tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71271527751418550092023-11-16T06:55:22.959-06:00Musings From MattA blog of thoughts by a twenty-something who is figuring out what growing up looks like.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-46205867103712899732010-04-13T18:35:00.003-05:002010-04-13T18:42:58.463-05:00Sprint Airlines imposed $45 fee per carry-on.If you don't travel frequently, you probably don't really care. Skip this post.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2010-04-13-airlinefees13_ST_N.htm">As the USA Today reports, Sprint Airlines is proposing a $45 fee per carry on bag</a>. When I used to travel frequently, I made a <a href="http://musingsfrommatt.blogspot.com/2008/05/seattle-times-has-some-interesting.html">blog post that spoke about the checked bag fees</a>, that accurately predicted the future.<br /><br />The purpose of me noting this is more because of the government getting involved and threatening to pass legislation to block this additional fee. Really? Do we need the government to protect us from capitalism and debating issues like this. Good grief - this is seriously misdirected outrage.<br /><br />Get back to encouraging job growth by offering massive incentives to small businesses to hire people.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-60570708332504493362009-10-06T19:02:00.003-05:002009-10-06T22:17:44.639-05:00Surviving the Recession for Twenty-Somethings (Revisited)About 11 months ago I made a post about <a href="http://musingsfrommatt.blogspot.com/2008/11/guide-to-surviving-recession-for-twenty.html">surviving the recession</a>.<br /><br />Since that time the number of unemployed and underemployeed has skyrocketed - with some people putting the combined un and underemployed rate approaching 20%.<br /><br />One of the things I touched on briefly was having a re-employement plan. This is a strategy of contacting personal friends, business associates, previous customers and others to let them know you're in the market for a new job.<br /><br />However, what I'd like to write about now is having a de-employment plan. Here's a checklist of things you'll want to do if you are de-employed not on your terms.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't sign anything</span>. When you are de-employed, you're under considerable distress. Do not sign any piece of paper explaining reason for your severance and termination unless you understand every single word. You need to be thinking clearly and may be signing away your rights if you're being terminated illegally.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>You do not need to sign anything the day you're let go.<br /><br />... except a clause about expense reports. Make sure that your employers agrees to pay the balance of your company related expenses, and get this in writing. It should state, "I will provide my company related expenses within 5 business days and will be reimbursed by (employer) in full. I estimate these expenses to be roughly XXX dollars."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">2.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">File for unemployment.</span> You do this through your state. For some people, they view collecting unemployment as a sign of failure or laziness. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">THIS IS NOT TRUE. DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIE. </span>These economic times are unprecedented in our generation. Now is not the time to be idealistic or prideful. In Illinois you would visit the <a href="http://www.ides.state.il.us/">Illinois Department of Employment Security</a>. Benefits for people that earn above $42,536 are $385 per week. For earners below that, the amount is 47% of your income. Married people with a dependent spouse earn $459 (58%). One or more children raises the amount to $534 (63.2%).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3a. Know your options with health insurance. </span>If you lose your job, you still have the opportunity to keep your company's existing health insurance - however, you'll need to pay the premiums. Most employeers with good health insurance have costs that are roughly $700-$1,000 a month. Fortunately, the ARRA offers significant support for these payments. <blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote></blockquote>The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, commonly called COBRA. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eligible individuals pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums </span>and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit. The premium reduction applies to periods of health coverage beginning on or after February 17, 2009 and lasts for up to nine months for those eligible for COBRA during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009 due to an involuntary termination of employment that occurred during that period.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">3b. Get a physical. </span>When you realize the costs of premiums, especially if you're young and healthy, you may wish to forgo health insurance<span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span> depending on how much money you have saved and your cash flow situation. Having a physical that says you're healthy will help get you the lowest prices if you need to purchase individual insurance. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />4.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Suspend unnecessary expenses</span>. This includes extended cable TV packages, cell phone data / texting packages, tithing, any automatic saving payments. <u>Stop all automatic payments outside of utilities.</u> This is not the time to calculate how long you can last "without changing your lifestyle". You've lost your job - your lifestyle should change. Your expense priorities are now shelter, food (not dining!) and transportation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't take a vacation. </span>This is basically a specific version of #4. I've heard of many people who think since they have "time off" it means "I deserve a vacation." You're unemployed! That is not an option.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Sharpen your resume.</span> <a href="http://musingsfrommatt.blogspot.com/2009/02/resume-musings.html">I wrote on this before</a>.<br /><blockquote></blockquote>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-65095849688271240082009-09-03T18:46:00.004-05:002009-09-03T19:34:00.237-05:00Thoughts on Health Care<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}">"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."</h3><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">With the health care debate raging on, I see more and more people making claims like the above.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I don't think that many people would disagree with the initial statement, but the issue is much bigger than life or death. Often the issues at hand are </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">quality </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">of life and </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">length </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">of life. When health care is claimed to be a fundamental right instead of a privilege, then cost must becomes of no consequence. You can't argue against the economic consequences of spending a million dollars to keep a 90 year old woman alive for 10 more hours, just like you can't argue about the consequences to the owners of freeing 200 slaves on their million dollar a year plantation. The issues, if viewed as a right to health care and a right to personal liberty, are above mere dollar and cents consequences.