Here are some personal finance articles that recently caught my attention:
Think all resumes are boring? Think again. JobMob has put together a collection of 36 beautiful resume ideas that work. I don’t like all of these (why would you scribble on your resume with crayon?), but some of them look outstanding. Do people really submit resumes that look like this nowadays? They don’t when they want to work at our box factory…
Over at Mahalo, there’s a great page about how to save money. “If you’re ready to start saving money, the tips and suggestions in this guide will help get you started on the path to financial responsibility,” writes the author. The main steps:
- Make a budget.
- Start a savings plan.
- Open a savings account.
- Curb your spending.
- Get out of debt.
This is an excellent guide, which links to a variety of personal finance sources from around the web. It’s worth bookmarking if you’re beginning to save money for the future.
Finally, Flexo at Consumerism Commentary says, “The most effective emergency fund, for use in the event of a job loss or unexpected major expense, is actually a combination of several types of investments.” One of his readers wrote to suggest that a food pantry can be an essential part of an emergency fund. My parents had just such an emergency preparedness pantry when we were young: drums filled with flour, cases of powdered milk, an entire storeroom full of stuff. It actually came in handy during those periods when my father was out of work.
This article is about Spare Change
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
I bought stuff for an emergency kit this weekend. I’ve got enough food, water, first aid supplies, thermal blankets, radio, flashlight, lightsticks and whistles for 4 people.
loading....
I’ve seen some resumes from friends who are in the graphic design field and all bets are off there. They go wild with their own envelope designs and everything. But that all leads to the creativity required for the job. In my experience in Engineering and IT, simplier has always been better.
loading....
As soon as I get some disposable income, I’m going to stock a food pantry. Living on pasta, potatoes, and rice sucks.
loading....
Oooh… I bet then a garden could help contribute as well. Not quite as immediate and effective as a food pantry, but you’d still get healthy and fresh food.
You’ve sold us on the powdered milk, by the way. It’s so convenient. If we need new milk, it’s a matter of opening the door to the pantry rather than taking a trip to the store. To me, it tastes exactly the same. It amazes me that this isn’t more popular. Powdered milk would be a great addition to anyone’s pantry, even if for only in an emergency. (and no need to ask the neighbor for a cup of milk!)
loading....
Actually, Minimum Wage, living on pasta, potatoes, and rice is smart. Rice and pasta especially form the bulk of the foods I cook. The key is spices. Onions are cheap, as is garlic. Buying other spices in bulk is also cheap, as is growing your own little pots of rosemary, thyme, and basil. I’ve done this in an apartment.
Flour and sugar and frozen veggies and berries are also cheap. There is no reason you can’t stock a food pantry right now on your regular food budget. And the internet has lots of good simple recipes for pasta, potatoes, and rice so that they aren’t boring. Most people don’t live off fillet mignon and gourmet food.
loading....
I remember I was reading a book written by Bodo Shefer, and he said some great words: if you want to become really rich in your life – you should save half of your monthly income!
loading....
My view on resumes is that (unless you’re hand delivering them to someone at a job fair) they will represent someone’s first impression of you. Recruiters spend an average of 30 seconds on a resume; by having a sharp design that is user-friendly, you increase your chances of having a recruiter pay more attention to your resume. I think it’s important to customize your resume’s design to represent your personality (this doesn’t necessarily mean printing it out on pink scented paper)… just my opinion.
loading....
MW – since you have said before that you are overweight, I would try to incorportate some more vegetables and protein in your diet. Your 100% carb diet is not healthy. Canned tuna and chicken, canned vegetables, etc, are not any more expensive and will help you become healthier and lose weight so that you may be more employable.
loading....
My family was big on having an emergency supply of food. We’d get huge amounts of non-perishables. Now my mom still has a stash, but it’s much smaller since all of us are grown.
loading....
As others have pointed out above, the degree to which you spiff up your resume’s design depends strongly on your career field. In some fields a creatively designed resume can work against you. The content of your resume matters a lot more than its presentation, unless you’re in a field such as design or advertising where prospective employers are specifically looking for evidence of creativity. Otherwise it can be seen as fluff or trying to cover up lack of experience with a dazzling design.
loading....
An article someone left a link to on the comsumerism commentary article that was very good is the link if you click on my name. : )
Great detail on how to build up your pantry and examples of how it will save you money in the long run.
