But, while you’re enjoying your Memorial Day celebration, be sure to keep the reason for the celebration in mind.  A lot of people have given their lives in service to the United States over the centuries, about 1,319,729 people total when all conflicts are considered*, and this is when we emphasis the importance of remembering them.  (Which we should do every day, but I understand that that is not always possible, hence the special day to do so.)  Enjoy the day off, the nice weather (hopefully), and everything else the holiday brings, but remember why the holiday is here.  With that said, let’s look at some of the

Great Yakezie Posts

Marijuana Stocks and Other Ways to Invest in Cannabis – With increasing numbers of states legalizing pot (and the federal government under increasing pressure to follow), marijuana might be a good investment area, as The College Investor notes.

Two Big Reasons to Separate Your Business and Personal Activities – As it becomes easier and easier to take your work home (or work from home to start), the tax and legal issues make it important to maintain a barrier between the two, as noted by Life and My Finances.

3 Fun and Frugal Summer Get-Togethers - Fitting when we are talking about how to celebrate Memorial Day, this guide from The Frugal Toad should help you come up with some inexpensive ways to celebrate during the summer.

5 Things to Consider Before Quitting Your Day Job – A lot of people want to end their day jobs and work from home, but there are issues that need to be resolved.  Work Save Live provides five of those issues, to help you plot your escape.

Bucket List Challenge - I have a bucket list, but like many people, I haven’t given much thought to complete the items on said list in the near future.  Buck Inspire, though, has encouraged us to get those goals much sooner, while we have the time.

Contests and Giveaways

• Samsung 50-Inch LED HDTV Giveaway - There’s a multi-blog contest ongoing, giving away an HDTV, and you can enter by May 31st on a number of blogs, including Young Adult Money.
• City Skyline Prints - I’ve always been impressed by these sorts of skyline images, and Take Our Stuff gives you a chance to win.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

It was once again an impressive week for The Amateur Financier to be included in carnivals.  Of course, when you have an article as impressive as 7 Things You Can Make Rather Than Buy, I suppose it can be done pretty easily.

• Carnival of MoneyPros at Freeat33
• Finance Carnival for Young Adults at Faithful With a Few
• Carnival of Retirement at Money Q and A
• Yakezie Carnival at Money Reasons

That’s it for this week’s round-up.  Here’s hoping you have a great Memorial Day weekend, and do whatever you can to support those whom we are trying to memorialize (as well as those who served and lived).

*I’m not going to get into the politics of these wars in the course of this article.  Mentioning this list  is not an attempt to support or justify all the conflicts listed; between the conflicts with Amerindians, the battles with previous settlers, and the ‘police actions’ of the past half century, there’s a lot of wars that we would probably have been better not fighting.  Regardless of how questionable the actions of the leaders involved might have been, it’s still important to remember the sacrifices of those who risked, and gave, their lives in support of our country.

How to Get Rich seeks to answer that question. With a subtitle of ‘Wealth Building Guide for the Financially Illiterate’, it should provide some useful money management information. Plus, since it is written by Barbara Friedberg, a fellow personal financial blogger, you can bet that it will be interesting and entertaining. Does it meet those expectations? Let’s find out!

Summary

How to Get Rich opens with an Introduction, sharing how important it is to develop good money habits. It stresses that it takes a great deal of time and effort to achieve financial success.

Step 1: Keep The Debt Devil From Sweating You

The first chapter stresses the problems with debt, particularly how it leads you to spending more through interest, sometimes years after you did the initial spending. It notes the need to pay down debt as quickly as possible, suggesting to pay down your lowest total debt first and then paying down further debt with money that went to that debt.

Step 2: Saving-The Path to More Benjamins

This chapter looks at the idea of saving, stressing the importance of saving money now in order to achieve a successful financial future. The primary advice focuses on how having money automatically taken from your paychecks before you receive them so you don’t notice it. As to where to go with that money, there are three baskets recommended, for short-, medium-, and long-term goals, and different investments for each.

Step 3: Spend Your Way to An Awesome Life

This title of this chapter might sound odd for a PF book (sounding at first glance like encouragement to spend), but keeping your spending under control is an important part of personal finance. Here, you get some budgeting advice and methods of keeping your spending below your income, so you don’t find yourself with more ‘month than money’.

Step 4: Get a Cool Crib Cheap

Starting with some impressive alliteration, this step covers how to get yourself a living space without breaking the bank. The emphasis is on buying a home (or a condominium), putting your monthly payments toward equity in your living space. There’s also some advice on building up money for that down-payment when preparing to buy.

Step 5: Stuff Happens-Protect Yourself From Loss

This chapter starts by sharing a personal tale about Friedberg and her husband waking up to find a burglar breaking into their home. The rest of the chapter looks at some of the other bad things that can happen in your life, and how to use insurance to protect yourself against the bad things that happen in life.

Step 6: Be a Portfolio Player! I Have No Money Investment Strategy

With your other financial needs covered, step six provides a crash course on how to invest. From short definitions of key investments like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds to a quick example of asset allocation, there’s plenty of basics for a would-be investor.

Step 7: Secrets of the Rich

With all the basics of money management out of the way, it’s time to look at a big goal: how to become rich. This chapter provides a look into how the wealthy think and behave, and how you can shift your behavior to move towards growing your net wealth to impressive levels.

Step 8: Short and Sweet Summary

As you might guess from the title, this step provides a brief review of the principles covered throughout the book. It shares some stories of how good or bad money management can lead to success or failure in the rest of your life, and how to set yourself on the path toward success.

The e-book finishes with lots of resources to help fulfill the goals laid out, as well as notes about the calculations and quotations used throughout.

Pros

• Good Money Overview: How to Get Rich provides a nice introduction to money management and wealth building, giving a good starting guide to beginners at utilizing money properly.
• Helpful Figures and Checklists: The writing in the book is supported by useful images and checklists to provide resources to the readers.
• Very Personalized: Friedberg provides more stories and personal anecdotes than you encounter in most money management resources, making it more personalized than many PF books.

Cons

• Not Much Depth: As with many introductory financial guides, there isn’t much beyond the most basic concepts in money management.
• Some Oversimplification: In the same respect, there is a tendency to give only the most rudimentary information in each area (particularly pronounced in the investment chapter).

Overall

How to Get Rich is a pretty useful, if basic, guide to money management. It provides a good introduction to many of the most important concepts in personal finance. It makes a decent starter guide for someone who is, well, financially illiterate.

Alright, all kidding aside, crowdfunding works by allowing companies, groups and individuals to solicit money and support from people out in the broader world using website postings.  These organizations and people would like to accomplish certain tasks but lack the money to do so, and decide to approach the world at large rather than more traditional funding groups.

These sort of people just aren’t willing to give them money.

On the donation/investment side, you and other would-be donors/investors are able to provide money to support these projects.  In return, you can get some sort of return, ranging from a type of gift to simple satisfaction of helping a goal youapprove.  (And yes, there are some sites and projects that allow you earn money from your donations, more below.)

So what made crowdfunding suddenly so popular recently?  Well, just over a year ago, the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups; interesting acronym, I know) Act was passed, which, among other things, allowed companies in the USA to offer equity to investors in exchange for crowdfunding money.  It also allows investors who are not accredited (those with a net worth of more than $1 million or earning $200,000+ each year) to make these sorts of investments, greatly increasing the number of possible investors (maybe including you!)

Pros and Cons of Crowdfunding Investing

After all that, you’re probably ready to jump right into crowdfunding, either as an investor or as an entrepreneur using crowdfunding as a means of boosting your available money.  If you are the latter case, and have a plan you’d like to put into action that needs some money for its implementation, you’re in luck.  There are quite a few sites out there that are directed at entrepreneurs anyway and provide advice on taking advantage of crowdfunding.  If you are thinking about using crowdfunding to fund a project, just let me say, good luck to you!

For this article, though, we’re going to focus on the investor side of the equation; this is a PF blog after all, so a potential investment could prove interesting.  As with any type of investment, there are both pros and cons when it comes to putting money into crowdfunding, so let’s dive right in:

Pro – You’re Now Allowed to Gain Equity from Crowdfunding Investments: For many years those seeking crowdfunding money were only to offer token rewards for donations (T-shirts, copies of the video or book being produced, etc.) if anything.  Thanks to the JOBS Act, though, for-profit crowdfunding investments are here.

Con - There Are Frauds Out There: Currently there aren’t any sources for investigating the information provided by the crowdfunding businesses (that’d be one of those issues that is delaying the SEC from giving for-profit crowdfunding its complete approval).  Until these issues are fully resolved, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee that your crowdfunding money will go to a good source.

Pro – You Have a Chance to Get Into a Huge Investment on the Ground Floor: While you invest via crowdfunding, it’s possible to get equity in a company or project right at its start.  It’s effectively venture capital for smaller scale investors, giving you potential part ownership in a company with huge potential in the future, possibly leading to tremendous profits.

Con - You Can Lose A Lot of Money: Before you go putting the bulk of your money into crowdfunding, it’s worth remembering that even when you are able to invest for profit, it’s not a very safe investment.  Since it is basically venture capital on a smaller scale, there is plenty of change to lose money. Many of the businesses and projects simply won’t succeed, and your money will be gone, even when the SEC prevents (or at least minimizes) fraud.

Pro – You Can Help Fund Some Wonderful Ideas…: There are plenty of great ideas out there, where their sources lack the needed money to put them into play.  By putting money into these sorts of projects, you’ll be a vital part of ensuring that these projects (like these, for those video game fans) come into existence, and possibly even gain money or another reward as a result.

Con – …Or Some Horrible Ones: Not every idea is a good one, crowdfunding included.  There are plenty of ideas that simply shouldn’t be funded, the sort of things that make you think, ‘You know, maybe the inability for this project to get backers is proof that traditional fundraising sources are correct after all.’  That some strange projects get funding can be…disturbing, at times.

My View: As a means of providing support for projects and people you want to encourage (or getting support for your own project), crowdfunding makes a pretty solid method.  When you are expecting more substantial rewards, from the objects offered to possible investment proceeds, you should be more cautious; there’s no guarantee that the fund raiser will get the needed funds, or that they will succeed, or that they are even telling the truth about their goals.  Use caution, and as with individual stock investing, use only money you can afford to lose.

Some Useful Crowdfunding Sites

Alright, you’ve seen some of the pluses and minuses of crowdfunding; if you’re still interested, where should you go to invest?  There are numerous sites (more than 450, in fact) that allow you to put up your funding request.  Here’s a  few to get you started:

1. Kickstarter: This is easily the most famous of all crowdfunding sites.  It is quite popular among artists and other creative types.  It doesn’t permit money or equity in the project in exchange for money, limiting reimbursement to objects or simply pride in your contributions.

2. AngelList: This site is more focused on technical projects, and only recently commited to crowdfunding.  If you are looking more for projects that focus on things like apps and technical equipment, this is the sitefor you.

3. Crowdfunder: A pretty fitting name for a crowdfunding site, it provides an opportunity to fund plenty of businesses, and gain debt, revenue-based securities, or even equity for your investment.  It can also serve as a good starting place, even if you can’t get the attention of Angel Investor or Venture Capitalists at your current level.

Those are far from the only crowdfunding sites; here’s 10 of them (including some I’ve already listed).  A little bit of searching can turn up plenty of sites covering all the types of crowdfunding you could possibly desire.

What do you think about crowdfunding?  What return would you require for your investment?  Would you consider using crowdfunding to fund a goal for you?

Image Source: Morguefile

Luckily, there are more ways than ever to earn money nowadays, and even more luckily, we’re going to go through some of them right now.  In this blog entry, we’re looking at the really unusual methods, though, so nothing relatively commonplace (like blogging, for example).  Also, we’re talking about an income, which means new earned money, not a loan (particularly not a payday loan; those things are just horrible all around).

What sources of money are even left? Well, let’s consider these

Unusual Methods of Alternate Income

1.  Selling Your Body Parts: Alright, this one is not something you’re likely to put at the top of your ‘I could use a bit more money’ to-do list, but it can be done, and done without having to cut into tender parts of your anatomy, to boot.  (Besides, selling organs is illegal in the US, so even if you were willing to part with, say, a kidney, that’s not an option here).