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Where all will agree that if you're 90 years old and can extend your life for 10 hours at the cost of a million dollars, and somebody else will pick up the tab (the government) it's easy to pull the lever and say, "Sure, spend it. Great Grandma is worth it" Even though from a more holistic standpoint this probably isn't a wise choice given a million dollars could feed thousands of starving children elsewhere in the world.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So while we can probably agree that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick, I'm sure some would disagree with what this implies: Everyone should be allowed to live as long as they desire without regard to the use of resources required.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-37012469858103306982009-07-03T11:14:00.008-05:002009-07-03T18:41:07.666-05:00What does taking redundancies mean or being redundant?I read a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5718984/Staff-strip-naked-to-improve-morale.html">bizarre article</a> [Borderline SFW] about a company in Britain whose employes all showed up nude to improve office morale and get past inhibitions. Seems a little extreme to me.<br /><br />However, this was a Britainism (British English) that I didn't understand:<blockquote>David Taylor, a business psychologist, told workers at design and marketing onebestway, in Newcastle upon Tyne, that a Naked Friday idea would boost their team spirit. <p> He was called in to help the firm <span style="font-style: italic;">after six staff members were forced into taking redundancies at the start of the credit crunch</span>. </p></blockquote><p></p>"Taking redundancies" is equivalent to American "down sizing" or "being laid off".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.virginmedia.com/jobs/features/coping-with-redundancy.php">There's an article here that talks about British fears of being "redundant."<br /></a><br />Because I'm not cultured and no google search term came up with adequate results, I thought I'd blog about it to blatantly gain some hits off of Google with key terms since the article is pretty widely published and I can't be the only person that needed clarification.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-49024219849814907202009-06-25T17:00:00.001-05:002009-06-25T17:00:08.566-05:00WAMP Forbidden You don't have permission to access /phpmyadmin/ on this server.If you're like me and just downloaded the newest copy of WAMP, you'll see a problem that drove me nuts. I got a notice that said:<br /><br /><h1>Forbidden</h1> <p>You don't have permission to access /phpmyadmin/ on this server.</p><p>When you see something like this, you realize that it could be a million things, and since I'm more of a hack then a web developer, I freaked out.<br /></p><p>A lot of help forums suggested that you modify the alias information so that you allow access from localhost, like 127.0.0.1. Mine already had that setup, by default.</p><p>I was scratching my head over and over and couldn't figure out the root cause of all of this. Strangely, the SqLite manager was working just fine. This was so weird.<br /></p><p>Then I went back and realized that the problem was that my C:\wamp\alias\phpmyadmin.conf file was just pointing to the wrong directory: it pointed to MySQL version phpmyadmin3.1.3 instead of phpmyadmin3.1.3.1. Ugh. WAMP team fail.<br /></p><p>Check the directory and version number!</p>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-75028296007041635252009-06-05T08:43:00.003-05:002009-06-05T08:47:55.966-05:00Scary Insurance Companies<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 648px; height: 90px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 66pt;" width="88"> <col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"> <col style="width: 66pt;" width="88"> <col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"> <col style="width: 107pt;" width="142"> <tbody><tr style="height: 30pt;" height="40"> <td class="xl66" style="height: 30pt; width: 66pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" height="40" width="88">Policy Amount</td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 48pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" width="64">Annual Premium</td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 66pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" width="88">Sum of 5 Years Premiums</td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 48pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" width="64">Implied Odds of Payout</td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 107pt; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" width="142">Calculated Likelihood of Dying in 5 years</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl63" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;" height="20"><span style=""> </span>$<span style=""> </span>700,000</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl63"><span style=""> </span>$<span style=""> </span>420</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl63"><span style=""> </span>$<span style=""> </span>2,100 </td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl64">0.30%</td> <td style="text-align: center;" class="xl65">1 in 333</td> </tr> </tbody></table><br /><br />Questions:<br />Isn't this math basically correct?<br />What sort of margins do life insurance companies get?<br />How much goes to the agents, annually?<br /><br />hmm....Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-46617862573090386652009-05-17T21:26:00.007-05:002009-05-17T22:27:44.906-05:00Housing Market Perspective UpdateWith a child on the way in less than two months, there's been a constant itch to think about buying a home. Renting, has a stigma in American culture as being wasteful. However, in this economy, I continue to disagree that it's a great time to be a first time homeowner.<br /><br />There's a lot of factors in play that make taking the home ownership plunge sound appealing. There's the $8,000 housing gift if you purchase a home (<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/137655-new-government-policy-tax-credit-as-mortgage-down-payment">which can be used as a down payment</a>, much to my dismay.) There's all time historic low interest rates, around 5%. Most noted, however, are all the "deals" that abound in a market. With home prices in DuPage County down 23% from their peak, it would appear that now is the time to buy!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztwerilEjkg9Rx4xRJLiCUqwOoCxRWN9uHyYwc770MwpHgfSLJpQWA6h-SGbEU9t9WA-7YgVSMFYDcManInlgtGUXB5GKMaDKOx6J5samWUXBm9eTAyxzpRS10VGO7takefvWp-vT0Qc/s1600-h/housing.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztwerilEjkg9Rx4xRJLiCUqwOoCxRWN9uHyYwc770MwpHgfSLJpQWA6h-SGbEU9t9WA-7YgVSMFYDcManInlgtGUXB5GKMaDKOx6J5samWUXBm9eTAyxzpRS10VGO7takefvWp-vT0Qc/s400/housing.