More Money and a Raise, Please!

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The following is a guest post from Michael German. Enjoy!

The old adage that nothing is for certain except uncertainty resounds nowhere stronger than in today’s erratic job market. The figures are frightening; even when they jump slightly, most Americans today realize that the jump has more to do with people’s unemployment benefits expiring than it has with any real upturn in the employment picture.

We are told to be grateful that we have a job; that we should praise the heavens for the opportunity to stay chained to a desk for ten hours a day and jump at the whims of our over-educated yet highly under-qualified boss. And now you want a raise?

The Prospect of Getting a Raise

Having the audacity to ask for a raise is virtually career suicide these days, no matter how much you may truly deserve one. At best, your request will be greeted with mutters about the economy, at worst you will be laughed out of the office. Even companies not necessarily depressed by the economy have found that using the dreadful economy as a way to stave off raises and reduce the workforce is a Godsend. Imagine, being able to freeze salaries, lay off a nice proportion of your workforce, and at the same time have your remaining employees ever thankful to take on more work for the same pay, and all you have to do is say one word: economy. Lucky for them, but you still need to earn more money.

How to Negotiate a Raise

The best way to increase your job’s value is to increase your worth to the company for which you work. Guaranteed yearly raises are becoming a thing of the past. Most organizations these days offer instead, merit increases, meaning that your salary will be raised only if your performance has been raised from last year. The bar is raised every year, so you must strive to be not only the best you can be, but better than you were last year. While no one likes to admit it, but there are many who simply work by habit, bringing nothing new to their game year in and year out. These non-inspired employees fared as well as anyone under the old yearly raise system, but are sure to be left behind under the merit system.

Try to be the best at what you do. While not everyone can be the best at what they do, don’t worry, because most people are not even trying to be the best, and there are always situations where some coworker just has the knack, a gift that makes doing their job seem effortless for them. Instead of resenting those who can bang out work in an instant, try to learn from them, often they simply know a few shortcuts of which you weren’t aware. Also, even within the job description that you may share with fellow employees, there may be a single aspect that you can master better than anyone else, get a reputation as the best at something in the process. This will provide you will leverage when asking for an increase.

When It’s Time to Move On…

If there is just no way your company is willing to offer you some increase for all your hard work and perseverance, you may want to consider moving on. Some companies just refuse to raise a salary no matter how you profit the company, and some jobs simply aren’t very well-valued – but they may be somewhere else. If you‘ve made it a habit to network with those in your field maybe it’s time to utilize those connections. If you haven’t, start now. This also holds true for those considering striking out on their own.

Starting Your Own Business

Sometimes starting your own business seems the best answer. Now is the time all that networking can really pay off, as many companies under strict budgets which do not allow for hiring additional employees often outsource work to freelancers. This can be a great source of income until you have your own business up and running. Do be careful though, being your own boss is often a much more appealing in theory than in practice; anyone who has been there will tell you it is a twenty-four hour job. You will be sweating every dollar, as opposed to sitting and collecting that guaranteed weekly paycheck. Needless to say, start planning early, put some money on the side, and to keep finances straight, apply for a business credit card.

With any luck, your business will grow, and perhaps soon, you will be the one making the decision on who does and doesn’t get a raise. It may not be the circle of life, but it is at least the circle of business.

How about you all? Have you ever negotiated a raise with your boss or bosses? How did it go? What approach did you take? Do you feel that companies are using the bad economy as an excuse for not being as good to their employees? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ The flaws and inaccuracies in today’s unemployment figures/calculations –
• First off, I just want to say that this post brings up a lot of good points for us as working employees to keep in mind. It’s all too easy to get caught up in our job and forget to sort of “take care of our own interests.” 
• Next, I’ll definitely agree that the unemployment facts (and the formulas that generate them) are far from perfect, as the stats ONLY include people that are ACTIVELY looking for jobs (not the ones that have given up after trying for X number of years).
• @ Asking for a raise being looked on as career suicide and the grim outlook on today’s job market –
• I am not in total agreement with the sort of grim outlook on employee/employer relationships expressed above. 
• In my opinion, companies truly are hurting, and simply do not have the money to give raises that they may have used to possess. 
• Also, I would not consider asking for a raise to be career suicide. If you can legitimately display that you benefit the company enough and subsequently ask for a raise in a very professional and courteous way, I think that at worst, the only thing your boss will do is say “no.” 
• @ Yearly raises and bonuses shrinking in recent years – 
• I am in agreement with the idea expressed in this post about yearly bonuses and raises being decreased in recent years. 
• When I worked for a few years out of undergraduate studies for a Fortune 500 company, I was somewhat surprised with how hard it was to be recognized and compensated for hard/good work. It seemed to me that raises and promotions were more based on 1) time at the company and 2) how many times you moved around to different jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I was really happy at the company and enjoyed my time there, but I just was a little surprised with how hard it was to get noticed for good work.
• @ The best and easiest way to get a raise and promotion –
• As mentioned in the previous point, in my opinion, the best and quickest way to rise through the ranks in today’s job market is simple – move around to different jobs in different geographic locations in different companies as MUCH as possible. 
• @ Whether it’s more profitable to be your own boss or work for a company – 
• The distinction and differences between how much money you can make by being an employee versus starting your own company are quite interesting.
• In my opinion, if you want to make the most money possible over a short period of time, the best way to do this stay as an employee at a company. 
• Starting your own business can be a good, interesting alternative and can also present promising prospects for long term profits. However, starting your own business is much more risky, is not for everyone, and is not a “get rich quick” method.

