We seem to be living in a world that is dominated by people who deny reality by wearing rose-colored glasses when they look at their looming financial problems. It’s as if they don’t see what’s in front of them or choose not to see them. It’s almost like walking around the elephant in the room so they don’t bump into it and have to deal with it. When bills pile up and they don’t have the money to pay them, …
We’re told that the economy is doing better and that people are spending more money but it’s a matter of perception. When I walk into a large store, it looks empty. When I walk into a small store, it looks busy. In some of the stores, the lines are very long but that’s because they don’t have enough cashiers, while in other stores, they have a lot of cashiers so it doesn’t look like they are doing a lot of …
After speaking to many college graduates and reading many articles about career paths that college graduates are entering, one thing stands out above the rest. I haven’t heard one person say that the career they have chosen is something they feel passionate about. Instead, I hear them talk about an emerging industry or that the pay is good, or that the job market in those areas is good. What many people don’t realize is that the job market changes according …
So many people today have different priorities than they did a couple of generations ago. In the old days, when you had bills to pay, those were your first priority. You saved up for your vacations; they were separate and they didn’t come out of your regular paycheck. Nowadays, I’m seeing so many people who, when they see their bills piling up and they don’t have the money to pay them, they just close their eyes and ignore them, I …
As anyone who has ever dreamt big will tell you, there’s a big difference between wanting something and getting it. And it’s not even an impossible dream if you know how to do it. The first step is honesty. Whoa!! What do you mean honesty? I’m honest. Yes, but are you honest with yourself when it comes to your strengths and weaknesses? Maybe. You might want to have the kind of money that Bill Gates has, but do you have …
We’ve all heard stories about mothers telling their daughters that it’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man and that money lasts longer than love. And then came the Feminist Movement and, for the last sixty years, women have been learning to support themselves and not depend on men to take care of their financial needs. But, now things are changing again. Whereas over the last half a century, women had been …
One of my clients teaches at a community college and he is always complaining about the incompetence of his students. According to him, they can’t do simple math and they can’t follow simple directions, no matter how often they hear them or read them. Most of them have jobs, not careers, and they aren’t making a lot of money. He has told me often enough that his students don’t do their homework, they couldn’t care less about the machines they …
Actually, it may start even before kindergarten, maybe even as early as shortly after you learn how to talk. What am I talking about? Why, choosing your career, of course. Did you ever notice how early in life a child chooses his career? One day it’s “When I grow up I want to be a fireman.” The next day it’s “When I grow up I want to be a doctor.” The list goes on and on, each day, a different …
When I was first getting started in life as an adult, if I needed something from the store, I would buy just one of them. Invariably, the next time I needed that same item, all the stores were out of them. Eventually, I had enough money to buy two of them, one that I was going to use immediately and one that I could keep as a spare. This worked very well for a long while. I was also able …
There are two concepts running side by side: (1) life is all about change, and (2) the more things change, the more they stay the same. I subscribe to the first and doubt the second one. When I think about change, I think about the change of seasons. It doesn’t matter whether you live in an area where you only have two seasons, the dry season and the wet season, or you live in an area where you have winter, …