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336988299516660498" border="0" /></a><br />However, I would argue that now is not the time to buy unless you are very certain you will own your property for at least five years, and definitely not the time to buy if you are looking for the best price. <span style="font-weight: bold;">I repeat: We are not at the bottom of housing prices</span>.<br /><br />I have basically three reasons why I'm not buying:<br /><br />1. The economy is not at the bottom. Major companies who announced layoffs in the past 6-12 months have not completed these layoffs. For those that have, many of these workers were high wage earners that received excellent severance packages and are still able to pay their mortgage. <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/">With the April 2009 unemployment rate at 8.9%</a>, and having it increase every month, it's safe to say that foreclosures will continue to rise until this rate decreases to historical norms. This is more than one year off. Hence, I can safely choose to sign one year leases and continue to rent and not put my money into a depreciating asset. I already own two large depreciating assets, our cars. No need to add more to the list.<br /><br />2. Even if the recession ended today, the housing inventory is still historically too high. With <a href="http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/90300d004dd64c0d8d92ade06077afc4/REL0903EHS.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=90300d004dd64c0d8d92ade06077afc4">9.8 months of inventory</a> which took nearly two years to rise from 6.5 to 10.5 months, I don't think that we're going to see a swift turnaround. As homeowners become more desperate to sell, prices will continue downward.<br /><br />What I've only seen briefly mentioned (You hear it here first!) is a recently published survey from Zillow that states <a href="http://zillow.mediaroom.com/file.php/880/HCS+Results+Q12009.pdf">31% of homeowners would be somewhat likely, likely, or very likely to put their home up for sale if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround in the next 12 months</a>!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERhuRLukUdKoy8yjZZuQuaJrfofy7V6F1xlmeEfvfyGm6CddClJd-G3V7TKWLWErkGTeyQ_Jv-WMe1o0WxPZA8ul1OpRYw4zUMOGfUwv3X1zAL76IWO75ZmujsA8yD8Ra4iN_BUxCVB8/s1600-h/housing2.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERhuRLukUdKoy8yjZZuQuaJrfofy7V6F1xlmeEfvfyGm6CddClJd-G3V7TKWLWErkGTeyQ_Jv-WMe1o0WxPZA8ul1OpRYw4zUMOGfUwv3X1zAL76IWO75ZmujsA8yD8Ra4iN_BUxCVB8/s400/housing2.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336997068547853714" border="0" /></a><br />With roughly 75 million homes in the U.S. per the somewhat outdated 2000 census, this means that 75 x .31 = <span style="font-weight: bold;">23</span> million homes <span style="font-weight: bold;">could be</span> put for sale when the housing market "turns around". Compare this to the fact that <span style="font-weight: bold;">17 </span>million homes where sold in the year 2006, 2007 and 2008 combined! This implies we could have up to four years of shadow inventory. The high inventory will continue downward housing prices.<br /><br />3. As municipalities try to make ends meet with their budget, we can expect property taxes to increase significantly within the next several years, possibly dramatically changing the expected payments of a home. This risk and the ability to negotiate rent, compared with the complete inability to negotiate taxes, makes this another significant risk to purchasing a home today.<br /><br />With all that said, I'll have to take a pass on the pulling the trigger on this one, and I advise my friends the same.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-7332675770428658012009-04-14T21:46:00.002-05:002009-04-14T21:51:03.752-05:00Your Business Card is CrapOkay, so this is an interesting video. It's on college humor, which has some content I don't generally go for, but I found this to be great, mostly because I sort of agree with the guy. <br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1907003&fullscreen=1" height="360" width="480"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="true"><param name="movie" quality="best" value="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1907003&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1907003&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" height="360" width="480"></embed></object><div style="padding: 5px 0pt; text-align: center; width: 480px;">Watch <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907003">Your Business Card is Crap</a> on <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/">CollegeHumor</a></div><br /><br />Oh well.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-89417334108179261052009-03-01T09:56:00.005-06:002009-03-01T10:29:02.231-06:00Shameless Promotion!Time to do a little bit of promotion for people who are doing awesome things. I seem to have a lot of friends who do neat projects or are pursuing their passions in really creative ways. They shouldn't go unnoticed!<br /><br />So first I want to talk about Bryant Rosenwinkel. <a href="http://www.bryantmusic.com/">Bryant</a> writes music. And sings. And plays music. And... he's awesome at it. Keep in mind that I don't buy music or even really listen to music. Bryant's CD, The Western Thief (<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vcGhvYm9zLmFwcGxlLmNvbS9XZWJPYmplY3RzL01aU3RvcmUud29hL3dhL3ZpZXdBbGJ1bT9pPTI5MjI3ODc5MyZpZD0yOTIyNzg3ODkmcz0xNDM0NDE=">iTunes Link</a>), is the first I have purchased in the last 15 years. It has 10 tracks and all 10 are filled with awesome folky goodness with catchy and clever lyrics that tell great stories about life, love and loss. I wouldn't hesitate to get all 10 tracks. He has a couple of <a href="http://www.myspace.com/bryantmusic">sample songs on his myspace page</a>. Do it now!<br /><br />Second, I need to talk about <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Chris Hadley and </strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Elisabeth O’Donnell </strong>over at <a href="http://www.cuisinemadequick.com/">CuisineMadeQuick.com</a>. They make some great cooking videos on low cost, easily accessible meals. I really like how fun and informative they are, and the food looks great. What's refreshing is that they're very candid throughout the whole cooking process. It's a little more casual and authentic than TV, but still of high quality (not some high school kids with a camera on YouTube). Since the two hosts of the show are dating, they're fun to watch and kind of flirty with each other, (but not in the weird way like Regis and Kelly). Check them out too!<br /><br />That's all for now!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-86246626629732943892009-02-28T13:51:00.003-06:002009-03-01T09:56:03.540-06:00Eye GlassesSo my wife and I went to milk some of the vision insurance I had at my previous employeer. We went to Lenscrafts and got an eye exam, contacts, frames and lenses. We had pretty a fair discount schedule with our insurance and we paid... I'll just say too much... a week's salary.<br /><br />This struck me as just wrong... and I happened to take a trip over to life hacker and saw an article about buying eye glasses online. What I've come to realize is that people in the 3rd world wear glasses. They've got to be paying somewhere between $10-$20 a pair.