It will happen to all of us at some point or another. You’re flying high. Things are going great; better than ever in fact! Sales are good. Orders are pouring in. Your customers are happy. Your colleagues are also just as happy. Believing in yourself has never been something you’ve questioned. Work is a terrific place to be right now. But brewing in some dark corner is conflict. Unrest. As it turns out, at least one person is not excited with the way you do things. This will not be anything tangible. You will not have committed any crimes. No, the problem will be intangible - what this person believes you can or can’t do in the future. Whether or not you’re really doing things according to the priorities as they see it. Ordinarily … [Read more...] about Believing In Yourself After Finding Out That You Suck
Lifestyle
Overestimating the Ideal Keyword Density and How I May Have Sabotaged My Own Blog
Probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve had to blogging is that there isn’t really someone to tell you when you’re messing up. You can ask your friends, you can read articles, but even sometimes that’s not always accurate. Ultimately there’s a lot of trial and error, and you don’t really know you’ve blown it until you actually are. It’s quite possible I may have done that very thing with trying to follow the myth of the ideal keyword density. … [Read more...] about Overestimating the Ideal Keyword Density and How I May Have Sabotaged My Own Blog
How I Made $1,200 with One Phone Call
Ask and you shall receive, right? Anyone who has never experimented with this mantra is missing out. It never ceases to amaze me how often I receive things at a discount simply because I asked for it. (Making deals with customers at my job has taught me that pretty much the price on anything is negotiable). Well … this one has got to be up there as a shinning example of why you need to try this. … [Read more...] about How I Made $1,200 with One Phone Call
What is Financial Freedom – The Easy to Follow Explanation
The tagline to My Money Design has always been designing financial freedom. For as long as I’ve been into reading financial books and blogs about money, I’ve seen a lot of them try to answer the question of what is financial freedom. However, I feel as though the weight of this term often gets lost or trivialized. In this post, we’re going to layout a definition for financial freedom and explain where we need to focus in order to achieve it. … [Read more...] about What is Financial Freedom – The Easy to Follow Explanation
Doing a Better Job Tracking My Passive Income Streams and Retirement Savings
I’ve got to admit: 2012 was not a bad year as far as my passive income streams go! Before blogging and investing, I was relying on sign-up bonuses, credit card rewards, and small stuff like online surveys to make a little side cash. A lot can change in a year and half … Since taking a leap of faith on blogging and investing, I’ve made a lot more money than I ever thought I would from passive income. Blogging has by far been the front-runner with its endless possibilities of advertising, affiliate sales, writing, etc. After a lot of research, I also laid the first brick of my soon-to-be castle of dividend paying stocks – an effort I expect to cross $100 per month mark in no time. But one thing I regret not doing since the beginning of … [Read more...] about Doing a Better Job Tracking My Passive Income Streams and Retirement Savings
So Long Current Bank Account and Your New Fees – I Found a Chase Bonus Coupon!
Want a chance to win $1,000 in cash? Keep reading and check out the free contest at the bottom of the post. So if you’re a bank, how do you reward someone who has had a bank account with you for the past 30 years or so? How about by sticking them with $11 per month account fees! Sounds like a solid business plan, right? Well, that’s exactly what my bank did! How to Lose a Life Long Customer: You read it right. The bank that I’ve used since I was a little boy called me up this week to tell me that they were involuntary switching over all their accounts in the new year, and that my new checking account would have a $11 a month fee unless I met certain minimums. Forget that! I flat out told them that this was disappointing … [Read more...] about So Long Current Bank Account and Your New Fees – I Found a Chase Bonus Coupon!
Welcome Back to Work – Did You Notice Your Paycheck is Lower?
If you haven’t already, it’s back to work! It was such a great and enjoyable break. Sometimes I think having a week off is worse than having one day off because you get far too comfortable waking up at your leisure, reading a book, drinking coffee, etc. If that wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse: Your paycheck is lower! That’s right - the take-home from your paycheck is going to be lower because as part of the Fiscal Cliff, the payroll-tax cut didn’t get extended. That means the Social Security deduction for your Federal taxes went back to 6.2% from 4.2%. It was a nice two years at the lower rate, but it was always just a temporary band-aid as part of the Stimulus. Now it’s back to reality! … [Read more...] about Welcome Back to Work – Did You Notice Your Paycheck is Lower?
The Future of the U.S. Economy and Why We’ve Still Got a Long Ways to Go
As I write this commentary, there is still no solution to the Fiscal Cliff situation. In all my assumptions about our budget for next year, I have decided to be realistic and assumed that our taxes will go up. Thank you Washington for dropping the ball. Despite whatever efforts have been made, I question if any solution would really fix the problems that revealed themselves in 2008. In a sense, I wonder if we’re simply putting duck-tape on a leaky pipe. Are we actually addressing the real problem? Consider the facts: … [Read more...] about The Future of the U.S. Economy and Why We’ve Still Got a Long Ways to Go
