One Million and Beyond

Thoughts on Valentines Day

February 14th, 2008

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I couldn’t resist throwing out a post about this holiday since it’s a hallmark holiday that it screams to be avoided. Unfortunately its not quiet that easy, a lot of people attribute a lot to this day which is very sweet and cute but that doesn’t help the pocket book when chocolates, gifts and expensive dinners are involved. To prove the point a little further Yahoo! has an article up saying Americans will spend $17 Billion on this Valentines Day.

This holiday is one that shouldn’t exist, wait hear me out; if we didn’t wait for one day of the year to let our significant others know what we think and feel about them we wouldn’t need to take out a second mortgage just to make it an extra special affair. Now with all of that said it is nice to do something special to show your loved ones you care even if you need a special day on the calendar to remind you. It doesn’t have to be about the gifts and the money. Remember you’re trying to show them you care and you love them not that you can put yourself into debt extra fast on Valentines Day.

So for all of you out there with wives, husbands, girlfriends or boyfriends go out and show your special someone what they mean to you but make it from the heart not the pocket book it will mean that much more.

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The Job Search Series will continue tomorrow with Step 1 – Analyze your previous experience

Posted in Saving Ideas, Commentary | 2 Comments

Job Search Series – Introduction

February 13th, 2008

As some of you know from my posts about loosing my job and next steps I’m currently in the job market. Although I’m not aggressively trying to find a job just yet myself I have been in this situation before and I figured it was about time to write a post on the matter. After making some notes this quickly turned into a series of ideas for posts, which I’ve decided pull together into a series on starting your job search.

Most of the readers of this site and most personal finance sites in general rely on their day jobs for the majority of their income. Having a steady job is a very important thing and having a steady job that you like would be a bonus.

There are many times in our careers when we might be in the situation where we are looking for work. These situations can range from being laid off or let go to being upset with our jobs and wanting to find something better. Unfortunately when we are starting to look for another job many of us have been out of the market for so long that we don’t know where to begin.

The following is a series of steps that I’ve followed in the past and I’m starting to work through for my current job search (each will be a subsequent post in the series):

• Step 1 – Analyze your previous experience
• Step 2 – Know what you’re looking for
• Step 3 – Write your Resume
• Step 4 – Getting out there
• Step 5 – The cover letter
• Step 6 – The Interview
• Step 7 – Networking
• Step 8 – Follow up

Now I know a bunch of people who just jump into step number 3 or start with step number 7; these steps aren’t necessarily supposed to be followed in the order I’ve outlined. Some people will understand quite well where they’ve been and what they want, treat this as an example of what has worked for me.

Posted in Career | 6 Comments

Efficiency Through Batching

February 12th, 2008

We would all like to be more efficient and we can often see things in our lives that are simply not as cost or time effective as they could be. Productivity is directly tied to efficiency and this same productivity translates directly into dollars and cents. So what can we do in our crazy lives that will improves our efficiency? One of the tasks that I’ve learned through a bunch of business and productivity books is the art of batching.

What is Batching?

Batching is taking a task that is repetitive and frequent and doing it in one lump. The perfect example for this would be laundry; you can do a half load of laundry every day or collect all of your laundry and maybe do a couple loads at the end of the week. Those collected loads of laundry are batched. We’ve all got tasks that we do each and every day that don’t take a lot of time but they inevitably chew into our day (say email) rather than answering email for 10 minutes out of every hour pick two half hour slots during the day and answer email then.

What are the benefits of batching?

One of the main benefits of batching is that you can take advantage of volume discounts. A full laundry machine wastes less water, heat and detergent than two half loads. Although this is just one example it can be translated all over the place. Take for example writing for a blog; rather than wrack your brain each time you want to write a post you can batch by sitting down for a couple hours and jotting notes and rough drafts. You can compile more in an hour or two of concentration and focus than if you were to scramble every time you wanted to write.

A focused effort on something provides more results and productivity than a broken up parts. Say you spent 10 minutes a day looking through your mail; now what if you left that same pile of mail for a week and took care of everything within 30 minutes? The math is very simple the concentrated effort took you 30 minutes but the daily effort over the week was 50! You can save yourself a bunch of time for more enjoyable pursuits.

Personally I try to batch whatever I can, some things like mail, email, laundry, dishes and paying bills are very easy to batch. They save me time, money and effort. By batching you can spend less total time on rudimentary task that you normally do all the time and by doing so improve your overall efficiency.

Posted in Productivity | 1 Comment

The Cost of Entertainment

February 10th, 2008

Pretty much every activity that would entertain you comes with a price tag. It doesn’t matter if it’s watching TV or going out to a fancy dinner there is often a cost associated with our leisure activities. Depending on where you live and your lifestyle this could be very little or it could be a great deal. Entertainment much like shopping is something that our society revels in. Take for example the movie industry, each year there are hundreds of movies created, marketed and watched but the sheer volume of movies in north America compared to the rest of the world is significant.

I don’t want to sound like I’m against entertaining ourselves because I enjoy my downtime as much as the next person but there is a significant cost associated with it. A night out going to a dinner and a movie for two people can very quickly turn into a $100 evening, which is substantial.

The fact that we will spend money entertaining ourselves doesn’t have to be excessively expensive. There are alternatives to the more costly approaches.

