Hello, My Appreciated Readers,

I’m going to make this short and sweet, particularly as you may not be able to see it until tonight when things wrap up.  If you spend much time online, as I do as a personal finance blogger, you might have heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the United States House of Representatives (and its companion bill in the Senate, Protect IP Act (PIPA)).  In case you haven’t, or want more information about what these bills are and why they have so many people riled up, check out this story to determine just what is happening.

To protest these bills, numerous sites are going to be blacked out today, from Wikipedia and Reddit, massive sites that dominate the internet, to much smaller sites, including, well, me.  Yes, I will going offline at eight a.m. EST today, and will not be coming back until eight p.m. tonight (assuming that my sometimes not the best understanding of my blog allows me to do so successfully…).  My participation is because, well, I can see how these laws, although I believe they are well-intentioned as laws tend to be, could be misused by future (or even present) Justice Department officials to censor parts of the Internet, regardless of whether they are directly doing anything wrong, opening up the possibility of wide-spread censoring and legal actions that could drive new websites out of business.

So, for the next twelve hours, my blog will be down.  Hold back your tears, I will be coming back soon, and when I do, here’s hoping that it will be to a world that is more willing to consider the side effects of legislation being considered.  Have a safe SOPA blackout day!

Roger Raby

The world is increasingly wired.  In modern society, it’s more possible than ever for a single individual, armed with nothing more than a computer and desire to share a story, to spread information so far and wide that in the past it would have required a small media empire to have the same impact.  It’s never been easier for activists or devoted customers to spread the word about businesses and organizations that they love; from a business’s perspective, this can be great, as it allows businesses that might otherwise never be able to compete with the 800 lb gorillas in their field to get the word out and promote themselves without having to break the bank on budgeting.

But it’s something of a double-edged sword.  For every business that has watched itself being promoted by social media like Twitter and Facebook, there’s another that has had a bad decision echoed to the far ends of the internet, or watched as business that would normally be conducted behind closed doors was put on display for all to see.  It’s a new world of marketing and handling public relations, one in which many companies seems to be at a loss as to the best way to function, and sometimes, makes some pretty horrifying mistakes along the way, the sort of mistakes that can ruin reputations and corporations.

Here are two examples of such mistakes; think of this as a ‘How Not to Handle Criticism’ guide to the new media age.

Suze Orman’s Approved Card

Chances are, if you’re anything of a PF blog reader, you’ve heard of this already; it’s a pre-paid debit card being promoted by Suze Orman, personal finance guru and author of several books (including The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke, one of the best personal finance books I’ve read).  Unfortunately, the card has some flaws; a fee of $3 each month, other possible fees, and the fact that its major difference from the typical free bank debit card (unlike other debit cards, your transactions are reported to TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus that determine your credit score) is not as impressive as it first appears to be.  (The transactions, while recorded, will not actually affect your credit score; why would they, when debit cards aren’t really a form of credit and indicate little about your ability to repay a debt?)  All these facts were pointed out by PT Money and others, first on Twitter, then through blog entries.

How NOT to Handle the Situation

Facing criticism of the card she is approving, Ms. Orman decided the best defense was a good offense, leveling insults via Twitter towards those who criticized her new card.  (Including calling Phillip Taylor, the ‘PT’ in PT Money, ignorant.)  That ended up resulting in a small firestorm of attention from the personal finance blogging media, a surprising large (and willing to stick up for each other) group.  Although Ms. Orman eventually apologized to PT and others whom she had harsh words for, it still did little to improve her image, even among those of us who consider her advice pretty good.  (You’ll note that I’m still discussing this issue nearly a week after it first happened; not exactly the sort of promotion I imagine Ms. Orman was hoping for.)

The apology was accepted, by the way

A Better Approach

Rather than letting emotions take control, a more reasonable approach would be to calmly and rationally discuss the issue, acknowledging the problems (Ms. Orman has come out against pre-paid debit cards before, so justifying a change in position will require some effort) while stating why such a shift was warranted.  Granted, Twitter, with its 140 character maximum, is hardly the best place to have a detailed discussion, but it’s easy enough to link out to other sources that make your point (as Ms. Orman did when linking to this article, for example).  Your detractors may still disagree with you, but will better understand your position and still have as much (if not more) respect for you than they had before.

So, you might assume from this example that insulting someone, even someone with a blog and wide readership, is rude, but pretty harmless.  Suze Orman is still the host of a major money show, the writer of numerous books, and is generally well-respected in the personal finance community; she didn’t exactly suffer much for what she said.  But not everyone’s so lucky when they mess up public relations like this, as our second example shows:

Ocean Marketing and Penny Arcade

So, our next story starts with a fellow named Dave trying to order two Avenger controllers, video game controllers especially designed to be easier for disabled people to use.  He hadn’t received his controllers for a while, and wrote to the company asking about their location.  He also noted that new people ordering the controllers now were paying less than he did over a month before, and asked whether there would be any compensation for him as a result.  The response he got…wasn’t good

How NOT to Handle the Situation

Rather than honestly explaining what was keeping the controllers from being shipped, the president (and only employee) of the marketing firm Ocean Marketing, Paul Christoforo, instead sent a series of increasingly insulting and derogatory emails, while also name-dropping major gaming sites like Kotaku, IGN, and Penny Arcade.  This last one, in particular, was a mistake.

In case you’ve never had the pleasure of reading it, Penny Arcade is an amazingly popular webcomic.  (For those of you who are  bloggers, who make up more than a few of my readers, here are a few numbers to put its popularity into perspective: it has an Alexa Rank of 3378 and a Google Page Rank of 6, with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of regular readers.  Yup, pretty impressive.)  After Dave let him know what was happening, one of the guys in charge of Penny Arcade posted a complete summary of the email exchanges, its readers took up the mantle, and in short order, Ocean Marketing was out of business, the companies that used to work with it had nothing but bad things to say, and Christoforo was begging for mercy.  I’ve never worked in public relations, but it’s hard to imagine a worse way for things to play out.  (Oh, unless it involved a mocking YouTube Video that was still less insulting than the actual email exchange.)