You should not view your vital organs as a source of cash. Trust me.

No, we’re talking about much easier to part with (and replace) body bits here.  You could sell your blood plasma, for example, about twice a week for a decent payment each time.  You can sell your hair to those who want to buy, and apparently there’s a sizable market; who knew?  You can also sell breast milk, semen, and even eggs.  (Although that last one requires taking hormones to stimulate the release of multiple eggs, and can lead to some health complications, so think carefully before trying it, ladies.)

2. Participate in Medical Tests: New drugs and medical treatments need to be tested before they can be approved for use on the population at large. This is a long process involving numerous stages designed to prevent any harmful drugs from being released.  Part of that testing process, usually one of the final steps before approval, requires the drugs to be used on people to see the side effects that can result.

As you might guess, this isn’t something many people volunteer to do, so it can be a source of money if you don’t mind being a human guinea pig.  You do generally need to be healthy, though, so you’re likely out of luck if you are suffering from any conditions that could influence how the medication could affect you.  (You’re not completely out of luck, though, as some medications need to be tested on people with particular conditions.)

3. Selling (Virtual) Items: This might not seem too unusual at first; selling things is one of the time honored ways of earning money.  The unusual part comes in when you start talking about virtual items.  That is, when you are selling items you have accumulated in, say, an online game (World of Warcraft is a biggie) to people for real money.  I’ve mentioned this before, on the buying side; if you sell, though, you can potentially make some decent money.

Be aware, though, that’s it’s not as easy as playing a game a few hours a week and making hundreds of bucks a month.  There are more than a few issues that arise when you try to make a profit in the real world from stuff you’ve accumulated in game.  The legal issues are particularly important, as this a pretty grey area when it comes to what you can and cannot do legally with virtual items.  (Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft, isn’t particularly fond of people trying to sell in-game items, and will ban players who try; that hasn’t stopped many people from doing so.)

4. Participate in Mock Trials: There are plenty of areas where you can earn money for contributing your time, your attention, and usually, your opinion.  From focus groups to mystery shopping, you can find plenty of opportunities to share some thoughts with interested parties and earn a profit out of the deal.

One of my favorite of such opportunities is a mock trial.  It’s hard to argue with an opportunity to earn hundreds of dollars (as much as $100 an hour, apparently) by sitting through an abbreviated trial and offering your opinion on the cases presented.  While not a full-time job by any means, it sounds like a good method for a few extra bucks once or twice a month.  (And definitely more appealing than actual jury duty.)

5. Street Performing: Alright, this is admittedly a bit on the weird side (even on a list of unusual methods of alternate income), but it has potential.  If you have a skill that can be performed out in public, you can make a surprisingly decent income as a ‘busker’, a street performer.  Plus, if you are particularly skilled, you might be able to parlay your busking into a broader entertaining career, which is surprisingly common.

If you don’t have any talents that you can turn into successful street performing, you could also try begging.  It’s admittedly even less appealing than busking, and it probably seems like it has less chance of becoming a serious profession.  Although, if you’re willing to keep at it, you can apparently make a sizable income, perhaps even a six figure salary.  You might want to avoid telling anyone you’re begging money from about just how much you earn if you get anywhere near that level, though.

That’s it for this list, although with a little bit of searching, I’m sure you can come up with plenty of other weird (and less than weird) ways to earn some side income.  What unusual methods would you recommend?  Are there any more commonplace suggestions you’d put at the top of your ‘If I Need Extra Money’ list?

Picture Source: Morguefile

While we’re waiting to hear some news, I’m doing what I can, mainly trying to give my wife a chance to rest and relax as things progress.  It means I’m spending more time this weekend taking care of our little baby (not that I don’t already do a lot to care for her, but I digress).  I covered all the feeding, changing, and playing with Laney yesterday, which was a nice reminder of just how much time and effort goes into caring for a five month old child (even before you factor in the added fun of caring for an attention-craving dog.)

It was an interesting day, to say the less, and a nice reminder of how difficult the task of ‘stay-at-home parent’ really is.  It’s days like yesterday that greatly increase my respect for all the stay-at-home moms out there, to say nothing of all those moms who can do that and still have the energy to do something like blogging.  I’ll definitely have to check out more of those blogs, so I’ll have some excellent examples to share as:

Great Yakezie Posts

Lost Someone You Love? Consider Still Celebrating Their Birthday – This entry seems surprisingly appropriate for my current situation.  The suggestion from Mom’s Plans might be a good way to deal with a major loss in life.

Reading Books on the Cheap – I love reading and I love saving money, so I definitely enjoyed this article on Out of Debt Again.  I’m an online store fan myself, but keeping all the options to read in mind is a plus.

The Truly Best Jobs in The World – There’s a lot of discussion out there about what are the best jobs in the world, and here the Financial Samurai shares his.  Despite forgetting ‘research scientist’, his choices are pretty good.

3 Painless Ways to Be Frugal – If you hope to succeed in life, you need to save money in your life.  Luckily, it’s not always a major task; as Everything Finance notes, there are some easy ways to cut your spending.

Personal Crowd Funding? – Crowdfunding is becoming ever more popular, for everything from books to video games.  Now it might be used for more personal needs, as Beating Broke notes.

5 Surprising Ways to Supersize Your Family Vacation – Vacation season is nearly upon us, and finding ways to enjoy yourself without spending a bundle can be tricky.  Luckily The Free Financial Advisor has some advice.

Frugal Alternatives to a Genealogical Road Trip – Want to learn more about your ancestors? You could go to visit some of your relatives, or you could take advantage of some of the methods noted on Frugal Confessions to learn about your family without spending too much.

My Tips to Having a Good Test Drive at Car Dealerships – Taking a test drive is a good way to get a feel for a car you want to drive.  But to get the most out of the experience, you should follow a few tips, as note by Well Heeled Blog.

Why Everyone Should Care About the IRS Targeting Conservative Groups – There’s a lot about this (for lack of a better word) scandal in the news lately, but this article on Don’t Quit Your Day Job is one of the most balanced and least hysterical I’ve seen.

IRA or Powerball? – If your retirement plan is winning the Powerball (or any form of gambling), you should rethink matters.  An IRA would be a good option, as noted by Live Real, Now.

Contests and Giveaways

• You Want These Macarons – That’s the right spelling, according to Surviving and Thriving.  Enter by 7 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, May 21st for a chance to win a collection of fifteen macarons.
• Samsung UN50EH6000 50-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV! - There’s a multi-blog contest ongoing, with The Frugal Path being one host.  Enter by May 31st for a chance to win.
• Steampunk Light Bulb Flash Drive - It’s amazing the neat things that exist out there, and this USB drive in the shape of a light bulb is definitely an interesting one.  Enter on Take Our Stuff (where else?) for a chance to win.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

Since I’ve been in a home-making mood for most of the weekend, my guide to 15 More Organic Homemade Cleaning Products seems quite appropriate, and also managed to get featured in a few carnivals, including:

• Finance Carnival for Young Adults at WILDaboutFinance
• Carnival of MoneyPros at My Personal Finance Journey

Alright, that rounds things out for this week’s round-up.  Now it’s time for me to get back to caring for my little girl (and my wife, since I’ve been trying to keep her happy and healthy as well).  Here’s hoping you all have a good week, and have plenty of time with your loved ones!

Show Your Loved Ones That You Care

Tell your children that you love them (if you haven’t done so already today), remind your siblings just how much you care, and call your parents to let them know that you appreciate everything they’ve given you.  (I realize you might have done that last one already this week, seeing as Sunday was Mother’s Day and all.  I’d suggest you do it again anyway; she is your mother after all.)  Spend time with your friends this weekend, and let your spouse know just how much you care.

You unfortunately never know just how much time you’ll have left.  It’s better to make sure that your family and friends know just how much you love them, just in case it turns out that this is the last day either you or they have left.

On that note, I’ll be spending the rest of the day (and a good amount of this weekend) with my loving wife.

I’ve been even more cautious about what can happen in the world since my daughter was born.  It’s no longer just me that I need to worry about, or even me and my wife, but now a beautiful girl who depends on us for absolutely everything in her life.  That’s why I’ve been looking into insurance of all types, and why I’m now going to talk about

10 Things To Put In Your Will

Yes, a will, that legal document that determines what happens to all your property, to say nothing of your children, when you are dead and gone.  It’s not the most pleasant of subjects to consider (as is the case with anything having to do with death, I suppose), but you need to take care of it, particularly when you do have children or other dependents to consider.  Here are some things you need to include to produce a simple will:

1. Your Name and the Date of the Will: Pretty easy, hunh?  Well, before we get into any of the finer points of will creation, it’s good to remember that the name of the testator (person creating the will; in this case, you) must be included.

2. Identification of the Document as Your Will:  You also need to ensure that there is clear indication of your intent for the document to serve as your will.  Something to the effect of “I, [Name Here], being of sound mind and body, declare this document as my last will and testament” should do the trick.

Yup, writing up all kinds of documents is a fun task (although, if you’re discussing single malt Scotch…)

3. Identification of Your Executor: The executor of your estate has the responsibility of handling all your assets, liabilities and any other legal issues upon your death.  Make sure anyone you list as executor is willing to do the job before appointing them, though; you don’t want someone unwilling to handle the task serving as your executor.    You also should make sure to appoint more than one, if the first executor is unable to fulfill their responsibilities (like after their death, for example).

4. How to Handle Outstanding Debts and Expenses: One thing you want to do in your will is to make sure that your outstanding debts, at least those that are not forgiven upon your death, are properly handled.  What debts your survivors will be responsible for paying will depend on the laws of your state, and are important to know when you are planning your estate and writing your will.

5. The Caretakers for Your Children (Or Anyone Else You Care For): One of the most important points you should handle in your will is who is going to care for your kids (or other dependents).  You should select someone besides your significant other to care for your children, should something happen to you both at the same time.  You will probably also want to include instructions on who will care for your pets, although they are technically considered property, and as such are included in:

6. Beneficiaries For Specific Bequests: Your property should be passed on to the people you want to inherit it.  The statements noting whom you want to get the property are known as specific bequests, and designate who gets what, and under what conditions.  They can include both people and organizations, if you want some of your property to pass onto a charity or perhaps your alma mater.  You should also include:

7. Alternative Beneficiaries: Alas, sometimes things happen to the people we want to inherit our property before they can inherit it, if you happen to die at the same time, for example.  Having alternative beneficiaries listed (or by listing their spouses, children, or other survivors as the beneficiaries if they have passed on) will help to ensure that your property passes on to someone you would still want to inherit it.

8. The Residuary Beneficiary: There’s a fair chance that you’re not going to go through every item that you own and list someone to receive it (or that you will remember absolutely everything even if you wanted to).  Naming a residuary beneficiary, the beneficiary who will receive all the remaining portion of your estate, will ensure that any other items you own pass onto whom you would like to inherit it.

9. Your Signature: As with just about any legal document, you’ll need to sign it for it to be truly legalized.  In some states, this is all you that need to do.  Should your state allow ‘holographic wills‘, which are any wills that have the elements of a will even if handwritten (or scratched in the hood of a car), all you really need to make the will completely legal is to sign it.  Should your state not allow holographic wills, you’ll also need:

10. Witnesses: To minimize any legal complications when your will is being executed, witnesses should sign the will verifying that you did have a will and were in a proper state of mind to create such a will.  The number of witnesses you need will vary depending on the state (three in some, two in others), although they should not benefit from the will, to prevent the will from being created under duress.

A final note before we go: Remember that I am not a lawyer, and even if I was, laws about what is, and is not, required in a will vary throughout the country.  (Let’s not even talk about how legal issues like are different around the world.)  If you want to create a will that you can be sure will be fully legal, you should make sure you get legal help, at least to the extent of having a lawyer review your will upon completion.

Those are some basic points on what to include in a will.  Did I miss anything (not a lawyer, after all)?  Would you recommend any other changes to make?

As my daughter gets older, Sondra and I have been talking more and more about just how we should prepare for bad events, particularly now that we have someone besides the two of us to consider.  One of the issues that has come up at several points, including this part weekend, is insurance.  It’s not too surprising, I suppose, as I am a PF blogger who has talked about insurance in the past, and we find ourselves currently in the sort of rough financial state that could (theoretically) be avoided with the proper types of insurance.