***Photo courtesy of http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/61056391_31343afdc6.jpg

The Problem with Home Insurance Fraud and How it Affects You

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Hello everyone! Jacob here with you! I’ve finally emerged from the depths of PhD qualification exam preparation land (just took the test today!) and am ready to put more time in to my blog! I apologize for being a little elusive lately, but hey, life happens! 


To get us started back on the right track, the following is today’s guest post. Enjoy!  

How about you all? How often do you feel that home insurance fraud occurs? Have you ever known any one in your community that has tried to get away with this type of fraud? What impact do you feel this type of behavior has on the rest of us? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ Home insurance fraud being the most common type of insurance fraud – 
• I can definitely imagine that homeowner’s (or real estate in general) insurance fraud is one of the most common forms of insurance fraud out there.
• Why’s this, you might be asking? In my opinion, I think that the answer lies in that home insurance is a fairly broadly defined coverage, meaning that you define an approximate value of the goods in your house and get a policy to cover those in the case of a fire, tornado, etc. Because there is a significant amount of wiggle room in what’s included, this, in my opinion, motivates people to feel they can “game” the system easier.
• @ The consequences of home insurance fraud –
• As mentioned in this article, I think it’s important to point out that home insurance fraud doesn’t just negatively affect the person partaking in the activity if they get caught. 
• In fact, when the insurance companies have to pay out more money than their complex mathematical algorithms plan, all of the honest insurance policy carriers simply have to pay more to compensate for the monetary loss. 
• So, I guess what I am getting at here is that it actually benefits us all to watch out for fraud and strongly discourage this behavior. I know I don’t want to pay any more than I have to for my homeowner’s insurance policy! 
• @ What motivates people to want to partake in home insurance fraud?
• In writing the comments above, I became interested in thinking about what exactly motivates people to partake in home insurance fraud. Is it greed? Is it desperation for money?
• While I think that the answer may lie in a mix of the two motivations mentioned above, I really am amazed at how many people think they can get away with insurance fraud, even though the insurance companies undoubtedly have entire departments dedicated to seeking out fraudulent claims.
• However, enough people must be getting away with this fraud in some shape or form in order for people to continue doing it!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/23905174@N00/2524306151/sizes/o/in/photostream/

The Benefits Of Finding The Right Loan

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post. Enjoy!

How about you all? What types of features do you seek out in a home loan? What resources do you use to research these loans before deciding upon one? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3645/3659091862_a93ec08853.jpg

Is the Buy and Hold Investment Strategy Right for You?

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post by Tony Chou from Investorz’ Blog, where he teaches both novice and pro investors how to invest in the stock and commodities markets. Enjoy and be sure to get involved in the discussion by commenting below!

How about you all? Do you have any buy-and-hold investments? How have they done over the years? What investing strategy do you generally use to save? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• Howdy folks! Jacob here! Sorry I’ve been a little elusive on the blog as of late. I’ve been busy getting ready for my PhD Qualifying Exam next week (the report was due today, and currently, I am running on 2 hours of sleep).
• Great topic here Tony! I absolutely agree that buy and hold only really works if you’re not directly depending on the money you’re holding to meet your living expenses or other near-term financial goals.
• @ Confusion between the differences of buy-and-hold and a prudent passive retirement investing strategy – 
• I think that often, people confuse the overly-simplified buy and hold investing strategy with passive investing. 
• Although technically, buy-and-hold is a form of passive investing because it doesn’t involve timing the market, the proper way people are supposed to perform passive investing is through careful selection of an appropriate asset allocation coupled with periodic rebalancing.
• Because of the rebalancing, passive investing, in the correct sense, is much better than buy-and-hold. 
• @ Getting sucked in to the excitement of selling during market downturns – I definitely agree with the statement above that the majority of investors lack (and lacked during the 2009 financial crisis) the resolve to hold on to their investments through big dips in the market. Many people I know sold up to half of their holdings at the very bottom of the market, causing them to lose much money. In my mind, this just further affirms my belief that people should avoid risky individual stock selection, choose an asset allocation that will allow them to sleep at night, rebalance periodically, and stick to it! 

