I have no idea how crazy this is going to sound (esp. since I'm no economist), but I found this question posed by the Huffington Post extremely fascinating. What if the unemployed worked for the checks they're receiving?

Here's a quote from one of the guys interviewed - Glen Blackburn - who's been unemployed for 18 months:

"Put me to work digging ditches or helping build roads. Anything is preferable to sitting on my butt. This would give those of us on unemployment back our pride and actually accomplish something with the money being spent. There is a work force of a million people just sitting idle waiting for something to do. That is a massive amount of lost labor that could be fixing America's infrastructure. Instead of unemployment, hire me to do that."

That makes me smile on many levels :) First, because there are so many people EAGER and ready to get out there and do something productive. Not *everyone* of course (like the scammers and others who are taking their sweet time on purpose) but a lot really are ready to start working again. Everyone knows it's hell out there so why not give this out as an option? Give it your all and collect for a few months, and if nothing works out try out a job that helps the community?

I'd go insane being rejected all day long at home and would totally take up this offer myself. Put me out there doing construction or patching up all those potholes in DC. Or bet yet, throw me in with all the gov't bloggers and journalists, eh? ;) I guess that would be one of the things to straighten out - HOW, and where, to place people. Do you do it by occupation and location? Age? By the order of project importance? And what about training? Lots and lots of logistics to consider. Although it could quite possibly open up doors to so many NEW opportunities you didn't even know you could do or like!

But what I like most about this idea is that it offers a SOLUTION. It may be crazy and never see the light of day, but at least people are thinking about it. The craziest things can come out of adversity, and the more we challenge ourselves and really think about how we fit into this world the better. I salute you Glenn Blackburn and all the others willing to work for their unemployment checks - way to be creative!

Labels: career, crazy economy, in the real world

This is a guest article by Flexo from Consumerism Commentary. Flexo is currently on a ten-day, ten-venue tour.

Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality. It doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard, and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen.

Though I'm not generally a fan of "late night TV," I tuned in the other night and found myself watching Conan O'Brien's last stint on the Tonight Show. As he signed off, and before he picked up a guitar to perform Freebird with Will Ferrell and Max Weinberg, those were the heartfelt words he spoke as advice to the millions of people in his audience. It was a classy exit if there ever was one.

Perhaps his comments refer to Conan's publicized attempt to negotiate better severance benefits for his staff. NBC subsequently claimed, cynically, that Conan's "niceness" was more of a public relations stunt than genuine concern for the crew and talent, although Conan is supplementing his staff's severance with over one million dollars from his own severance deal.

Say what you want about Conan O'Brien's comedy act, whose biggest bits are a cigar-smoking dog-puppet and a masturbating bear, but his career momentum led him to helm the Tonight Show, the holy grail of television entertainment, with 700,000 fans of the "I'm With COCO" movement on Facebook. So it's worthwhile to listen to his advice.

Work really hard

There's no way of getting around this. Success at anything requires significant effort regardless of the goal. If you want to get out of debt, it's not going to happen if you keep your same spending habits and don't come up with ways to earn more money. If you want to own a prominent business, you're not going to get there with only two hours a few days a week. To achieve greatness in any field, you must have the dedication to make it happen by directing your energy and effort towards greatness relentlessly.

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get." Unfortunately, no one person can control everything about their own lives, so sometimes we have to deal with unexpected problems, like being fired from the biggest late night television program. But also, as someone works hard on the path to success, it's possible to discover something new, something that redirects us onto a new path. That change should be embraced, not feared.

Be kind

Books and seminars focusing on success often forget the power of using kindness to recruit people as fans and supporters to your cause. It's true that nobody cares about your success as much as you do, so you must start from the position that no one is going to help you achieve your dreams. There are two paths you can take once you start. The first option is to focus solely on yourself, be ruthless on your path to the top, and take every advantage given to you even if it is in the expense of others. After all, who knows when you might get another opportunity.

The second path is to be an advocate for other people, use your rising prominence or expertise to support their dreams, and spend some effort on external issues. Karma is real, whether it's some kind of universal force or just an observation of human behavior. Being kind and supportive increases the possibility that the world will be kind to you and supportive of you. And although no one else will help you succeed and the hard work won't go away, you'll find it's easier when the community's on your side.

Don't be cynical

Conan O'Brien has been forced out of his position as the King of Late Night Television Comedy, no longer sitting on the throne of the Tonight Show. Where does someone go once they've reached the pinnacle of their career? They can't go back to mediocrity -- the choices are generally retirement or death.

Is this where hard work and kindness will lead, being pushed out of the best job in entertainment in favor of a comedian whose most popular skit mocks the stupidity of random people on the street? As far as setbacks go, this is major. But in the face of any negative force, focus on what can be done to make the situation positive. This is not about media spin or convincing others what you want them to believe, it is an actual mindset.

Take Conan's advice now. Work really hard, be kind, and don't be cynical. Even if you don't have an ultimate goal of being the best in the world, this is a sound philosophy for making the most of your time on this planet, being a positive force in the world around you, and cultivating success for yourself.

Watch Conan's exit from the Tonight Show

For those who missed it, here is Conan O'Brien's final thoughts about NBC, his audience, and what it takes to succeed.

Labels: advice, career, guest post, life

Are you my friend? Family? Are we helping each other out with our finances? If not, you're probably pissing me off :) Unfortunately I can't even say that with a straight face because I'm naturally happy! Haha...

Seriously though, I'm all for open discussions on money, but you can't be a d-head and ask someone how much they make just because you feel like it.

That may sound weird coming from someone who posts up all their financial details for all to see, but I really feel there's a time and a place for stuff like this. The same goes for passwords & sex lives. Can you imagine if I just straight up ask you how many partners you've had? I'd be a total ass. You know what, that's how I should respond the next time someone butts in and asks me how much I make - "You wanna know my salary? Okay sure - but first tell me how many sluts you've slept with!" That would probably shut 'em up for a bit ;)

As far as I'm concerned, both parties have to trust each other before dishing out the goods. Just like with sex, there are appropriate and inappropriate times to talk turkey. (On a side note, you're always more than welcome to ask me anything! The beauty of being anonymous is that I can give you my opinion 100% without worrying about who's reading. I might not know the answer, but I'll always do my best to point you in the right direction either way.) So what are these "appropriate" and "inappropriate" times to ask about salaries? Well, keep on reading my friends...and keep in mind that these are MY own preferences, they may differ depending on who you ask:

Appropriate times to ask about my salary:

• We're in Human Resources. If you're my boss, VP, CEO, or any member of Human Resources, I'll gladly provide my salary to you (although you probably already know it, eh?)
• We're in a job interview. Ask away! You have the right to know so you can pay me more ;)
• You're my financial adviser/accountant. Obviously this is okay. If not, you'd probably be hiding something! haha...
  
• We've been talking about finances & helping each other out. And we're friends! That second part is key. I have nooooo problems at all talking openly with friends & family about salaries. Every now and then people ask for my opinion or what I wold do in a certain situation, so in this case sharing my financial background or salary may be important keys to the conversation. In this case, I'd happily give out the details.
• We're on this blog. Again, it's always cool here. It may not be on others' blogs - especially those who aren't as anonymous, but here it's a wide open door baby!
• I asked for yours first ;) This rarely happens outside of the above situation, but when it does I fully expect to be asked the same or to just give it out first to make both parties comfortable. The only time I can remember really doing this was when I was looking to join a friend's company and needed to know what I was dealing with before heading into an interview. There may be other times too when I was more naive, but regardless if I'm not willing to share my own salary with you, I'll never ask for yours in return.

I think that covers most of the times I'm cool with it. I'm sure others don't mind at all sharing a bit more freely, but again these are just my own opinions. If you're cool with dishing it out, more power to ya! Just keep in mind that not all of us are so you don't step on many of our toes.