<br /><br />Interesting things to note:<br /><ul><li>Lenscrafters, Pearl Vision, Sears and Target are all supplied by the same Italian eyeglasses manufacturer - <span style="font-size:100%;">Luxottica.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Some optomitrists can buy their 'designer' frames and lenses wholesale for $6-$10 and then sell them for up to 1,000% markup.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Lens coatings cost almost nothing to apply and charge clients up to $50 for the service.</span></li></ul><span style="font-size:100%;">Anyway, I think I'm going to do some shopping... Lens Crafters has a 30 day unconditional guarentee. We'll see what happens!<br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-3816358210324773892009-02-28T13:30:00.005-06:002009-03-01T09:58:01.577-06:00Term Life InsuranceSo this week my wife and I bought some term life insurance policies. Since we're having our first child in a couple of months, having adequate life insurance is something that I felt was important.<br /><br />I'd imagine that some people my age aren't really aware of what life insurance is, or why you might want some, so I'll take a few minutes to go over the process.<br /><br />Basically, there are a couple of versions of life insurance. I bought a fixed rate, 30 year term life insurance. If I die for any reason, including cancer, plane crash, on the job accident, my wife will be given the amount of the policy. Typically, you want to buy between 8-10 times your annual, pretax income. You don't want to waste your money on things like annuities, whole life, or any other type. If you're 20 something, you want 30 year term life insurance so you'll have this fixed rate protection for the next 30 years.<br /><br />You might think, "Well, I have life insurance through my employer." You very well might, and it's often completely <span style="font-weight: bold;">inadequate</span>. Both of my employers offered 1 1/2 times my income. Though this will certainly be enough to bury me and pay off some student debt, it's not enough to send a child to college, pay off a mortgage or any other sort of responsibilities.<br /><br />For non-smoking, healthy men, you can get a $500,000 policy for roughly $25 a month. $750,000 for around $35. Likely less than you're spending for cable TV.<br /><br />You want to buy life insurance while you're healthy. As you get older, you're more likely to have something affect your health. Even if you don't have children, a spouse or someone else who is dependent on your income, you want to get this now.<br /><br />I went through insure.com and bought insurance for me and my wife. The process was pretty painless. They asked about 30 minutes of questions and a few days later a medical examiner took our blood pressure, a urine sample, height, weight and a blood sample <span style="font-weight: bold;">in our home</span>. It was pretty sweet, but admittedly a little weird too.<br /><br />If you're 20-something, buy some today while you're healthy and can get excellent fixed rates. I know this sounds like a commercial, and I apologize in advance. It took me well over a year to make this a priority, and I'd hate to see a family go through some unnecessary trauma because they delayed in doing the right thing.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-88113252081628036022009-02-01T13:03:00.005-06:002009-02-01T13:45:51.836-06:00Resume MusingsI know more people who have lost their job in the past 4 months than those who lost jobs in the combined rest of my life. What is even more sad is that many of these people are highly talented individuals. As I wrote in a entry before, being prepared is key. I'd like to write a little bit on how to write a resume.<br /><br />I'd bet most people haven't seen a resume besides their own. I don't think that mine is the greatest in the world, but the format worked to land me a couple of jobs.<br /><br />Here's a brief copy of mine from a few months ago:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27352845@N03/3244313999/" title="MJA_Resume by Matt_Adams, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3460/3244313999_a49987fbd2.jpg" alt="MJA_Resume" width="405" height="500" /></a><br /></div><br />I'll try to highlight a couple of key things that I tried to do, and I recommend to others.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Focus</span><br />First and foremost, your resume needs to be clean, concise and tack-sharp focused to the needs of the position you are applying more. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Every time you apply to a new position, you must refocus your resume for the position you are applying for</span>. This was important when the economy was good, and is now critical when you're competing against more people who are equally or more qualified for the position you seek.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Keep it Simple</span><br />I kept it to one page. I'm a big proponent of this. However, it also tends to reflect my style of writing (most of the time): concise & bulleted. I also know that during interviews, the interviewer typically has the resume right in front of them. It's awkward for them to flip back and forth between multiple pages. In addition, I'm only 25. I don't have a ton of positions to ramble on about. This may force me at some point to go to 2 pages. A resume should never be more than 2 pages. Keep focused on the position and cut out what doesn't apply to the job you're doing. I have 4 summer internships in the industrial manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and machine building industries. Since they didn't apply to the job I was applying for, I didn't mention them. It's important to show you're responsible and can keep a job when you're landing your first job out college, so you can list that you served coffee at your uncle's barber shop during the summers. Once you're in the working world, those nonsense jobs need to be cut.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fill the Whole Space</span><br />You'll probably notice the "Who is Matt Adams?" section. Honestly, I went out on a limb with that one. In college I had that space reserved for extra-curricular activities. I had to fill the space. I had a couple of executive recruiters say that they're usually not a fan of that use of space, but mine was an exception. Take that for what it's worth.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sell Yourself</span><br />A resume is a marketing piece. Having it look polished and clean is key. It reflects directly on the impression of the brand - you!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Know What You Wrote</span><br />It's also important to have a talking point or two about <span style="font-weight: bold;">every single item</span> on your resume when you get an interview. You will be asked about it, and its even possible that you were asked to interview for a single word or phrase on your resume. On one version of my resume, I mentioned a skill I knew little about and was drilled heavily on the theory of the skill during an interview. It was awkard. Don't let that happen to you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Have Others Help</span><br />It is important to read, reread and read again what you have in your resume before you send it off to a potential employer. Send it to friends, family and anyone that you can think of for feedback and editing. A well written resume shows your ability to communicate, pay attention to detail and understand your strengths. It's more than just a sheet of paper.