A Better Approach

Honestly, it’s hard to think of a worse approach that doesn’t involve actual torture.  But alright, here’s some thoughts: when approached by a paying customer who wants to know about a product delay, try being upfront about any problems that have arisen.  If a discount is offered to new customers, make sure that existing customers (particularly those still waiting for delivery) can benefit as much, if not more.  One more, from what I’m sure are dozens of lessons that can be drawn from this incident: maybe, just maybe, don’t name-drop people and organizations unless you know for a fact that they’d approve of your actions on their behalf.

There you have it, some examples of just how badly some people can mess up the process of public relations.  Try to learn from these examples about what not to do when trying to promote your business.

So, the Occupy Wall Street (or OWS, for those of us who like our abbreviations) movement seems to be dying down (or at least, moving towards a less extravagant method of trying to meet their goals). This is not going to be an article about OWS. I’m not going to comment on whether they are enlightened leaders who will help lead us to a better economic future, or whether they are a bunch of whiners who aren’t willing to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. That’s not what this post is about.

What this is about is my attempt to answer where in the spectrum of income I happen to fall. I can say off the bat that I’m not part of the 1%, unless the country is in even worse shape than I have been led to believe. This is not to say that I won’t get there one day; one of the advantages of living in the United States is the ability to improve one’s lot in life. (I’ll leave it to the OWS crowd and their detractors to argue about the best way to make it easier to do so; I’m big enough to admit that I don’t know off the top of my head which way to shift policies to help the most people.)

Luckily for me, and for anyone else who is curious as to where they fall, there are ways to find out. The Wall Street Journal (possibly the group least likely to support the protesters’ cause, but that’s neither here nor there) has put out a calculator that allows you to enter your salary and find out your earning percentile. It’s kind of a neat concept, and given how much I think about money, earning, and where I happen to fall, I was curious.

The Calculator In Question Shown in Action

So, I decided to figure out where I stand, and then, because this entry was running a little short, I mean, my curiosity was aroused, I decided to try a few other options to see how possible (and likely) changes in my income could affect the percentage where I fall. (Now granted, the income levels will shift, at least a little bit, in the coming years, making my percentages less than 100% accurate. But hey, this is just for fun anyway, so I’m just going to run with it.) Alright, onto some annual incomes and percentages:

Occupation: Graduate Student; Salary: $12,000; Percentage: 13%; Reaction: Ouch; there might be a reason that so many of the protesters were students…

Occupation: Grad Student (with my Blogging Side Income From Last Year); Salary: $16,000; Percentage: 19%; Reaction: Well, my blogging does help me, quite a lot; not quite enough to pull me out of the bottom quintile, but hey, every bit helps.

Occupation: Biochemistry (Starting Salary with a Masters Degree); Salary: $47,000; Percentage: 53%; Reaction: Yee-ha! Right from the start, my fancy new degree should elevate me to the top half of earners in the country. Not a bad way to spend a couple years, it seems.

Occupation: Biochemist (Average Salary); Salary: $89,000; Percentage: 76%; Reaction: Hey look, with some experience under my belt, it looks like I could be earning some serious coin. Ka-Ching!

Occupation: Biochemist in Pennsylvania; Salary: $105,000; Percentage: 82%; Reaction: Apparently my home state is pretty generous to biochemists, allowing us to clear six figures, on average. Not too shabby.

Alright, one more; although this is fun, I should probably be getting back to the whole process of earning that degree so I can earn some of those high incomes.

Occupation: President of the United States; Salary: $400,000; Percentage: 98%; Reaction: I don’t think I’ll ever be the President of the United States (I’m not nearly good enough at begging for money and playing politics to become mayor of sizable city, let alone President), but I did think it was interesting that I COULD be the President and technically still be part of the ‘99%’. Helps to put things into perspective, or something, I suppose.

Alright, that should be enough for now. It’s definitely kind of interesting to see where different wages stack up in the scheme of the country’s overall earning. On that note, back to increasing my percentage!

One of the advantages of being a chemist (besides the incredible attractiveness that is associated with guys who study science) is the interesting perspective it provides you on things completely unrelated to science.  I suppose that happens with every profession, of course; whether you are a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, you tend to apply your personal knowledge and experiences to the world around you, including your finances.  What your profession teaches you about the world, you’ll tend to apply to your money as well.

A Chemist, doing Chemist-type things

Which brings us back to the thought at hand: chemistry.  One of the main considerations in chemistry is the concept of limiting reagents. Not to get too deep into the finer points of chemistry, a limiting reagent is the species that reacts which limits how much of the product(s) can be generated.  Determining the limiting reagent enables you to figure out how much of the product(s) that can be made (and when you’re in lab, determining how much of the product(s) you’ve been able to make).

That short little paragraph might not be enough to explain the concept (which is usually the subject of a solid lecture or two in a general chemistry class), so let’s consider a more familiar example: a fire.  To have a fire, you need three things: an ignition source (such as a spark or a match), something combustible to burn (wood, oil, a candle, whatever), and oxygen.  In most situations, the oxygen is effectively unlimited (even a huge fire can’t consume more than a tiny, tiny portion of the oxygen that makes up 24% of the atmosphere) while the combustible material is limited.  The amount of fire you can generate is limited by how much material you have to burn.

The Limiting Reagents When Investing

All of this got me thinking about investing, and what limits the amount of money you can earn throughout your investment career.  It occurred to me that what limits your investment returns varies throughout your lifetime.

• When you are young: Your investment returns are primarily limited by how much money you invest.  The difference between investing $4000 per year and $5000 a year when you have only $10,000 set aside will make a big difference in how much money you’ll have in the future.
• When you are older: As you age, though, the amount of money you invest starts to become less important; the impact on your net worth between investing $4000 and $5000 is much less pronounced when you have a net worth of $500,000.  Instead, the amount of profit you generate is much more dependent on how much of a return your investments generate; the difference between a 8% return ($40,000 on our $500,000 example) and a  6% return ($30,000) can make a big difference in your final net worth.  (Particularly when the miracle of compound interest starts to kick in.