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/sercasey/324341982/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Tips on Saving Money for Winter – Yes, I Know It’s Summer at the Moment…

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post. Enjoy!

Winter can be a pretty pricey time for households, especially with Christmas – traditionally the most expensive day of the year – coming in the very middle of the season. So, there’s really no better time to look at ways you can save money, starting by looking at your home and the places where you’re leaking cash from your budget each and every month.

One of the best ways to save money on your home could, conversely, be to spend a little bit more in some key areas. If you’ve got some money stored away or are earning more than your spending, now is an excellent time to look into how insulating your home or getting boiler insurance could end up saving you cash in the long term. Here’s a guide to how this works, with a few other top tips thrown in for good measure.

Batten Down the Hatches

If any of your windows are cracked or your doors are damaged, now is the time to do something about it. Over time the problems are only going to get worse, while also reducing the efficiency of your home. So, consider replacing cracked windows and investing in a new door if you’ve got a noticeable draught.

Get Boiler Insurance

With recent winters bringing the harshest weather on record, it’s no surprise that many home emergency companies also reported record numbers of boiler breakdowns and burst pipes. With this in mind, it’s worth considering how boiler cover could end up saving you money in the event of a breakdown or heating issue. Many also come with a complementary annual service – and as 12-monthy check-up is highly recommended by experts in terms of keeping your home a safe and efficient.

Insulate Your Home

Although the outlay can run into four figures if you go all-out and insulate your loft, cavity walls, pipes, and water tanks, you’ll more than recoup this in the money you save on your heating bills over the coming years.

Keep Your Garden in Check

If you fail to protect your yard’s plants and grass before winter, you’ll have to spend time and effort getting it back to the way you want when spring swings round again. So, move your delicate plants indoors – ideally to a conservatory or heated shed – in containers and cover plants that are staying in the ground with sheeting. If you’ve got a fish pond, put a tennis ball in the water – you can pull this out if the water freezes over to ensure your fish have access to oxygenated water.

How about you all? What preventative (or strategic) measures do you take to save yourself some money during winter time? Have you tried any of the ones listed here? If so, how did they work out for you?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=save%20money%20winter

How Much Is Bad Credit Costing You?

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post. Enjoy! 

There are many reasons why people end up over their heads with more debt than they can afford to repay. Some graduate from college with the knowledge that the credit card debt they racked up during their carefree college years will be around to haunt them for the rest of their life! Some borrow money for large purchases during times when they can easily afford to repay their debts – only to have a major change in their income a few months later.

Whatever the reason – having too much debt and falling behind on your payments can cause you to pay extra on utilities and car insurance, and can make it difficult to rent an apartment or borrow more money in the future.

How Much is Credit Card Debt Costing You?

One of the most expensive forms of credit people generally have is credit card debt. The higher your interest rate, the more the debt will cost you. For example, if you have a $5,000 credit card balance, your minimum payment will be about $200 a month. If your credit card charges 18% APR, (and you never made another purchase on the card) it would take you over 11 years to pay it off and pay over $2,800 in interest. The $5,000 you charged on your card is actually costing you $7,800 – and this is if you never make a late payment.

That’s the literal cost of excessive, high interest debt – but what else do you pay more for when you have bad debts?

Utility Accounts Cost More When You’re in Debt

If you have a history of making your payments late or have a low credit score, utility companies – particularly the electric company, may require that you pay a deposit before you can turn service on in your name.

Car Insurance Premiums Are Higher When You’re in Debt

Your car insurance premium takes your credit score into consideration, too. For some reason, car insurance companies decided that if you have excessive debt and a low credit score, you’re at risk for more accidents and therefore need to be charged more money for car insurance.

You May Find it Difficult to Rent an Apartment

Many landlords run credit checks before renting apartments. If you have excessive debt that has caused your credit score to drop, you could face problems finding a place to live. If a landlord or rental company does allow you to rent despite excessive debt and a low credit score, they may charge you a higher security deposit or even a higher monthly rent.

