Posted: September 17th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Economy | Tags: Employment, Income, news | No Comments »
Check this out- after unprecedented cost cutting measures by corporations over the past 12-14 months, wages are growing again! Or are they?
This is according to a recent NYT article. I myself was a victim of just about all the cost cutting measures (except being laid off) last year: My raise was postponed indefinitely, company match to my 401(k) was halted, and my bonus evaporated into thin air.
“Most companies have evidently decided that pay cuts aren’t worth the downside…The theory holds that executives of companies don’t cut pay, even when demand for labor has fallen. They worry that employees will become less motivated or start looking for another job,…So companies instead lay off workers or stop hiring. They concentrate the pain.”
This makes sense. I know my loyalty to my employer would quickly fade if I lost income further.
You have to parse the article carefully to find where the wage growth is happening, because it’s mostly due to inflation being less than 0, so even though workers are earning the same dollar amount as last year, the buying power of those dollars is increasing.
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Posted: June 2nd, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Employment | Tags: Income, UnEmployment | No Comments »
Carl Clay has a paycheck with an expiration date.
Meet Carl Clay, a former medical director for a pharmaceutical communications firm. He lost his job in December of 2008 and it took him about 2-3 months to find a new job. The problem is that his new job is a temporary contract – 10 months, to be exact.
Money Magazine profiles Mr Clay in its May issue. In the profile, Clay talks about how thankful he is to have the job, but how difficult it is budgeting while knowing that it will come to an end. Which leads to my question: Does Your Paycheck Have an Expiration Date?
As a former U. S. vice presidential candidate might say, You betcha!
If we were to extrapolate far enough, we could say that just about everyone’s paycheck does indeed have an expiration date. After all, most of us will retire and some time and live the remainder of our lives off of some combination of savings, social security and pension.
This is only more true in the modern worker’s life. The average person entering the workforce today will change careers 7 times over his working life. That’s a lot of paychecks expiring.
Of course, those are cases where we end our collection of paychecks voluntarily. What about involuntary unemployment?
Job loss happens. Maybe it’s just you, maybe it’s a portion of the company’s workforce being downsized or maybe the entire company is going out of business. These things can still be planned for. Just because you can’t choose the time it might happen to you, doesn’t mean you can’t plan for it happening to you some day.
Here are some things to consider, when planning for an unexpected expiration of your paycheck:
Emergency savings.
Plan on living off this fund for 6 months or more, and you’re off to a solid start. Read more about How and Why to Start an Emergency Fund from J. D. at Get Rich Slowly.
IRA instead of a 401(k).
Many people who switch careers, often leave behind a large amount of 401(k) accounts at old employers. This creates a money management nightmare and lessons the effect of compound interest and concentration of growth. I prefer IRAs because they stick to the employee, not the employer. An IRA account exists outside any given employer, so you always have it working for you and never have to roll it over when you move on. The only real reason to favor a 401(k) over an IRA is the company match, but many companies are eliminating this so it may not even be an option anyway.
If the thought of picking a few investments out of the entire universe of the stock market (as opposed to a few offered in a 401(k) plan) seems daunting to you, keep it simple with a super boring, but super simple investment portfolio.
Stay ready for action.
Keep your job skills relevant. Chance are if you’re laid off, you won’t be alone and with extra competition for jobs you don’t want to stand out with last year’s skills.
Keep your resume polished.
No one is going to know about your cutting edge skills if you don’t have a professional, and unique resume to tell them. Here’s a post chock full of resume tips and examples from Squawkfox.
Be ready for a loss.
To prepare in advance for a layoff, live within your means. Steve wrote at MoneyNing about how he and his wife prepared for a 50% pay cut. This was because his wife was leaving the workforce to raise a child, but the concept is the same as preparing for any lost income.
Finally, FrugalDad was kind enough to share some thoughts on How To Survive A Layoff.
Loss of a job isn’t pleasant but it needn’t be disastrous. With some hard work and preparation, you can survive just about anything life throws your way, the key is being ready. Why not start today and you won’t have to worry (as much) about your paycheck expiring!
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Posted: June 26th, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Sponsored | Tags: blogging, Earn money, Income, money, paid to blog, Paid to Post, PPP | 1 Comment »
If you have a blog and would like to earn a little extra cash on the side, or if you’re struggling to find topics to write about, then Pay Per Post (PPP) might be an excellent opportunity for you.
Pay Per Post is a sort of blog network – connecting advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers join PPP and post opportunities to bloggers to write about a given topic and get paid for it. You can earn anywhere from $5 to as much as $100 – maybe more! Some offers call for blatant advertising while others are more open ended, allowing the blogger to express himself fully and cast the item being advertised in either a positive or negative light. Of course, the advertiser would prefer a positive review, but the point is that the blogger does not have to become a shill for the advertiser. They should choose topics that will appeal to their readers and not compromise their standards. Pay Per Post allows for that. They also allow (and in some cases require) disclosure that the blogger is receiving monetary compensation for the post, so it’s all above board.
