Blog Posts by Andy

Today, with the crappy economy and tough job market many employees are stuck in a job that they detest but need to keep to pay their bills. This makes them unmotivated to do more than the bare minimum and sometimes even display unethical behaviors. Here are 21 signs, in no particular order, that you are this type of employee.

1. You feel you are way underpaid, and as a result you become a more resentful and unproductive employee

2. You know deep-down you are being lazy and should be able to do more

3. You cannot focus for more than 5 to 10 minutes on work related items and keep surfing the Internet and/or your smart phone; or look for similarly disgruntled employees to chat with

4. When you roll into the office, it takes you over an hour to actually get to any real work. Before that coffee, chatting and snacking are a priority

5. Most days, you leave work in the middle of the day for at least an hour. This could be a trip to the gym for a spin class to just to

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Nothing is more significant over the long term from a financial planning aspect than ensuring you are setting aside and investing a sufficient amount to take care of your monetary needs in retirement. This can be easy to put off, especially if retirement is far away and taking care of your personal finances is low on your already long to-do list. However the earlier your start the better off you will be.

Every year you delay saving for retirement could knock tens of thousands off your final nest egg because you miss out on the magic of compounding. Almost two-thirds of Americans in the lowest pre-retirement income brackets will run short of funds after 10 years of retirement, while after 20 years, 29 percent in the next-to-highest income level will run short of money according to a study by the D.C.-based Employee Benefit Research Institute. "As the private-sector retirement plan system evolves from a largely paternalistic one to a system in which workers must make their own

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You may have heard the terms good debt and bad debt before, but it is not as simple as labeling credit card as bad, and a home loan as good because a home loan can in fact be considered bad debt too. It is important to understand the differences between and the definitions of good debt and bad debt so you know how to manage each when they come into your life - and they will. However, if you know what to look for and what to do, you can be in control of both good and bad debt in your life, and you can win the debt battle.

What Makes Debt Good or Bad?

There are endless opportunities for you to get into debt every day whether it be a purchase at the mall, a dream house or a hot investment tip you want to follow, but before you follow anything, know what you are getting yourself into.
Good debt:

• Is traditionally thought of as debt on an asset which will increase in value. This is actually a simplistic view of good debt because even a mortgage on your home , a house which is

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A new year is always a good time to reassess your financial situation and try and determine how you can improve your personal finances. Based on my experiences and observations, here are some practical ways to implement five simple and relatively cheap strategies to master your finances. All it requires is a little discipline and overcoming normal procrastination that is associated when dealing with one's finances (so act now!)

Save more

"Saving more" is the top goal on people's resolution list this year, according to a recent survey commissioned by Putnam Investments, which found that respondents put thriftiness ahead of those two perennials "losing weight" and "exercising more." But while dieting and exercise require discipline, effort and sweat, savings can easily be put on autopilot with a little bit of planning and preparation. If the money isn't in your paycheck or your checking account, chances are you won't miss it.

How to Save More:

1. Set up an automatic deduction from

Read More »from 5 Quick Ways to Improve your Money Mojo in 2010

There is no doubt that the nation is going through one its toughest employment periods in a long time. With unemployment rates close to 20% across many regions, it's tough for current job seekers and new graduates trying to get into the workforce. This is why it is even more important to arm yourself with the skills now or study in a relevant program to ensure that you are more employable in future growth industries and professions. To do this, look at a recent release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing the projected employment growth in the 2008-18 period. As you can see from the graphic, employment growth is concentrated in the service-providing sector, continuing a long-term shift from the goods-producing sector of the economy.

More than half of the new jobs will be in professional and related occupations and service occupations. In addition, occupations where a college degree or award is usually required are expected to account for one-third of total job openings

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As Mark Twain once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." To me, this nicely sums up recent economic figures that suggest America has escaped the clutches of another great depression and is on the way to a sustained recovery. Government reports say that GDP rose at an annualized rate of 3.5% in the third quarter compared with the second. This was the first increase since the second quarter of 2008. However, as GDP grew consumers grew more skeptical as indicated by a fall in the consumer confidence index. A poll in The Economist found that 35% of respondents think the economy is getting worse; just 28% think it is getting better. Unemployment is still rising, and even a White House adviser, Christina Romer, predicts it will remain "severely elevated" throughout next year.

A lot of the third-quarter GDP growth was the result of temporary government stimulus like the cash for clunkers and new home buyer tax credits (which were recently extended

Read More »from User post: Is America's recession really over?

Despite earning more than $100,000 in household income many people still feel that they are living month-to-month and that a loss of employment or medical emergency could easily move them from upper middle class to low income earners. This feeling of being on the "edge" of poverty, given the level of income, seems a bit ridiculous but it really comes down to bad financial habits, a lack of discipline and peer group pressures.

Many of these high income earners tend to be corporate or self-employed professionals and usually have a considerable advantage when it comes to making money. Thanks to managerial jobs, graduate level education backgrounds and stock portfolio's, many command six figure incomes. In theory, these high incomes should make it easier to stay out of debt, save more, potentially take on some calculated risks in a fairly manageable way (if desired), and generally accumulate wealth more quickly. But is that what happens? No.

I know from past personal experience

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Doh! I just received a speeding ticket in the mail after getting booked by an automated speeding camera while driving through Maryland a couple of weeks ago. After doing some research on automated speeding cameras I found that more and more states (90%) are using fixed speeding camera's because they are much cheaper (than a real officer) and a huge revenue raiser because they operate 24x7. Unfortunately there is little chance for me to get out of paying the ticket (it would cost more to go to court in Maryland) and almost impossible to dispute the radar's/camera's reliability and accuracy.

Speed Camra's are electronic devices operated by police to enforce speed limits. Speed cameras, also known as photo radar, monitor the speeds of passing vehicles and are programmed to photograph vehicles traveling a set amount above the speed limit. Unlike other methods of traffic law enforcement, speed cameras do not require offending motorists to be pulled over. There are two methods for Read More »from Those Pesky Speeding Camera Tickets