Avoid Becoming a Victim of Debt

Having access to credit is necessary for most of us – it is necessary when you want to rent a car, book travel or hotel rooms, or buy anything online or over the phone. Using credit cards and other forms of credit irresponsibly will not only cost you more in interest payments for the debt itself – but causes you to pay more money in other areas of your life, as well. If you establish good personal finance habits, you will save a lot of money, which you would have given to the banks otherwise.

How about you all? Do you know of any additional indirect effects of being in debt and/or having bad credit?


Also, another thing that I’m curious about is to get the readers’ input on whether or not you think that 1) large amounts of consumer (credit card) debt, 2) fiscal responsibility in one’s personal finances, and/or 3) bad credit should be considered in someone’s application for employment?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/myloonyland/430367107/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Are You Balancing Frugal Living With Fun?

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post I wrote 3 months ago for Money Talks Coaching Blog as part of the 7th Yakezie Personal Finance Network blog “swap,” a monthly event where participants of the Yakezie group pair off and exchange posts on a common topic. 


The topic for this particular month was “balancing frugality with fun.” You can check out the original copy of this post over at Money Talks Coaching by clicking here. Also, be sure to read Ashley @ Money Talks Coaching’s swapped post on my site at the following link – Balancing Frugality With Fun


So, let’s see. Frugal fun. At first glance, this phrase might seem like an oxymoron. After all, is the purpose of having money not to spend it doing things that we enjoy? Why does one even need to be frugal?

In my opinion, balancing frugality with fun is important because all of us (unless we are super-wealthy) need to save a certain amount of money in order to live comfortably and indeed have fun (there’s that word again!) during our retirement years.

Listed below are several of the techniques that I employ to both 1) be frugal and 2) have fun living at the same time. Enjoy!

Know Your Budget

Automate Your Savings

As I mentioned in the previous section, I don’t feel that budgets, in the general sense, work for most people. What I mean by this is that let’s say you make $5000 per month in your job. Your budget can tell you that your target is to save $2000 of this for your emergency fund. However, if you merely leave the money in your account with the intention of deducting it at the end of the month, you will likely find that you have spent this money earmarked for your savings.

Because of this, the method I promote is the idea of automating your savings each month. This can be done by setting up recurring, scheduled money transfers from your checking to savings account 1-2 days after you get paid. By doing this, you trick your brain in to thinking that you don’t have access to those funds anymore.

And, with the money you have left in your account after your required automatic transfer, you can spend as you need to on entertainment or regular monthly expenses.

Balancing Frugality With Awesome Vacations

At times, it may seem impossible to live frugally and still somehow have enough money saved up to go on the type of vacation that will leave you with lasting memories for many years.

However, the way that I balance frugality with vacations is to 1) decide how much I can afford to save each month for a future vacation, 2) use this monthly savings target to calculate realistically, when I will be able to take the vacation, and 3) set up an automatic monthly transfer (at the beginning of the month) to a savings account set up specifically for the purpose of vacation savings.

In this way, I ensure that I go on the vacations I want and be frugal at the same time.

Live and Save According To Your Purpose-Focused Financial Plan

Basically, by implementing my Purpose Focused Financial Plan (and most importantly, automating it), I ensure that I accomplish things each month that are fun and provide value to me at a deep level. And, having fun with these things that really matter helps me to resist the need to spend money on frivolous, often more costly, “fun” activities.

For example, my automated Purpose Focused Financial Plan dictates that I save/spend money each month for doing at least one cycling or running race (which I really enjoy and fulfills my life value of healthy living) and for a future vacation the Grand Canyon (one of my life dreams).

Make Saving Money a Fun Hobby

How about you all? How do you balance frugal living with fun? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2783/4473975639_2753cee7fc.jpg

Teens, Money, and Expensive Sneakers

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post by Michael German. Enjoy!

The teenage years often are both the most traumatic and most enjoyable years of one’s life. Psychologists often chalk it up to a less developed sense of long-term thinking, mixed with a wonderful feeling of invincibility.

A teen’s limited experience in the world leaves them with the impression that the world is just a long road of possibilities lying out before them; they’ve yet to meet any of the wolves often hiding in the trees along that road. Even life’s tragedies can often be soothed with a cute date and a new pair of Nikes. But, Nikes and sometimes dates are also expensive as well as being enjoyable.

Teaching Your Children a Balance Between Wants and Fiscal Responsibility

There is an age-old argument between parents, and sometimes a parent argues with just themselves on how to give your kid what they need, and at the same time, teach them financial responsibility. Naturally, parents want their kids to fit in and to be accepted in their peer environment.