Hopefully helping to avoid your baby looking like this.

So, I thought that while I am having these considerations, I might as well share them, since talking about insurance on a personal finance blog makes for a pretty good entry.  With all that in mind, let’s consider

5 Types of Vital Insurance

1. Life Insurance – For Parents: This is possibly the most commonly cited insurance to hold for your financial health (I know I’ve brought it up), but it’s worth mentioning again, particularly in the context of how to prepare for your children.  After all, if you and/or your spouse (or significant other or what have you) should happen to well, die, having a policy in place that will help fill the lose of income and provide the survivor with a chance to grieve.

The type and amount of insurance to choose will depend on many factors in your life; the typical personal finance blogger answers, which I tend to agree with for most people, would be a term policy covering to at least the age of 55 (or close to expected retirement age), for at least 5 to 10 times your current (combined) income for each parent.  That said, you should make sure to review your financial situation and needs before making  any final decisions (as you should for all these types of insurance).

-For Children: Another question that frequently comes up is whether you should get life insurance for children.  The default answer from most PF bloggers (or other advisors) is no, as your children don’t earn any money and should (God forbid) they die, it won’t affect your income.  However, as Evan of My Journey to Millions notes, there are reasons to consider doing so, from your need to take time off work to recover after your child’s passing to helping guarantee your child the ability to get insurance in the future. It’s definitely something you’ll need to consider.

2. Health Insurance – For Parents: There are sure to be health problems at some point in your life.  If you have a good job, though, you’ll have a decent health insurance plan through your (or your spouse’s) job.  If not, well, that’s where things always start to get tricky.  With luck, you’ll be able to get health insurance privately, although until next year when the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) kicks in to full effect, you might have trouble getting insurance if you have a pre-existing condition.  At that point, a lot of things will change, so it’s probably good to read up on those changes to know what to expect this time next year.

For Children: While we’re talking about the Affordable Care Act, it’s worth noting that starting back in 2010, children were able to be kept on their parents’ plan up to the age of 26.  If you have a decent plan (a big if, I know), you’ll be able to provide your children with healthcare through your plan without much difficulty or expense.  Good news all around, I’d say.

3. Long-Term Disability Insurance – For Parents: There’s a sadly high chance that at some point in your working life, you will find yourself unable to work.  If you are the major (or sole) breadwinner in the household, you’ll want to ensure that as much of your income as possibl keeps coming in.  Until you have enough in savings to provide for your spending on savings alone (that is, you could retire whenever you wish, and are working simply to add to your nest egg), you should be sure that any working parent has long-term (and short-term, for that matter) disability insurance to provide for disability-related losses of income.

For Children: Here’s a case where ‘children don’t bring in money and don’t need to be insured’ definitely rings true.  Unless your child is bringing in a sizable amount of the family income, you don’t need to have any insurance on her or him.  When she or he reaches working age, though, you should encourage them to look into this insurance, though, just in case they happen to run in a debilitating condition while working.

4. Auto Insurance – For Parents: Assuming you drive, which is pretty much the way of the world here in the U.S.A., you’ll need auto insurance simply to drive legally in most parts of the country.  With a new passenger in the car, it’s all the more important to have a substantial policy that will cover the expenses that would arise from a serious accident.  It’s important to consider not just the cost of the car, but of any other expenses that could arise, healthcare or otherwise.

For Children: For the first sixteen years (give or take a few months depending on when your state allows teens to get a driver’s license), you won’t need to cover your teen.  Expect to pay significantly more when your kid is ready to drive, though, as teens tend to be less than ideal drivers, and the cost is thus higher.  Be sure to teach your child how to drive well, so there aren’t any accidents (both for financial, and of course, health, reasons).

5. Homeowner’s/Renter’s Insurance – For Parents: Should something happen to your dwelling, it will be incredibly helpful in the process of replacing it if you had insurance to cover the costs.  That’s what homeowner’s insurance handles for homeowners and renter’s insurance covers for, well, renters.  (Many mortgage providers also require homeowners insurance on ‘their’ properties, so you might need to get it just to live in your desired home.)

This insurance will cover the costs of the items that are lost in events like burglary, fire, or flood.  You’ll need to choose between ‘replacement cost’ insurance, which provides enough money to repurchase the lost items, or ‘actual cash value’ insurance, which provides only the depreciated (aka, significantly lower) prices.  The premium on replacement cost is higher, although as you can tell, it’s definitely the better policy should you need to replace items lost in a catastrophic event.

One final note: there are frequently limits to the types of damage that are covered by homeowner’s policies.  Flood damage is the most commonly cited, but water-damage and wind-damage are also sometimes excluded, particularly in areas inclined to such damage.  (Crazy, I know.)  The point being, you should be sure to check what is, and isn’t, covered on your policy before you need to use that coverage.

For Children: Until your children are old enough to have their own houses (or at least rent an apartment), you don’t need to worry about getting them coverage.  You might want to check your parents’ coverage, though, to ensure that they are covered for anything likely to affect them (and anything that isn’t, while we’re at it).

Those are five of the biggest types of insurance out there, and how we as parents should handle them for both ourselves and our children.  What are your thoughts on these types of insurance and how to handle them for yourselves and children?  Are there any major types of insurance that I have missed?

As someone who is experiencing this holiday as a parent for the first time, it’s interesting to be able to celebrate with my wife and our new daughter.  I’m incredibly happy to be able to celebrate with them, as they really are my world now. I can only hope that by this time next year, I’m in a better position to provide for both of them.  But for now, I’m just hoping that I do all the cleaning and organizing for my wife today (I’m not allowed to cook, as things tend to start on fire when I try).  While I’m doing that, why don’t you enjoy some excellent posts, starting with a few Mother’s Day thoughts.

Great Yakezie Posts

Mother’s Day Gift Ideas Inspired by Warren Buffet – It’s too late to go out and buy (or make) any of the things suggested here by Barbara Friedberg, but the idea to spend the day doing an activity together is certainly a good one.  Although…

Mother’s Day Backup Plans – As Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff notes, it’s possible for things to happen that render your initial Mom’s Day plans unworkable.  If you want to avoid the trouble she and her sister are having, it might be good to have a backup.

Surprising Mother’s Day Facts – If you’re hankering for some Mom’s day trivia, and don’t mind learning about infidelity website subscriptions (among other things), check out this infographic from The Free Financial Advisor.

How to Become a Minimum Wage Millionaire – It’s not impossible, as KrantCents notes, but it does require a lot of planning, effort, and more willingness to do without than most people can handle.  If you want to try shooting for it, good luck!

Easy Steps and Real Obstacles to Building Wealth – Of course, if it were really that easy, everyone would be a millionaire (or well on their way).  As Squirrelers notes, though, there are some things that can happen in life to derail your plans that are outside your control.

Contests and Giveaways

• Deal With Your Debt Book – A book review and giveaway of Deal With Your Debt by Liz Weston, from Donna Freedman on Surviving and Thriving.  Read and enter by May 13th (aka, tomorrow).
• United by Blue Bike Bag Give-Away – Care for a bag to use the next time you go on a bike ride? Enter this contest on Bike Lane Living by 7 p.m. PDT on May 13th for a chance to win one.
• Keep Your Eye on the Marshmallow – Another book review and giveaway, this time of Keep Your Eye on the Marshmallow, courtesy of Money Life and More.   You have until May 16th for this one.
• Samsung UN50EH6000 50-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV! – There are several bloggers engaged in a group giveaway of a Samsung HDTV, if you’d like a shot to win, check out the contest on The Free Financial Advisor, among others.
• 7 Days, 7 Games – A new week, a new contest at  Take Our Stuff, this time giving away a total of seven games over a week.  If you’d like a chance to win some classic games, be sure to enter for a chance to win.

Also, I should give a shout-out to Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, whose Weekly Favorites articles help me keep track of many of these contests (the first three of these contesst in fact, for one example).

Where The Amateur Was Featured

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks it’s nice being able to cut down your spending and your negative impact on the planet in one go; my article on 8 Ways to Save Money While Saving The World was featured in numerous carnivals, including

• Carnival of Financial Camaraderie at My University Money
• Carnival of MoneyPros at Thirty Six Months
• Finance Carnival for Young Adults at Fat Guy,Skinny Wallet
• Yakezie Carnival at Growing Money Smart
• Carnival of Retirement at Brick By Brick Investing

Alright, that’s it for now.  It’s back to taking care of my wife and spending Mother’s Day enjoying being a father.  I hope that you have an enjoyable day, as well!

But first, a few notes. When I talk about ‘legalization’, I’m not talking about being able to buy a pound of marijuana or an ounce of cocaine (if we still aren’t following the metric system as per my last rant) at the local McDonald’s. Instead, we’re talking about the same sort of system that currently exists with alcohol or prescription drugs:

• Minimum age limits for purchase
• Limits on the strength available, and
• The need to get a prescription from a doctor to limit the amount and strength of drug taken(particularly for stronger drugs).

I’m also not opposed to keeping some of the strongest drugs mostly or entirely illegal, although I think that the more drugs that can be available in some form or another, if for no other reason than to limit their use as a source of funds for criminal organizations (more on that later).

Plus, let’s be honest, there are plenty of legal drugs already

With that out of the way, it’s time to consider why I feel that it should be possible for most illicit drugs to be able to acquired in one way another.  That involves looking at the

Innate vs. Contextual Problems of Illicit Drugs

Whenever there is a discussion of illegal drugs, lot of problems will be raised.  I’m not going to argue that there are no problems with drugs; as a biochemist who’s taking a psychopharmacology course or two, I know that any drug that can affect the way people think can lead to some powerful issues. I merely feel that the problems with making the drugs illegal are worse than the problems caused by the drugs themselves.

Those latter problems, the innate problems of the drugs, are the effects that the drugs have on the takers’ minds and bodies.  Things like  the physiological (analgesic or stimulant for example) and psychological (opiod or hallucenigenic) effects of a given drug are the same regardless of the whether the drug is the illegal or available over the counter.  These are the effects most of the drug laws attempt to avoid (at least in theory).

The other type of problems with drugs are contextual, that is, dependent on the status of those drugs.  Because these illicit drugs are, well, illicit, some problems result strictly as a result of them being illegal.  People who use the drugs are arrested, the money paid for those drugs goes to some questionable people, and the drugs themselves aren’t always inspected that well (if at all).  These lead to most of the

Reasons to Legalize Illicit Drugs

1. Raising Tax Money: Since this is a personal finance blog, perhaps we should start with the financial argument.  There are two points to the monetary argument.  First, by adding a new source that can be taxed, you can raise more money by having something else to tax.  Second, by cutting down on the cost of dealing with illegal drug use (which we shall go into in just a moment).

How much money can be made, you ask?  According to a report from the Cato Institute, not known as a source for crazed liberal idea, the combination of new taxes and saving on drug crime related expenses could be as much as $88 billion each year accruing to federal, state, and local governments.  While not enough to, say, balance the budget, it could cut down on a lot of expenses, particularly in our prison systems, in part because it would serve to

2. Cut Down on Crime: Without laws against the use and possession of illicit drugs, there will obviously be fewer drug offenses.  But that’s not all; without drugs as a source of income, criminal organizations will have less money to use for their purposes.  Between the ability to get drugs through legal methods and having lower prices they currently are, the cartels will find themselves with much less income as a result of drugs.  Lower crime also leads to

3. Reduce Prison Populations: Approximately 330,000 people are currently in jail for non-violent drug offenses.  By cutting down the number of offenses that lead to prison sentences, drug legalizing can help to reduce the level of people in prison.  It explains some of those savings we saw in the first point, plus helps to keep people from winding up in the jail system as the result of nonviolent drug offenses by making them, well, non-offenses.

4. Improve Health: Ironically, in spite of all the government, one of the most useful government activities, monitoring the quality of items put on the market, doesn’t actually occur.  By legalizing drugs, it becomes possible to monitor them, ensuring that they are quality drugs of the type and strength stated, and preventing contaminated drugs from infecting people.  A lot of the health issues associated with drugs could be avoided, or at least minimized, by ensuring that the drugs are as high quality as possible.

These issues are enough to make it clear to me that illicit drugs (or at least most illicit drugs) should be legalized.