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Final, Serious Note:</span><br />We're heading towards 10% unemployment... spend a weekend soon to update your resume if you haven't updated it in the past 6 months. Email me with a copy of yours if you'd like feedback. I'd be happy to help.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-91156575672121751752009-01-24T13:30:00.005-06:002009-01-24T14:00:02.932-06:00Never Pay A Credit Card Late Fee!I have a quick note on how I saved myself $68.00 today.<br /><br />I pay my credit cards online and always pay them in full before the due date... usually. This month I was a few days late. For random reasons, I have two credits cards, and hence got hit with double late fees. $68.00 total. Ouch!<br /><br />So, I used an online form and wrote Capital One and requested that they refund me the late fees. My letter looked like this:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Hello. I am writing to request a refund for my late fee. I was a few days late to pay this month. I love Capital One and have been a very good customer. I have paid my balance in full. Thanks in advance!</blockquote>Sure enough, I got a reply back that said, "Good news. Your late fees have been refunded."<br /><br />Notice that I didn't need to threaten, lie or even make a phone call. I spent about 10 minutes of my time and got a $68 refund. I heard that this past quarter Capital One posted a loss of 1.42 billion dollars. I'm glad they didn't cut corners and try to hoard late fees. No rants today!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-29392032354181409602008-12-28T15:58:00.005-06:002008-12-28T16:44:10.761-06:00Goals, Priorities and BusynessWith 2009 coming along, its a good time to set some goals. My 2008 goal was to read through a one year Bible with Jenn. Up until about April or so, I was right on track, and somewhere along the way, I lost a lot of ground - we're on June 3rd as of today.<br /><br />I had events come up like travel with my job, the need to care for Jenn during our pregnancy and a whole host of other things that were not perfectly planned, but those aren't the reason for falling behind. It is plainly obvious reading became a lower priority than watching episodes of The Office and Heros, because I haven't missed a single episode of either of those programs (either watching them live or replayed on the internet). This is certainly not my proudest realization of the year.<br /><br />I know there have been times when I've rationalized the excuse, "<span style="font-style: italic;">Well, I've been busy.</span>"<br /><br />This is a poor excuse. I'm busy, you're busy, my mother, dentist and everybody is busy.<br /><br />What are we busy doing? <span style="font-weight: bold;">Whatever we prioritize.<br /><br /></span>The new year is a great chance to reprioritize. There's about 7 months of scheduled material and 6 months until the baby is due. If I over-clock our reading schedule by 16%, we can be done before our child is born. In principle, I think that it's important that if Jenn and I plan to raise our child to be a loving follower of Jesus, reading through the Bible completely before he or she's born would be a good step (among many) to prepare for that responsibility. What I especially like about this goal is that it is extremely measurable. I can measure the accomplishment (yes or no) and percent of plan (Target = 116%). Maybe I'll create some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_performance_indicator">KPI</a> metrics along the way and post them here.<br /><br />I'm not going to lose sleep if our child comes early and we're not quite through, but this is something that I'm convicted enough about to put in print somewhere. That way I can have people who care about me ask me how I'm doing with it.<br /><br />Though I don't expect this will happen, if for whatever reason you ask me about this and I tell you I've fallen behind, I need the response of, "What is the plan to catch up?" and not "That's a bummer, but don't beat yourself up too bad about it." Thanks in advance!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-41740106819544766022008-11-28T22:05:00.005-06:002008-11-28T23:16:17.294-06:00A Guide to Surviving the Recession For Twenty-SomethingsLike many, I'm reading headlines that aren't too optimistic about the future of the economy. I just read an article that put the potential unemployment rate around 10%, up from roughly <a href="http://www.bls.gov/CPS/">6.5% now</a>.<br /><br />Unless you are self-employed, you don't have a lot to say concerning your employment status. However, there are a few things you can do to gauge your likelihood of being let go in a layoff. Ask yourself these questions:<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Are there multiple people with the same job title as you? </span>For example, if you're part of a 15 person engineering department, it's possible that the engineering manager could be expected to give 3 names by the end of the day. If there are 5 mechanical design engineers, 3 drafters and 4 electrical engineers and 2 programmers, the 3 names given will include at least 1 mechanical engineer and 1 electrical. The programmer is the least likely to go.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />2. Could your company still function without you? </span>This is one of the scariest realizations, that your job isn't a lynch<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>pin the the corporate machine. If you realize that you're not critical, it's possible you may be among the first to go. Be honest with yourself and try to gain more responsibility so you leaving will cause maximum corporate pain.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Do you get along well with your boss?</span> Here's a dirty little secret. Sometimes major layoffs are used by managers to get rid of merely average employees that they can't exactly fire for any really good reason. Sometimes a department might not be asked to lay anyone off, but a crafty manager might say, "Could I please give you one name?" or even negotiate a deal with another manager, "Hey, I can get rid of Average Adam in my department so you'll only need to let go of 2 people instead of 3 in yours. I'll be calling back my favor later." Don't assume this sort of thing doesn't happen.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Does your boss think you are critical to his or her team?</span> Regardless of your opinion on your contributions, if your boss thinks that you're a critical element to the team, you're less likely to be let go. This is why it is critical to always be on good terms with your boss, or at the least not be on the bottom of their list. All managers have favorites (though the professional ones will not exhibit favoritism). If you're a favorite, you're more likely to hold your job.<br /><br />While the point of the above questions isn't to strike fear into your soul, it should be a wake up call for everyone in Generation Y: We're not invincible. While its possible our baby boomer parents had some sleepless nights after their 401k was rocked by the dot com boom, our lifetime hasn't be scared by any sort of major recession. What we're looking at for the next couple of years is a big deal.