On the OTHER hand, you know it’s fiscally responsible to tell your kid that you are not spending $150 on a pair of sneakers because some forgettable celebrity wears them on television. Yet still, you cringe at the thought of other kids teasing them at school, because they are wearing cheap sneakers. There are choices outside of becoming either the unsympathetic miser or human cash card, however. You can work alongside your teen to teach them about financial responsibility.

Managing Allowances

Of course, you will have to give them something to start with, a base pay otherwise known as an “allowance.” You’ll want to come up with an amount that feels fair to both you and your teen. Don’t just settle on what you got for an allowance as a kid; chances are prices have quadrupled since then and chances are really strong that your kid will just look at you and laugh.

Along with your teen, take an inventory of what their justifiable weekly expenses are, including lunches, carfare, entertainment costs – at least enough for a movie a week and maybe some food after the movie. Yes, you can throw in a little fun money, but not enough for those sneakers.

What Happens if Their Allowance Just Isn’t Enough?

Of course, like the adults teaching them, things pop up in a teen’s life that they just have to have that their allowances just won’t cover, at least not anytime soon. The same as adults have overtime pay, create a similar option for your teen. Household chores like cleaning out the garage, mowing the lawn, or even cleaning the kitchen and giving you a break are all opportunities to teach kids to earn the additional money they want. Plus, it gives you a break! Provide them with a way to prove that they are willing to work for what they want.

Beyond Allowances – Other Ways to Instill Financial Skills in Your Children

Involve Your Children in Household Financial Decisions

Lead by example, foremost. Let your teen sit in on your financial decisions. Show them how the cash flows in and how it flows back out. Let them see why it is that you say that a bigger screen television is not in the cards for this month. Maybe they will see the connection between raising the air conditioning enough to sleep with a blanket and life with a smaller television screen.

Pre-Paid Credit Cards

When you feel that your teen is ready to handle credit, you can obtain a prepaid credit card for them. This can be a wonderful teaching tool for your teen on how to responsibly deal with having credit; let them do the shopping through the best credit card offers and find what works best for them.

Conclusions

With a little work- and a lot of patience – you can nudge your teens away from a world of instant gratification into a world of financial responsibility. As the world’s economy seems an endless carousel ride of ups and downs, and will likely stay that way, your teen will be ready to ride that carousel horse. Whether the horse happens to be rising or falling.

How about you all? What methods do you feel are best to teach fiscal responsibility to children? Do you feel that giving an allowance is a good thing to do? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• Great post topic here Michael! Thanks so much for sharing it! After all, among the vast array of personal finance topics available, I can’t think of too many more important ones than figuring out the best ways to teach children about financial management before they get themselves in to trouble.
• @ The most important gift that parents can give their children – The Gift of Want –
• As discussed in my post last year about whether or not it is good to give children an allowance, I feel that the best gift a parent can give their children is the gift of want!
• What exactly do I mean by this? Simple – if they express their desire for a certain product, trip, etc, we should encourage them to achieve their goal by going out and earning the money themselves.
• @ Giving your children an allowance –
• As I discussed in the post linked in the previous bullet, (even though the majority of people may not agree with me) I do NOT believe that giving an allowance to children is the best practice in teaching financial responsibility. 
• Instead, I prefer the approach of encouraging children to earn the money for their desired larger purchases themselves, either through getting a job or creating their own small home business.
• @ Out of curiosity, what are allowances going for these days?!
• After reading the portion of this post that discusses the quantity of allowances, I became interested in just what is the “going weekly rate” for children’s allowances these days. I imagine it has increased dramatically since I was in junior high/high school, but I was very interested in seeing some figures for this! 
• According to Kid’s Money.org, the average allowance for 18 year old teenagers is $40. How does this compare to when you were growing up?!
• @ Overtime pay for household chores in addition to an allowance – 
• As I’ve discussed above, I’m not the biggest fan of giving children a direct allowance for merely existing and contributing to the normal household operations. 
• However, if the child goes beyond what the other members of the family do to help out, I am OK with he or she being compensated for that work. 
• Examples of this would include the following – 1) your family normally pays to have their hedges clipped once per year, but your daughter offers to clip them instead. Then, it’s perfectly OK to compensate them. 2) if your family normally pays $100 each week to have their dress clothes dry-cleaned, but your son offers to iron the pants and shirts. This is perfectly OK to pay the children for their work. It saves the family money all around!
• @ Other ways to give your children a financial head start in life –  
• I’ve discussed several other great ways for parents to head give their children a financial head start in life in a post I wrote in February of 2010. You can read all about the methods by clicking the following link – Ways for parents to give their children a financial head start in life.
• In addition to these methods, I came up with several additional techniques when I was brainstorming my comments on this post. They are described below:
• Have your teenager track their spending for several weeks in Excel to determine spending habits, and then work with them to identify areas where they could save money.
• Set a meeting once per week to talk about finances. I feel like this is a good idea since the topic of finance, unfortunately, will not be covered in any kind of detail in any form of formal education your child receives (a sad reality of the US education system).