A Few Final Notes

I will be the first to admit that these represent only one side of what is a very complex issue.  There are many counterpoints to what I’ve said, as well as other issues I haven’t touched on.  I don’t pretend that the other side doesn’t have some good points; if you’d like to read some of said points, this HuffingtonPost slideshow displays both sides of the debate fairly well.

There are also a great many illicit drugs out there, which as noted, all have different effects.  That each should be treated differently under the law seems good, which could lead to situations where, for example, marijuana is fully legalized, LSD is available under a prescription and/or with medical proof that you can handle its effects, and heroin is still illegal.  I’d have no problem with an arrangement like that, and I think that most people would feel the same.

Lastly, just to be clear,I have never partaken of illicit drugs or for that matter, even smoked cigarettes.  I have no desire to engage in any currently illicit drugs, and thus, would not directly benefit from any legalization like what I’ve discussed here. I merely think that this is the best policy approach for the country in general.

What are your thoughts on illicit drugs?  Should they be legalized, kept illegal, or some mixture of the two?  What issues do you think are most important when considering this issue?

The real problem with this news is the reason why they are dropping my credit limit: They claimed that my credit did not do well compared to others.  They provided a list of reasons (without too many details) for why my credit score had fallen so much, and thus why they were dropping the level of credit I have available.  Given that I have been paying all of my debts on time and as efficiently as I am able, this accusation, for lack of a better word, leaves me feeling…upset, to say the least.

When I start to feel like that, I like to look at a puppy to make me happier.

But it occurred to me, getting upset doesn’t do much to improve my situation.  What will improve my situation is reviewing my credit report and seeing if there are any mistakes that I can get corrected.  While I’m doing that, I figured I could share the details about how to do so with my readers, so if you find yourself in the same situation I am in (or want to keep yourself from ending in this sort of situation), read on.

Checking Your Credit Report and Score

Luckily for those of us in the US, checking our credit report is easy and free, thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  This act requires that three of the biggest credit reporting companies, Transunion, Equifax, and Experian, provide every citizen with a free credit report once every year (among other things, most of which we are about to cover).

To get your credit reports, all you need to do is go to annualcreditreport.com, fill out the form, and you’ll get your credit report in a matter of seconds.  If you prefer, you can opt for the phone or mail service, although I’m guessing most people reading this blog will prefer the electronic method.

Keep a few things in mind while you check out your credit reports in this method:

• That’s annualcreditreport.com, not freecreditreport.com; the latter is run by Experian and isn’t actually free after the first seven day trial.
• You only get one report per reporting company per year.  If you want more reports, you will have to pay each reporting company for the report(s).
• These reports, while very useful, don’t actually have your credit score as part of them.

To get your credit score, you will need to pay one or more of the agencies a fee to get the numbers from them.  You actually have three different credit scores, and your creditor(s) may use any one or more of them to determine how much credit to give you and how much interest to charge you.  (Actually, there are nearly fifty different FICO scores out there.  The ones from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion are by far the most popular, though, and the easiest to find your score and report for, so they are the ones I will be referring to in the rest of this article.)

If you are seeking more credit, from a new credit card to a home mortgage, you may need to check one or more of the credit reports to determine if they are accurate.  (The more credit you are being offered, the more likely that the creditor will check more than one report.)  If they are, that’s pretty much it.  You’re good (or as good as you’re going to get with your current credit score).  If there are mistakes, though, it’s time to look into

Correcting Credit Report Mistakes

If there is a mistake or mistakes on your credit report (and there are millions of such mistakes out there, so it is possible), it’s time to dispute your credit report.  It’s a bit annoying, but luckily, not terribly hard; just follow these simple steps:

1. Once you notice a mistake on one agency’s report, you should check the other two reports to see if they also show the same mistake.  You want to ensure that all three of the major agencies’ reports are accurate, and a mistake on one likely means a mistake on all.
2. Contact the credit agency (or agencies) with the credit error in writing about why you feel the information is inaccurate.  You need to send supporting evidence (copies, not originals) for your case.
3. When you mail your disputes and supporting evidence, make sure to send it certified mail or return receipt requested so as to know when it arrives.
4. At that point, it’s pretty much wait to see what happens.  Credit reporting companies have thirty days to review your dispute, so it could take a few weeks to hear a decision.

That’s pretty much it.  If your dispute is considered valid, the credit agencies will make the change on your report and send you a new copy showing that change.  You’ll have to buy access to your credit score to see if it made any change; given how relatively small changes in your score can lead to big changes in how you are viewed as a credit risk, it’s good to know where you stand.

If your dispute is not considered valid, things will get trickier.  You can dispute the charge again with the credit agency, but you’ll need to provide further supporting evidence, and hopefully you sent (copies of) all the supporting information you had along with the first dispute.  You could also dispute the error with the creditor; they will have 30-45 days to look into your dispute to see if there is any relevance.

A final note: this method only works with mistakes on your credit report, not accurate points you simply wish were different.  You are not able to get dropped charges or payment failures removed just because you would like them gone.  Neither you, nor any agency claiming to be able to clean your credit report, can get accurate things dropped from your credit report.  Just be aware that there are limits to what correcting your credit report can do.

That tells you what I have planned this week.  When was the last time you checked your credit report?  Do you know where your credit score stands?  Do you think this dependency on credit scores is a bit too crazy?

If you make the other choice, spending some more time to leave yourself with more money, you can find yourself at quite an advantage.  Besides the obvious benefit of more money, you can also build up skills in useful areas, the types of skills that will help you to make things that you can use or even sell later.  Yes, you’ll spend more time create these products, but the reward will be more than worth it when you learn to create these

7 Things You Should Make Rather Than Buy

1. Food – If you eat out every day for every meal, very soon you’ll find yourself without much money, or too many leftovers.  Should you opt to make your meals instead, you’ll find yourself with extra cash and be able to develop some useful skills in the kitchen.  You don’t have to set up a garden and grow all your food from seeds (although, that is certainly an option), but the more preparation you are willing to do before you eat, the more you will save.

Plus some of the best dinners you’ll have are those you make yourself.

2. Water – I’m not talking about chemically combining hydrogen and oxygen in a 2:1 ratio (although that works), but instead, rather than buy bottled water, why not simply get yourself a a thermos or two and put the water you intend to drink in there?  You’ll get water that’s just as fresh and clean (given that many bottled water sources are simply municipal taps, it’s a wash in many cases), for a fraction of the cost.  If needed, you can run the water through a filter system; that’s about what the bottling company would do.

3. Cleaning Supplies - I went through the making of cleaning supplies in depth last week, but it’s worth reiterating. Most of the cleaning chemicals you don’t have any cleaning chemicals you can’t find in a typical kitchen cabinet, and do have plenty of chemicals to which you’d prefer not to expose your children or pets (or yourself, for that matter).  There are plenty of cleaning supply recipes out there, more than you could ever need, for just about every type of cleaning you could need to do, all cheap and easy to make.

4. Beauty Supplies - You could argue, I suppose, that beauty supplies are the sort of thing that you should be able to drop altogether, but there are times and places where it is important.  If you need to look your best for a minimum cost, there are methods to make deodorant, lotions, and even facials without breaking the bank.  I can’t guarantee that such beauty supplies will actually make you look beautiful (that’s beyond the power of any beauty supply, regardless of the claims they might make), but at least you won’t be putting out a huge amount for your beauty supplies.

5. Toys - If you have done any shopping for toddlers or other youngsters lately, you’re probably aware that what counts as typical children’s toys nowadays tend to be expensive, complicated, and more technologically advanced than the average laptop.  Given that most toddlers would rather play with the boxes the toys came in anyway, you might want to check out some of these guides to making your own basic toys.  You’ll have the chance to make everything from watercolors to hula hoops, which should keep your little ones occupied for quite a while.

6. Gifts and Giveaways - There are any number of events that require you to give presents, with Christmas being the primary one for those of us with a Christian background.  Luckily, while the modern trend is toward expensive presents bought from elaborate shops, you can make plenty of gifts on your own to satisfy the gift giving requirements.  Just be aware that you should clarify your intentions with your recipients first; while most people should have no problem with a home-made gift, the last thing you want to do is add (even more) stress to the holiday season.

7. Dozens of Other Things - As any devoted Do It Yourself fan could tell you, I’ve barely scratched the surface here.  There are plenty of things you could potentially make on your own that I haven’t listed yet.  From seasonings to pesticides to mosquito repellent, there’s more than you can make than you could imagine.  And those are just some ideas laid out on this Man vs. Debt article; a little bit of searching will definitely turn up dozens, perhaps hundreds, of options.

There you have it, seven areas where you can cut your expenses and get to make things on your own the whole time.  Do you have any Do It Yourself things you do to cut your expenses?  Do you have any that you make simply for fun? Please do share!

Getting back to Cinco de Mayo, one of the busiest places I saw while out and about yesterday was a Mexican restaurant that looked downright packed.  Add in the fact that in our household, Cinco de Mayo isn’t a major holiday, and we’ll probably spend most of the day attending our neighbors’ daughter’s 8th birthday party.  After that party, it’ll be back to normal work, including reading through Yakezie articles to find some of the:

Great Yakezie Posts

Should I Sell My Website? Probably Not and Here’s Why – At some point, nearly every blog owner has considered selling their blog.  But the Financial Samurai shares some good advice on why you should hold off in this intriguing Yakezie post.

Is Anyone Stupid Enough to Care if a CEO’s Salary is $1 – While taking a $1 salary is a great way for a CEO to get some attention and positive press, they aren’t really losing much, as Evan of My Journey to Millions notes.

7 Way to Know You’ve Got Too Much Debt – There’s a lot of different ways to gauge your debt and try to determine if you have too much.  Young and Thrifty provides several signs that your debt load is getting far too high.

What is Forex Trading? – There’s a lot of different means of investing (or trading) as the case may be, and here Krantcents covers one of the most speculative: foreign exchange or forex.  Read to learn more.

When to Pull Out of Your Investment – Most investment guides give a lot of advice on how to buy the perfect investment, but tend to provide little (if any) advice on when to sell.  The College Investor seeks to change that, giving some advice on when to pull out of an investment.

Why You Should Be Skeptical of Financial “Rules of Thumb” – There’s only so much you can get from rules of thumb, financial or otherwise.  Prairie Eco-Thrifter notes how they should be merely starting points for your financial planning.

20 Adventure Vacation Ideas: My Top Picks for Fun and Exciting Vacations – There are lots of great places to visit around the world, and here some are good ideas courtesy of Untemplater.

Steps to Start Investing – If you’re ready to get into investing, it can be tempting to just rush right in, but that will likely end with you losing most of your investment.  20′s Finances provides some basics to help you get started in your investing career.

Can Tipping Change a Waiter’s Behavior? – Given how tips are considered little more than a regular requirement of dining out than a reward anymore, I’d say no.  This article on Consumerism Commentary seems to concur.

The Cost of Being Iron Man – Admit it, you’d like to be a superhero, and someone like Iron Man, who depends on science and technology, definitely would be a good modern hero goal.  But as Buck Inspire notes, it’s not cheap.

Contests and Giveaways

• The Best Motherly Advice I’ve Ever Received…And a Sephore Gift Card Giveaway! - You still have a little bit more time to get this Sephora gift card, if you enter by May 6th over at Frugal Beautiful.
• Cobra Cane - You’re going to see a lot of crazy stuff from Take Our Stuff, that much is pretty clear.  A super villain starter kit with a cane that has a hidden blade seems like one of the crazy of the current items.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

I like to rant, and this past week it worked out quite well for me.  My rant about the need to Switch Over To The Metric System, Already! was included in a number of carnivals, including:

• Carn. of Financial Camaraderie at Making Sense of Cents
• Carnival of MoneyPros at Money Pros
• Carnival of Retirement at Midlife Finance
• Yakezie Carnival at The Frugal Toad
• Carnival of Financial Planning at Dividend Monk

Alright, that’s about it for now.  Here’s hoping you have a happy Cinco de Mayo, and get to enjoy all kinds of celebratory activities with your friends and family.