<br /><br />So what do you do? How do you prepare?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Make sure you have an emergency fund of liquid assets on which you can live for 6 months. </span>I already hear the cries of twenty somethings saying that there is no way that they can save that sort of money. To which I'll say: baloney. There's no way you can't afford to have an emergency fund. 6 months of expenses should include costs like rent or mortgage, utilities, food, car insurance, health insurance and life insurance. Yes, this is a lot of money - start saving now. Having a 6 month emergency fund is more important than your 401k, paying down high interest loans or just about anything else. I'll be writing an entry on in the future about how to save more money. (But there are only ways: cut expenses or increase income.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Role Play a Worst Case Scenario With a Complete Re-Employment Plan.</span> Assume that you've been given two weeks notice without severance. Who would you contact about finding new job offers? Write down your list so if you're in shock from this unfortunate news, you've got a plan of action. Update your resume. Make contact with old co-workers and managers to find out what they've been up to. Websites like LinkedIn make this easier, but a personal phone call or email can't be beat.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Work smarter (not harder) to move yourself up a notch on your boss's favorites list.</span> Revisit questions 3 and 4 above. Try to make yourself a critical part of your managers team. Find out where your manager's pain is and help him fix it. Have lunch with your manager and develop a personal relationship. Find out how your manager is compensated and help them get a hefty bonus. Be the hardest employee your manager has. Remember: now is not the time to slack off.<br /><br />This is definitely a painfully practical post, but I hope that the readers can think through some of the thoughts. Comment away!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-91946147721782228192008-11-13T08:30:00.004-06:002008-11-16T11:18:16.832-06:00Employee Compensation & Negotiating RaisesOne of the interesting parts about being a twenty-something is dealing with your salary. Depending on the company you work for, the process may vary widely. Depending on the company, there may be no process at all.<br /><br />If your employer doesn't have have a review process, you need to create one. Every year you need to have a discussion about your objectives and how you can measure your success in your role. The annual review may or may not discuss your salary, but it is paramount that you can discuss your performance as an employee. This will be a key tool to negotiate an appropriate pay increase.<br /><br />You should expect, at the very least, to get a cost of living raise each and every year. I'll pin that number, for the sake of discussion, at 2%. If you don't get a 2% raise each and every year, your employer is giving you a pay cut -> they are taking money out of your pocket. If you honestly believe that you are over paid and can not find similar compensation somewhere else, then you don't have much room for complaint. However, if you think you're being underpaid, then you have every right and reason to negotiate.<br /><br />I think it's critically important to realize that your employer needs to have a valid reason to pay you more than you are earning now. Your life circumstances can not come into play. For example, the following are <span style="font-weight: bold;">not</span> reasons why your employer should give you a raise:<br /><ul><li>You want to buy a house and need more money to get the size house you want.</li><li>You are getting married and need to cover the cost</li><li>The interest rates on your student loans are increasing.</li><li>You are expecting a child and you need to provide for them.</li><li>Your spouse is changing or leaving his or her job and you need to make up some of the difference in compensation.</li></ul>These are all personal reasons. Your employer doesn't care about how you spend your pay check. They care about how you are making them money or saving them money. Your employer's #1 objective is to get the most (work) for the least (money). Your objective as the worker is the opposite.<br /><br />There are, however, valid reasons why you should expect additional compensation.<br /><ul><li>Exceeding company goals, especially related to creating income or reducing costs.</li><li>Performing extra responsibilities that potentially reduce the amount of other employees needed to accomplish the tasks.</li><li>Others performing your job function at other companies are getting paid more than you.</li><li>Coworkers or those with less experience at your same company are getting paid more than you.</li></ul>Another thing to mention is that employees seldom realize how much negotiating power they have.<br /><br />The cost of replacing a good employee is incredible. First, the company needs to find a new employee. While they search, the position is unfilled and additional strain is put on coworkers who now have more work to do. It is unlikely the company will find someone with exactly the right skill sets, so after the replacement is hired, there is time where they are paying the replacement for less than 100% output (training). If it is a mid to upper level replacement, they might need to use an outside recruiter, who will get paid up to 30% of the position's annual salary. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bottom line</span>: Replacing good employees costs big bucks!<br /><br />Keep this in mind when looking to negotiate your next raise. A few percent isn't much when leaving will lower the moral of the office, costs the company valuable training time and the possible cost of an upfront fee of 30% of your salary. Every person in human resources knows this, and its quite possible that your supervisor does as well. If you bring up a raise, they're going to have to discuss it past HR, who will surely clue your supervisor in.<br /><br />One element is not good for salary negotiation: Another job offer.<br /><br />It may seem like the golden ticket, "Hey boss man, you better give me this raise or I'm going to go and work for ABC company! Look at this incredible offer they made me!"<br /><br />Here are the simple facts: If you have the brief conversation above with your boss, your current employer will likely cough up and offer you whatever salary request you made, so they do not lose you. However, <span style="font-weight: bold;">make no mistake</span>, this is only temporarily. Once you mention that you are going to leave or have considered leaving, you are no longer loyal to the company. They want to keep you around only for strategic value and to possibly train your replacement. No ifs, ands or buts: your days are numbered.<br /><br />Alternate jobs offers are not a card to be played, they're an opportunity you accept or do not accept.<br /><br />Whew, a lot of random information on the subject here. Hope you enjoyed it. Comment away!