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/demibrooke/2571620989/sizes/l/in/photostream/

The Office Of Tomorrow

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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This post was selected as the No. 1 editor’s pick in the 323rd Carnival of Personal Finance at Sustainable Personal Finance. Be sure to stop by and read all of the CoPF articles!

The following is a guest post from Joe Lewis. Enjoy!

The office has changed considerably over the last 30 years. Gone are typewriters, printed memos, and ash trays (Note from Jacob: Thanks goodness on the no ash trays!). In their place are PCs, email systems, and smoking bans! The truth is, offices are evolving at a dramatic rate, and with a new generation of workers growing up with social networks, fast Internet connection, and touch screen phones, the winds of change look set to whip up another technological storm.

So, what will the office of tomorrow look like? Will technology be powered by different energy sources? Will we still have desks? Will we even need desks? Will we all be replaced by robots that eventually develop human emotions and take over the world? Maybe not, but this article hopes to answer some of these questions fully, by taking a sneak-peak at the office of tomorrow….

Social Networking Will Replace Email

Many of today’s businesses rely heavily on email to regularly communicate and collaborate with clients and colleagues. In comparison, popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace are generally viewed as a leisurely pursuit and not for work.

Many of today’s workers are continuously minimizing their Facebook profiles the second management pass their computer screens to hide dodgy holiday and weekend pictures of themselves looking completely inebriated…You know the ones I’m talking about….

But, things look set to change. Social media is slowly moving in to the work sector with many companies choosing either Twitter or Facebook to recruit new business opportunities or advertise internal job vacancies. The new cyber generation of workers now entering the employment market, naturally communicate using social media platforms, and there’s a huge possibility that the office of tomorrow will choose quick, prompt Twitter feeds to contact clients and colleagues.

In reality, email is not really reflecting how today’s cyber generation communicate with each other, how we work in our jobs, and how we exist in today’s modern world. Social networking technology is becoming increasingly popular in society, and it may also allow people to share information with each other virtually and more successfully.

In the future, workers would no longer need to rely on emails to obtain data. In the office of tomorrow, they’ll just log on to their work network and share information and join relevant discussions colleagues in their team are taking part in.

Wave Your Hands In The Air!

For those of you who are familiar with sci-fi blockbuster, Minority Report, you’ll remember people manipulating data on large transparent display screens without a keyboard. The future of ambient interfaces using touch and gesticulation programs may not be as far-fetched as it sounds and could ultimately symbolize a snap shot of where social interaction is going…

Microsoft has already started the ball rolling with their innovative Kinect gestural system, which is already creating a lot of publicity. What makes this kind of technology so fascinating is the fact that it’s down to simple primitive hand gestures. There’s also something very ironic about going back to basics in order to move forward. However, the downside to this would be if you were to suddenly stretch or swat a fly and find that you’ve accidently deleted all your companies files.

Will Our Offices Need Electricity?

Unless you work in a Dickensian office full of candles and quill pens, you’ll notice that many companies in the world rely heavily on electricity. From laptop, PCs and iPhones, to TVs, lighting and heating, companies spend a lot of money on gas and electricity. But, will this be the way forever?

Presently, 75% of the UK’s energy is created consuming gas and oil resulting in carbon dioxide emissions. In 2050 there is a high possibility that we will have to create more energy than we currently make but with the restriction of releasing fewer greenhouse gases. One eco-friendly solution could be to use hydrogen as a renewable energy source. Recently, breakthrough research has been successful in creating a new method for storing hydrogen.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Scientists have currently been working on hydrogen fuel cells to replace fossil fuels responsible for global warming and pollution. “The first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free energy,” professed former US president George W. Bush in 2003 when he declared a US$1.2-billion hydrogen-fuel awareness project to grow commercial fuel-cell automobiles by 2018.

Solar Energy?

Terrestrial solar energy is also predicted to be huge. But, sunlight is not regularly available on the Earth’s surface. With this in mind, one idea is to gather solar energy 24 hours per day in the cosmos, and convey it as microwave beams to receivers on our planet. This could be used to power future office computers and electrical devices including lighting.