If you’re interested. you can sign up here or learn more about getting paid to blog here.
By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I just joined Pay Per Post and this is my first post for them. I guess it’s a sort of advertisement for the site. I’ll definitely keep you posted on my experiences with them. They seem to offer great potential. I just hope I can find opportunities in which I can remain honest and true to the spirit of this blog. If I can’t, then I won’t be taking many opportunities (or making much money).
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Posted: June 23rd, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Tips | Tags: How To, Income, money, writing | 17 Comments »
“You want to be a writer
But you don’t know how or when
Find a quiet place
Use a humble pen”
~Paul Simon,
Hurricane Eye
The Internet is a wonderful thing.
Consider freelance writing. It’s one of my 10 cheap hobbies, but thanks to the Internet, it’s more than just a hobby. I’ve been writing (on and off) for about 16 years or so, but few people ever read any of it – until now.
If you wanted to make money writing before the Internet, chances are you never got the opportunity. You would have had to have been lucky, or industrious enough to find an agent or grab an editor’s eye for a magazine or publishing company. Not anymore!
With the advent of the Internet, more accurately Web 2.0 and the content development business model, if you have the writing bug, a computer and free time – you can get paid for what you write about. How cool is that?
Here’s a list of 5 channels, if you will, that I’ve been successful with so far.
1) Personal Blog.
Some blog for fun, and others for profit. Personally, I aim for a happy medium between the two. I don’t see the point in writing something just for money. I’d feel differently if I was a professional writer, but at this stage of the game I don’t have the luxury of pursuing that career change. But I feel that I do put a fair amount of effort into what I write (this site is a good example) and if I can get some compensation for it – all the better. Also, I’d like this site to become self sufficient at some point, so I can get some hosting bells a whistles and the like.
The most obvious way people earn money with personal blogs is through the inclusion of advertisements and affiliate links. Google Adsense is the biggest player here, but also Amazon, Yahoo, Adbright and others are also available. I haven’t made millions off advertising, or even tens yet. But I have had some increasing success. Perhaps I would have more if I plastered the site with ads, but that would go against my desire to write meaningful, useful content. I would lose my balance, in other words.
All you need for this method is a blog and an idea. Well, several ideas really because it takes more than just a single post for people to hang around.
2) Pay Per Post.
Once you have a blog, a topic and an appropriate amount of posts you can sign up for sites like Pay Per Post. Pay Per Post operates like a hub connecting bloggers and advertisers. Advertisers post topics, along with guideline and any images or links they require in the post. Bloggers can then claim the topics and if their post meets the requirement of the advertiser, then they get paid.
Payment ranges from a couple of dollars to over $20. Some advertisers require the blogger to engage in blatant advertising, and expect a rave review. Others are more free market in their approach and allow the blogger to state how they really feel about the product. In short, you don’t have to sell your soul to the advertiser- you can avoid topics or conditions that make you feel uncomfortable. Sign up here. or learn more about getting paid to blog here.
3). Helium.
The is the first of the pay-for-content sites that I tried. The concept is simple. Helium gets writers to join them, offers topics and contests and writers get a cut of advertising revenue as well as contest rewards. The name is derived from their method of quality control. The writers vote on articles from other writers. The theory is that the good will out weigh the bad and the best articles with rise to the top of the quality list. Rise to the top. Get it- like Helium rises above ordinary air.. well, OK so it’s a clunky metaphor, but it seems to work for them.
The topics are diverse, and the contest rewards are generous – $60 for 1st Prize, $40 for 2nd Prize, and $30 for 3rd Prize. They also offer a market place of post requests, where advertisers request topics from the members. These can pay quite well too. Learn more here.
4). Associated Content.
AC is much like helium, except there is no concept of community voting on content quality. Articles can be submitted for up front payment, but also earn a performance payment. If the editors feel your article is unique and engaging then they will accept it for up font payment. This ranges from a couple dollars up to $20 (so they say). The most I’ve had up front is $8. The performance payment is based on page views, so the more you have, the more you earn. Learn more here.
5). HubPages.
HubPages offers much more control, but no up front payment. Where both Helium and Associated Content control ads, HubPages gives that control to the writer. If you don’t want any ads in your content, so be it. If you’d like ads all over then you can do that too – to a degree. The revenue is split 60% – 40% with the writer receiving the majority. They also allow for Amazon and eBay affiliate links, where the others do not.
I think the thing that sets HubPages apart from Helium and Associated Content though is that HubPages has more of a sense of community. This is because writers are essentially bloggers who can write on any topic and HubPages brings the readers and traffic. Learn more here.
Conclusion.
I hope I’ve done a good job of detailing the strengths and weakness of each opportunity. Each has its place in a freelancer’s toolbox or the hobbyists bookmarks. If you’ve got an interest and some decent writing skills, then you can really develop quite a good network of friends and associates while earning a little extra cash on the side. It’s a winning situation all around.
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