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-24295264686465369922008-11-08T19:33:00.006-06:002008-11-09T12:49:30.496-06:00Terminated - Fortunately Not Arnold Schwarzenegger StyleAs many people may or may not know, I'm making a job change. This is a really exciting time for me. After working at at my first employer out of college for over 3 years, I was offered and accepted an exciting job at a competitor.<br /><br />It's a very interesting situation to respond to as an employer: If your employee is leaving for a competitor and gives notice (2 weeks, for instance, as I did), how do you respond? Some people might not understand my question.<br /><br />As an employer, you have a few options:<br /><ul><li>Let the employee leave in 2 weeks.</li><li>Terminate the employee within a few days of the notice.</li><li>Terminate the employee immediately.</li></ul> I personally believe that the second option is best, assuming you have an ethical and productive employee committed working hard after they announce their intent to move on. A few days forces urgency of a brain dump from the leaving employee to coworkers without giving time for the employee to mentally 'check out' before quitting. It also allows time to methodically transfer files to coworkers, prepare projects for hand off and answer any outstanding questions directly.<br /><br />However, my employer, (as do almost all employers when an employee announces they're leaving for a competitor) terminated me by the end of the day.<br /><br />The concern, of course, is that your employee is no longer loyal, especially if they are disgruntled. They could potentially steal trade secrets, inventions, patents, customer lists and other sensitive information with hopes of having an advantage at their new employer.<br /><br />This concern, however, I personally believe is somewhat misleading. First and foremost, company secrets are protected by law. Often when working for technology companies, you give away all rights to inventions, patents and copyrights relating to your job function (sometimes unrelated to your job function!) to your employer. I specifically have an invention (and frankly a really cool one at that) which my previous employer is probably not going to act on. However, I can't mention anything about it to my new employer because I signed away the rights to it upon taking my previous employer's offer. In addition, my new employer asked for and I agreed that I wouldn't give confidential information from my previous employer as a part of my new contract.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bottom Line</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Simply</span>: Professional companies that deal with technology make you sign away anything valuable to them, want to make sure inventions and secrets from previous work stay with the original companies. Good companies don't want lawsuits from stolen ideas - they want original innovation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Less Than Simply</span>: There are gray areas. Customer lists, for example, could be considered trade secrets. However, its very difficult to legally prove a customer list is stolen.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Regardless of Simplicity</span>: Employees who are leaving know before the employer does. They'll secure whatever information that they want before they give their notice. What they secure isn't a function of time employed after their notice, it's function of the employee's ethics and savvy.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-72926378135437840392008-11-02T22:29:00.003-06:002008-11-02T22:39:08.195-06:00Adolescence - A Failed Social ExperiementNewt Gingrich, love him or hate him, has an interesting take on <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_45/b4107085289974.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5">adolescence</a>, calling it a failed social experiment of the 19th century.<br /><br />I never gave much thought to this idea, but it has some merit. I had some interesting discussions this weekend with some peers about it. Many of them were steadfast advocates of a broad exposure of education.<br /><br />Mr. Gingrich argues a the broad education system has had too high a cost:<br /><blockquote>The costs of this social experiment have been horrendous. For the poor who most need to make money, learn seriously, and accumulate resources, adolescence has helped crush their future. By trapping poor people in bad schools, with no work opportunities and no culture of responsibility, we have left them in poverty, in gangs, in drugs, and in irresponsible sexual activity. As a result, we have ruined several generations of poor people who might have made it if we had provided a different model of being young.</blockquote>I'm not really sure that I exactly have an opinion, but I found the article very interesting. I'd be curious to see others thoughts.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-33506739354659347812008-10-24T16:45:00.000-05:002008-10-24T16:45:00.444-05:00Buying vs. Renting - With Current Market Data<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Very glad we decided to not buy a home. Check out this from the </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/iar/marketstats/quarterly/2008/2Qnews.html">Illinois Realtors</a><span style="font-family: arial;">:</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana;font-size:100%;" ><blockquote style="font-family: courier new;">SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Illinois home sales in the second quarter improved from the first quarter of 2008 yet were lower compared to the same period a year ago. According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS® (IAR) second quarter report, total home sales (which include single-family homes and condominiums) were 32,414 in the second quarter, down 25.4 percent from a year ago when 43,438 home sales were reported in the second quarter. The second quarter median home sale price was $192,500, down 6.8 percent from $206,500 in 2007.</blockquote>My strategy is very simple for buying a home. You can't time out the bottom, but you can definitely time out when it has passed. I'm willing to wait until the median home prices have increased by 3% or more over two quarters before I buy.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Below you can see that the you can't guess the future, but you can view the past. Maybe prices will go down a lot more, maybe they'll just creep a bit. The key is that you shouldn't target to time the bottom, you should target to acknowledge the recovery is legitimate.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjB7tCl6Q6_dLaYgwLCTBZsCJwMGETUNAQRZx6Jg6wEZ8QUiTPXgdYc-eeL-ISFznllo2fDJ8vAlNGq_26kIlwcyPbepmTz867YAE3pEbPpSjiv3xzTDmw97c9KzYXlbDqeoMjgaLkLU/s1600-h/buy.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjB7tCl6Q6_dLaYgwLCTBZsCJwMGETUNAQRZx6Jg6wEZ8QUiTPXgdYc-eeL-ISFznllo2fDJ8vAlNGq_26kIlwcyPbepmTz867YAE3pEbPpSjiv3xzTDmw97c9KzYXlbDqeoMjgaLkLU/s400/buy.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260725150630663874" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana;font-size:100%;" >The only way a home makes a good 'investment' is if its value is growing. Owning is not a better option merely because you can deduct interest from you income tax alone.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> It's only a good investment because of the leverage that you can get. For instance a 1% down payment and the house increases 10% implies a profit not of 9%, but of 900%!