Inappropriate times to ask about my salary:

• When we're not even talking about finances. Why would I tell you how much I make when we were talking about The Redskins killing me? What does it possibly have to do with them?
• When I don't now you. The worst is when someone gets all up in your face with 101 questions about what you make when you wouldn't even tell them your apartment number. People are crazy sometimes. I was once asked how much my paycheck came out to THREE whole minutes after meeting them! WTF? Come on now, that's just crazy.
  
• When we work together. Bosses/HR aside, I know what happens when the guy sitting next to you knows you make more than them (or less for that matter). Everything gets weird and emotions start piling up when the only thing that's changes was a number you told them. No sirree, been there done that. Try out GlassDoor.com if you have to, maybe you'll get lucky?
• When we're on the metro/train/plane/anywhere else with hundreds of people around. I might be cool with telling you, but not with all those eyeballs staring at us. I'm pretty shy about that, so please don't force it.

These blunt & direct people actually remind me of those telemarketers who try to get receptionists to xfer them directly over to the CEO. They get so over the top that it stuns you and you give in before you even realize what's hit ya! haha....I was pummeled with these last week when I was answering the phones for a bit ;) Sneaky sneaky!

When all is said and done, I feel there's a right and a wrong way to ask about how much someone makes. Sometimes they'll give it to you, and others they won't. Just please, whatever you do, respect their decision either way. There's no praise in bullying someone out of their lunch money.

Labels: about j., career, paychecks

Because I have to be honest, I'd totally be cool if the Mrs. made more than me. In fact, I might even prefer it! That would mean a lot more money coming in (esp since she's a grad student right now, haha...) but even more so it would mean her career would be movin' and shakin'. And if we had two people bringing $75k+? I couldn't even imagine what that would do to our finances.

I'll even take it one step further, cuz I'm crazy like that - When it's time to have those babies, I'd even stay at home if she wanted me to! I know it's a lot more work than I could ever imagine, but the idea of blogging full-time and working on all my side projects would be killer. As long as I had the freedom to get outside and mingle with other humans and all I think I could manage it. Plus, don't stay-at-home moms take their kids out to parks and shopping malls and stuff like that anyways? Maybe I could form some "Daddy Daycare" where we take turns watching the brood while playing poker or something ;)

But dream life aside, I really don't see the problem here. Would we suck as men if we can't bring more home than the woman? Does it mean we're not worthy of a happy life? I know it's in our genes to be super competitive and all (as with a lot of chicks I know), but if you're in a truly loving relationship I'd imagine you'd want what's best for the family regardless. Or at least I'd hope. I don't have any experience to back it up myself, but I'm fairly certain the future me would agree.

All in all, I think it's awesome that women are earning more these days. It might hurt a few frail egos at first, but people will learn to get over it. It's when your household is bringing in substantially LESS when you have to worry! So congratulate your girl if she's rockin' it out - she's making your family that much stronger.

Labels: career, life, men vs women, personal finance

Guest Post by Brian Scheur

A couple of weeks ago J. Money did one of his "Would You Rather?" posts where he asked individuals what choice they'd prefer in a given situation.That specific post focused on the choice between an extra hour every day or an extra $100 a week? Most people that commented said they would prefer the extra money (including myself).

Now, let's twist the sitch a bit. One local organization has tried to weather the dragging economy by cutting all of its employees salaries and benefits by 10%. Now this would suck. In fact, it does suck. But they feel that it's not in their best interest to totally stick it to their employees. They are also changing their operating hours by extending each day from 9:00a to 5:00p to 8:30a to 5:30p, however they are giving every employee EVERY FRIDAY OFF! (J: I would take it in a heartbeat)

Now, I know the workweek is going from 40 hours to 36 hours (which would equal the 10% deduction in compensation), but I think this is frickin' awesome! I have a friend that works for this organization and she is terrified of the 10% decrease in her salary. I don't necessarily blame her, but what would you do if you had a three day weekend EVERY weekend? I feel like I could be productive on that extra day, work an extra job, take long weekend vacations, etc.

Technically, its only 4 hours less a week, but I refuse to look at it that way. It's a whole EXTRA day! The way my mind views it, the company is asking individuals to work 20% less days and only paying them 10% less. Score! Cha-Ching! Booyah! Is this company hiring?

Now I want to know your thoughts? This isn't some hypothetical situation as a friend of mine is going through this. Should she be focused on finding a new job with equal compensation or be focused on making the most of her upcoming three day weekends? I say the latter, but try and put yourself in her shoes. Less money and more time, or more money and less time? What do you think?

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Brian blogs over at My Next Buck and is a mighty fine human being. If you like his style, consider signing up to his feed.

Labels: career, would you rather

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently said that the recession is very likely over. I'm not sure I believe it all the way (do you guys?), but I'd be lying if it doesn't sound hot. It's been a wild & crazy past 18 months, and it's nice to hear that our world isn't going to hell in a hand basket for once.

I swear, if the media stopped portraying all this gloom and doom we'd be much better off. Everyone knows that humans are emotional - you say one wrong thing and CRASH! There goes the market. But I guess the opposite would also hold true. After all, here I am helping spread the 4-5 word phrase Bernanke just spoke of ;) At least it's a positive influence though.

Regardless, I've learned a lot over this whole ordeal and I'm sure I'll learn even more. I really like that about life - $hit can be flying all over the place, yet you can usually take away some new lesson or preventative measure to help you down the road. The bigger the problems, the bigger the learning curve too! (at least that's how I see it)

5 Things the recession has taught me so far:

1. It IS actually possible to spend less! All I have to do is NOT go into Target, TJ Maxx, Best Buy or the mall ;) That, and PAY ATTENTION TO MY FINANCES!
   
2. No job is ever safe. I've learned that you can't stay at one company forever, so always keeping your eyes open and active keeps me sane and away from an unexpected surprise one day.
3. Nature is one of the best gifts to us. And it's free! Since I'm not shopping as much, I'm now going on more and more walks. I totally forgot what fresh air felt like.
4. Networking is M-A-G-I-C. It really is a matter of who you know these days, so keeping in touch with old friends and colleagues is something that will def. pay off in the long run - esp. if they're in your same field. My favorite way to stay in touch is over beers and 1/2 priced appetizers at happy hours! Something a few of us bloggers did last night actually.
5. Everyone wants to master their finances! This might be one of my favorite things right now. You're hearing personal finance spout all over the place and all of a sudden learning about money is "cool!" You & I have ALWAYS known this of course, but at least the others are catching on ;)

So whether the recession is over or not, do me a favor and remind yourselves of all the positive stuff going on in your lives these days. We can't control the economy, but we sure can change the way we're living! Here's to a happy (and hopeful) recovery my friends.

Labels: career, crazy economy, life, one of my lists

I had an interesting encounter with a Starbucks barista this morning. I'm riding the metro doing my aloof thing when all of a sudden I hear this "Hey! Grande hazelnut coffee, right?". At first I was like "Awesome, someone else is a fan!" and went back to la-la land (aka playing Yahtzee on the iPhone. haha...) Then I realized the chick was staring directly at me!

It turns out she used to be one the baristas that hooked me up back near our old office. And since she's always been pretty friendly, I figured I'd tell her about my dreams of working there one day :) For all who don't know, I have this list of 5 places I'd like to work at someday, although I'm not sure I blogged about that before?

