How Much Do Things Cost in England?

May 21, 2012 / MMD / No comments

Cheers!  I’m writing you today from England.  The last time I came here, I published a short post about how different the prices were between the UK and United States.  I thought it might be fun to share those observations again.  Note: This post was originally published 12/02/2011.

Think things cost a lot where you live?  Here’s a little perspective from our friends across the Atlantic.

While on a business trip through England, there were a few things I couldn’t help but notice about their financial situation.  Although most of what I found was narrowly limited to my travel agenda, I thought I’d share my list of observations:

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Weekend Wind Down 5/19/2012

May 19, 2012 / MMD / 4 comments

Well, wish me luck. I’m off to England today for a business trip. That’s 11 hours of travel plus a 5 hour time change. In other words, by the time I start to feel sleepy, we’ll probably be landing and it will be morning outside.

My stay there will be a little over a week. I’m going to miss my family; this will be the longest I’ve ever been away from them. Luckily, the week after I return is when we go on vacation together.

I’m hoping the hotel’s WiFi will be nice and reliable. My last hotel had very questionable Internet service. So if I disappear, sorry about that!

Posts You Should Read This Weekend:

Personal favorite: Did the toys you played with as a kid set you up for failure financially as an adult? Read Daisy’s hilarious and sarcastic story: How The ’90s Set Us Up to Fail Financially

Other Favorites: Read more

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Embrace That You ARE in Sales

May 16, 2012 / MMD / 34 comments

The stereotype of the salesman…  We all know this guy. We don’t trust him. We run the other way. We don’t want to hear his spiel about why this used car is such a great deal or why we need the bigger TV set than we originally came in here to buy. It doesn’t matter what he says because we’re not going to believe it anyways.

Yet this guy and you have something in common. Although your motives and methods are different (and you probably dress better), there is something that he is trying to do that you do every day. And if you don’t realize that you do it or try to get better at it, there could be significant financial consequences.

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Category: Career / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Six Easy Steps to Figuring Out Your Retirement

May 14, 2012 / MMD / 22 comments

I recently read that 49% of Americans are not contributing to any retirement plan at all. And who was the biggest sector of those non-contributors? People between the ages of 18 to 34.

This comes to me as no surprise. Very recently at work there was another round of 401k sign-up and my younger colleagues were hopelessly lost. Sure they were given a nice big folder of information and told the old “you should probably contribute 10% of your paycheck” advice.

But when I simply asked “Do you think that will be enough?”, I was met with blank stares like a deer in the headlights.

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Weekend Wind Down 5/12/2012

May 12, 2012 / MMD / 13 comments

I’ve felt like a VERY delinquent blogger this week. My apologies to all of you who I normally visit and comment upon. Work has been extra demanding this week (with one of the big projects nearing a close), so my time has been spoken for.

We’re looking forward to the weekend! Tomorrow, the boys are going to see “The Avengers” while the girls are going to get their nails done. And we’ve got all Sunday to do whatever Mrs. MMD wants to do for Mother’s Day (including catching up on all our shows that keep piling up on our DVR). Speaking of TV shows, is anyone watching “Don’t Trust the B”? That show is hilarious!

Posts You Should Check Out: 

In case you didn’t already, give these posts a read this weekend: Read more

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Adding Gold and Silver to Your Investment Portfolio

May 10, 2012 / Guest / 17 comments

Everyone knows that a healthy investment portfolio consists of the right mix of stocks, bonds, cash, and even real estate. But another important and often under-utilized resource to add to this diversification is the contribution of precious metals.

Although there are many kinds of precious metals, the two most popular ones that are used for investments are gold and silver. Gold and silver have been regarded as one of society’s oldest forms of currency. Their appeal comes from 1) the fact that they are a tangible asset that we can hold in our hands and 2) the observation that they tend to retain their value even as the economy tends to fluctuate.