We had dry milk when my kids were young and my oldest still prefers the taste of “homemade” milk to store-bought skim (that seems to take on the taste of the plastic jug) but I can only drink it plain when it’s very cold. It really helps to make it in a glass pitcher. I was able to find one for $10 at cooking.com that’s worked well for us.
loading....
Budgets-shmudgets. They never work … they are like latest-fad, yo-yo diets. One common trait of all wealthy people is that they count their money. Make an Income Statement, at least, once a year and put togher your Balance Sheet monthly or quarterly. When you start doing this regularly, you’ll take care of points 1, 2, 4, and 5. As far as Saving a/c, why would you subsidize your local bank? Open a discount brokerage account at ShareBuilder or E*Trade and buy equities. When you out of work, sell your recession-proof stocks…there is your salary until you land another job! And your capital gains tax rate will be lower (if current long-term cap gains tax rate goes away). Brokerage firms will also pay for your ATM fees when you make withdrawals from your local bank.
Now, J.D., can you research the field of banking statements and utility bills errors? Seems like, I find errors in every statement I check (in provider’s favor, of course!). How many people check their statements for accuracy? How many people check their transactions at the mall? Two out of my three recent transactions at JCPenny shortchanged me!
loading....
The problem with a food pantry is I’m not sure what I would do with a drum filled with flour. I mean if I had a recipe that called for flour, I would obviously use it for that, but we use very specific things in our food prep. I guess what I am trying to say is a cookbook thatdeals with raw food materials would be an important part of any emergency food pantry.
As an aside, when you see refugees getting food off the back of a UN truck on TV, it is often in the form of a big sack of wheat. I always think to myself, I wouldn’t know what to do with a big sack of wheat, even if I was starving and it was my only option for food.
loading....
“How many people check their statements for accuracy? How many people check their transactions at the mall? Two out of my three recent transactions at JCPenny shortchanged me!”
I was taught to check every transaction as it happens. Just yesterday I returned a clothing item to a store that cost 19.99, and they put 19.99 back on my credit card and I was puzzled why they didn’t refund my tax. It took me awhile until I remembered there is no tax on clothing items in my state.
This method breaks down in the grocery store by the way because of the sheer number of items, but I still try to watch the POS display as each item is scanned so I can at least catch obvious errors.
loading....
“recession-proof stocks” – AquaQuant made a funny!
RESUMES:
Just yesterday I was reading through a pile of resumes, and I have to say it can be a very painful process. It’s hard to get to the resume when you can’t even stomach the cover letter. Here is an example from an actual cover letter:
“I seen you had a add in the paper.”
This was the first sentence. I don’t remember the second, because I didn’t read any further. This was probably the worst of the lot, but there were many others that simply turn you off. I rarely spend 30 seconds on submissions with such terrible errors.
Over the last few years, resume writing has really become a disappearing skill. We have actually received resumes with the applicant’s name misspelled. I have seen many resumes that claim “attention to detail” as a skill that were full of typos and misspellings.
FOOD PANTRY:
This is a great idea, but storage becomes an issue. We keep ours well stocked, but we can only store enough for a few weeks. We also plan on investing in a freezer (I’m currently on the lookout for an upright under $100). Meat prices are on the rise, and I get more free bread than we can eat, so acquiring items like this in bulk and freezing them for long term storage would be a great addition to a Food Pantry.
loading....
Thanks for the resume designs! My fiance is job hunting, and I just made over his resume using ideas from that link. He’s in sales, so I went with one of the more low-key, professional ones, but it will still stand out in a pile of ordinary resumes.
I think in ANY field, creative or not, you can make your resume stand out with graphic design. No, you don’t want to draw on it with crayons if you’re applying to an accounting firm, but if you just open up Microsoft Word and fill out the same template 99 percent of the other applicants have used, you can bet it’s not going to be noticed as much as a resume with a well-planned design. I think what your resume says is important, but so is the packaging. If nothing else, it shows you go the extra mile.
loading....
re: resumes JD said “Do people really submit resumes that look like this nowadays? They don’t when they want to work at our box factory…” I think that sums it up beautifully. Some of those ideas might work for certain types of jobs, but let’s be honest – most companies aren’t that creative, expecially in the hiring process. Also, most larger companies will request your resume in text format (which will remove all those pretty graphics and swirling backgrounds) or they will scan them. Those fancy graphics don’t scan well and will likely cause your resume to be trashed. After scanning, they’ll search the file for the keywords they are looking for. If they want someone with Java experience and don’t find that word in your resume, you’re out of consideration. Even if you do decide to use something like one of those examples, you should also have a plain-text version available.