Anyways, I started picking her brain about what it's like to work there in hopes of getting the "inside scoop." I can't remember the entire convo (even after just 15 mins! aye..), but here's more or less what she told me below. And probably tweaked more to the pros considering she REALLY loves her job:

Working at Starbucks: The Pros

• You meet a lot of cool people! You're surrounded by energetic and entertaining co-workers, as well as mostly fun customers. People love their coffee and are generally in a good mood when they get to you - especially in the mornings before any craziness occurs that day.
• Starbucks has great health benefits. I didn't have enough time to ask specifics, but she said it was really good and she has no complaints.
• You can relocate without a problem! Want to move to California? Easy peasy! How about Texas? Fine by them! You've got Starbucks scattered across the entire world that are always looking to fill a position or two. In fact, this particular barista told me she's now at her 3rd state in 4 years @ Starbucks so far :) Although she did say that moving overseas isn't *as* easy as xfering in the States, but she's heard it's doable as they'd rather higher someone who already knows the ins and the outs over a noob. Either way, this is a job perk I could get used to.
• Job security is pretty good. Unless you do something stupid, you can spend quite a few years with Starbucks. Since there ARE so many shops around the world, you really don'teven have to worry about your particular shop being closed down - you just move right down to the next one or two. And in DC, it's like literally moving a block ;) A friend of mine has FOUR fo them within a 5 block radius. It's crazy. (crazy good!)
• There are stock benefits. Unfortunately my new friend doesn't participate in this program (and believe me I REALLY wanted to shake her good), but she did say most of her co-workers do. One of them recently cashed out all his stocks and used the money for a down payment on a house! I again didn't have too much time to pick her brain on it, but it definitely piqued my interest. I also wonder how long her friend worked at Starbucks, and how much, exactly, he invested in this plan.
• There is/was a great 401k plan. We didn't actually talk about this today, but I've heard that Starbucks has a great one - or at least used to before this economy went to crap. If any of you know what it's like, or works there, drop a note and let us know!
• Time goes by really fast - at least during rush hours. When you're helping one customer after another, time flies like a mother.

Working at Starbucks: The Cons

• A small % of the customers are dicks. They see you as low lifes working a job that pays pennies, and they treat you like you're their bitch. Most of the customers are pretty cool, but these are the people that ruin your day and make you wish you weren't doing what you do. Sometimes, however, it's satisfying to watch them get thrown out if they start getting abusive (all according to this chick, anyways). It's alot like retail in that regard, except at Starbucks they bitch about something that costs $4 instead of $40.
• You have to clean a lot. She doesn't hate this all the way as it keeps her busy and has to get done anyways, but it's not the funnest thing to do in the world. Apparently this is what goes on between the morning and afternoon rushes.

That's about all of it. I wish I had more time to pick her brain, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see what's it's like when I actually work there one day ;) Pretty interesting how much you can learn from a quick 7 minute metro ride though! Especially when it catches you off guard like that. Who knew I'd be pondering the ins and the outs of Starbucks all morning?

Labels: career, in the real world, starbucks

This is part 2 of 2 in the confessions of an online poker player series by a friend of mine who goes by the name of "NNNobodYYY" in the online poker world. Enjoy!

The life of a poker player can range from really boring to really exciting, depending on what you make of it. For me, when it gets too exciting (volatile), I make it more boring with changes to my playing system. When it gets too boring, you can make it more exciting, but if you want to succeed you have to be persistent and put in the hours at the table.

For the last week, my life has shifted from a very monotonous, grind it out poker system to one of the most exciting weeks in my poker career. This happens every time a championship series rolls around, but I usually end up miserable and full of regret. This Sunday I won the FTOPS VIII Heads Up Holdem Event for $72,000. That is more than I earned all year grinding it out! It makes the most sense that I'd win that event, rather than any other in the 27 Event online poker championship series, because I am a Heads Up ( 1 on 1 Poker) specialist.

Heads Up Freeze Outs

On a standard day, I play heads up freeze out (freeze out is a poker term for a game that is played until one player has all the chips and the other player(s) are eliminated) matches, $100-$200 per match and I play 30-50 matches each day. It is a very simple system; if you play for $100 a match the winner wins $100 from their opponent. If you can manage to win 60% of your matches, that's $1000 a day in a 50 match day, minus the $250 that will go to the poker site in rake, which would total to $750/day.

It's not nearly as easy as it sounds. Heads up poker requires complete focus to maintain optimum play so it is almost impossible to play more than 20 games in a row and maintain the discipline and focus to play your absolute best. You cannot play as many tables at once and it is much more mentally draining. The reason I chose this system is because I struggle with the swings, this system mitigates swings because it has the lowest standard deviation for returns. You could do the same thing playing 9 person sit and go tournaments, but the swings would increase because you aren't going to win as often against 8 other opponents as against 1 opponent, but when you win, you will obviously win a lot more. I feel it is necessary to split up daily sessions with hour or longer breaks between every ten games. During the prime hours 10PM-2AM, I will play 20 consecutive matches.

My Work Day

My work day is pretty flexible, but I do have some rules. It's not necessary to play during the day, but I try to play a couple hours during it just to get a ten game session out of the way - generally between 2PM and 6PM. It's not a great time to play, but it's not bad either. I wouldn't recommend playing before 2PM. The best time to play is between 10PM and 2AM (I think 6PM to 10PM is fine too, but that's usually my time off). I force myself to play these hours almost every night, sometimes starting at 11.

I used to treat the weekends like anyone else and took a break from playing poker, but since I bought my house a month ago I've been playing both Friday and Saturday Nights. This experiment in a really crappy life (in order to rebuild my reserves after the big down payment) has made me realize how necessary it actually IS to play on Friday nights. Friday nights are the most profitable because you have a lot of bad amateur players coming home from the bars (*cough * cough* J. Money). But for some reason Saturday nights are NOT as good, and I'm not really sure why.

During Championship Series

During Championship Series I change my whole schedule around to a much more brutal workload. I tend to work 12-16 hour days playing satellites into major events, winning a lot of event entries and never doing much in them. A satellite is a smaller buy-in tournament that awards a certain number of seats into a major event. Satellite poker is played slightly different because you're trying to survive 'till 20 or whatever number of players are left, rather than trying to win the entire tournament. Satellites are easy to win and a good way of playing the major events without having to front $200-$1000 entry fees (but they do require a lot of time). The actual events are much more difficult because they have massive fields that pay out about 10% of the field, and the payouts are very top-heavy so you have to be making final tables to be profitable playing tournament poker.

Even in the Heads Up event, which is my expertise, winning is still close to impossible. You have to win 10 consecutive matches to win the tournament, 3 to make the money, which is more reasonable. All I can say is Sunday was my day, and things HAVE TO go your way to win a tournament. I think to the 6pm event where I got eliminated ALL IN on with 1 card coming with AA on a 7 high 3 club board, holding the ace of clubs vs a guy holding two tens without a club. He had one out in the entire deck and it came, a 44-1 shot.

That is tournament poker and that is why it is generally miserable. Now I figure, normally I win that hand double through with 2000 players remaining, maybe make the money, but likely something else happens long before the final 100 players, and I'm eliminated. I guess you never know, though. I was only all-in as a statistical underdog once in my ten matches and it was the second match. I pushed in with Q8 on a 976 board on a semi bluff, was insta-called by J9 and hit running diamonds to double through. If I didn't get lucky there, the following 8 matches wouldn't have occurred and I wouldn't have won that $72,000. In fact, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Since I did win the event, though, I had to press on and fight for the top slot on the tournament leaderboard. Just one significant win in another event could have been enough to score it, which would then have given me free entries into all of the FTOPS IV events, not to mention serious prestige. I know better than to play the hold'em events with massive fields and bad structure - those are not my events and I generally do poorly in them. I came super close in a $300 shootout event (each 9 person table is played down to 1 winner and then those winners get reseated and have to win another table) on Tuesday, losing heads up with a chip lead to a bad player.