When exactly does the change over occur, from greater dependence on amount of money invested to greater dependence on investment return?  Well, there’s no exact dividing line; as your investments keep growing, the amount your future net worth grows will start to rely more and more on investment returns.  Assuming most of your investments are in stocks and that said stocks return about 10% each year, investment returns will generate more income when your total amount invested is ten times your yearly investment amount.  So, if you’re putting aside $5000 a year, your investment return will exceed that amount when you have $50,000 in your account (or around that amount).

The Lessons to Be Drawn

While thinking about all this, a few lessons occurred to me.  First, when you’re younger, the most important thing to how your net worth grows is how much you invest, not the return you earn.  It’s better to get started with your investment as soon as possible, rather than obsessing about finding just the perfect investment.  When you are starting out, worrying too much about your investment choices will just delay your net worth’s growth.

Next, as you grow older, the importance of a solid returning investment grows and grows.  While it is tempting to hide your money in safe investments and not take on any risk, keeping your money growing requires taking on a certain amount of risk.  Keep a portion of your money in safe investments (to protect yourself from declines in value) but remember that you need to keep growing your money as well.

The last, and most important lesson that I’ve drawn from this line of thinking, is that there are lessons that can be learned about managing your financing all around you.  Applying what you learn throughout your life to your money and personal financial management can yield lots of interesting insights.

What sort of lessons has your job taught you?

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Well, I’m certainly glad that I’ve managed to finish my finals with my sanity (and my GPA) more or less intact.  It took quite a bit of effort, but I think I’m in pretty good shape.  Assume my grades turn out as expected, I should have A’s and B’s on my report card.  (And just calling it a ‘report card’ makes me all nostalgic for junior high; good times, good times.)

Now, I realize that the final season is just getting started for some people (my fiancée Sondra has all her finals next week, for example), and I also know that next semester (whether you consider the winter semester as the ‘next semester’ or the spring semester when everything will really pick up) there will inevitably be more finals (and tests of all kinds, really).  So, I thought I would help out my fellow students, take a little break from the personal finance, and give some advice on test taking.

Rule One: Always have plenty of supplies available come test time

I’ll break it down by the amount of time you have until the test begins, but first, some advice on how to study:

Throughout The Semester

-Keep up (or get ahead) on the reading: Chances are, you have a textbook or two associated with most of your classes; for all the talk of a ‘digital classroom’, ink on paper is still a vital part of the educational process.  In addition, your teacher might give out regular hand outs, post notes online, or some combination of the three.  Make sure that you don’t fall behind in this reading, as it will be a vital supplement to what you hear in lecture.  Better yet, do your best to jump ahead of the game and read the material your professor WILL be covering; you’ll have a much better understanding of your professor is discussing.  Speaking of which…

-Attend the lectures (and take notes): I almost feel bad about including this; but, given the number of people who skip lectures, many times on a regular basis, I feel I should.  Not only will attending the lecture give you a better idea what your professor will and won’t cover come test time, but it provides an alternative method of covering the material.  The more times, and the more ways, your brain is exposed to particular ideas, the more the material will sink in.  Plus someone is paying for your education (be it you, your parents, or a student loan company), so you might as well get their money’s worth.

-Seek help if needed: At some point in your educational career, you’ll probably find yourself having trouble understanding something you need to learn.  Luckily, the old academic model of professors lecturing and then leaving you on your own until test time is all but gone; there are plenty of resources available to the modern student to help you learn what you need to know.  From visiting the Learning Center or its equivalent at your school to asking a professor (or one of us helpful grad students), there’s no reason to go through the semester without having a full understanding of the material you need to know.

Alright, that should get you through most of the semester; but when tests or finals are approaching, you need to bump up your studying skills to match the coming challenge.  It helps if you get a good start:

One Week to Go

-Prioritize your goals: Chances are that you’re not taking only one class at a time; you need to know how to keep up on more than one thing at a time.  At finals time (and possibly throughout the semester, depending on how your tests are scheduled), you’re likely to have more than one thing you need to study for at a time.  You’ll need to prioritize your goals, although how you’ll do that is up to you.  I’d suggest focusing on the subjects that have given you the most trouble, but working on the material that you will be tested on first could also work.

-Eliminate distractions: Obviously, you can’t ensure that you will be completely undisturbed the entire time you are trying to study, but trying to take care of things ahead of time will make your study time go much more smoothly.  Of particular note are major projects; there’s a fair chance you have one or more things on your ‘To Do’ list that you’ll need to finish around the same time your tests occur.  If you can finish them quickly (and still do a good job), getting them done will make it much easier to focus on your studies.  (Note, though, that it’s not worth forgoing two days of studying for a 200 point final in order to do a phenomenal job on a 50 point project; be sure to prioritize the most worthwhile tasks.)

Three Days to Go

-Test Yourself: Now is a good time to test yourself to see how well you know the material; you still have plenty of time to brush up on areas where your knowledge is lacking.  There are several ways to test yourself, from using the questions found in most textbooks to getting old tests from your professor or previous students.  You could also work with one or more partners, make up tests for each other, and trade; that way, you’d see how well you know the material, and possibly see a way of asking something that you didn’t before.  In any case, focusing your efforts on areas where you didn’t test well should be your next goal.

-Switch up your routine: By now, if you’ve been studying hard for four days, you’re probably getting a bit atrophied.  It’s a good time to try something different.  If you’ve been studying from the lecture notes, try cracking open the textbook; if you’ve been going over back of the chapter problems in the text, try re-reading your lecture notes.  Anything that will make your studying fresher should be considered.  (It’s also a good time to consider taking a break for a day to let your mind rest, particularly if you have a good grasp on the material, so long as you get back to studying soon.)

One Day To Go

-Test yourself again: By now, you should have an excellent handle on the material; another practice test should be a huge confidence booster that you’ll do well on the final.  If your score still isn’t where you want it to be, though, you’ll need to do some serious studying to get up to par by test time.  (Note: If you’re using the same practice test as before, be sure that you are getting a better score because you know the material better, and not just because you’ve memorized the test.  Remember, you don’t want to just do well on the practice test, you want to be able to translate that into doing well on the real test.)