Additionally, as pointed out to me by a friend who ran a successful software company – if you are going to put an objective, don’t make it some pithy, general comment. To pick on crayon boy, his objective is “to secure an entry level graphic marketing position with the potential for advancement”. His resume should confirm if he is capable of handling an entry level position. If he isn’t, there isn’t a crayon color in the world that will get him that job. Plus, by using that wording, he has signaled that he shouldn’t be considered for any positions beyond entry-level. Also, does anybody ever ask for a dead-end job? No? Then that whole “potential for advancement” bit is just wasted ink (or electrons). A later example says the objective is a job “capable of providing full benefits along with a reasonable salary” I’ve yet to see a resume requesting crappy benefits and an unreasonably small salary. Again, wasted space on the resume, and it tells me something (not good) about the author and his thinking process.
loading....
Very cool resume ideas. I will be using those for my resume’s revamping. For some reason I’m not getting as many bites as I thought I would from it.
pennywise-poundfoolish.typepad.com
loading....
“Most companies aren’t that creative, expecially in the hiring process.”
I think that’s a benefit. It means you don’t have to be that creative to stand out from the crowd. Obviously you need to have your resume available in more than one format, but when I’ve had to submit a text file, I also drop off a hard copy in person. In my experience, you sometimes have to push a little harder than you’re comfortable with to get a job. Many times people have their own jobs to deal with in addition to trying to hire someone (or maybe they’ve had to take on extra duties since they are short-staffed), so it’s easy to be forgotten.
loading....
@April: Overly creative resumes are the equivalent of animated graphics and music in a PowerPoint presentation. You can be creative, but the important thing is to be able to present yourself quickly and easily to the person who is looking at your resume. I put my contact info right up front (and a name and phone number on the top of each page), followed by a quick summary of my skills (x years experience in ) and tools (my field has some specialized tools where experience in them is a big factor) This is where I have to grab the attention of the reader. If they don’t see what they are looking for here, they won’t bother with the rest. Hopefully, they’ll be saying to themselves “here’s a guy who sounds like he has the experience we need, and look at that, he knows WIDGET_MAKER, that’s the tool we use!” At this point, he’ll take the time to read over the reverse chronological job experience listed. If I don’t grab their attention right away by presenting the info that says I’m a possible candidate, it’s the round file! If they want somebody that knows WIDGET_MAKER and I don’t mention that, why should they waste time looking further? This is why all the books on this subject talk about tailoring your response to the opening. This is especially important for larger companies, where you must get past HR before your resume makes it to a hiring manager. Those people don’t know Java from C++, they just know they have a requisition that asks for candidates with experience in “x”, and if your resume doesn’t say “x”, they don’t send it to the hiring manager. Fancy backgrounds and crayon will not get you past this step. From a business standpoint, you also get a chance to show that you can present material effectively. In a way, your resume is just a business presentation.
loading....
This is Andy from Mahalo. Thanks for linking to my page on How to Save Money. I’m glad you found the information useful and informative. I love your blog and check it all the time for great advice (being the penny-pincher that I am). We’re currently working on a bunch of other finance and money related How Tos over at Mahalo. Check out: http://www.mahalo.com/Category:Finance_How_Tos. If you have any ideas for topics or pages that we don’t have yet, please feel free to send me suggestions and we’ll get to work on them. Thanks again!
P.S. I use to live in Portland, OR too. Great city. I live in LA now but I think about moving back to P-Town all the time.
loading....
RESUME:
I checked those out. Excellent for a graphic designer or someone who otherwise works in a creative field. For a lawyer? Not so much. I’d like to believe that submitting a resume like that would be a positive thing, but the reality is that most lawyers wouldn’t trust someone who submitted something like that.
FOOD PANTRY:
Food pantry is a great idea. I am surprised, however, that you continue to drink powdered milk. The process by which powdered milk is made causes the cholesterol to oxidize, and it stays in the powdered form. This, in turn, leads to arterial damage. If you don’t believe me, google “powdered milk oxidized cholesterol” for more information.
loading....
I liked the link about creating a food pantry but it made me think of a different kind of food pantry. I have recently started volunteering for Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, a local food pantry that provides food to low-income families. They started with the goal of creating a place where people can pick out free, healthy food while maintaining their dignity. I have started “shopping” there as well as volunteering even though it makes me rather uncomfortable to seek financial help like that. I wonder if you would be interested in a guest post about reaching out for [financial] help when you really need it. It can be a hard thing to do.
loading....