Then I lost a $530 Horse event on terrible luck - Horse is a fixed limit event, I've had a lot of success with it in the past, but if you can't win any hands you don't have a chance. Today, I ran my chipstack (not to be confused with chapstick) up to $20,000 in a Pot Limit Omaha event, before taking a few bad beats and losing on a foolish play.

Tomorrow is the end of the road for me, with the Pot Limit Omaha heads up event. It's heads up which is good, but I actually don't think Omaha is a game that fits well with Heads up tournament style freeze outs. Pot limit Omaha is a drawing and money odds math game, so most freeze-outs end on essential coin flips between made hands and great drawing hands, unless you're lucky enough to play someone horrible :)

Moment of Clarity

Over the past week, every waking hour was in front of my computer playing poker. I ordered 2 large pizzas from Papa John's on Sunday and been eating leftovers, since. Naturally, I got sick from such an unhealthy lifestyle. I had the same problems when I'd go to Vegas and Atlantic City for major events too - eating unhealthy foods and buffets all the time, being up all hours of the night.

I finally had a moment of clarity and introspection to write this after 5 days of nonstop play. The life of a poker player is always going to be more stressful than pretty much any other job, but you can choose how stressful you make it. My day to day life is pretty normal (compared to other poker players) and requires about 5-6 hours of work a day for a steady solid income. I choose to bump up my days during major events for a shot at a big win and when you get it, it feels great.

In the end, I am happy with my big win, a little disappointed I couldn't do better in the other events, and very much looking forward to taking a week off and things going back to normal.

I hope everyone enjoyed the read,
- NNNobodYYY

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This Series in the news:
- MSN Smart Spending: Secrets of an online poker player
- 2+2 Poker Forums: Confessions of an online poker player

(Part 1, in case you missed it: Confessions of an online poker player)

Labels: awesomely awesome, career, guest post

Guest post by Nicole Ouellette

Having your own business isn't all rainbows and unicorns but I personally wouldn't have it any other way.

When I quit my full-time job with health insurance a few weeks ago, more than one person thought I was insane. Of course they never actually said that: "Wow, you're gutsy! I'll give you that!" - "How is un ... I mean self - employment going?" - "Your father is probably rolling over in his grave..." (To be fair, Mom followed up that comment with lots of support. Still I know she's right; my father would've never approved of this.)

Then there are the people who think I sit around all day eating bonbons and flitting around my apartment in a bathrobe. Man, if someone would pay me to do that, that would rock! (Aside: It's hard to flit in 220 square feet of space shared with a dog.)

I'm here to tell you the truth, friends. The truth of quitting your job and going it alone.

1. Plan like hell.

No matter what, you still will not have planned enough but plan as much as you can. Who are your clients? How much do you have to charge to pay your life? In my case, not every hour I spend is billable so I planned 15 to 20 billable hours a week when I calculated my prices. Make a business plan (which you will probably hate doing), but in the end, it may save your butt.

2. Have some money to back it up.

I have been saving money and living frugally for almost 2 years. In addition, my father died and left me some money, which gives me more of a cushion than the average 28-year-old has the luxury of having. (For the record, I would give up this entire business in about 1 millisecond to have him alive again. (J: of course, that is so sad!))

So start saving now and with your business plan and nest egg, you can probably get yourself a small business loan, whether it be from people you know or a bank. I'm getting my stuff ready in case I want to do this at the end of the summer.

Also be prepared to transition, moneywise if need be. Right now, I'm working a part time job this summer to keep paying my rent and food as I ramp up my full time workload. My savings are only to be used if completely utterly necessary.

3. I won't lie, it does rock in a lot of ways.

On a roll at 5 o'clock? Sometimes I work until 11 at night. Lunch with a friend? It can happen. A flexible schedule is fantastic and something I've always wanted.

4. But I've never been so worried in my life.

I am a super laid back lady (to the point of almost being annoying) but lately, I've been having nightmares, worrying, and crying way more than normal. Doing this is scary because there is no guarantees that it's going to work. And while I will try not to take failure personally, I'm sure I will on some level if it comes down to that.

5. Oh and I'm totally operating in the negative.

I did some math last week and freaked out. I know there is bound to be some ebbs and flows in the business but I guess naively, I thought I'd be different. Good news is those two years I lived below the federal poverty line awhile back may have been some good training for me for the months to come.

6. If you don't believe in it, no one else will.

Is it hard to get up every morning and be ready to sell sell sell? Is it weird to do something my now-dead father (whom I held in very high esteem) would completely hate? It sure is. But I will tell you that the only person who needs to believe it in their heart of hearts is you. If you can believe it, it will translate. (You know, unless you have mental delusions or something.)

So before you quit your job, really dig down deep and ask yourself "Can I really do this?" The answer may be more obvious than you think. It's you who will have to work 12 hours a day or make personal sacrifices to free up business cash. No one is going to hold your hand or make you get up at 7 every morning. It's all you, for better or for worse.

Know thyself. Know thy customer. And know that no matter what, you can reinvent yourself whenever you want with a little planning and a lot of hard work.

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Nicole has been a personal finance blogger since 2007, and helping bloggers and business owners since 2008. She recently quit her newspaper job in May to take her company Breaking Even Communications full time. Nicole would love it if you read her blog Breaking Even and love it even more if you subscribed to it via RSS or email.

Labels: advice, career, guest post, in the real world

This is a guest post from an Anonymous Professional Poker Player (sexy!). Update: Part 2 is now live.

There is an old saying, "Poker is the hardest way to make an easy living." After playing full-time poker for 4 years, I can't think of a better statement to describe it. There are obvious benefits to poker: You set your own schedule, you work when you want to work, and your performance is relatively proportional to your income. If you play on the internet, you can work from practically anywhere. Unfortunately, every one of these have a catch.

You can set your own schedule, but over time you'll realize certain times of day are much more profitable than others. Playing from 10PM to 5am on Friday nights, and 12AM to 5AM on Saturday nights is as profitable as playing 8 hours a day Mon-Thursday. If you want to be successful as a poker player you can set your own schedule, but the hours you want to play won't necessarily be the hours you want to work.

Poker is difficult, psychologically.

In the long-run when you play well and put in your hours, you will make more money. The actual income that comes out of poker comes in violent swings, though. There are many different systems you can play to try to maximize your return. Note: it is important to devise a system, you cannot play professionally and wander from game to game at various limits-IT DOESN'T WORK. I try to play a system that minimizes swings, but I will get into my own play in my next post (J: this will feature a "day in the life of a poker player" - stay tuned!).

The most miserable feeling in the world is to put in an 8 to 10 hour day working as hard as you possibly can, and then have a week's worth of salary taken away from you. This makes it hard to relate poker to the real world. At the same time, it is necessary to make this connection on other levels. Anyone who chooses to play professionally will experience $1000+ daily swings, even if you are more of a grinder trying to make $50,000-$100,000 a year. $100 is nothing at the poker table, but when you return to the real world, $100 should be the same to you as anyone else making $50,000-$100,000 annual income. This is hard to relate after a $5,000 up day or even a $5,000 down day because what's $100 more?

Cash Game players

Online, you can be a cash game player, a sit and go tournament player (SNG player), or a multi-table tournament player (MTT player). I think playing cash games is the best way to make a living as a poker player. Although it's psychologically tougher than playing tournament style freeze-outs, you can always find a cash game running and it is easy to slowly move up in limits.

Sit and Go players (SNG)

SNG players will eventually find that there isn't a lot of action at the higher limits, and you can find yourself waiting and competing with other pros for a limited amount of bad players to show up. Often times SNG pros will make the move to cash games after a few years - this is not a bad career path. The toughest thing about being a no limit cash game player is the reality that you can always lose your entire days work in 1 hand. Your money is on the table and you cannot be afraid to put it in. SNG players don't have this issue because all you can lose at one time is the initial "buy in" for the tournament.