Who Moved My Cheese? is just such a book.  The metaphorical tale of how several mice (and a few little people, while we’re at it) handle  the movement of the Cheese in their lives attempts to offer us insight into how to adapt to change in our lives.  Does it provide some interesting lessons, or simply leave us with a pile of sta

Summary

Who Moved My Cheese? opens by describing how the four characters depicted in the book (two mice named ‘Sniff’ and ‘Scurry’ and two little people named ‘Hem’ and ‘Haw’ represent different parts of all of us and how we approach life.  There’s then a foreword by Kenneth Blanchard, noting that the ‘Cheese’ in the book serves as a metaphor for anything we seek in life, from a job or money to spiritual fulfillment and freedom, with the ‘Maze’ being where we go to seek those goals, our work, home life, or recreation (among other places or activities).  He also notes some of the successes in life that are credited to the book.

A Gathering

The rest of the book is divided into three sections, with the Gathering section opening up the ideas covered within the book.  It shares the tale of how several high school friends were meeting after years apart, discussing  how their lives were turning out, and how all of them have had to deal with changes in their living situations.  One of those friends notes that he benefited from hearing a story called ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’, which leads us into the main part of the book:

The Story of Who Moved My Cheese?

The main portion of the book shares the relatively short story (shortened even more for this summary) of Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw, the two mice and two little people, respectively, who find themselves in a Maze searching for Cheese.  After some hard work searching and working to reach this cheese, the two mice and two little people each found their own supply of Cheese, a type that appealed to their own needs, one that kept replenishing each day.

The mice kept checking on the Cheese early each morning, but the little people started to assume that the Cheese would be there each day, and treated it as their Cheese, something they were entitled to simply for being themselves.  They started to leave their homes to get their Cheese later and later each day, putting less and less effort into getting their Cheese each day and expecting it to always be there.  They weren’t noticing that was a little bit less Cheese every day, that their supply was decreasing all the time.

Then it disappeared completely.

The mice reacted quickly, putting on their tennis shoes (yes, the mice wear tennis shoes in this story) and starting to search for new Cheese in the rest of the Maze.  Sniff had smelled the Cheese a long way away and began to move towards it,while Scurry ran off right away to reach the Cheese as soon as the old supply disappeared. It took some effort on their part, and quite a bit of searching, but they were able to find an incredible supply of Cheese quite a way away.  Their simple minds meant that they didn’t focus on what had happened to the Cheese or over think what to do in response to the change in the cheese supply.

The little people, however, did refuse to handle the change right away.  Both Hem and Haw spent several days analyzing the situation, discussing what could have happened, without making any progress toward getting more Cheese.  They didn’t think that anything had really changed, and even went as far as chiseling away at the wall where the Cheese had been to try to find more, expecting that more work would increase the amount of Cheese available in the same spot.

Finally, Haw decided that, as much as he didn’t want to do it, he would need to search more in the Maze.  He spent a lot of time wandering in the maze, trying to find his way while leaving encouraging messages for himself on the walls of the Maze.  At one point, he went back to see if he could get Hem to come with him, but was unable to convince Hem to come, and realized that The Handwriting On The Wall he was leaving would help to guide Hem if Hem changed his mind and wanted to make his own search for more Cheese.

Finally, Haw was able to find a new source of Cheese, the same one that the mice had found days ago because they had left as soon as their supply of Cheese disappeared, and enjoyed the Cheese with them.  The story ends with a hint that perhaps Hem was finally coming along, encouraged at last by his friend’s progress…

A Discussion

The book finishes with the same characters in the Gathering discussing what they got out of the story later that day.  There is quite a bit of discussion about which character each of them most resemble and what messages they got from the story.  One of the characters, Michael (who was the original storyteller), also discusses how he and his company applied the lessons of the story to their employees, encouraging the Scurries and Sniffs to be innovative, the Haws to warm to the idea of the impending changes with some encouragement, and sadly, having to let the Hems go.  The book ends with the characters realizing they need to adapt to change in order to keep finding new sources of Cheese in their lives.

Pros

•  Easy to Understand: It’s not a very complicated story, being understandable (to some extent) even by children.
• Very Short: It is under 100 pages, even with the foreword included in that total and several pages that are only a picture of cheese with a simply saying on it (The Handwriting On The Wall); you can read it under an hour.
• Encouraging Messages: Speaking of The Handwriting On The Wall, there are numerous messages laid out throughout the Story section of the book, providing thoughts on how to handle change in the world.

Cons

•  Not Terribly Expansive: As you might guess from a book that is under 100 pages and can be read in an hour, there’s only so much information that can be covered.
• Very Blunt: The message of the book, being ready to adapt to change when it arrives, is not really very subtly discussed (although, that might be a plus if you are trying to get the message across to the Hems in your world).
• Some Metaphors are Overdone: Metaphors like ‘The Handwriting On The Wall’ are so extreme as to make you want to roll your eyes while reading.

Overall

Who Moved My Cheese? raises a discussion about how important it is to adapt to change.  It is pretty simplistic for a business book, but that can be a plus if trying to get the point across.  If you face change in your life (as we all do at times), it provides an interesting read to give you some encouragement.

Personally, I’m also hoping that May brings more than a little bit of good luck to myself and my family.  The past year has been pretty brutal for us, from medical issues to financial ones. In particular, I wish I could do more to earn more for my wife and daughter. Between building this very blog into an increasingly profitable website (albeit, very slowly), looking into other passive income sources, and seeking a regular full-time job, by this time next year we should be in a much better position.

It’s going to take some serious effort, though, since none of those goals can be reached without work on my part, but I’ll continue to do my best to build a good life, offline and on.  And speaking of an online life (what a segway, hunh?), let’s see what some of my Yakezie friends have been doing lately:

Great Yakezie Posts

No More Money Worries – There’s a lot of goals you can have when it comes to personal finance, from become a millionaire to buying a dream home.  I personally like the goal set over on Well Heeled Blog, that of not having to worry about money anymore.

Beating the System: When Math (Not Gambling) Pays Off – There are ways to beat many games of chance, if you know how, even those scratch off lottery tickets.  A few examples of where it was possible to beat the system are given over on Don’t Quit Your Day Job…

7 Investment Ideas to Get The Most Out of Your Tax Refund – I’ll be the first to admit, it’s tempting to spend those tax refund dollars as ‘found money’.  But The College Investor shows how to treat those funds with more dignity and get the most out of your tax refund (or any other lump sum of money).

7 Things to Do When Your Mortgage Is Paid Off - On the subject of what to do with new-found money, Faith and Finance has some suggestions for what to do with that monthly payment you were putting toward your mortgage when your house is finally yours.

5 Ideas For Making Time to Eat at Home – Eating dinner at home can save money, help bring your family together, and allow you to cut calories.  It’s a great method to accomplish multiple goals, and Prairie Eco-Thrifter shares some ideas on just how to do it.

Have You Heard of Kickstarter Yet? Hubby is a Fan! – Kickstarter sounds like an interesting way to help support upcoming projects.  Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff notes how her husband has been supporting various projects, particularly games.

3 Easy Jobs to Get While in College – Getting a college job can help keep that student loan debt low and give you something productive to do.  Barbara Friedberg provides a few good ideas, to which I’d add TA in college labs and RA at a residential area.

Contests and Giveaways

• HUGE Giveaway – Sephora, Starbucks, Cash, Target, + MORE – If you havn’t checked out these giveaways (yes, multiple giveaways) over on Making Sense of Cents you definitely should, as you need to enter by May 3rd for a chance to win.
• The Best Motherly Advice I’ve Ever Received…And a Sephore Gift Card Giveaway! – Sephora is apparently a popular gift card destination, as you have a chance  May 6th over at Frugal Beautiful.
• Panasonic 8-Track Player - The fellows over on the Take Our Stuff site are making a business of giving things (sometimes some truly unusual things) away, and this week is no exception.  There are several contests ongoing, but my personal favorite is the one that lets you win a genuine 8-Track player.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

I guess I wasn’t the only one who wanted to review their New Year’s Resolutions last month; my First Quarter 2013 Resolution Review (with some helpful tips on how to keep up on said resolutions) was included in several carnivals, including:

• Carnival of MoneyPros at Making Sense of Cents
• Yakezie Carnival at Thirtysixmonths.com

Alright, that’s it for this round-up.  I hope you have a very bright and colorful May, and that it is as productive for you as I intend to make it for me.

Since May Day also happens to be the start of May, that means it’s time for me to check on my net worth and see where things stand, financially speaking.  I have to tell you, I’m feeling surprisingly optimistic now.  Maybe it’s the bright sunny weather after weeks of overcast, rainy days, maybe it’s the feeling of accomplishment as I help to get our spring cleaning done, or maybe it’s something to do with how our finances are currently doing.  Say, let’s check out that last possibility:

Hunh, not too much to get happy about here.  I’ve had to cash out more of my Roth to help cover our expenses, cutting the total amount down to less than five thousand dollars.  Even with that thousand dollar boost, our savings are only about half the level they were last month.  To top it all off, my Alexa ranking has taken quite a hit.  The only good point (and the only thing keeping the total Net Worth from declining by more than two thousand dollars altogether) is that a fair portion of that money went to paying down debts, which is reflected in the lower debt total.

With all that going on, what could I possibly have to be happy about, you ask?  Well, we haven’t covered my progress toward my goals yet, so perhaps there’s some positives to be seen there:

Overall, pretty impressive.  Sondra and I are keeping up with charity and we’re cutting down that credit card debt at a decent pace.  The most impressive part, though, to me is the alternate income level.  This blog earned ten times more in April than March, and more than twice as much as January, February, and March combined.  Granted, when the total is still just over $10, I suppose there’s quite a bit of room for improvement, but it’s nice to see that such improvement is still possible.  Combine that with the nice weather and the Spring cleaning, and it’s a pretty good reason to feel good, I think.

Anyway, that’s about it for this month.  Here’s hoping you have a great May Day, and a wonderful month of May.

With so many people who need to wear glasses in my family, I was more than a little interested when I was approached by GlassesUSA to review their website.  It allows you to buy glasses, sunglasses and even prescription glasses online at a discount to .  I was also provided with a discount code for my readers, in case they wanted to take advantage of their services (see below for said code).  Is it worth doing so?

My Experience with GlassesUSA

I am currently quite happy with my glasses, having obtained prescription transition glasses several years ago, and still being able to see quite well with them.  So rather than glasses for me, I opted to get glasses for my darling wife, Sondra.  She has quality eyeglasses already, but lacked prescription sunglasses (or transition glasses to do both jobs).  We agreed that sunglasses for her would be a much better use of the discount code I was provided, and set out to order her sunglasses as soon as we were able.

There was some difficulty in getting Sondra’s prescription information.  That wasn’t an issue with GlassesUSA, of course, but if you are attempting to take advantage of their services, you will need to get your prescription information from your optometrist.  He or she might be reluctant to give you that information (somewhat understandably, perhaps, as they benefit when their associated optical shops providing you with your glasses), but they are required to give you a copy of your prescription data at the end of your visit, allowing you to get your prescription glasses with limited difficulty.

With that information in hand, the ordering process itself was rather simple.  We found glasses that would look good on Sondra, chose an appropriate size and color, and entered the prescription data into the check out form.  The discount information was similarly added, and the check out process was completed (We used PayPal, although numerous payment methods are possible).  The eyeglasses, shown below, arrived within a week.

The glasses my wife ordered

While things were pretty good while ordering, there were a few things I saw that could use some improving.  To start, there wasn’t any indication on the site as to what size their small, medium, and large frames actually were, meaning that we were basically guessing (correctly, it turned out) as to what size would fit Sondra best.  Also while the glasses are less expensive than they would be at an optician’s office, they are still far from inexpensive, even with the discount I was provided (particularly with the premium added for prescription glasses).

Overall, though, the experience was very positive.  The glasses, even prescription glasses, could be ordered easily and were delivered swiftly.  The prices were good and the selection was excellent.  I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who needs glasses, prescription or otherwise.  And if you do decide you’d like to use them for your glasses needs:

The Amateur Financier Eyeglass Discount

Yup, as a reader of my blog, you are able to get a special discount off any glasses you might need.  How, you ask?  It’s pretty simple, really:

1. Go to GlassesUSA.com

2. Choose your glasses, with your prescription information (if necessary) and any features like transition lenses you care to add.

3. Check out, and use the code Blog10 to get 10% off any order.  (If you’d like to see what other specials they have available, check out the Sales and Coupons page.)