-Get a good night’s rest: It’s tempting to pull an all-nighter and cram before a test, but you’ll only end up hurting yourself.  Don’t panic; if you’ve been studying well throughout the semester (and over the last week), you should do fine.  (And if you haven’t, I’m sad to say that one night of cramming probably isn’t enough to save you, anyway.)  Getting a good night’s sleep, waking up rested and refreshed, and (assuming time allows) studying more in the morning of the test is a much better plan.

The Day of the Test

On the day of the test itself, there’s not too much more you can do to prepare (at least, assuming you’ve been following this plan and have been studying up to this point).  Hopefully, you’ve managed to pack your brain with so much information that’s it’s near capacity.  A few last minute tips: Eat a good breakfast (and lunch and dinner, depending on when your test is held) before your test, so you aren’t distracted by hunger, but no so close to test time or so large that you’re overstuffed and distracted while taking the test.  Be sure to get to school with time to spare, so you don’t feel rushed or pressed for time.  Do some light reviewing while you wait for test time to approach (don’t try to learn a chapter or two of material at the last minute, but a few warm up problems will help get you thinking about the test material).  Lastly, but most importantly, DON’T PANIC.  If you’re prepared, it should be pretty easy to do well on this test.

Good luck, and here’s hoping all you finals takers will have good news to report to your friends and family come Christmas!

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If you’re a regular reader, and frequently follow the links that I provide, you might be aware that I’m a fan of Cracked.com.  Although a comedy site (and a pretty funny one to boot; I’ve laughed out loud to some of their articles on more than one occasion), they also generally have good, sometimes thought provoking articles.  I’ve even been inspired to write some of my articles here based on the articles they offer; my ‘Your Mind and Your Money‘ series was inspired by the Cracked article on ‘6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day‘, for example.

Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of Crack’s articles is that they are good at pointing out problems, but not so good at coming up with solutions.  This is to be expected, I suppose; pointing out human foolishness is much more fun than coming up with a ten step plan to fix the problem.  For example, they provide a list of 6 Subtle Ways The Media Disguises Bulls*** As Facts, but fail to give the reader thoughts on how readers can protect themselves from said bulls***.  (Although, simply knowing some of the underhanded tactics will hopefully help readers to spot them and resist them.)

Enter the Amateur Financier.  I’m not only going to pass on the ways that the media can bend facts to fit their preconceptions and possible agenda, but provide you ways to defend yourself.  With no more ado, let’s get that Bulls*** Detector fired up:

#6: Weasel Words

What It Is: Weasel words are words used to give the author (or reporter, or speaker) a way to express their opinions without having to take ownership of said opinion.  Attributing opinions to ‘some’ or ‘many people’ or ‘the American public’ allows you to express your opinion (or set up a straw man against whom you can make a noble stand) without having to find a person or group that actually holds that position.

How to Defend Yourself: Whenever you hear or read someone attributing an opinion to a vaguely defined (if at all) group, ask yourself whether they’ve given any proof.  Given the huge number of surveys, polls, and opinion gathers out there, if there is a sizable group that believes the Earth is in the shape of a dodecahedron, for example, there should be some proof to cite to that effect.  If not, feel free to substitute ‘I’ (that is, the author, reporter, or commentator) or ‘the people I oppose’ for any weasel words you encounter.

#5: Implying Without Saying

What It Is: By mentioning two (or more) ideas together in a story, the media can take advantage of the natural human tendency to assume that the two things are linked. Saying ‘Hundreds become wealthy after reading The Amateur Financier’ implies that reading this blog caused the increase in wealth, whereas the truth is that reading the blog probably had a minimal effect on the gain in wealth.  (Not that you should stop reading, of course…)

How to Defend Yourself: The main problem is the same one I’ve discussed before, assuming (falsely) that correlation is the same as causation.  Remind yourself of the difference, and you’ll be less likely to read stories about teenagers going on rampages after playing video games and assume that the video games caused the rampage.  (Or that, say, in reports about politicians doing illegal/immoral activities, that being a politician caused the person to be less ethical.)

#4: Burying Inconvenient Facts

What It Is: Reality doesn’t always go the way we want, but by twisting what we show, we can make it appear differently.  So, I can say ‘Survey Shows The Amateur Financier Most Popular Personal Finance Blog’ without mentioning that the survey is of me, my mother and my fiancee.  If you don’t take the time to read far enough to catch that detail, the headline sounds pretty impressive.

How to Defend Yourself: Reading the entire article to ensure that there aren’t any qualifiers or other modifying statements that contradict the headline (or at least, make it less solid than it initially appeared) is one option, although given the deluge of information facing most of us, it’s not likely to be possible all the time.  A healthy level of skepticism about news in general (and news with provocative headlines in particular) will serve you well, especially when the headline attributes the claims to another source (study, survey, a particular group, etc); that’s another way, similar to our ‘weasel words’, for a journalist or other commentator to express their views without having to claim ownership of the opinion.

#3: Biased Photos

What It Is: They say a picture’s worth a thousand words; too bad so many of them are lies.  By picking and choosing among the available photos (and videos or audio clips) and selectively editing out useful details, a publication can choose to make a particular person look powerful, knowledgeable, and capable, or look foolish and incompetent.

How to Defend Yourself: After the initial burst of disgust, happiness, or patriotism (whatever emotion the media outlet was trying to spark), take a moment to stop and think about why the media chose that particular picture (or other piece of media).  They’re usually trying to support some thesis about the person or events in question, and not every picture represents a public figure’s true personality.  Think about all the pictures of you where you were looking less than your best, and cut public figures a little slack for not always being ready for the cameras.

#2: The Active Voice

What It Is: By selectively using either the active or passive voice in their headlines, the media can choose to blame the actors or give them a free pass.  For example, ‘Police shoot and kill man who was robbing bank’ (the active voice) puts the blame for the man’s death clearly on the police, while ‘Man shot and killed while robbing bank’ (the passive voice) leaves the question of who shot the man open for speculation (the bank guards, his partner, an armed civilian, etc.), implying that being shot and killed was a natural consequence of bank robbing.