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Category: Stocks & Investing / Tags: , , , ,

What Results Are You Getting From Learning?

May 9, 2012 / MMD / 29 comments

Do you love to learn? Even though you finished your degree and are proficient in your field, do you still find yourself searching for new information?

Years ago when I finished college, I had a hole – a big black void that I used to fill with homework, writing papers, and studying for exams. That sounds ridiculous right? When you’re in school, the one thing you can’t wait for is to finally be done!

At around this same time, my responsibilities at work began to escalate and I began to fill that “learning” void by reading lots of books about how to be a better working professional . I picked up ones about management, leadership, sales, marketing, and many others (go to my “Books” section to browse a few of the titles).

Continuing my education in this fashion felt like a very natural way to further my quest for knowledge.

What Was I Actually Accomplishing?

This seemed to be a sufficient strategy until one day when I was talking with one of my superiors. I mentioned some of the books I had been reading and he then posed a very simple question:

• What results have you gotten out of what you’re doing?

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Category: Philosophy & Motivation / Tags: , , , ,

Yes, People Still Fall for Pyramid Schemes

May 7, 2012 / MMD / 36 comments

I stumbled upon a very strange thing this week when I was traveling for business through a rural part of Ohio …

Setting the Scene:

I had finished work, ate some dinner, and was looking for a place to chill out on my laptop. With limited options, I found a local Tim Horton’s Coffee & Bakery shop and decided to hang out there.

When I entered, the first thing I noticed was the place was packed! “Perhaps this was the happening place to be on a Wednesday night” I thought. So I ordered my coffee, took a seat, and got on my computer.

The majority of the people that were there looked slightly less than well-off. But among them were a few very well (and overly dressed) young women.

Preying Upon the Ignorant:

I got on my phone to have my regular evening call with my wife when suddenly I observed “The Presenter” arriving. He was a young African American male in his 20’s that was also well dressed. He went around the store giving a “Whud up?” and handshake to everyone in attendance (all of which seemed to have been waiting for him to arrive). Everyone seemed glad to see him and he was warmly welcomed. Had I found myself in the middle of some type of cult meeting?

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Weekend Wind Down 5/06/2012

May 6, 2012 / MMD / 8 comments

What’s this? Am I on a boat?? Nope! That’s just me driving through my neighborhood and what it looked like after a massive rainstorm came out of nowhere! When I initially drove out of my driveway, the water was just a little deep. But the further I went along, it got deeper and deeper! I was getting a little worried and didn’t want to stop. I’m glad I didn’t stall out!

This was kind of a busy week (as you can tell since I’m a day late on my normal schedule). I was on a business trip through OH when I stumbled upon something VERY interesting! More on that to follow in Monday’s post ….  I think you’ll enjoy!

Blog News:

In Blog news, I was finally bestowed a Google PageRank of 2! Although I’m not 100% sure how I obtained this, but I’m pretty sure that it had to do with a lot of commenting and link-backing. At the same time, my SEOmoz MozRANK increased to 2.55. My Alexa ranking has also finally fallen below 100,000. Hopefully I can continue this trend and improve my ranks in the next go-around three months from now.

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Adding Your Children’s College Savings to the Budget

May 4, 2012 / MMD / 29 comments

Please don’t hate me. I’m very proud that you’ve been following my advice (and the advice of my PF blog constituents) to start saving for retirement, etc. But now we’re going to talk about something that may require you to dig just a little deeper into those pockets of yours:

• College

“I Don’t Even Have Kids Yet!”  Why Do I Care?

I know some of you are pretty young and just graduating college yourself, while others of you may have recently got married and just had children. These are all great positions to be because, like most savings strategies, “more time” is our friend.

However, this post is going to assume that someday when or if you already DO have kids, that you’ll want to send your little Princess or Jedi (… there’s a Star Wars theme going on in my house right now) to college and give them every advantage possible.

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Category: Savings & Budgeting / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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