And…that’s it.  You’ll be sure to save a decent amount when you buy glasses, on top of the discounted prices to start.  All in all, GlassesUSA was an excellent way to get Sondra new sunglasses, and hopefully will allow you to get some new glasses of your own soon.

This has been a sponsored post.

But we don’t need to stop with vinegar and baking soda; there are other possibilities in the realm of homemade cleaners.  Why bother to ever buy a cleaning solution again if you can get all of your cleaning done with common household chemicals that are less expensive and usually less harmful to the planet?

It will help you preserve beautiful views like this

Let’s start with some of the basic items you likely already have available, before we cover some recipes for slightly more complex mixtures:

10 Organic Cleaning Basics

• Soap/Liquid Detergent – Pretty obvious, but if you’re looking to do some cleaning, why not opt for some soap or its fluid counterpart?  Try it on just about everything, particularly anything greasy (the chemical nature of soap, a head that is attracted to water and a tail that binds to oils, allows it to easily pick up most oils).
• Alcohol - It’s not just for frat parties any more.  Alcohols are useful antibiotics, killing most bacteria and other microorganisms upon exposure.  Isopropyl alcohol is the most commonly used for cleaning purposes, with ethanol (aka, the alcohol you drink) being a good backup.  If you do have to raid the liquor cabinet, unflavored vodka is the purest, and best, alcohol to be used for cleaning.
• Club Soda - It’s commonly cited as an effective stain remover/preventer for carpets and shirts, with good reason.  The salt contained within club soda will help prevent any staining, and the carbonation will lift the stain to the surface.  Add in being excellent in a Vodka and Tonic, and you’ll have a cleaning cabinet that can double as a drink closet.
• Lemon Juice - While we’re on the subject of organic antibiotics, lemon juice is similarly effective against bacteria.  It also has the advantage of leaving your cleaning area lemony fresh.
• Salt (Particularly Kosher) – Sometimes you need to scrub, which means that you need to be able to generate friction on the surfaces to be cleaned.  Coarse salt will not only help to kill any bacteria or other organisms in your cleaning area, but provides a means to scrub your area deeper.
• Cornmeal - If you need to soak up a spill and make it easier to vacuum or sweep, cornmeal makes an excellent method.  Simply pour on a spill, wait for several minutes, and you’ll be able to vacuum up readily.
• White Vinegar - Admittedly, I mentioned this last week, but pure white vinegar (nothing that will leave a stain or an odor) is a powerful cleaning agent, with a high acid content that cut through many stains.  It also reacts with bases, including:
• Baking Soda - Another reagent I’ve mentioned already, but similarly deserving of further mention.  It is capable of deodorizing most surfaces (as well as refrigerators and cabinets, if an open box is left inside), serving as a scour like the salt mentioned above, and reacting with vinegar to form a powerful reaction.
• Water (Ideally Distilled) - Often forgotten on lists like this, simple water can be combined with many of the other chemicals listed here to make excellent cleaning solutions, or can be a powerful cleaner in its own right, particularly when heated to boiling.  Distilled water, while not necessary, will help prevent any contamination of your cleaning surfaces.
• Essential Oils – Not really required for cleaning, per se, but excellent for adding some pleasant scents to your household.  There are a number of varieties that you can utilize in your solutions, so feel free to use whichever ones appeal to you most.

These basic chemicals should allow you to do much of your cleaning.  By combining them, you’ll be able to handle even more cleaning situations.  Here are a few solution recipes:

Homemade Cleaning Solutions

1. All-Purpose Cleaner

-9 Parts Water
-1 Part Vinegar

Mix together and keep in a spray bottle; it will clean most surfaces, while not being as rough as straight vinegar.  (Although, if you need a stronger solution, straight vinegar can be used.)

2. Tile Cleaner

-1/2 cup Baking Soda
-Liquid Soap as Needed
-5-10 drops Essential Oils (optional)

Add baking soda to a bowl, add in liquid soap while stirring until solution reaches a frothy texture similar to cake frosting.  Mix in essential oil if desired, and use to scrub tiles with sponge.

3. Window Cleaner

-1/2 Tablespoon Liquid Soap
-3 Tablespoons Water
-2 Cups Water

Mix together in a spray bottle, and use like a commercial window cleaner.  It should cut through all the stains on your window, including residues that may have been left by commercial cleaners.

4. Drain Cleaner

-1 Part Baking Soda
-1 Part Vinegar

Pour the baking soda down the drain and allow to mix with water in the drain.  Add vinegar and allow to sit for ten minutes (if possible, seal the drain so the baking soda and vinegar is mixing in an enclosed space).  Pour boiling water down the drain and you should clear most clogs in sinks, tubs, or toilets.  Repeat if needed, and plunge between attempts.  (It may not work on all clogs, particularly those that are deep in your drainage system.

5. Mold Killer

-2 teaspoons Tea Tree Essential Oil
-2 Cups Water

Mix together in a spray bottle.  Use a toothbrush or other cleaning device to scrub the moldy area, and spray the solution on the remaining portion.  Do not rinse; the scent will be strong at first, but will dissipate within a few hours.

Optionally, straight vinegar, with essential oils added to mellow the scent (if desired) will similarly kill most mold in your household.

For other organic recipes, check out Rodale, Mother Nature Network, and Care2

There you have 15 solutions that will help you clean your household in an expensive and organic manner.  What household cleaners do you use?  Do you have any recipes you’d like to share?

Speaking of which…My immediate family is coming to visit me, or perhaps I should say, my daughter, this weekend.  My mother and my baby sister are coming this weekend.  They have come out more often so far in 2013 than they did in all of 2011 and 2012 combined.  (Granted, I was able to come out to see them much more often in 2012, and even more in 2011, so that might be part of it.)  I have little doubt that this will continue as long as my Elaine is the youngest baby in the family.  Hopefully, she doesn’t end up with too much of an ego from all the attention… Anyway, while I am off entertaining (aka, standing back as Elaine gets all the attention), here are some good Yakezie entries to enjoy:

Great Yakezie Posts

Go Ahead and Laugh…This Really is My Dream Car – This car looks pretty awesome to me.  I’ll leave it to you to head over to Budgeting in the Fun Stuff to see exactly what type of car it is, but it is pretty awesome.

Paying More than Market Price: Not Always a Bad Thing – There are more factors to consider than simply cost, particularly when it comes to services.  101 Centavos breaks it down in one example from his own life.

Book Review: More Money for Beer and Textbooks – It’s hard to resist a book with that sort of title, and from this review by Young and Thrifty, this definitely sounds like a good book for a starting (Canadian) student.

Why I am Not an Entrepreneur – It’s tough to come up with a good idea for a business, particularly as some of the most successful business ideas sometimes make no sense. Personal Finance By The Book lists some of them, without even getting into the Internet based businesses…

Cars for Crazy Teen Drivers – I don’t think that anyone needs to be driving around in an expensive car, least of all teenagers.  Squirrelers helps us remember why, sharing a few stories of how crazy teens (including him, back in the day) can be when they’re behind the wheel.

Contests and Giveaways

• The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing Book Review - If you like to read, and you like to win free books, you can check out this review and giveaway from Modest Money by April 30th.
• 150 Best Desserts in a Jar-Review and Giveaway - On the subject of liking to read, you might also enter to win this recipe guide for some desserts over on Mom’s Plans between now and April 27th, that is, Saturday.
• $50.53 Giveaway-Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back #19 - Over on My Personal Finance Journey, you have a chance to win a portion of March’s Monthly Blog earnings.
• HUGE Giveaway – Sephora, Starbucks, Cash, Target, + MORE – The title of this giveaway is no exaggeration; it takes four Rafflecopter over on Making Sense of Cents just to keep things straight.  Enter one (or all) by May 3rd for a chance to win.
• The Best Motherly Advice I’ve Ever Received…And a Sephore Gift Card Giveaway! – Just in case one chance to win a Sephora gift card isn’t enough, check out this giveaway before May 6th over at Frugal Beautiful.
• Burlap Sack o’Stuff – Over at the Take Our Stuff site, you’ll find a contest to win a burlap sack filled with…well, something.  Enter by Sunday for a chance to win whatever it is.

Wow, quite a few contests out there.  Good luck with  whichever ones you enter, and as always, let me know if there are any I’ve missed (although, I should have hit most of them this time…)

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

It’s kind of odd how appealing my Net Worth Updates can be; my April Net Worth was featured in numerous carnivals last week, such as:

• Carnival of MoneyPros at Financial Conflict Coach
• Carn. of Financial Camaraderie at Freeat33
• Carnival of Retirement at Dividend Monk
• Yakezie Carnival at The Ultimate Juggle
• Carnival of Financial Planning at Master the Art of Saving

Alright, that’s it for this week.  I’ve got to get back to watching as my family visits with my baby, and maybe spends some time with me as well.

All of which will help explain why there was no Earth Day post (or post of any kind) yesterday.  But fear not!  I have returned, my daughter is (relatively) settled, and I’m here to share some ways to cut your costs and help ensure that the planet doesn’t go into a post-apocalyptic, broken environment scenario before my daughter is old enough to enjoy it.  I’ve shared some ideas on previous Earth Days, but there are plenty of good ideas out there, all of which can benefit the planet while not only not costing you money, but actually saving it over time.  Yes, it’s time to consider

Ways to Save Money While Saving the Earth

1. Stop Buying Books: ‘Heresy!’, I can hear you shout, ‘How can I, and for that matter you, do without books?’ You’ll note that I didn’t say to stop reading books, though; just there are ways to read books without buying them.  From getting digital book units (think Nook and Kindle) to reading classic books online to this thing called a ‘library’ that lets you borrow books for free, there are plenty of places to sate your bibliographic hunger without buying books.  (Barring any of that, you could buy used books, usually at a fraction of the cost, and save them from being thrown away.)

It’s also nice to have a beautiful sky to see when you look outside

2. Cut Down the Water When You Shower: I’ll admit, this can be a hard one (I like a long, relaxing shower myself), but keep your bathing swift and your water bill will thank you.  You can do this simply by cutting down the time between when you enter the shower and when you leave, or by pausing the water when you are soaping and shampooing up.  If you are really trying to save energy when cleaning, you can opt for a cold shower, but that’s a bit more intensive than I, and I imagine most of you, are willing to go.

3. Use Vinegar and Baking Soda For Your Cleaning: To save on money (and cut down the chemicals you need to buy/use near your family), you can look for natural alternatives.  Two of the most popular are vinegar and baking soda.  Individually, each has numerous uses, and combined, the reaction between them (the same one that powered the fake volcanoes of your elementary science fair) can be quite effective at everything from stain removal to unclogging toilets. They (and other homemade methods) make a pretty good method of doing many of the things that you’d normally reach for a chemical cleaner to do.

4. Buy Used:It’s one of the biggest thing you can do to cut down your expenses while also helping the environment, so buying used helps all around.  In our increasingly disposable world, you can find everything from computers to cars that are still perfectly functional, but have been discarded for the new, hot thing.  (Or for cars, they may have simply run out their lease, which is something you shouldn’t do in the first place.  But I digress.)  A little bit of shopping can cut down your cost substantially and keep useful tools out of the garbage.

5. Buy Local: Whenever possible, opt to buy from someone nearby.  You’ll cut down on shipping, put money back into the local community, and usually get better food or other projects out of the deal.  I will admit, you’ll likely pay more upfront in many cases (for food, particularly organically grown food, in particular), but the increased quality will mean fewer replacements (for the furniture, clothing, and other durable goods) and less health problems (for that food and related products) in the future.  Overall, your wallet will benefit.

6. Bicycle! Bicycle! I Want To Ride My Bicycle: Besides having a catchy theme song, bicycling to any location you are able will accomplish numerous advantages, for you, your wallet, and the planet.  You’ll get exercise, the planet will get fewer pollutants, and your wallet will benefit from not having to pay out for gas or repairing the wear and tear on your car.  Granted, this method isn’t available to some of us, but for most people, this represents a pretty good idea for most local transport.