How to Defend Yourself: This is another case where reading beyond the headline is your best friend in getting to the truth.  While the actor might be obscured in the attention-grabbing headline, it shouldn’t be long into the article before the actor that caused the results in the headline (in this case, shooting and death) is revealed.  (Although, keep point #4 in mind; the truth might be buried.)

#1: Guessing the Motives Instead of Reporting the Facts

What It Is: Trying to determine the rationale behind someone else’s actions forms quite a lot of modern reporting.  Rather than stating that ‘Obama supports a public health bill’, it becomes ‘Obama wants health bill to further big government agenda’; instead of ‘Republicans state costs as reason for opposition to bill’ it becomes ‘Republicans desperate to defend status quo and their corporate backers’.  In both cases, the latter example speculates on the motives behind the actions, rather than reporting what happened straight as in the former examples.

How to Defend Yourself: Unless there’s been news reports that I’ve missed, there’s currently no mind readers who exist outside of the occasional comic book character.  Thus, the only way to really know what someone is thinking is to have him or her tell you; if they (or their spokespeople, for the rich and powerful) don’t tell you directly, you simply can’t know.  (Even if they do tell you directly, I hope that you maintain enough skepticism to not take them solely at their word; reporters and journalists aren’t the only ones who try to tweak the truth.)  A healthy amount of doubt about the motives ascribed to any particular action, no matter who is doing the ascribing, will serve you well when reading the news.

There you have it, six ways the media can twist reporting to back a particular view point, and some advice on how to avoid falling into that trap.  Now go, go and feel free to expose yourself to some media with your new found knowledge of how it might be manipulating you.  Just don’t read too much at once; over exposure to that stuff isn’t good for you.

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Alright, a little background before we get started on this entry.  Because I am in between jobs, and because I’ve been trying to improve my blog, I spend quite a bit of time online at home.  Thanks to my Yakezie membership, I’ve downloaded the Alexa Taskbar, which, among other features, displays some of the most popular trending stories and topics near the top of my web browser.  This arrangement mean that I have the opportunity to see some of the most popular topics of conversation as they develop.

Today, there was an especially unusual topic: Noah’s Ark was found!  At this point, I had to go and check the calendar, to make sure that April Fool’s Day wasn’t moved to the 27th while I was attending a ceramics convention with my fiancee.  (Just in case you were worried: no, it wasn’t.)  No, the truth is possibly even odder: an expedition in Turkey claims to have found the actual remains of Noah’s Ark.

The Arc they found is decidedly less cartoony

If true, the results could be quite profound for history and science. Meteorologists have long maintained that there simply isn’t enough water in the world to flood the entire world up to the top of Mount Ararat, and proof that a boated sailed up to that height would certainly raise some interesting questions.  History would have to be altered to note the new reality of the Arc as truth rather than myth.  The changes would be quite profound.

(That said, I think the impact on religion is less than what some might claim.  The story of Noah’s Ark is part of the Talmud, the Bible, and, if memory serves properly, also mentioned in the Koran; finding the Arc doesn’t ‘prove’ any of these religions correct.  Plus, there are other traditions that maintain a belief that there was a great flood; even proving that there was a Noah who built an Ark, gathered animals, and sailed in it to survive the flood doesn’t preclude other survivors elsewhere.)

The Lessons to Learn

1) Expect the Unexpected: It seems no matter how odd your expectation become, life manages to be even weirder.  Of the many things I may have expected to happen today, finding Noah’s Ark would not have made the list.  I doubt that finding Noah’s Ark would be on the list, well, ever, really.

In the same way, unexpected things happen during our daily lives; being prepared for multiple eventualities is an important part of life.  (See how I tied this back into personal finance?)  It’s impossible to prepare for absolutely everything (like the rediscovery of a five thousand year old boat), but the more prepared you are, the more circumstances you can handle, the better off you will be.

2) Trust, But Verify: A great policy from Ronald Reagan, one that you should especially keep in mind when confronted by things that seem to stretch the bounds of your imagination.  While one can hope that things of such importance are handles truthfully, that’s not always the case.  Even though news of this discovery has only been up for a day, already there are skeptics doubting the Ark.

While you shouldn’t automatically assume that everyone is lying, you need to have healthy skepticism, particularly when discussing issues of this nature, where there is much to be gained from false claims.  There have been plenty of claims involving the discovery of the Ark, dating back to at least the 1930′s.  While it’s quite possible that this time it’s different, we still need to retain our skepticism.

3) People are Basically Good: As with any discovery that threatens to greatly change our perception of reality, the universe, and life itself, there’s quite a bit of disagreement.  As is too often the case with discussions on the internet, foul language is tossed around, intelligence is insulted, and generally, things get very unfriendly, very quickly.

Here’s the truth: the people who believe that this is the true Noah’s Ark are, by and large, good, hard working, and intelligent people, led by faith or their own feelings to their beliefs.  Here’s another truth: the people who doubt that this discovery is Noah’s Ark are also mainly good, hard working, and intelligent people who have good reasons for their doubts.  Neither group is evil or stupid; there’s simply a disagreement on the truth of the matter.

On that note, I suppose I should share my view on this Ark discovery.  I am currently leaning toward skepticism, although I’d be willing to be proven wrong.  (Unless, of course, the discovery and confirmation of the Ark triggers the end of the world; I’m perfectly happy for the world not to end for another half century or so, at least.)  I’m interested to see how this whole thing will play out; it is surprisingly engaging.

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I feel I am becoming a crabby old man at the tender age of twenty-six.  More and more, as I look at the world around me, I see things that annoy, aggravate, or just plain bother me.  I don’t think I’m hopeless yet; I haven’t taken to yelling out the window at neighborhood kids to keep off my grass, or started to rant about the noise these kids listen to nowadays (although, I do refuse to listen to much of popular music).  I’m hopeful that I’ll avoid becoming too grumpy in the future, although as it stands, I’ll be ready for a remake of Snow White in the near future (assuming they don’t have a problem with a 6’1″ Grumpy).