Multi-Table Tournament players (MTT)

The most popular and most fun system is playing multi-table tournaments (MTT), but there is a lot you need to know before embarking on such a life. My first 6 months as a poker player I was a multi-table tournament player. The big draw of MTTs is the chance to win $10,000 - $1,000,000+ in one tournament. There is also prestige surrounding the MTT world. The online poker community tracks tournament players closely (there are tournament leader boards on poker sites themselves, and tournament player rankings on poker blog sites). You can get sponsorships for major events like the World Series of Poker just from making a name for yourself as a top online tournament player! A cash game player who is twice as successful could go completely unnoticed.

The biggest difference between a MTT player and a cash game or SNG player is that while the cash game player is steadily making money, sometimes with down days and down weeks (or even down months), the multi-table tournament player is steadily losing money with huge spikes at random times. A multi-table tourney player is likely to make more than his average annual income in one tournament at some point. You never know when it will come, though. If you look at the graphs of top MTT players, they make all their annual income over the course of a handful of tournaments, an amount that makes for less than 0.5% of the total tournaments that they play.

You can go months, slowly losing money as an MTT player and be playing flawless poker. This can affect your sanity: when poker becomes your sole source of income and you go months without making any income, you start to question if you can succeed. This is the nature of tournament poker, they have massive fields and you are not going to make any real money if you aren't finishing in the top 3 (very rare for any player). The biggest problem I had as a MTT player was the schedule. All the tournaments overlapped, so the day was very long. MTT poker takes less focus on an individual table than any other form, so you want to be playing a bare minimum of 6 tournaments at once. Really, with an ideal dual monitor setup, you should keep joining tournaments with optimal structure and maintain 12 tables at a time. This sounds difficult, but MTT poker is actually less stressful and more fun because you never lose a lot at once and you come in expecting to lose so all the big swings are upswings.

The problem is 6 hour days turn into 14 hour or even 20 hour days, without breaks for meals or even using the bathroom, without taking a laptop with you. MTTs take a minimum of 4 hours to get to the end, if you end up lasting that long, but it is foolish to only sit 1 table at a time so you never hit the end of your day until you make the decision to stop joining more tournaments. Cash game players can sit out whenever they want and not lose out as a result; this allows for a better lifestyle. I try to exercise every day and eat healthy meals., but as a MTT player this is almost impossible. You'd have to pre-make your meals and get everything done before you start playing each day because you just never know when you'll finish.

Most everyone who decides to play poker full-time has ambitions of winning a World Series Bracelet and making a million dollars. I, myself, normally go to Vegas in June-July for the WSOP events. I bring about $10,000 and lose it every year, then go back home and get to work online again; even with my lack of success I enjoy the vacation and the break from monotonous online play.

Poker can become a grind.

This year I skipped the WSOP and bought a house. The grind becomes so boring after a while, that it's easy to forget why I am even doing it. Moving up in limits, shots at the Series or World Poker Tour events--that is the fun part of the job. The chance of winning big is the fun of poker; otherwise it becomes the same grind of any other job, without the guaranteed income and health insurance. Not all poker players feel this way. I know a live cash game pro who never has any desire to take a shot at anything and only moves up in limits when it is mathematically sensible. This type of mentality is built to succeed as a poker player, but usually the type of person with that kind of mindset is not the person who aspires to play poker in the first place.

I also know people that are taking so many shots with their money, they waste all their income trying to get on TV or win the big tournament and sometimes they do win it, but then they put all that money on the line again, going for the even bigger shot. That type of mindset will kill you.

Poker gives you freedom

What you get as a poker player is total freedom. Freedom to gamble, to take your shots, to work from anywhere, and to not work when you don't feel like working. If you don't have discipline though, you'll fail - plain and simple. You also need to recognize when you're tired at the table, when your mind isn't focused right and get up and quit, even if you don't want to. You can't show up to work tired and hung over and half-ass it in poker, it will cost you.

Poker can be very rewarding, but if you are thinking of playing professionally you have to know it is a job, it has to be taken seriously, and it will stop being fun (J: perhaps like blogging full-time?). My favorite part of the job is waking up when I naturally wake up in the morning (afternoon), having no commute, and not having to answer to anyone else.

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J: I know this was pretty long, but I hope you enjoyed it! As a guy, the thought of playing poker full-time is incredibly fascinating (and is one of my top 5 dream jobs!). Stay tuned for part 2 when we learn the "day in the life of" a professional poker player. That's when we'll *really* see what it's like!

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This Series in the news:
- MSN Smart Spending: Secrets of an online poker player
- 2+2 Poker Forums: Confessions of an online poker player

Labels: career, guest post, in the real world

Wow it's been a long time since I've done a "would you rather". I feel like we need one of these to get our brains in think-mode today. After all, it's Feisty Friday! So here's the question - give it some thought and drop a line w/ your answer. You never know when it just might come true ;)

"Would you rather be rich with a crap job, or poor with a job you love?"

I'll admit it's not the most creative question ever asked, but it's something we talk about whether we realize it or not. Remember all those times we bitch & complain about our jobs? If we're not doing it for the money, then why? ;) (on a side note I actually DO happen to love my job, but not after sorting through the other dirt holes first) In interest of this question though, I feel like I'd choose rich over poor. You can do a lot of good w/ money both for yourself AND others. As long as the job didn't suck up all my time, I'm pretty sure I could deal with it in order to grab the benefits. Although, if I really hated it that much I guess it would mean that it DID take up my time, eh?

On the other hand, spending your valuable time @ a place that makes you happy can go a loooong way! Easier to wake up to, get back from vacation to, and just overall a better quality of life. Minus the money part, of course. But that alone is enough to drive a man crazy. As I mentioned, I couldn't ask for a better job right now, but if the pay was a half or a third of what I currently make there's no WAY I could live the lifestyle I do - and that's saying something considering I live pretty low key as it is.

None of these questions ever have correct answers, but it's still interesting to think about. I'm a huge "what if" kinda guy, for better or for worse (usually for worse if you ask any of my previous gf's). But if you find yourself leaning towards the "poor with an incredible job" side of things, ask yourself this: what's stopping you? If money isn't as important deep down, why not get out there and start looking for it? It's worth a few minutes of your time considering it at the very least.

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Check out some others:
- Would you...politically & publicly sell out for $10,000?
- Would you rather... Be ugly & rich, or hot with less?
- Would you...take a 10% pay cut if it saved co-worker?

Labels: career, would you rather

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This is a guest post from video blogger Vik Tantry. He runs the personal finance site Kanjoh.com, and has some pretty wicked videos uploaded there - I highly recommend checking them out. A fun (and different) way to learn!
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It is fascinating how our tastes change. Back in college, I used to happily eat cereal and Ramen Noodles three meals a day. Once I graduated, I was actually able to afford real meals at fancy restaurants. I was earning more, and my spending had increased substantially. This is lifestyle inflation: when your spending starts to catch up with your income.

Lifestyle inflation is dangerous because it can decimate our savings, and it is encouraged by our consumer-driven society. Saving isn't sexy, but it is always exciting to buy the next fancy gadget. When our income goes up, it is very easy to spend it all quickly on things that "we've wanted for a long time but never could afford." Lifestyle inflation often creeps into our lives slowly and steadily. We start eating out a little more, and spending more on clothes. We take fancier vacations and buy more expensive cars and furniture. Before you know it, our increase in income isn't covering our increased costs!

After a few months of working, I realized that I was not saving nearly as much as I would have liked. I also realized that my "improved lifestyle" did not make me substantially happier than when I was in college. I tallied up my expenses and identified several areas of spending that I could do without. I realized that I didn't need to buy new clothes and shoes so often, and I could go out to dinner a little less. After all, I didn't need these things back in college, so why would I need them now?