Final Thoughts

No one knows for certain what the office of tomorrow will look like. We could be using renewable energy solutions that never run out, using our hands to manipulate data on large transparent display screens, or even surfing the web at a computer in an office on the moon! We just don’t know for sure.

But, by keeping a close eye on technology and studying the way offices have evolved over the years, we get a clearer understanding of what a future office environment will look like. But, don’t forget part of the ambiguity is also very exciting – we’ll know the answers when we’re living it, and like many office workers, I cannot wait!

How about you all? What do you think offices of the future will look like? Will we all be working from home?! Will we need to type anymore on computers or simply talk and gesture to them?


What renewable energy option do you see as the most promising? What do you think is needed for renewable energy sources to be used mainstream?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ Social networking replacing email – 
• Very cool thought here Joe! With how integral email is to the workforce these days, it’s hard to even imagine being without it! 
• I think that society is still quite a long ways off from completely getting rid of email. However, I think it will eventually be replaced by something more real time. 
• Personally, I believe the replacement won’t necessarily be a “social” network like Facebook or Twitter, but will be more of a virtual conference room, where members of a work team are always logged in and can share information with everyone in real time.
• I feel like people do prefer to have some separation from their work and private lives, so Facebook and Twitter can remain in those spaces.
• @ The question of “How connected is TOO connected?”
• With all of the Smart Phones, iPads, iPhones, and laptops, etc. we already have in today’s society coupled with the introduction of the virtual conference room mentioned above, a question I pose to the readers is: how connected is too connected? At what point do we say “no” to a tool because being constantly in contact may not be the best thing for us?
• @ Using solar energy as a renewable energy source –
• Several years ago, I attended a seminar in college about renewable energy sources. 
• Solar energy was mentioned as a very promising renewable energy option. However, as Joe mentions above, the primary issue is being able to store the energy as it comes in until it needs to be dispensed. I don’t think the technology is quite far enough along in development to efficiently facilitate this process.
• However, one promising fact that was mentioned in the seminar was this – if you covered a land mass the size of western Oklahoma entirely with solar panels, the panels would absorb enough energy from the sun in only one day to power the US energy needs for one year. Quite impressive!
• @ What’s needed in order for renewable energy sources to become used in mainstream society –
• There’s nothing I would rather see more than the entire world using renewable, clean energy. Who wouldn’t!?
• However, as a financial blogger, I have to be realistic about what it will take to make this a reality. 
• In order for any renewable energy technology to be widely adopted, I believe that one of two things must happen – either 1) the government enforces their use by law, or 2) it becomes cheaper or the same price to use the renewable energy compared to the current option.
• Thus far, renewable energy has not been very successful at being implemented because neither of these two requirements have been met. Renewable energy technology is still very expensive, with the use of such technology almost always having some varying degree of negative impact on a person’s personal finances. In addition, governments have only tried to give “tax breaks” (not law) to people for using renewable technology. However, a lot of these incentives have been discontinued or severely limited.

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/rintakumpu/2396304044/sizes/l/in/photostream/

8 Ways to Help You Get Rid of Your Debt

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The following is a guest post by Richard Jacobs. Enjoy! 

If you are looking for ways to help you get rid of debt, you will come across many tips, but these 8 tips will help you get rid of your debt for good. The one thing you need to keep in mind is to make sure you follow these tips, and stick to them to make them work for you.

Get rid of your credit cards –

In today’’s world, people have started depending on credit cards a lot. If you are in a habit of swiping your credit card whenever you go to the market or to dine out, get rid of the habit. The best way to do this is to lock your credit cards at home to avoid using them at all. However, keep in mind that you do not close the accounts as it will result in a reduced credit score.

Stop adding more debt – 

Some people think that they can pay off old loans by taking on new loans, but that is not the right thing to do. Piling on debts will not help you get rid of your financial problems, but will keep you stuck in your debts for longer.

Change your lifestyle and attitude –

Your attitude plays a very important role when it comes to paying back loans. If you have a “can-do attitude”, you will succeed in your efforts. You will also need to make changes to your lifestyle, such as by cutting down on your spending.

Small things can bring a lot of difference, such as taking the bus to your job instead of driving. When buying groceries or other essentials for your house, look out for sales, discounts, and offers to use and save money. Stick to this lifestyle for a few months and you will be surprised with the amount you can save this way.

Look for ways to improve your earnings – 

Always lookout for ways to help you make more money. Work hard at your day job, as you might be rewarded by your employer in the form of bonuses or a raise. Also look for opportunities that can give you some extra cash, like a part-time sales job or a freelance work-from-home option.