Still, I like to think that many, if not most of my pet peeves are understandable, even if not completely justified.  So, with no further ado, here are a few of the things that bother me about life (and keeping with the theme of this blog, I’ll try to include a few financial ones for flavor):

Being Passed on the Right: One thing that I simply hate is when I am passed on the right side of my car.  Usually, it happens when I’m in the passing lane, trying to pass someone and get far enough ahead to safely pull back over to the right, when someone in too much of a hurry to drive safely passes the car I just passed, zips over to the right lane (maybe signaling, frequently not) and rushes by me.  I don’t know why exactly this annoys me more than other examples of unsafe driving (and goodness knows, you can find enough to fill a text book if you spend any amount of time on the road), but it does.  Seriously, unless you’re an ambulance or a fire truck, it’s all but certain that you can wait long enough for the car in the left lane to pull over.

The Financial Media’s Obsession with Fluctuating Stock Prices: Do me a favor.  Go to your television, turn on CNBC, and take a look at their screen.  Or, if you don’t want to do that, look at this example screenshot below:

CNBC, in all its glory

Besides the sheer overwhelming nature of all the information being displayed (a pet peeve for another day), notice the crawl down on the bottom of the screen.  You have not one, but two crawls showing the current prices of various stocks, updated throughout the day.  And if that’s not enough, you can go to CNBC’s website and find even more stock prices, updated in real time.

All this focus on the minute by minute stock fluctuations only encourages a day trader mentality in investors who lack the time, patience, or excess money to try to profit from the daily ebb and surge of stock prices.  I realize that financial media outlets need to fill time, and that such information grabs attention (and thus ratings and sponsor dollars) for the broadcaster.  It would just be nice to see some alternatives, a channel (or even the occasional program or two) that encourages long term investing, dollar cost averaging, and a diverse, passively managed portfolio.

Talk of Investing as ‘Too Risky’: This one is particularly annoying.  Yes, by investing, you do put part of your money at risk, for the hope of an uncertain return (unless you are putting your money in an investment with virtually no chance of declining in value, like a savings account or a Treasury note; but these are really saving, in my book).  And yes, there is the chance that you could lose some, or even all of your money by doing so.  But these risks can be alleviated by diversification and smart asset allocation; the risks of not investing, such as finding your nest egg is too small to support your retirement, or that your money’s spending power has been eaten away by inflation, cannot.  If you hope to retire and don’t have a pension (and either don’t trust Social Security or expect it to pay out far less by the time you retire), there’s really no alternative to investing for future, other than working until you drop, literally.

So there you have it, several of my pet peeves.  It’s just a start; I could probably make this into an entire week if you really got me going.  But, now I’m curious: what are some of your pet peeves out there in watcher land?  Feel free to leave a note and let me know!

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I’ve been thinking lately about everything I have going well for me in my life.  Good friends, loving family, a sweet girlfriend, and now, a good job.  So, since I’m currently spending the last weekend before I start my new job visiting my girlfriend (who would rather I spend my time obsessing over her than over my blog), I thought I would list a few things in this world that make me content.  Not merely happy or joyful, but satisfied with my life and the way it’s worked out so far.  Some of the things that satisfy me in this way:

My Family – An endless source of support, encouragement, and love, my family is always there for me.  They are sweet and wonderful, and if it weren’t for all the support my mother has given me over the years, I would have turned out much differently (and probably much, much, MUCH worse).  My family is just fantastic.

My Fiancee – She’s sweet, she’s cute, she’s adorable, and she shares my sense of humor (crazy though it is).  Why else would she let me call her a hamster as a term of endearment?  (I’d share the story, but I think she’d more than a little upset if I share anything else).  In short, I love her, I adore her, and I want to be with her all the time.  My biggest qualm with getting a new job is that it pulled me away from her; but hopefully, when she finishes school, things will be different.

Work – I am happy that I’ve found a new job.  I like to keep busy, to make myself a useful part of society, and now with my new job, I’ll have that opportunity again.  The fact that I am going to working in the vaccine field is all the better, as I’ll be able to help society as I earn a living.  Talk about a good deal!

My friends – I’m blessed in life to have a great deal of people that I call friends in this world.  There’s a good chance, if you’re reading this, that you fall within the realm of people that I consider as friends; some of the most interesting and funny people that I know I’ve met online (see the entry on my fiancee, for a stunning example).  As they say (or should, if I’m not remembering an actual quotation), ‘friends are the sprinkles on the sundae of life’, and boy, are they tasty!

Everything else – Alright, a little bit of a cop out; I could break things down even more, I suppose.  I have the joy of living in a country where I can express my views freely, where I can say and do (almost) everything I want.  I am reasonably healthy, have a long life ahead of me, and enough money available that I don’t have to worry about struggling for food or shelter in order to survive.  For all the complaining I sometimes do, there’s really nothing wrong with the life of Roger

When all is said and done, I lead a very full life.  Thanks everyone for reading, and have a great weekend if I don’t get to tell you personally!

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Alright, just a quick little post: I received a call earlier today, indicating that I got the job I interviewed for on Thursday.  It’s a temp to perm position at Sanofi Pasteur, a gigantic pharmaceutical company that focuses on vaccines (in fact, if you got a flu shot, there was a 50% chance that it was produced at Sanofi, in the very division I am going to be employed).  I have been trying to get a job with them pretty much since I graduated, so I am immensely thrilled by this opportunity.

The only downside is that where I am working is quite a distance away from my fiancee (like a four to five hour drive away).  This obviously rules out any commuting from her home, which I’ve recently moved into, although my mother’s house is close enough that I can commute, at least until I make other living or commuting arrangements.  I’m a little sad that I can’t be with my sweet Sondra and accept this job, but I have do what needs to be done, I suppose.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick note to all my readers about this good news.  I hope everyone has a good weekend, and stay well!