When faced with lifestyle inflation, take a few days to adjust. Consider your increase in income first and foremost as an opportunity to save more. Then, take a few hours to sit down and prioritize. Make a list of things you've wanted and figure out which ones really mean the most to you. Once you have defined your priorities, stick to them. This way, you can save and invest while still spending money on the things that are truly important.

Controlling lifestyle inflation is more about having the right values than anything else. However, its important to not take it to the other extreme. A balanced approach to saving and spending will maximize both your happiness and your financial stability.

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Editor's Note: One of the best ways to avoid falling in this trap is to up your 401(k) or savings whenever you get a raise or promotion! Getting in this habit will not only help you save more over time, but you'll never miss any of it because you'll never see it ;)

Labels: career, guest post, inflation, life, money management

This is a guest post from my dear brother. Many of you expressed a great interest in his return after his earlier post - debt is like kissing your sister - so hopefully you'll find this one just as witty!

In fact, do any of you remember one of my earliest posts about how he borrowed money from me and actually paid me back months ahead of time? It's truly wonderful how his financial management skills have improved over the years - I'm so proud! *tear* So here it is, my bro's 2nd post: And just so you know, I didn't pay him to say such loving things about me ;)

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I am immensely proud of my brother. You know how Frank Stallone feels about Sylvester? How Casey Affleck feels about big bro Ben? Multiply that by a million, and that's how I feel about J. Money. If J was a sports star, I'd collect all of his cards, wear his jersey, attend his games with an obnoxious foam finger and have a kick-ass Fat Boy of him on my bedroom wall. Oh, yeah.

This abundance of pride stems from a couple of things. Aside from the fact that he's the only male left in the family with a full head of hair, J's found a real niche with this budget blog. He's building a community and planting a flag in the soil of cyberspace. What's more, he's tending to this project the same way an illegal alien tends to a rose garden - with precision, affection and ignorance of random pricks. J has found what fuels his passion, and he's pouring his heart into it. And you know what? It's paying dividends in the form of jolly readers, innovative ideas and a forum of financially savvy folk ... which brings me to my point.

When you invest your time, energy and resources into something you truly love, it no longer becomes work. It becomes a love affair with possibility fueled by endless opportunities. Don't we all want to find something we love doing and have it push us toward greatness? Sure, we work to make money, and money is important (after all, what else is going to fuel that Slurpee addiction of yours?). All I'm saying is it's important to not lose sight of what should really drive us, and that's happiness. And if you can get by doing something you love, you're all the better for it.

A long time ago, I read a quote about money that really stuck with me. It said something along these lines: Don't worry about money because you'll get it when you least expect it, and you'll lose it when you least expect it. I couldn't agree more with that statement. Worrying about money is like a rocking chair; it'll keep you busy, but it won't take you anywhere. The entire purpose of life is to be happy, right? To fill your daily grind with gumdrops and puppy dogs? So do it. Today. Because when you do something you love, you'll find it provides you with the means to live a full, fun and profitable life.

I'll leave you with this really cool approach to life I learned awhile back: We all have 24 hours in a day. Typically, we spend eight hours sleeping, eight hours working and eight hours _____. What do YOU do with those final eight hours? Think about it. I hope your answer puts a smile on that baby face of yours!

Labels: advice, career, guest post, life

I was recently asked this by a dear blogger friend of mine, Wide Open Wallet, and realized that it was a helluva good question! And one w/ a helluva lot of good answers as well ;) Every job is different, but many of the principles behind great places are similar.

When it comes down to it, you have to value your people. The more we feel valued, the more passionate we become about our job and the more successful we get. I'm not saying we have to be pat on the back every other day, but we do have to feel a part of the "bigger picture".

Here's a list of all my favorite qualities & perks in a job, in no particular order. Not every place is going to have the same size or culture to pull some of these off, but even allowing 50% of them would greatly increase productivity (and overall employee happiness!):

IN GENERAL:

• Don't micromanage - If someone gives me a project and responsibilities, I assume they trust me enough to do a good job so it's nice to be left "alone" and allow me to get it done. I hate when people track my every move and hover over me while I'm trying to do something - if that's what they wanted, why not just do it themselves ya know?
• Keep your (the boss') door open - Literally and figuratively. It's nice knowing I can just walk into our CEO's room and ask a question or give a suggestion at anytime of the day, and without hassle. My ideas may not always get implemented, but at least I'm being heard.
• Have regular scheduled all-hands meetings- It doesn't have to be long, maybe like a 15-30 min one, but getting all together and talking about new stuff going around the company is awesome. Sure not every department *needs* to know all the details (and only the basics should be covered), but an overall informed employee will only help your biz succeed more. Most people can agree that communication is certainly key.
• Allow your employees to explore new areas - I get bored doing one thing over and over again, every day of the week. Sometimes I ask to work on something different to learn more (as long as it helps the company of course), and it's always rewarding even just KNOWING this is available to me.
• Move on after a mistake has happened - I already feel bad about messing up, but if you as a boss can accept it and understand it's a 1 time thing, moving on and leaving it alone is crazy helpful. It's the worst when it gets brought up months or years down the road when you know it's already been dealt with (as long as it HAS been dealt with, of course)

GREAT PERKS:

• Flexible schedule - We don't have to be in until 10am. Some people, like me, enjoy coming in early and getting a good start though, so I can come in at 9 and leave an hour earlier, and others (like tech people) can come in later and then stay later. Some people work better at different times of the day. Iif possible, giving them the opportunity work in their prime can only help them succeed better in the long run.
• Free coffee - It doesn't have to be Starbucks (although that helps!) but it's one of the smallest & cheapest perks that go a loooooooong way. Plus, it helps everyone focus and stay awake ;)
• Company happy hours or lunches - Not every week, but every now and then just to hang out and mingle as friends, and not only co-workers. It really helps with the company's overall morale.
• Relaxed paid time off - We have a "take it as you need it" approach at my job. This obviously won't work at all places, but being able to take off without a lot of hassle is HUGE in keeping me motivated. It's still smart to track days off to curb abuse of course, but you'd be surprised how much less people actually take off when there's no set amount given out. Trust and fairness go a long way here.
• Casual attire - If you work behind a computer all day and don't interact w/ customers face to face, then allowing people to come in with jeans and tee shirt make them feel more comfortable and "free" at work. That doesn't mean board shorts & flipflops, but it also doesn't mean suits & ties all the time. (between me and you, I'd be screwed if I ever go corporate again ;))

I could probably go on and on (we have a slew of other goodies that are industry-related), but these are the main reasons I enjoy coming to work every day - besides, of course, what my actual job entails. As you can tell, most are pretty simple in theory, but you'd be surprised how often they're passed over.

If you're a manager/business owner yourself, it's well worth the time evaluating your perks & principles every now and then to make sure you're creating the best atmosphere for your workers. And if you're not sure you're on the right track? Just ask! Employees love telling each other what they really want in a company. You lock in 2-3 of their biggest requests, and you're totally golden.

Labels: career

Yup, so I pay a bit more now for health insurance - oh well! When it comes down to it, I still have a job. And a mighty sexy one too at that :)

Who needs 100% company-paid health insurance anyways?! There's no way we could have continued doing that in today's environment (as hot as it was!) So I'll suck this one up just as I did the other benefit cuts and just never go to the doctors or dentist again! Haha, nah...it's not THAT bad.

Our CEO & Management handled this situation pretty damn well. Our company's premiums went up around 40% and they were forced to come up with a change that would best benefit all parties involved. But after they did that, they called an all-hands meeting and presented everything very thoroughly and explained their reasoning behind their final decision. EXCELLENT! That goes a long way in any company, but esp. those small ones like ours.