</span><br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-78268664214484406512008-09-26T08:10:00.003-05:002008-09-26T08:13:03.544-05:00Rocket Man!I love inventors.<br /><br />I love inventors more when they accomplish their dream.<br /><br />I love inventors even more when they <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7637327.stm">accomplish their dream while wearing a space suit</a>.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-14759904362591183862008-08-30T14:56:00.004-05:002008-08-30T15:01:55.654-05:00Balance BillingI read an interesting article from Business Week, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_36/b4098040915634.htm">Medical Bills You Shouldn't Pay</a>, referring to 'balance billing'<br /><br /><p> </p><blockquote><p>As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. </p> <p>Most consumers don't realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals think an insurer has reimbursed too little, state and federal laws generally bar the medical providers from pressuring patients to pay the difference. Instead, doctors and hospitals should be wrangling directly with insurers. Economists and patient advocates estimate that consumers pay $1 billion or more a year for which they're not responsible. </p></blockquote><p></p>What's important to understand is that often times your employer will have a 90/10 or 80/20 plan where they have a fixed, negotiated fee schedule, and they will pay 80% or 90% of it, and you are required to pay the remaining. So if the doctor sends a bill of $100 to your insurance who then negotiates it to a rate of $50 and then pays $45, (90%) your doctor is allowed to bill you the remaining $5, but not the negotiated down price of $50.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-68737502773160713522008-08-30T10:50:00.004-05:002008-08-30T10:57:48.689-05:00McCain's VP Choice<span style="font-size:100%;">So regardless of your politics, you just have to love the way the GOP plays the game. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was selected as McCain's VP yesterday, and I just couldn't help but smile.<br /><br />Just when you think, "Man, the Republican party has nominated this super old guy, how are they going to win this election", they bring in a VP who can claim "I raised the taxes on the oil companies", "I distanced myself from the the old Republican establishment" and "I can make this a historical campaign for the Republicans as well."<br /><br />Beautiful move, regardless of which party you affiliate with.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-13502840788279902672008-08-28T17:20:00.002-05:002008-08-28T17:20:00.498-05:00Your Gear Doesn't MatterSorry that it's been a while. I was inspired a bit today and just had to post. As most people know, I'm sort of a hobby photographer. Because photography had a certain technology aspect to it, artistic photographers and technophiles sometimes blur together. I'll be the first one to admit i'm more of the second type.<br /><br />I subscribe to <a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/">Ken Rockwell's</a> RSS feed, and he's always a big proponent that people need to stop worrying about their gear so much and just start taking more pictures. Pretty good gear can take really great pictures.<br /><br />To illustrate his point, he posted this link today: <a href="http://www.happynews.com/news/8222008/man-uses-barbie-fishing-rod-record-catch.htm">Man Uses Barbie Fishing Rod to Make Record Catch</a>.<br /><br />It made me laugh.<br /><br />I'm back!<br /><br />MattMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-17739414925995483082008-08-28T17:04:00.000-05:002008-08-28T17:04:01.048-05:00The $7,500 Housing CreditSo this is a quick one. People who are looking to buy a first home may have heard about legislation that is offering a $7,500 tax break to home buyers who haven't owned a home during the past 3 years.<br /><br />On the surface this is really something to perk your ears. $7,500 can go a long way toward closing costs, down payment, etc. Frankly, I was almost ready to seriously consider looking. Then... i read the fine print.<br /><br />In short: It's not a free money gift per se, it's really a $7,500 loan 0% loan. You need to pay back $500 a year at tax time over 15 years. Total interest on a $7,500 loan over 15 years at 6.5% is really $4,260.<br /><br />Woha.<br /><br />So I originally was going to make a post on how a zero interest loan on $7,500 really isn't that big of a deal. However, if you view the $7,500 tax credit as really a $4,260 tax credit over 15 years ($478 the first year), it's actually not that bad.<br /><br />I'm glad I did the math! We'll see what happens this spring...Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127152775141855009.post-59389215170771253902008-07-25T20:27:00.004-05:002008-07-25T20:45:54.864-05:00Cooking AdviceI'm not a big cooking guy. Perhaps I have my moments, but in general, I wouldn't put cooking among my top skill sets.<br /><br />Today I was making a batch of Rice Crispy Treats. As everyone knows, there's not a lot to it. I melted the butter, then melted the marshmallows, then poured in the cereal. I stired the whole thing and then put it in a pan. Then I went to get some wax paper to push it in the pan.<br /><br />We had no wax paper.<br /><br />At first glance I thought, "Mey, I'll just push it in with the spoon."<br /><br />This was extremely ineffective. The gooey treat kept sticking to the spoon and pulling OUT of the pan. Then I thought that I'd just use my hands, except that I've learned since being married that other people don't like to have their food touched with bare, unwashed hands. I was in a horrible situation in that I basically had a whole tray of Rice Crispy treats that would just go to waste unless I innovated. My alter ego, MattGyver sprung into action.<br /><br />I first found a piece of sturdy cardstock photoprinter paper. I folded it in half and covered it tightly with a pair of my wife's pantyhose (sorry Jenn!). Then I found a blue crayon and tore off the paper wrapper so I could maximize the surface contact area. I frantically rubbed the blue crayon onto the pantyhose covered paper, which absorbed a <span style="font-weight: bold;">considerable </span>amount of this (non-toxic!) wax. This paper / leggings / crayon contraption had nearly identical properties to wax paper. I pressed the Rice Crispy treats into the pan, and there was no sticking at all!<br /><br />The problem, of course, is that the rice crispys were now... <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Smurf Cripys<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Oops.</span> </span><br /><br />Now for those of you that are laughing at my failed prototype, you have to understand that I'm an engineer. An engineer with a sense of humor... who made that last part up. I did find a creative solution, but it was much less glamorous.<br /><br />Real Solution: I had an empty bag of Rice Crispys cereal. This bag has a similar material property to wax paper - I used the bag to press the rice crispy treats into the pan without having it stick! I was amazed. I feel like this was a food hacking trick that I discovered all by myself, and this whole adventure fits exceptionally well into a blog like mine.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07331062401977919657noreply@blogger.com3