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Yesterday, I went out to start living with my beautiful and very talented fiancee, Sondra (as you might recall me mentioning a few weeks ago).  It was one of the most harrowing experiences I have had while traveling.  As a result, I cannot help but wonder, is the universe attempting to send me a signal?

You might think that I am exaggerating the circumstances of my trip, so as to make for a better blog post.  In the spirit of full disclosure, and so you realize that, if anything, I’m understating the case, here is everything that happened:

• I forgot some paperwork that I will need for a job interview this Wednesday at (my previous) house, and had to turn around after traveling for nearly half an hour down the road, delaying me by at least an hour.  So far, not too bad, you might think; although this act did cause me be in the wrong place at the wrong time for everything that followed…
• I was nearly hit by a passenger bus while trying exit the turnpike, to the great annoyance of the bus driver, if how much he laid on the horn is any indication.  A bit harrowing, but it happens if you drive enough, I suppose.
• I has to drive through numerous construction sites, slowing down my progress greatly.  In Pennsylvania during the spring and summer, this isn’t a rare event; the freezing, melting and refreezing of water during the winter is murder on our roads (which are some of the worst in the country, according to many surveys).  I’m used to these conditions, but what happened at the second such construction site is what makes my tale really distressing…
• There was apparently a very bad crash, bad enough to send up smoke visible miles away.  It was not until I got within a mile of the site before I could discern this accurately.  I do not know if anyone was hurt (I hope not), but at the very least, it delayed traffic for over an hour, during which I ran the air conditioner off and on to fight the ninety plus degree heat (in Fahrenheit, of course).  As a result…
• When I tried to start my car when the road was finally cleared, I discovered that the battery was dead.  I could not get the car to turn over or start in any way, in spite of the fact that it was functional just a short time ago.  So there I was, stranded (in the passing lane, no less), being passed by the traffic that had built up over the previous hour (a large number of semi trailers, which had to pass me on right and then cross over to the left lane to avoid the construction area).  I tried to contact AAA, eventually getting through to an operator, but before they could send anyone out, one of the policemen who had been helping with the fire came over and gave me a jump.

All in all, one of the worst experiences I have ever had driving.  To answer my own initial question, no, I do not believe that the universe or some higher power is attempting to tell me not to live with my girlfriend.  It was simply a very unlucky day for me to go out driving, and nothing other worldly was at work.  If there’s something that something supernatural is attempting to tell me, it needs to be a lot clearer than this to make me leave my dear, dear girl.

Now, if I happen to be struck by lightning sometime in the next week, I might just reconsider my position…

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As of today, I’ve been at my temporary job now for one and a half weeks.  The good news is, I do have a job, it pays pretty well, and I can handle the work load without too much trouble.  The bad news is, the job takes up a substantial portion of my time when I used to do much of my writing (late at night is when I write best).  Add in the housework and other things I need to do in real life, and I’m having a tough time getting my blog entries out.

As a result, I’m going to be cutting back on my posting schedule, and I will not be posting anything on the weekends from this point on.  Hopefully, this will allow me time to build up an archive of posts for the future, as well as do some more promotion and maintenance work for my blog (which I’ve been neglecting up to this point).  Plus, it seems as if there is little interest in my net worth statements or commentary on charities, so it should not be a huge loss.

Thank you all for reading my blog, and I hope that it continues to be a source of entertainment and education.  Come again tomorrow, when I’ll be back to my normal money-related posts and other whackiness.

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Yesterday, I noted that my trip with my fiancée went quite well, until the return trip.  It was quite simply one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had while traveling.  Here, step-by-step, is everything that happened:

1) Our flight from Ontario, California to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport got delayed for an hour and a half because of bad thunderstorms in Dallas.  Annoyance Level – Low; weather will be weather, and I wouldn’t want to fly if there’s a chance we wouldn’t be able to land.

2) My fiancée left her cell phone on the airport shuttle.  Annoyance Level – Low; she is sometimes a bit forgetful, and with our flight delay, I had more than enough time to go back to car rental station to get her phone.  Plus, we got a good laugh out of it.

3) When we landed in Dallas, we discovered that our connecting flight had already left.  Annoyance Level – Moderate; it was a storm in Dallas that delayed our departure from sunny, clear-skied California, but apparently did not delay our connecting flight.

4) Our new connecting flight didn’t leave until six a.m. the next morning, meaning that we needed to stay overnight in hot, muggy Dallas.  Annoyance Level – Low; at least American Airlines was trying to accommodate us.

5) The shuttle to our hotel didn’t show up, even after we waited outside for an hour and a half.  Annoyance Level – High; we waited so long, watching so many other shuttles passing by for other hotels, and yet, the Baymont hotel at which we were staying never sent out a shuttle for us. Every time that we called, or any of the other passengers who were staying there called, we were told that the shuttle was on its way, although it never arrived (at least, not until after we and the other passengers gave up and just slept in the airport).

(Special Bonus Annoyance: I discovered, after looking at a map of the airport the next day, that there was a perfectly suitable Hyatt hotel located within the airport grounds itself.  The Dallas/Fort Worth airport is shaped like a figure eight with three rings, with the Hyatt inside the middle ring.  Instead, they sent us to the Baymont Inn, which was half an hour away.)

6) Eventually, we spent the night staying in the airport lobby, sleeping on some of the chairs near the baggage claim.  Annoyance Level – High; not only did we have to stay in the airport, but since the TSA officers had gone home for the night, we couldn’t even get past security to sleep on, say, the comfy-looking kiddie play area seats.

Finally, we caught our flight, and were able to get back to Pennsylvania.  I had to drive back home on almost no sleep (airport lobbies and planes aren’t the most conducive places to sleep), but then we were able to rest properly.  It was one rather sad way to spend our return trip after we went out to California.

Sorry for all the venting, but I just needed to put this out there.

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Well, as of yesterday, I am back at home, after going out to California to visit my fiancée’s family.  I’m feeling pretty good about the whole experience.  Apparently, all the family members that I visited liked me, which covers her parents, her sisters, and several of her uncles.  So, one of my biggest worries, that her family would not care for me or approve of me marrying her, has been put to rest.

