you’re far, far more likely to land a job via LinkedIn than via monster because of the quality of the connection. Someone who can refer you via LinkedIn can actually get your resume in front of an HR manager. Your reference won’t be a recruiter. Your contact will be an employee.

When I was in charge of hiring for my audit group a few years ago, I was given the OK to advertise for the position online, more as an experiment than anything. I set up a monster.com employer account and used a freshly-created Hotmail account to collect submitted resumes. After a few days of receiving a few resumes, I started to receive dozens. Then several dozens. Wading through the misplaced and poorly written resumes every morning became a tedious (and fruitless) project.

I can’t see how job board submissions can be effective when I recall myself; the harried professional trying to skim 36 resumes before beginning his “real” work that day. I have to suspect that most of the time, the person reading the resumes and cover letters submitted via job boards are skimmed for seconds, not minutes, and the effort of the applicant is wasted.

Social media, on the other hand, connects me quickly with people who are wiling to talk to me because someone they know (and presumably trust) said they knew me and liked my work. I think sites like LinkedIn will be increasingly important in the job search universe, and the idea that a massive searchable database with my inexpertly written resume buried in it will result in a job for me seems quaint.

The future of work will be connectivity - networking, in person and online - and not the traditional advertise-submit-review pattern. It’s another one of those culture shifts that’s happened slowly enough that we won’t notice it - but it will happen. Even obtaining contract and hourly work will be more complicated. But working within the system is a challenge, and probably always will be.

photo credit: striatic

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