Here were some of the options they had to sort through:

• Keep our current plan, and pass the extra expenses onto us. This would have allowed us to hold on to our rock star plan as-is ($10 copays, $50 ER visits, no deductibles, etc.), but we'd then have to contribute about $300-$400 A MONTH each! ouch. That's a far cry from paying $0.00 each month.
• Change up the CoPays and Deductibles. This would mean our insurance is still paid for 100% through our company (no auto. deductions every paycheck for it), and our coverage would be the same, but we'd now have to pay a bit more every time we took a visit. If you go a lot, then you'd be more affected than those who rarely ever go (like myself).
• Lower coverage and pickup a limited plan. This would also drastically cut costs, but then our coverage goes to $hit and we'd have to be extra careful where we go to do what, and how. I'm CRAZY glad they didn't go w/ this one for obvious reasons.

They went with Option #2, which I agree was a great choice. We get to keep our awesome coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO, and we don't have any $ auto. deducted from our paychecks every 2 weeks!!! I love it. Some of us NEVER go to the dr's so we wouldn't even notice the change until we do. Which would probably suck cuz that means something is *really* wrong w/us ;) haha....but either way, I'd say 99% of us were pretty happy w/ the outcome. If I had to pay $400 a month i'd be pretty pissed. I'd still do it cuz I love my job, but I'd fill out that complaint jar to the brim on that day!

Here are the biggest changes to our plan now:

• CoPays go up from $10/visit to $20/visit. This one stings a little, but again you only pay it when you hit up the Dr's. And it's a lot less than a) $30 like a few of my friends have, and b) having no insurance! (yikes)
• We now have deductibles! I believe they are now at $300 per incident, up to a max of $7,000 total you can pay throughout a given year? Something like that (I don't have them in front of me at the moment). This is the biggest change as we never had them before - most things were totally taken care of, unless you had a unique situation that required you to go out of network.
• Network vs Non-Network spread increased. I never go out of network so I kind of dozed off here, but I know that it costs a lot more now going out of network than it previously did. I can never understand why anyone would really do this anyways...

So yeah, looks like our company is still dealing with the changes going around town. We were told this was the last of the "big items" being looked at now too, so that's def. good to hear! And that means our awesome 401k matches are still on the docket - woohoo :) Who knows what next month will bring, but for now I'll still continue working along happily and doing my thang over here. Can't get bent out of shape when the unemployment rate keeps skyrocketing..

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PS: I still have to report on the final cost of the Gallbladder Removal last year! I haven't forgotten, just too lazy to compile all the amounts and get it all together. More to come on who got the closest estimate.

Labels: career, crazy economy, insurance

Yeah, for sure! It may not override the ugly situation out there, but they do exist - they always do, it's just a matter of finding them sometimes ;)

The Public Insight Network shoots me a poll every now and then asking for some input, and this time I had something to say! And since they fit in nicely w/ the bloggy blog here, I thought i'd share them with y'all.

And maybe you've figured out how to make the economy work for YOU even better? I know we got some smart a$$ people out there taking full advantage :) Here are the 3 questions they threw over to me, along w/ my answers:

How has the financial crisis affected you?
Mainly, it's just gotten me more nervous about my job security - the first time in the 3+ years I've been here. Working for a start-up is naturally a bit unstable anways, but these days it's a little more crazier than normal out there. Other than that, my house value continues to plummet (at least I'm pretty sure it is!) and considering we bought it at close to peak, it's definitely no fun.

Has the financial crisis prompted you to follow your dreams or rexamine your priorities?
Yup! More so my priorities than my dreams as I'm pretty much doing my dream job right now ;) BUT, if that should ever fall though, I have a list of other fun jobs I'm interested in pursuing - graphic design, starbucks, and even banks! As for reexamining my priorities, I'm really just learning how to save even MORE than before....like by not shopping as much and making do with what i already have. Great for me, not so great for the economy.

Have you found a silver lining to the financial crisis?
Oh, most definitely! The interest rates have gone down an incredible amount, literally knocking hundreds of dollars off our 2nd Mortgage! We have a maxed out HELOC at Prime - .45%, and within the last year alone it's dropped from around 6% all the way down to 2.8%! It's really incredible. Now, if I can just figure out how to refinance my 1st mortgage w/out much cost, it' s home sweet sailing baby!

Labels: career, crazy economy, helocs

And you thought today was gonna be boring ;) This all started the other day when my girl Money Mate Kate posted up some crazy-a$$ jobs she's taken in the past (Italian Icee Truck Driver, Bone Counter, Substitute mommy?) - I was dying!

And once I began to compose myself, it got me thinking...I've done some pretty whacked out stuff too! But as I started writing out this post, another thing occurred to me: If shes' a frugal person with a frugal blog, and I'M a frugal person w/ a frugal blog, wouldn't it make sense that OTHER personal finance bloggers would have similar experiences too?

So I reached out to my PF friends & readers on email, twitter, & the Money Blog Network Forum (a *great* resource btw) and hit 'em up for their weirdest jobs they've ever done - and HOLY did i get some whammys! I'm not gonna lie - I KNEW some of us frugal ba$tards will get down and dirty to make a few pennies, but what I didn't know was how far they'd go :) We're talking Pea Inspecting, Tick Removing, Chuck E. Cheeze Dressing up'ing - jobs you couldn't make up if you tried.

So grab a coffee, close your office door, and get ready to enjoy some crazy awesomeness:

I'll start:

:: Campground Timeshare Tour Guide | $700-$1400/per sale | You know those tours you "have to take" in order to claim your *free* prizes or weekend getaways? Whelp, I was one of those people who gave them and then tried convincing you to buy one at the end ;) And in this particular case, you'd get your very own campground lot forever and ever! (oooohhhh ahhhh)

:: Wrecked Car washer | $10.00/hr (plus anything you'd find!) | Two of us guys with a van full of water and a generator, listening to headphones and washing the crap out of these things in the hot sun. Apparently smashed cars that are washed bring in $500 more at auction than do dirty/bloody ones (don't ask). And since it only cost about $5 per car to hook it up, the company raked in the money!

:: Stamp Maker/Package'r | $12.00/hr | Packaging and making stamps (those 42¢ ones) on an assembly line. 12 hour shifts, 4 days a week, one 15 mins break every 2 hours. The craziest part was that we couldn't wear any clothes w/ pockets, nor bring any bags that weren't see-through! You know, so we wouldn't be tempted to steal and sell them on the black market ;) haha...it felt like prison.

And now, jobs from around the blogosphere!

:: Bone Counter | $5.00/hr (age 20) | Temp job in the shipping/receiving department of a company that took cadaver bones (which arrived semi-butchered and frozen) and chopped them up into usable bits for transplant purposes. I was the only temp they didn't gross the hell out of. - Money Mate Kate

:: Tongue Boy | $0.05 per tongue | Cut the tongues out of codfish. - Money Grubbing Lawyer

:: Meat Packer (I think?) | minimum wage | For 8 hours, I manually flipped one half of figure-8 hamburger patties so they landed on top of the other half, concealing a slice of cheese in the middle to make a "pizza" hamburger. - Financial Reflections

:: Utility Study Researcher (nicknames: Space Cadet, Space Police) | minimum wage | Walking around my college campus, poking my head into classrooms, and counting the number of students in the room - much to the confusion of students and professors. - Stephanie @ Poorer Than You

:: Stock Boy @ Victoria's Secret | $10.00/hr | See title, lol! - My Journey To Millions

:: Bug Book Stippler | $2.00/hr (in 1967!) | "Stippled" (added dots) to illustrations of bugs in a book being written by a college entomology professor. - Mr. ToughMoneyLove