7. Recharge Those Batteries: I know, I know: rechargeable batteries cost several times as much as disposable batteries, usually allowing you to buy a pack of twenty (or more) disposables for the cost of four rechargeables.  But those rechargeable batteries will last for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of charges, allowing them to keep working for years after the last of those disposables are, well, disposed.  Add in the chemical contents of the disposables (and the fact that most people, myself included, don’t dispose of them properly), and rechargeable batteries are an environmental win all around.

8. Cut Down On The Packaging: There’s a lot of things you can buy out there, and they come with various levels of packaging.  Buying the ones with less packaging will cut down on the amount of waste you put in the garbage, helping the environment.  Add in the fact that products with less packaging tend to be less expensive (think individual servings vs. bulk packaging of say, food) and you have a method of keeping your expenses to a minimum.

These are far from the only ways to cut down on your expenses and cut your impact on the environment, but they should give you a good start.  What are your favorite methods of saving money AND the planet?  Which have been the most successful for you?  How did you celebrate Earth Day?

The Dilbert Principle is just the book for you.  It provides many of the Dilbert comics from Scott Adams, as well as his thoughts on everything from managers to downsizing.  Is there much insight on how companies actually work (or at least, more than a few laughs)? Let’s read on to find out!

Summary

The book starts with the Prologue, sharing the book’s Big Idea: to allow Adams to make a great deal of money repeating a few bullet points.  The Introduction then starts to cover some of the horrible business ideas out there, and how businesses have an unfortunate tendency to resemble Dilbert comics (a horrible result).  It notes that evolution has been thwarted, with the printing press and other communication methods allowing the really smart people to build up technology far above the level that the rest of us ninnies can keep up.  That leads us to the rest of the book:

Chapter 1 – The Dilbert Principle

This chapter provides the Dilbert Principle: “The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place they can do the least damage – Management”  This (sadly accurate) principle explains why all the managers you know seem to have less intelligence than the workers, and why you, a hard-working, skillful, intelligent person, are unlikely to be promoted.

Chapter 2 – Humiliation

Humiliation is a great method for keeping workers from becoming too happy, and thus becoming unproductive (or *gasp* wanting to be promoted).  Here you’ll read numerous methods for providing that humiliation, from cubicles to dress codes, allowing your workers to be at the right level of happiness (aka, not terribly happy, but still productive).

Chapter 3 – Business Communication

Clear communication is a horrible thing from a manager’s perspective: if you communicate clearly, there is a chance you could be wrong, and that can result in problems.   This chapter notes numerous methods of ineffective business communication, such as visions, mission statements, and presentations.

Chapter 4 – Great Lies of Management

There are numerous lies in the business world, but this chapter provides some of the biggest ones.  These include things like ‘Employees are our most valuable assets’ and ‘Our people are the best’; if the last point is correct, why do they keep working somewhere that resembles a Dilbert comic.

Chapter 5 – Machiavellian Methods

This chapter was written by Dogbert, which should tell Dilberts fans everything they need to know about what is inside.  For those of you who aren’t, let’s just say that it provides every underhanded, deceitful, and just plain mean method of advancing your management career at the expense of your workers, fellow managers, and company at large.

Chapter 6 – Employee Strategies

Luckily for employees, there are things you can do, as well.  This chapter covers the concept of Virtual Hourly Compensation, noting that when something happens that should increase your productivity (i.e., the rise of personal computers), nature compensates by giving you a way to use it to slack off (i.e., the Internet).  It then provides some other ways to get benefits from work, such as stealing office supplies.

Chapter 7 – Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are horribly degrading experiences, and the best way to handle them is to lie about your accomplishments.  This chapter provides you some advice on how to do so.

Chapter 8 – Pretending to Work

Why do you need to lie about your performance?  Well, if you are successful at pretending to work, you might want to look productive, for, say, a performance review. Enjoy advice on how to look productive while not actually working.

Chapter 9 – Swearing: The Key to Success for Women

If you are a woman, being able to curse (particularly at men who’d otherwise consider you too weak otherwise) is the key to success.  That pretty well covers the material in this chapter.

Chapter 10 – How to Get Your Way

Here are several methods to ensure that you get your way in corporate decision making, from ensuring that your suggestion is the final one made, after everyone else has torn apart the other suggestions, to ignoring any project that will take longer than six months (aka, as long as most organizational charts last).

Chapter 11 – Marketing and Communications

This is the first of several chapters that covers various fields in the typical company, in this case, those people who are marketing a product.  Basically, some of the best ways to con people into buying your product are covered.

Chapter 12 – Management Consultants

Suggest doing things the exact opposite way a company is currently doing them, and then charge you a lot of money for that advice.  That pretty much sums up the advice to consultants covered here.  (And is definitely true, if your consultant is a small, round, white dog with glasses.)

Chapter 13 – Business Plans

The basic way to create business plans is to gather information (sales and revenue projections primarily) and then ignore it.  If you need some advice on how to do either of these steps, look here for some suggestions.

Chapter 14 – Engineers, Scientists, Programmers, and Other Odd People

The technical people in your company are undoubtedly a strange type (said by someone who is one of them), and here are some tips on how to handle them.  (Also, there is a note that female engineers are incredibly desirable their entire life; if you want to be successful and wanted, ladies, go into engineering.)

Chapter 15 – Change

The biggest suggestion that consultants give is to change, and the biggest worry that most workers have is that they will be hurt by change.  It also has a tendency to lead to an endless cycle of constantly changing, never staying the same for more than a few months at a time (which is as effective as you might guess).

Chapter 16 – Budgeting

This chapter is less about the budgeting process itself, and more about making sure that your department doesn’t lose money in the next budgeting reorganization.  These techniques include everything from lying to really, really lying.

Chapter 17 – Sales

Speaking of lying, the seventeenth chapter covers sales, which provides several methods of improving your sales, mainly involving lying, or at least, purposefully omitting important details.  (You might notice a reoccurring theme of lying in many of these chapters.)

Chapter 18 – Meetings

Whenever you go to a meeting, there will be people who act in the same roles the entire time.  Here, you’ll see those roles laid out, so you can choose the role that you want.  (I prefer ‘The Sleeper” myself.)

Chapter 19 – Projects

Want to know why your company has trouble finishing any major projects?  If they follow the practices noted here, that should give you an idea.  (That there is nothing in the ‘Completing the Project’ should give you a clue about how successful many companies tend to be in completing projects.)

Chapter 20 – ISO 9001

Do you have to document everything that you do at work and label everything that you use?  If so, you can blame ISO-9000 (and its follow-ups) for its restrictions.

Chapter 21 – Downsizing

Here’s what many employees fear the most, being fired, and how to rename it (‘downsizing’ or ‘rightsizing’ or similar things) so it doesn’t seem as bad, even though such terms now are seen as code for ‘fired without any good reason’.

Chapter 22 – How to Tell If Your Company Is Doomed

Companies fail all the time, unfortunately, leaving hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people without jobs.  Here you can see some signs that your company is headed in that direction.

Chapter 23 – Reengineering

This chapter looks at reengineering, the process of completely reshaping how a company does things.  Since there are more than a few people at most companies that like things the way they are, this process is usually doomed to failure.

Chapter 24 – Team-Building Exercises

Team-building exercises, at least as Adams experienced, was ineffective, humiliating, and simply horrible.  After a short story or two about his own experiences, there are plenty of comics and reader experiences of just such humiliation.

Chapter 25 – Leaders

Leaders in general are horrible, horrible people, whose major qualification is good hair.  That sums up this chapter pretty well, although there are plenty of stories to prove the point.

Chapter 26 – New Company Model: OA5

After 25 chapters of the horrors of modern workplaces, Adams provides his own model.  The Out At 5 method focuses on giving employees freedom to do things in their own way, so long as they get done, and having managers focus on teaching employees rather than advancing their own careers at the cost of others.

Pros

• Funny: It’s a book by a professional cartoonist; as you might guess, it is funny, first and foremost, with lots of comics and funny stories from Dilbert readers.  That said:
  
• Surprisingly Accurate: Between the compliments from businessmen to the many stories included, there are far too many people who experience this sort of thing everyday.
• Ends on an Encouraging Note: In spite of all the depressing stories in the book, the OA5 chapter does provide an interesting method to reorganizing current businesses (and it seems like many modern companies, mainly software companies, have been following much of the advice).

Cons

• Horrible Exaggeration: Companies aren’t actually like this in the real world; it’s stretching the truth for comic effect, right?  If not:
• Depressing: There is no doubt about it; if you read this book, and your company (or any company you’ve once worked for) sounds like the (non-OA5) companies described within, you’re going to be sad,

Overall

The Dilbert Principle is a great read, very humorous and quite insightful (sad to say).  It’s enjoyable, as are Dilbert books in general.  Here’s hoping you don’t work in a company that resembles Dilbert’s employer too much, but if so, here’s hoping this book is extra funny to you.

But for now, let’s put thoughts of taxes aside.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of hearing about taxes to last for the rest of the month and then some.  Even though I finished my taxes well over a month ago, I’ve seen and heard plenty about taxes during the past few weeks.  Heck, there is a tax firm in my town that promotes their services by having a person stand out in a Statue of Liberty outfit by the side of the street; I’ll be quite happy when they don’t need to do that for a while (although now that it’s actually warm outside, it’s not quite so disturbing).  With taxes aside, let’s look at some of the other great articles around the Internet, starting with:

Great Yakezie Posts

When is Good Enough Good Enough? – It’s hard at times to think that you’ll ever be satisfied with what you have in life, but as the Financial Samurai notes in this Yakezie post, when you are successful, you start wondering if things are, well, good enough that you don’t need to put so much effort in any more.

Is it Possible to Challenge a Fine from a Traffic Camera? – The short answer is: yes, yes it is possible.  Some possible methods to use if you attempt to do so are described on My Personal Finance Journey (as well as a reminder that not doing something to get a fine is your best bet).

When is Bankruptcy a Good Option? – Not often; there are numerous negative results from declaring bankruptcy, as noted here by Free From Broke.  Luckily, there are some options you can try before you need to go that far, although there are some times when it is the only remaining option.

Reasons You Don’t Need a Credit Repair Company – If you find yourself with less ideal credit, as many of us will at some point in our lives, you will likely be approached by a company offering to fix your credit.  As Narrow Bridge Finance notes, these companies don’t do anything you can’t do yourself for free.

Tips For A Winning Budget – One of the best things you can do to improve your financial situation is to make a budget (surpassed only by following that budget).  Not Made Of Money provides a short but sweet guide to creating a budget you can both understand and follow.

Why Socially Conscious Investing May Be Costing You A Lot of Money – Trying to be both socially conscious and profitable in your investing can be a tough thing, as Money Q & A notes; you might have to focus on earning money with your investments and benefiting the world in another part of your life.

What Do Americans Spend Monthly on Tobacco and Alcohol? – Most personal finance writers will tell you how little, repeated expenses can add up to big costs over time.  How big?  Don’t Quit Your Day Job breaks down the numbers.

5 Ways to Combat Rising Health Care Costs – With health care becoming an increasing expense for many people (myself included), it’s good to have some ways to keep your costs to minimum.  Smart on Money provides a few ways to do just that.

How I Learned to Love Charitable Volunteering – You might be under the impression that you need to be extraordinarily passionate about a cause before it is worthwhile to volunteer, but as The Free Financial Advisor noted, if you donate your time, the passion will follow.  Speaking of which:

Operation: Pug Rescue! We’re Raising $500 to Save Max the Pug (and hopefully more)! – Let’s end with a positive (possibly) note, as Shannyn of Frugal Beautiful works to raise money for a pug named Max, and some others as well.  Consider helping, if you can.

Contests and Giveaways

• Take a Student Loan Quiz and Enter to Win a $50 Prepaid Mastercard – If you’d like to test your knowledge of student loan rules and regulations, and have a chance to win a prepaid Mastercard, head on over to The Family CEO
• The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing Book Review - If you’d like to learn more about stock investing, you can seek it from this book, and have chance of winning it from this contest at Modest Money by April 30th.
• $50.53 Giveaway-Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back #19 - My Personal Finance Journey shares part of the wealth from blog work with his readers each month, and here’s your chance to win some of the March earnings.

If there are any other contests out there, let me know so I have the chance to share them with my readers.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

This was a week without many  features for my articles (shocking, I know).  My review of the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business was included in the Yakezie Carnival at Family Money Values, but that’s it for this week.

