Matching Careers With Personalities ... Or Not

Why is it that I'm always an easy target for the countless career and personality tests floating around the universe? Truthfully I'm not convinced that they are reliable, but they always seem to be more accurate than not with my results. Case in point, MY RESULTS ...

Personality type: "Determined Realist"
Practical, traditional and organized. Likely to be athletic. Not interested in theory or abstraction unless they see the practical application. Have clear visions of the way things should be. Loyal and hard-working. Like to be in charge. Exceptionally capable in organizing and running activities. 'Good citizens' who value security and peaceful living.

Careers that could fit you include:
Military, business administrators, managers, police/detective work, judges, financial officers, teachers, sales representatives, government workers, insurance agents, underwriters, nursing administrators, trade and technical teachers.

If you are interested in taking a career/personality test, click here; it's quick and easy. Don't forget to let us know how accurate - or not - the test results are for you.

BTW .... Merry Christmas and Happy early New Year;-).

Small Business Pitfalls

We've all heard the scary statistics about how many small businesses fail in their infancy. Part of what I do is provide consulting work for small businesses so I see first hand what some of the biggest culprits are.

1. Too Much Borrowed Money
I'm not sure if this will continue to be as big of an issue because the banks have all but put a freeze on small business lending. If you're one of those unlucky/lucky ones who can get a lot of leveraged funding, borrower beware! I highly suggest starting a business with your own money or with investors. If you do have to borrow money, try not to be more than 50% leveraged. You may not have an employer but if you are borrowed up to your hairline, you are working for the banks, and that's not what you got into business to do. Here's a statistic for you ... 100% of the businesses that filed for bankruptcy were over leveraged. I don't need a source for that one, it's pretty self explanatory.

2. Wrong Motives
If your primary motive for starting your own business is based one of these statements, "I want to be my own boss," or "I don't want to work for anyone else," then you may be one of those small business casualties. Owning your own business is as glamours as it is messy. If you lack passion and discipline you won't have the necessary ingredients to push past the pain and pursue the full potential of the business. You need something more than a disdain for working for someone else.

3. Lack of Planning
Planning is very important and covers everything from finances to marketing. For brevity, let's stick to the financial part of planning. Remember that employer who kindly withheld all of your taxes, and paid them on time to the federal and state governments? Well you kicked them to the curb so it's all on you. You can't just collect the income and forget to pay your real employer (i.e., the gov't) their cut. I've seen several small businesses get into this rut and for those who survived, they came out with very little skin left in tact. You do not, and I repeat, do not, want to get into a situation where you're behind on self-employment and employer taxes. You'd be left wondering if you owe the gov't or a loan shark. Can you say compounded interest DAILY!

4. No Marketing
So what if you have the best product or offer the most fabulous service, if no one knows you exist what good is that doing you? Marketing doesn't have to be very expensive. At a minimum you should have a website and some business cards. Depending on where you shop around, this could be a $200 or less initial investment. Perhaps I'm a website snob, but you'd be hard pressed to get me to do business with an establishment that does not have a website. That's the first thing I ask for when I call or if I'm speaking to someone about their business.

10 Reasons Why I Love Mint!

Whew hew! I finally get to deliver on my promise to post about my new love affair with Mint, an online financial management tool. Although I have only been a user for a couple of weeks, I have discovered so many great features. Here are 10 reasons why I absolutely love this tool:

1. Cost - It's free!


2. Comprehensive - I can manage all of my accounts in one place, real time. No more logging into several accounts.


3. Ease of Use - Mint does all of the bookkeeping! The program does a really good job at classifying the income and expenses. If they get it wrong, not only can you correct it, but you can tell Mint how to classify transactions to/from that payee/payor going forward.


4. Flexibility - Unlike other free online financial management tools, Mint allows you the capability of splitting transactions. For example, let's say you spent $100 at Wal-Mart, $60 on groceries, $25 on home supplies and $15 on prescriptions. You can split the transactions up into the appropriate categories!


5. Usefulness of Information - Mint provides wonderful up to the minute analytics of your financial picture. Each week a financial summary is sent to your inbox. Not only is the info useful but it's also very easy to read.


6. Communication - Mint has an awesome system that alerts you of unusual activity, low balances, upcoming bills and even rate increases on your credit card (click here for my personal story).


7. Savings Tips - Apparently Mint uses some highly sophisticated search algorithm that searches through thousands of offers to find the best deals on everything from bank accounts to credit cards, to service providers for phones, internet, cable and more. As if this is not enough, Mint makes suggestions based on your individual spending pattern so the tips are unique to your situation.


8. Visual Appearance - Yes, Mint's website is easy on the eyes. It is not laced with advertisements or annoying pop-ups. Navigating the website could not be easier.