:: Dirt Sifter | $0.50 more than minimum wage | I would scoop dirt onto a screen, then shake the screen so fine dirt would come out of the bottom - Trent @ The Simple Dollar

:: Promotional Rep for Altoids Mints | $12.00/hr | I had to hand out free samples of mints to people in movie theatres, and before each movie, had to use a microphone to interact and play trivia games with the audience. I had no boss. The company just shipped me out 14 MASSIVE BOXES of Altoid mints and promotional material and told me to work until I had no more inventory. I made my own hours, got to watch all the free movies I wanted with my friends, and got a free megaphone out of the deal. Score! :) - Krystal @ Give Me Back My Five Bucks

:: Class Note-Taker in College | $5.00/week | I did it for 1 semester thinking I'd be a better student. nope! - mauliesmalls

:: Timeshare Telemarketer | $10.00/hr | Selling timeshares in Williamsburg, VA....to people living in Williamsburg Virginia! The call list we had from another account and 1/3-1/2 of the numbers were locals. It had easy 4 hour shifts. I hated the work and left shortly afterwards. - Green Panda Treehouse

:: Pea Inspector | ??? | I've never done any crazy jobs but... I knew one guy who was a pea inspector. lol. He inspected peas in a pea factory! haha - Ashley @ Wide Open Wallet

:: Engineering Intern for Metro | $12.50/hr (summer job) | Performed QA/QC on the construction of a Metro Line by visiting different construction sites and verifying that the work was being correctly executed. I had absolutely zero qualifications for this job and I have no idea why Metro hired engineering students for these positions - Budget Save Buy

:: Donation Soliciter | NOTHING! | (Salary was based on donations solicited, and I'm not a very good sales person) I had to go door to door to solicit donations for CALPIRG. (I didn't even know what CALPIRG was!) - Lynnae @ Being Frugal

:: Direct Marketing Rep | $200/week | Convince people in malls and train stations to sign up for a credit card (for real). Worst. Job. Ever. - Mr. Stokes @ Brizzle Bound

:: Cutco Knife Salesman | NADA. (Never made it out of training, couldn't bring myself to sell to friends and family.) | Selling cutco knives to friends and family. It was a MLM scheme. - Living Almost Large

:: Dog's Tick Remover | 1 penny per tick | Remove Ticks from dogs with tweezers. We can almost hear you saying "Ugh!..." but as kids we loved the job since it relieved the dogs from the pests :) - FIRE Finance

:: Dishroom Girl In a Dorm Cafeteria | $6.00/hr | Hairnet, long plastic apron, gigantic sprayer and garbage disposal, washing ridiculous quantities of wasted food down the drain, filthy sopping mess by the end of my shift. - Frugal Babe

:: Electrical-Environmental Systems Specialist, USAF | Enlisted pay grade E-2 through E-5 | Aircraft mechanic - worked in 30+ countries in temperatures ranging from -20F to 135F (not including windchill or heat index). - Patrick @ Cash Money Life

:: Cubicle Farmer | Too good to quit. | Ever seen Office Space? - Patrick @ Cash Money Life

:: Chinese Drive-Thru Window Fast Food Worker | $6.00/hr | Took orders for chinese food in an old Burger King, packed up food, and re-boiled dumplings in the same water for a week. Only lasted a month ;) - Jonathan @ My Money Blog

:: Library Organizer | $10.00/hr (with a max of 20 hours a week) | The mission: Working with a local organization, I was to start a local French lending library in one year with no budget (and by no budget, I mean no money available to me besides my salary, not no budget spend whatever you want). Some asides: Believe it or not, I lived on that salary for a whole year. It involved having a roommate and never going anywhere but I did it. And knowing I could live way below the federal poverty line gives me the confidence to stay on my relatively generous budget now. Oh and in the end I had over 10,000 books all on their shelves in Dewey Decimal categories, and 100 multimedia resources (movies and music mostly) that a purchased from a grant I got. I even opened a month early. And the old people said I couldn't do it! ;^) - Nicole @ Breaking Even

:: Model For Drug Treatment Center Brochure | $150.00 (1 time fee) | A friend from our church was doing some literature for Hazelden, drug treatment center to the stars. He needed someone to do a before and after picture for the brochure. On the before picture I was a sad, drug-addled youth, and in the after I was a happy, well adjusted young man. It was pretty funny sitting there making sad faces pretending to be on drugs :) - Pete @ Bible Money Matters

:: Farm Hand on a Blueberry Farm | minimum wage (at 14 y/o) | While this job sounds fun, it actually entails riding on a massive blueberry harvester, at wide open speed, through fields infested with wasps, bees, and fire ants, in the 100 degree heat of July. - No Credit Needed

:: Chuck E. Cheese Dresser-Upper | minimum wage | Entertain customers, kids, and mainly myself in the sweltering heat of Hot-lanta dressed as Chuck E. Cheese. - Alan Corey, Author of "A Million Bucks by 30"

:: Watermelon Thrower | $10.00/hr | I worked in a watermelon patch the summer after my senior year of high school. As a thrower, we would pick up watermelons from the field and thrown them into a trailer with a 6' wall, where a "catcher" was waiting with open arms. It was the hardest work I've ever done. I only lasted a week. The money I earned that week helped me with a down payment on my car for college. - Prime Time Money

:: Calf Catcher | Nothing | Wrangle a calf with bare hands and try to gently push it through a cattle squeeze. Try not to get kicked. (I'm a city girl, so moving to a ranch was a rude awakening on how weird jobs can be.) - Squawk Fox

Whew! So did i tell ya, or did i tell ya? We frugal ones sure know how to party :) haha...For all who participated - THANK YOU (esp you Kate)! And for all who still wants to, go ahead and re-live your job all over again by dropping a comment...we'd all love ya for it!

Till next time...God bless ya and keep "the sexy" alive,

Labels: awesomely awesome, career

I just got out of a company meeting, and I'm flying high baby! My 2 weeks away from the office was a nice break for sure, but the economy was putting some doubt in the ol' job security department :( That meeting turned my frown upside down though!

Our CEO assured us that our company is staying strong, and that things are looking up for '09!! And not only that, but that cutting people is the last option on his mind! We'll still lose a few benefits here and there for sure (i can probably kiss my 100% matching 401k away), but at this point I'll TAKE IT! haha...I really don't feel like looking around for another dream job right now.

Before this meeting, however, I was playing a rousing game of "would you rather" with a few co-workers of mine, and we came up with a really interesting side question. And since it's one of my all-time favorite games to play, I thought I'd drop it on ya:

"Would you be willing to cut your salary by 10% if it meant saving another employee? And what if there was a randomized chance that the employee in question could be YOU?"

TOUGH one, right?! 10% is a lot no matter how much you make. And if you're not a great rainy day saver or budget'er like some are, this could def. knock ya on your feet. Plus, is it even worth the risk? Would you be more comfortable losing 10% than 100% if you were the unlucky employee? Even morally - could you stand by and watch your cube-mate walk out the door all because you couldn't chip in a little? Definitely no right or wrong answer here though...we all have our stuff going on.

And since I asked it, I shall now answer it. While the frugal side of would get up and bitch-slap me, I'd 100% bite the bullet and take my pay cut. For one thing, i'm too much a panzy to risk losing my dream job no matter what the odds are ;) That, and everyone knows each other pretty well since we're a small company. I certainly wouldn't miss one or two of them, but I doubt they'd ever get fired anyways. So that would leave ME, along w/ the rest of my closest co-workers to get the boot.

I'd gladly give away $8k for total peace of mind. Okay, well not *gladly*, but I'd still do it. Who knows, maybe that good kharma would turn around and we'd all get rewarded down the road?!

How about you all? Would you tell the employee to F off, or would/could you pull out the get-out-of-jail-free card?

Labels: career, crazy economy, would you rather