That’s it for now.  Here’s hoping that your tax day wasn’t too stressful, and that you have a chance to enjoy some of the many goodies that have been offered to help make your

But for many people, April 15th is not only the last day to file taxes, but the day to file taxes.  It’s one of the most stressful and infuriating days in the entire year, and numerous corporations have decided to take advantage of that fact.  Not by making it more stressful and infuriating, but instead, by offering giveaways, discounts, and other specials to mark the day and its passing.

When you feel like this, you could probably use a nice deal or twelve.

Depending on just how much effort went into your tax preparation (and how much you had to pay in taxes), there’s a fair chance that you could use a few goodies, yourself.  While you’re looking at what to do this Monday now that tax season is behind you (besides avoiding the post office until all the tax day traffic is gone) consider these giveaways and other opportunities:

2013 Tax Day Goodies

1. Free Curly Fries from Arbys - It’s the third year they’re giving away fries (and this year, small potato cakes, as well), and if you happen to enjoy Arby’s curly fries, it’s a not bad way to enjoy the post-tax-day bliss.

2. Two Free Cinnabon Bites – Once you’ve had a nice dinner, it’ll be time for a nice dessert; if you have a Cinnabon nearby, you’ll be able to get two free Cinnabon Bites between the hours of six and eight p.m.

3. Free HydroMassage Experience on Tax Day - This is one of the most interesting offers I’ve seen for tax day (I’ve mentioned it in my last Tax Day Goody List), but you can get a free massage on April 15-19, right when you probably need it the most.

4. Free Birthday Cake Cookie From Great American Cookies - While we’re on the subject of ways to relax after a hard day of income tax filing, here’s a chance to get a free cookie from Great American Cookies.

5. Free Small Popcorn From AMC – If you’re looking for something relaxing to do on Tax Day and decide on visiting the movies, you can pick up a small popcorn for free if you go to AMC.

6. Free Chips and Queso  From California Tortilla - Here’s one where you don’t need a coupon; just use the secret code ’1040′ to get a free snack to recover from your tax preparations.

7. Bruegger’s Bagels Tax Day Coupon - Not a freebie, but you can get a Big Bagel Bundle (13 bagels and 2 tubs of cream cheese) for only $10.40 from Bruegger’s Bagels with this coupon.

8. Boston Market’s We Love The IRS (Incredible Rib Specials) – On April 15th, you can get two rib meals for $10.40 (essentially, one is free), plus you can enter for a chance to win one of 1040 free rib meals and get a $1 off coupon for your troubles.

9. Carvel’s 1040 Tax Relief Plan – You can pick up an 18-pack of Oreo Lil’ Rounders for $10.40 (that amount seems familiar, doesn’t it?) with this coupon.

10. Panda Express Free Samurai Surf and Turf – Alright, this isn’t a goody for Tax Day itself, but rather for April 17th (aka, Wednesday).  Still, with the opportunity to get a free meal, mild technicalities like that shouldn’t be too important.

11. Free Black & White Copies of Your Tax Return from Office Depot - I know that since they’re filed now, you’re probably hoping to to not think about your 2012 taxes ever again. But you’re going to need to have a copy or two available, and Office Depot allows you to make a copy of your tax return until May 1st.

You might want to skip this last offer if you are easily offended (as well as avoiding the LA Exchange (618 S. Spring St.) in Los Angeles between noon and 4 p.m. today):

12. Free Trojan Vibrators - If none of the offers so far have been, um, exciting, enough for you so far, you can head to the LA Exchange later today to get one of thousands of vibrators given away from Trojan Pleasure Carts.

Alright, that’s enough from me; as you can see, there’s plenty of ways to

The Metric System

You can probably guess my position; even without the helpful title written above, it is hopefully easy to guess that a scientifically minded man like me happens to support adopting the metric system here in the United States (aka, the last remaining substantial non-metric country). The metric system otherwise known as the International System of Units, the SI system, is much simpler to understand and even simpler to use in calculations than the American standard system we continue to use. (As a side note: Although I know that the preferred term is SI system, I will use the term ‘metric system’ throughout this article as it’s what my fellow Americans generally use when referring to this measurement system.)

I could go on quite a rant about how much having America switch over the metric system will help us as a country, and as the world as a whole (and will, in just a bit), but first, quiz time! Any Americans reading this, particularly any who feel we should NOT change from the American standard system, try to answer the following questions as quickly as possible:

a. How many inches are in 18.5 yards?

b. How many liquid ounces are in 4.3 gallons?

c. How many ounces are in 1.3 short tons?

How long did it take? Did you have some trouble coming remembering things like how many ounces there were per gallon or pounds per short ton? Or what a short ton was, period? (It’s another acceptable name for the regular 2000 pound ton, just in case you’re curious.) The answers at the end of the article, so you can gauge your performance.

This should give you a pretty good idea of just how tricky the American standard system can be, and I didn’t even get into the really tricky units like drams, hogsheads, or picas. (All of which are legitimate American standard units, I promise, even hogsheads.) Just in case you think I’m letting all the metric system users off the hook, let’s give them a similar quiz:

d. How many millimeters are in 1.3 meters?

e. How many milliliters are in 5.6 kiloliters?

f. How many grams are in 8.4 kilograms?

It should take only a few seconds for anyone with a basic understanding of the metric system. Even if you’ve never used the metric system before, you might be able to notice a few trends, like each unit making the same type of measurement ending with the same base unit (meters, liters, grams) and the same prefixes are used for each types of base unit (milli- and kilo- were both used twicein these questions, for example). All of this leads into the main point of this article:

Why Use The Metric System?

1. It’s Simpler: Hopefully, these short quizzes, and particularly the American standard system one, will help to remind anyone intent on sticking with that system that it is tricky at best, and downright confusing at worst. The metric system does take some time to learn, this is true, but compared to trying to learn the American standard system, it’s not that tough, and certainly more logical. It simply takes a little time for those of us who didn’t grow up using it to adapt to it. While we’re talking about learning:

2. Any Science Major Will Need to Learn It, Anyway: I’ve noted, more than once, that I’m a biochemist who has spent most of the past decade in universities, either as a student or a tutor. I’ve discovered that nearly every introductory science course starts by teaching students who are used to the American standard system how to use the metric system. That’s several weeks, sometimes as much as a month (or most of the semester, for some of the supplemental courses) spent teaching students something not directly related to the material of the course, time that could be spent on the material. Why spend so much time teaching a whole new system to these students? Besides being simpler to use for complex science calculations, there’s also that fact that:

3. It’s Used By Nearly Every Other Country On Earth: One thing that you need to do as a scientist, or in many other professions, is being able to communicate across country lines. You need to be able to read articles written by foreign scientists, and have your own writing be understood around the world. With the United States being one of the very, very few countries (along with Myanmar and Liberia, a grand group) to not use the metric system, being able to communicate and understand anything from any of the other countries in the world requires at least a basic knowledge of the metric system.

4. We’ve Already Started to Convert (At Least, a Little Bit): In spite of all the opposition to the metric system by some very vocal (and apparently, surprisingly influential), there are metric measurements showing up in more and more places in the U.S. From 2 liter bottles (and increasingly, 1 liter and 500 milliliter bottles) to measurements of nutrients in grams and milligrams, there’s plenty of areas where even people who vigorously oppose the use of the metric system have started to give way. Add in the fairly common uses of both the American and metric system measurements in numerous places (like the speedometers on cars), and most Americans are getting at least exposure to the metric system, in spite of what they might think.

5. It’s Easier: Yeah, this is pretty much the same as point number 1, but it is still incredibly important. As tricky as the metric system can be at times, compared to trying to do complex calculations with the American standard system, it’s amazingly simple. It’s a base ten system (aka, you can do most conversions to different sized units, like ones I listed above, by moving the decimal points). In short, it’s profoundly easier.

Look, I know there’s plenty of opposition to switching to the metric system. But there’s really no reason that we shouldn’t, and plenty why we should. So, why haven’t we? Please, someone tell me why we haven’t done so yet.  Let’s be honest, if there isn’t a good reason, there’s only one thing left to say:

Switch to the Metric System, Already!

Answers: a. 666 inches; b. 550.4 liquid ounces; c. 41,600 ounces; d. 1300 millimeters; e. 5,600,000 milliliters; f. 8400 grams.

All of this explains why I’m so eager to have another job interview, or three, or however many it takes to get a good job.  The first one I’ve had in a long, long time is this Thursday.  It is not my ideal job at my ideal company, I’ll freely admit, but it would be an improvement from the ‘no working income on my part and surviving via government assistance, my wife’s income, tax refunds, and occasionally cashing out money from my Roth IRA’ lifestyle I’ve been running lately.  (It’s a working title.)

At any event, it’ll be nice to be back working regularly.  (On something other than my blog, that is.)  I do realize that an interview is far from a certain job, and it could be a long time before I do get such a job (if ever), but it’s nice to know that I am still of interest to employers.  It’ll be even better when I can report a new job, or perhaps enough income from my blog and other side hacks to render me able to survive while never having to have a job again.  On that note, perhaps we should look at some of the other good blog entries this past week to help spur me on, including:

Great Yakezie Posts

Fun Ways to Make Extra Money – Making extra money is always good, and being able to have fun while doing so is even better.  This post from Life and My Finances should provide a few interesting ways (watching TV, for example) to earn a few extra bucks.

7 Ways to Reduce Household Waste – There’s lots of ways you can cut down the amount of waste you produce, and here are a few such suggestions from Prairie Eco-Thrifter.  I like ‘Buy Used’ myself; a simple, but effective, way to cut both spending and waste.

Top 4 Ways to Save Money on Food Without Sacrifice – Like to eat impressive sized, excellent meals?  Want to do so without busting your wallet?  Check out these suggestions from The College Investor to learn how!

Party Hosting Tips – Not necessarily a guide to saving money (not that every post has to do so), but Buck Inspire provides a pretty good guide of how to have a party without blowing your mind (or budget) getting it ready.

The Stock Market is Stupid and Irrational – This title would make a decent point all on its own, but 101 Centavos makes some points about a specific stock getting far too much attention (and money) for its progress so far.  Sound familiar, anyone?

Five Benefits of Separate Checking Accounts – As my wife and I have both a joint account and (largely) separate accounts, this article from Young and Thrifty really struck me.  Not bad if you’re planning how to organize your money as a couple.

5 Things to Do With a Tax Refund-And 1 Not to Do – I realize that most of my readers have probably already gotten their tax refunds, but if you still have some money left (or are pulling a late filing), here are some thoughts on what to do (and what not to do) from Squirrelers.

Apple vs. PC-What Should You Buy? – It’s gotten to the point where there are Apple people and non-Apple people in the world, but if you are looking for a more objective list of considerations, check out this one from Cash Flow Mantra for some thoughts.

Financial Tips for April, No Fooling Around – I had some fun last week, but Money Is The Root is clear on what is, and is not, a good idea when it comes to managing your finances in an effective manner this month.

5 Reasons Why Bitcoins are the Dumbest Investment Ever – Bitcoins are becoming ever more popular, it seems, but Darwin’s Money shares why you shouldn’t invest too much of your money in them if you want to succeed.

Contests and Giveaways

• The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing Book Review – Want to learn more about stock market investing?  Enter this contest from Modest Money by April 30th for a chance to win this book and learn more.
• $50.53 Giveaway-Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back #19 – This is the latest of the giveaways from My Personal Finance Journey, sharing part of the wealth from blog work with his readers (and with $505.30 in profit, I’d be willing to share more than a little bit myself).

That’s all the contests currently available (at least, as I’ve learned about).  Please let me know if there are any other contests you’d like me to share.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

Fittingly for my current job search, my featured article last week was my Book Review of Fired to Hired.  It provided an interesting guide to getting back to work, one that I am far from the only one who could use, which led the review to be featured in numerous round-ups, including:

• Carnival of Retirement at Making Sense of Cents
• Carn. of Financial Camaraderie at My Personal Finance Journey
• Carnival of MoneyPros at Family Money Values
• Yakezie Carnival at Young And Thrifty
• Y and T’s Weekend Ramblings at Young and Thrifty

Alright, that’s enough for today; I’ve got to go and get ready for a job interview tomorrow, and hopefully more in the not too distant future.  Thanks for reading, as always.