9. Accessibility - You can logon to Mint anytime, anywhere, from any computer. All you need is the e-mail address you registered with and your password.


10. Security - Mint provides bank level data security, which has been validated by industry leaders VeriSign and TRUSTe (btw...this feature may not mean much to the masses but as a former IT auditor, I threw it in kind of as an ode to a career that I'm happy to have left;-).

Okay, I gave you 10 reasons but trust me, this is not an all inclusive list. I sincerely urge you to give Mint a try. If you are already using Mint, I'd love to hear about your experience.

CVS Here I Come

Did you know that you could get some great deals at CVS? Personal financial bloggers all over the blogosphere have posted about such deals. When my blog friend JPKittie over at Won't Go Down Without A Fight wrote a post on Sunday on how she purchased $115 worth of items for only $1.71 out of pocket, I had to inquire! JPKittie led me to Thrifty Mama's CVS 101 post, which spells out in great detail how to use the CVS Extra Care program.

I went to CVS today to get some Vick's Vapor rub (old school I know) and decided to get an Extra Care card as well. When I got my receipt, the cashier began explaining to me how the program works and all the many ways that I can accumulate bucks. At the bottom of my receipt was a $2 extra bucks coupon (apparently this was the amount of extra bucks that I received for the specific items I purchased.). Wow, so now I have a $2 credit the next time I go to CVS. Actually I may go tomorrow because they are having a sale on all Crest ProHealth products ($2.99). If I go and buy a tube of toothpaste then I can use my $2.00 extra bucks, plus a $1.00 coupon in the local paper and get the product for free (well, I'll have to pay the taxes but that's it). Oh but wait, not only will I get the toothpaste for "free" but I will also get another $2.00 extra bucks coupon because that's one of the promotions this week. How about that ... CVS will give me $2.00 to purchase toothpaste that I would normally purchase anyway.

If I've thoroughly confused you, check out the CVS 101 post.

Hey, this may be the catalyst I need to get me into couponing. Although I think it is a great idea, I've never been one to really use them. If these are the type of savings that I have been passing up, then I need to get on the bandwagon.

Is there anything else I'm missing out on?

Recession Proof

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, the country is in a recession. Oh and get this, the country has been in a recession since December 2007. Hmm, I wonder why they waited 12 months to finally admit the state of this economy. Are you surprised? I'm not.

Several people have asked me my thoughts on the recession. It’s simple; I have chosen to opt out. That’s right, I am opting out of the recession … as in not participating. Regardless if the country is in a bull market or a bear market, the choice is always available to most of us rather or not we experience a personal recession. The last time I was in a personal recession was during the last bull market, go figure! Consequently, I learned that it’s not wise to leave my finances up to chance, the government, an employer, or even a well-meaning financial advisor. I am the CEO and CFO of Me, Inc.; it is my responsibility to actively manage my business (even if I solicit the help of others).

A few tips to avoiding a personal recession:

1. You are the boss so take control. Organize your finances, create a monthly budget, and commit to keeping it.

2. Pay off debt, especially credit cards! Period.

3. Increase your financial knowledge and practice what you learn. The rate of return on this action item is infinite.

4. Make temporary sacrifices (for example, when gas prices were ridiculously high, I switched from Dove soap to Tone and from Charmin tissue to Scott (extra soft of course:-). These were proactive, temporary changes to help accommodate the increase in my gasoline budget.

5. If applicable and necessary, increase your income.

• Obtain a new job or get an additional job


• Sell something – garage sales, eBay, craigslist, etc


• Provide a service – pet sit, cater, decorate, personal shopper, ghostwriter, baby sit, clean homes, etc.

6. Start today! It's never too late.

Are you actively managing your Me, Inc? Do you have any tips to share?

Quicken Online - FREE

Those who know me know that I am a stickler for maintaining my monthly cash flow analysis (i.e. budget). Over the past 5 years I have a developed a system (okay spreadsheet) that works wonderfully for me. Because I have a perfected system it takes me all of 90 seconds to do my budget monthly and I am not kidding.

There are many resources available but I use a nice and simple excel spreadsheet. If you would like to see a version of what I use, feel free to contact me and I will send it to you. Let me warn you that there are no pictures, graphs or any other illustrations. I emphasize the word simple.

For those of you who may want something a little more jazzy for the same cost, Quicken is offering their online version for FREE. Quicken is made by Intuit, the same company that makes Turbo Tax and Quickbooks. I am not providing any endorsements here, I am merely sharing information. If you choose to try it you will do so at your own risk just like I will do so at my own risk. If and when I do try it myself, I'll be sure to chat about it with you.

http://quicken.intuit.com/online-banking-finances.jsp

~MMC