The overall trip was quite enjoyable.  I’ve never been out to California before, and it is a lovely state.  Drier than Hades, but still a nice place to visit.  Except, of course, for the driving; since I’m 26 and my girlfriend is only 23, I had to rent the car and I was the only person who was able to drive on the California freeways.  Our schedule was rather packed, trying to meet with her family over the course of four days before we had to return home, but we managed to get through it without being overly stressed.  We even had time to go to the beach with her two younger sisters on Wednesday.  It was a pretty good trip.  (Until the plane trip home, that is, which is a story all by itself.  I’ll tell it tomorrow, as I’m trying to focus on the positive today.)

Plus, to add to the good news, I have a job!  I got the position for which I interviewed last week, which makes me quite happy.  Besides the obvious personal boost in having actual employment, I will also be boosting my income for the next few weeks (the position will last for at least five to seven weeks) and can put off getting unemployment, extending my eligibility for another few weeks.  There’s at least the possibility that this could turn into a longer-term position.  As an extra added bonus, it’ll be one more position to put onto my resume, which could make me all the more desirable to other potential employer.

All in all, one of the better weeks I’ve had in quite a while.  And don’t worry, in a couple of days I’ll be back to talking about money, investing and personal finance, just like normal.

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Here are some interesting ethical questions to ponder.  How would you react if you were offered a job position, but the only reason the job exists is because of an illness that was leading to mass panic?  If you took the job, would you feel you were somehow profiting from other people’s pain?

I ask because yesterday, I had an interview with a company that needs more temporary workers to package flu medication for the swine flu outbreak.  It’s a decent job, which is right up my alley for the skills I developed at my last position.

But I can’t help but have the thought that my good luck is coming at the cost of a lot of suffering by other people.  It won’t stop me from taking the job; if nothing else, taking this position will help to make more medicine available to those who are sick, which is never a bad thing.  It just makes me wish that there wasn’t a need for this position in the first place.

But now it’s time for another ethical question.  Ths position is slated to last for five to seven weeks, UNLESS the swine flu proceeds to get worse.  In that case, the position could be last for up to several months.  In other words, the worse the swine flu becomes, the longer I get to work.

So here’s the ethical question: do I hope for the swine flu to end quickly, and with it, my temp job, or do I hope for the swine flu to last for a long time and more people to become sick, allowing me to work more?  I think it would be much better for the world in general (and Mexico’s tourist bureau in particular) for this pandemic to end soon, which is what I hope happens, and soon.  But still, there is a small part of me that hopes the flu at least appears to be getting worse for a little while longer, at least long enough to get the company I’m going to working with to extend my contract for a few more months.

So anyway, that’s what has been going on with me; a potential temp job and something of an ethical dilemma.

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(Warning: This post is going to be a rant; nothing more, nothing less.  If you don’t want to hear about my travails with my health insurance company (with me ranting and raving the whole time), feel free to come back later.  On the other hand, if you want to know what made me the maddest I’ve been in a long, long while, read on…)

It all started nearly a month ago.  I wrote out a check for my April health insurance premium to Capital Blue Cross near the end of March.  I made sure there was enough money in my checking account to cover the check, noted the transaction in my check record, and took it over to the post office to send it out.  In short, I was a good insurance policy holder.

But then, something funny happened.  The check was never cashed.  I kept dutifully watching my checking account, but it was soon April, and still the check hadn’t been cashed.  I ended up calling Capital Blue Cross, and they said the check hadn’t been received and they would try to find it.  I called again a few days later, and was told to just resend the check.

At this point, I was rather perturbed; but, since I didn’t know what happened to my first payment, I decided the best approach would be to simply write another check.  I sent it in, it was cashed within a few days, and my coverage continued unabated.  Luckily, Capital Blue Cross doesn’t charge any late or nonpayment fees, so I thought that everything was worked out.

Fast forward to today.  I sent in my payment for May a few days ago.  It was cashed on Tuesday, leaving me with about one hundred dollars in my checking account.  No problem; I have enough in savings to pay all my bills for May, I’ll just need to transfer some money from my other accounts.

BUT, yesterday the old check was cashed, causing my bank account to be overdrawn.

This infuriates me to no end.  First, the fact that they were able to cash this check after all this time means that it was their fault it was lost initially, and that I had to deal with all this aggravation.  Second, I was following their directives in writing that second check, doing so in good faith that I would not be double charged for April.  And third, because of all this, I had to worry about my bank charging me an overdraft fee simply because I was trying to keep my health insurance up to date.

Luckily, I noticed this problem before the close of business yesterday, so I was able to go to my local bank branch (it’s a PNC, just for the record) and argue my point with one of the service reps.  She agreed that the error was on the part of Capital Blue Cross, and faxed over the copies of the checks that were on file and a description of the error.  As of this writing, I haven’t been able to reach Capital Blue Cross, although I’m hoping for a quick resolution of this problem.

Before anyone asks, I have learned some things from this debacle myself; chief among them being to keep enough money in my checking account to cover any and all outstanding checks.  Just because a check has gone missing, doesn’t mean it won’t work its way out of whatever corner of the bureaucracy it happens to land, and potentially be cashed at the worst possible time.  I had been assuming the first check would never be cashed, and transferred money out of that account under that assumption.  In hindsight, trying to gain a bit more interest from my online savings accounts while risking overdraft fees was a case of being penny wise and pound foolish.

I’ve also gained a renewed respect for the advantages of online bill payment.  I’ve never had these sort of problem with my credit card bills, both of which I pay online.  I am most definitely going to set up online bill pay for any accounts I hold in the future.  (In what strikes me as a case of horrible timing, Capital Blue Cross did send  my information about their automatic bill pay system after my first check didn’t reach them; it was the first time I had heard about this plan, which could have saved me quite a bit of time and money.  I sent it in, but still received a paper bill for May, so perhaps by June I’ll be able to pay online.)

I’ll keep you posted on how this situation is resolved.  Thanks for letting me rant a bit, and I hope that my experience can be a learning experience, if nothing else.

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