Money Then and Now

I have heard more than once from people of the baby boomer generation, that growing up, their Mother either didn’t work or only worked part time. They lived well, not elaborate, but fine. Now you either need one really good income, lots of overtime hours worked, multiple jobs or, more easily, two incomes, to live the same way the baby boomers remembered growing up.

I’ve read from a few sources that studies have been done that show that seniors are the happiest Americans as well as some articles saying baby boomers may be the most depressed. I can see seniors being the happiest age group. Seniors have been through and figured out how they deal with stress the best, if they had children - they are most likely out on their own, their houses/property tends to be paid off or almost paid off, retirement becomes a reality and seniors tend to keep themselves entertained by joining social groups with their peers. It also seems that people grow up now saving from every paycheck for retirement, so when it starts to become a reality - it is exciting. Baby boomers are dealing with massive competition at work and the possibility of less or no retirement income from the government. For my generation, social security is most likely not going to be there for our retirement years.

For us Americans that are not seniors, we have some daily stresses that we may or may not have figured out how to deal with. Life is a learning process. Money can always be considered a stress to most people. There are ways you can save money, such as getting a roommate (if you are younger or single) or cut back on the amount you spend on your every day necessities.

As stated in one of my previous articles, I felt that items that were inexpensive, like store brand products and other no-name brand products, sales would increase. A recent article in the New York Times states the same theory. The article goes on to say that middle-class Americans are switching from name brand to the cheaper alternatives, eating in instead of dining out, flying at unusual hours to shave dollars off airfares as well as booking cheaper hotels and motels. We need to travel and we need to buy food, but there are other things we want to spend our money on than just every day necessities.

Is Eating Out Cheaper Than Eating In?

How Bad Will The Economy Get?

April 2008

Eat Out For Less

N&O Article

Employment Tips For The Recession

It’s apparent we are in a recession. From the US dollar declining 45% in value compared to the Euro since 2002 and a staggering 15% (of the 45% total) just in this first quarter this year. Imports are down 2.9% from February to March, exports are down 1.7% in the same time frame. Donations to organizations are down. Commodities are up considerably from this time last year; corn is up 41%, eggs up 68.5% and gas is up 25%.

The average inflation that employers give you is 3-4% per year.

I came across some great tips from the CareerBuilder section in the News & Observer that I would like to share. Below are resume tips, strong career fields and links to more articles from CareerBuilder.

Revise Your Resume

Employers want to see that you are the perfect match for the position they are trying to fill. Have different resumes that are directed to the different jobs you are interested in, using specific keywords that relate to the position you are applying for.

List Your Career Summary

Mention your career highlights, past roles and strong skills. List a summary that gives the employer and idea of who you are by your experiences and briefly mention your goals.

Proofread

Nothing is more embarrassing than incorrect grammar or a misspelled word. Take your time and have someone read over your resume to get a second opinion.

Lying

As the old saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.” Lying may come around to bite you. Lying should not be considered when writing your resume.

Appearance

You only have one time to make a first impression. You want to make your resume short and sweet, memorable, clear and easy to read. Employers read resumes multiple times while they try to come up with candidates to schedule interviews with. If you make key points on your resume easy to find without relying on them to make notes, your resume will be more memorable.

Network

Sometimes the best thing you can do is know people. Education is a key, but to keep more doors open and opportunities available, networking, being friendly and helping people out will come around to help you in the future. I’ve found this to be true myself. In most company management manuals, fraternization is frowned upon. I believe you need to do the right thing if a weird situation pops up in the future, but connecting with people at a personal, non-work level, will help you out. Everybody wants to feel they have friends and not just people they speak to at work because they have to. Check out LINKEDIN.com.

Target Your Job Search

Don’t apply for every job available at a company. This will show management that you are unsure as to what you excel at and may put you out of consideration for any of the positions.

Recession-resistant Careers

• Health care
• Education
• Security
• Environmental Sciences
• Government

More Information From CareerBuilder

Recession Proof Jobs

Resume Blunders

All CareerBuilder Articles (VERY Informative)

Gas Up $6 A Tank In 1 Week?

I know the economy hasn’t been too great, the jobs have been going down, the housing situation isn’t that great (although for some - the rich - now is perfect), gas prices have been going up…I tend to just fill up my car every week and just move on with it. But today I looked at the price to fill my tank and it was up to $46, from $40 just ONE week before. That is 15% in ONE week. Now for anybody that understands the significance of that, that is a HUGE number. As an example, most people will get 3-4% raises each year, the rate of inflation (this year I got a whopping .9%…yeah that’s right, not even 1% - it was blamed on ‘corporate’…yeah, right). That’s 3-4% in 365 days, this was 15% in 7 days. My measly ‘raise’ of $4 a week has already been engulfed, and more, by the raise in gas this week

This situation goes back to the all-famous saying, ‘The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.’ This is so true. Say you have some money to invest into these oil stocks or any other company that is doing well, you can make a few pennies or a light chunk of change from the amount you put in. But the people that have lots of money already, have an even easier time getting even MORE money.

Take a look at the poor, they already have trouble affording rent and buying a car or riding the bus. With a raise in gas prices, everything else goes up too, food prices, going out to the bar (beverage prices), in reality - anything that needs to be shipped, goes up. These people had a hard enough time to begin with and now with the prices going up they have a harder time. I saw on TV this morning, that they were going to raise the tax fairs. Last year when the gas was $2.50 I guess, I’m not quite sure, I try not to look at the prices - it cost my mom $40 to travel 12 miles from my place to the airport when I had to leave for work that morning. Now that same trip with the rise in gas prices and fairs would easily be $60-70 dollars. I don’t know about you but I sure as heck don’t want to spend almost a whole days worth of salary (after taxes) just to go a few miles to the airport. Some people give up and don’t take on the challenge when they are working 50-60 hours a week and either not being able to pay their bills or just barely paying them, so then they go on to some government system to help them pay for things.

This affect, in turn, screws the huge middle-class as well. The taxes will go up to pay for the poor that can’t afford their rent or food. So the middle class is out more money and then that means there are less people going out to eat or spending money on luxury items, so that again screws the poor and some middle class.

All of this also affects the economy because there will be less research on new technology items or improvements to things already in existence, who can afford to buy them? Not many people, so why invest in that. And all of this time, the rich have hardly become affected. They can take their excess money out of one stock and move it to another that is doing well at the time, or - in the housing situation we are in now - buy property to renovate and resell when the market goes back up.

The economy is really having a hard time right now. Some people blame it on the banks, some people blame it on gas. I think it’s both. People would be able to handle one OR the other, as with most situations, but BOTH is a double whammy, too much. The government, from what I’ve read, has done it’s deal to ‘help,’ by lowering interest rates. And I put ‘help’ in quotes because, from my understanding, when the feds lower the interest rate on mortgages, that makes the value of a dollar decrease, which - in the long run - screws us all, unless you invest in stocks over seas or buy another currency now before it’s too late and when the dollar gets low enough, buy the US dollar back - but with any of those ideas, you need money.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.