Plan your budget and stick to it – 

Make an estimate of your monthly earnings and expenses and then decide on how you will spend the available cash. Keep a portion of this income to pay off your debts.

Pay more than the minimum payment toward your debt –

Many people tend to pay only the minimum amount towards their credit card bills, mortgages, and other loans. If you have extra money at hand, pay a little extra with every payment toward your debt.

Get help from your loved ones –

Your partner and family can help you get out of your debts. Discuss your financial problems with them, and get all the help you can to get out of your financial crisis.

Keep yourself busy –

Keep your self busy in your work, and you will not end up wasting time at the bar or at the mall, spending the money you have at hand.

Conclusions

Remember, getting out of debt can take some time, especially if the loan amount is high, but if you stick to the tips mentioned above, you will rid yourself of your financial miseries. Small sacrifices made today will help you go a long way.

How about you all? What has been the biggest contributor to you significantly reducing or eliminating your debt balances? 


Have you tried any methods of debt reduction that have NOT worked at all?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ Getting rid of your credit cards – 
  • I definitely agree with Richard that cutting down credit card usage/spending is essential if you are looking to banish your credit card or other debt completely. If you get behind on credit card payments, the interest rates can rack up to above 20% (accruing daily), which is “bad-news bears” for just about anyone!
  • Along the same lines as locking the credit cards up somewhere at home, another trick I’ve heard that is effective is actually freezing your credit cards in a Tupperware container filled with water/ice in your freezer. This way, you have to physically thaw them out to use them. I’ve heard the physical act of doing this thawing is a great deterrent to using the cards again.
  • Locking or freezing up your credit cards should only be used as a last resort for people who absolutely do not have the control to stop credit card spending. Instead, I have faith that the majority of people with credit card debt do possess the control to simply carry the credit card in your wallet, but to only use it for emergencies. However, you know yourself better than I do, so make the decision based on what will work for you!
• @ Stop adding more debt (i.e. – don’t bother with debt consolidation loans) – 
  • The topic of debt consolidation is a truly fascinating one!
  • On one hand, it sounds like a great idea because you can combine many smaller balance loans for credit cards, etc in to one and pay just one lump sum each month.
  • However, as I discussed in Part 1 of my helping a friend get out of debt series, I personally do not think that debt consolidation loans and debt counseling is worth the time and effort unless your financial situation is such that a) you are on the verge of bankruptcy or b) making your minimum payments results in you not being able to feed yourself or your family.
  • Furthermore, I think that the majority of the time, people need more than debt consolidation to truly “win” against debt; they mainly need to change their habits and behaviors in regards to their finances/spending.
• @ Planning your budget – 
  • I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – budgets (in the simplistic sense) do not work. 
  • I personally do not believe that people should plan their finances by laying out a budget and then “seeing what’s leftover” at the end of the month to pay their debts and save for retirement. 
  • Instead, the better option is to 1) track your spending to determine your spending patterns and monetary requirements, 2) decide at the beginning of the month how you will allocate funds to your different needs, and then 3) actually transfer the money or pay your debt accounts at the beginning of the month before you have time to spend the money.
• @ Paying more than the minimum debt payment –
  • I absolutely agree with this piece of advice! In fact, I’ll venture a guess and say that if you have a sizable amount of consumer debt, you will actually NEVER 100% pay it off if you only pay the minimum required payment! 
  • However, I would advise everyone to consider the account hierarchy prior to paying too much on their debt accounts (i.e. make sure you have an adequate emergency fund first).
• @ Getting help from your loved ones – 
  • In my mind, getting advice from a loved one is great, fine, and excellent! 
  • However, actually getting money from a loved one is an entirely different story. 
  • Too many times, I’ve heard and seen friends or family members “loan” each other money in an unofficial capacity. In other words, there was no legal loan agreement involved. This is simply foolish because the majority of these “loans” are never paid back. 
  • If you want to help out a friend or family member, GREAT! However, it would most likely be better to simply make the “loan” a gift and not have any need to get the money back. 
  • If you want to actually loan them the money with the intention that it will be repaid, I would recommend hiring a lawyer to draw up a loan agreement.
• @ Keeping yourself busy – 
  • I agree with this bit of advice, with one caveat. 
  • I agree because I’ve found that in my life, some of the times when I have saved the most money has been when I wasn’t doing much else besides work or school.
  • However, one caveat/thing to watch out for is that when you are really busy, you might be tempted to go out to eat a lot to save time on cooking. Spending from this can add up very quickly, so just remember to take 30 minutes to cook or prepare your meals yourself, and you’ll be set up for success!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/digiart2001/2214844805/sizes/l/in/photostream/