Rather than going out to a costly dinner, cook at home. This can be just as much fun at a fraction of the cost. That doesn’t mean that you should never go out for dinner what I’m suggesting is take the time to cook with your significant other, step outside the box and try something you’ve never done before.

Renting a movie rather than going to see one in the theatre. This is another perfect example of how you can save a little money. Personally I enjoy watching a good movie but most movies don’t need to be seen on the big screen to be enjoyed.

A nice walk in the park rather than an excursion to the mall; granted the activities are different a lot of the basic motions are the same. You can explore your neighborhood and see what’s around you rather than fight crowds in a mall.

Take a trip to the local library. For people who enjoy a good book almost as much as a movie the cost of buying new books can very quickly add up. Books used to cost a couple dollars not that long ago, now they’re $10 if you’re lucky and heaven forbid buying a hardcover. Libraries offer the same books but without any cost (not to mention there’s a lot more of them in a library than any bookstore).

Entertaining yourself does not have to be an expensive activity if you put a little thought into the matter. Otherwise be prepared to spend a lot of money that you could have used to paying down some debt or saving for a trip.

Posted in Saving Ideas | 3 Comments

Festivals and Carnivals this Week

February 9th, 2008

I’ve been a bit remiss this week in letting everyone know about the Carnival of Personal Finance and the Festival of Frugality that I participated in. I’m still settling into my new schedule which is a lot less structured. I had one of my posts in each of them this week.

The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by I’ve Paid for this Twice and the Festival of Frugality was hosted by Being Frugal. Not surprisingly both of them had a football theme courtesy of the Superbowl. Check them both out, there are some great articles in both.

Posted in Sites/Articles | No Comments

Next Steps

February 8th, 2008

A week ago today I was let go from my job. Unfortunately I’ve spent most of the week trying to get over a bout of the flu rather than relax a little. When life throws us these little curve balls it makes sense to stop and look at what happened and why. To analyze where you’ve been so you can take the proper next steps. I started this process this week.

The very first step was to pull back a little and not be too concerned about the money or what am I going to do. I’m glad the parting was a good one because I don’t want to try dealing with the negative emotions that can be brought on by that. This first step was to stop what I was doing, accept the fact that everything has changed and start figuring out the next steps.

It was time to detox a little; no I didn’t go on a bender trying to drink the last year into a comatose memory, but slowing down does let you get some of the pent up stress out of your system. The last year was stressful but I learnt a great deal; probably more than I have in the last five when it comes to managing and running a business. Not only did I learn a great deal about the world of running a small entrepreneurial business I learned a great deal about myself, my strengths, my weaknesses and most importantly my desires, but that self-analysis is another post.

For now I need to figure out the next steps. Because I have the luxury of a little time I’m going to take baby steps in a couple directions. The first direction is in the job search; the job market in my area and occupation is pretty good right now. Unfortunately that doesn’t guarantee that it will continue to be this way. I’ve cleaned up my resume and its time to polish it up a bit more and post it on a few job sites. This is to get a good lay of the land and to see what the job market is really like and what I can expect.

Taking the first job that comes by just to be employed isn’t something that I’m looking to do right now. I want to make sure that the next job I take is one that is a good fit for me as well as one that is challenging but not insanely stressful. Essentially I want to find the right job, not just any job. As I go through the process I’ll post my thoughts and experiences.

The second direction that I wanted to go in the next little bit is setting up my side business. I had the idea back in October and I’ve been slowly working on setting it up since then. But when you’re tired from work and mentally drained there isn’t going to be great progress. Now is the time to truly get this up and running; heck if it works out I might not need to go back into a full time job unless I really want to. This whole process is completely new to me; thankfully other bloggers have and I can learn from them.

The net result of my next steps will be to figure out where I am and where it is I really want to go. I don’t want to take the first job that comes up and I don’t want my side project to be a perpetual side project. The next couple weeks will be interesting as I start interviewing and looking around the job scene as well at the same time figuring out all of the stuff for setting up a side business. I’ll keep you posted; it should be a lot of fun.

Posted in Financial Situation | 4 Comments

Reality Shift – There goes the Job!

February 6th, 2008

Last Friday ended up being my last working day as I got let go. It wasn’t a surprise at all and I can’t say I’m unhappy about the situation. Actually I’m rather relieved that I’ve got the luxury to concentrate on finding another job that is likely to be a better fit for me.

So what happened?

A little over a year ago I took a substantial pay cut to work for a small company that was growing; recently as part of their growth they decided to go down a certain direction that I was not really happy about. I learnt a great deal over the year that I was there and I have been infected with the entrepreneurial spirit. I was already looking for a replacement job when I was let go. There are no hard feelings and I am grateful for the experience.

What next?

Loosing the day-to-day grind wasn’t the only piece of event this past weekend; I caught the flu, which is only now starting to dissipate. I am getting some severance (well money owed me), which will last me for about 2-3 months of time with little effort and possible more if I am careful. This will be sufficient for me to find another job.

While I’m searching for another job I’m also going to continue to work on one of my side projects – I’ve been slowly working on it during weekends but now I can put a few hours a day to it. If this works it will allow me to be pickier with jobs and salaries to make sure the next job is a perfect fit.

In short I’m in an OK place trying to detox from the previous job and start looking for the next one. Posting here will become more regular again starting today. Loosing my job has forced me to think about things, which will in turn be brought here.

Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Financial Situation | 3 Comments

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