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Week of June 19 |
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Friday, June 23, 2006
Is
Beige the New Black?
For most of us, “the economy” means prices at the gas pump and the
interest rate we’re charged on our credit cards and adjustable rate
mortgages. We’ve forgotten (if we ever truly understood) the
mysterious forces at work causing recession and inflation. When Fed
chairman Ben Bernanke raises rates, as he has been with annoying
regularity, we wince and ponder the arbitrariness of it all.
Turns out there’s something called “The Beige Book,” a compilation
of anecdotal information and data about economic conditions around
the country, based on reports produced by bank directors,
economists, market experts, and business people, that is consulted
before the Fed makes its decision—to raise or not to raise—rates
every month. Things like wages, price increases, the jobless rate,
supply and demand are taken into account. To put it simply, when
there isn’t enough supply to meet demand, prices rise, increasing
fears of inflation (or a decrease in the amount of stuff a dollar
can buy). The Fed raises interest rates to slow spending. So if
rates rise again when the Fed meets on June 28, blame it on the
shopaholics among us. If we promise to stop spending, will Ben
Bernanke promise to stop raising rates?
Another function of the Federal Reserve Board is to provide personal
financial educational resources, and it does a good job of that.
Kids and grownups alike can learn something at the
Federal Reserve Kids
Page.
One question it
doesn’t answer is “How did ‘The Beige Book’ get its name?” Is it
just me or does “The Beige Book” sound like a metrosexual’s “little
black book”?
Speaking of spending, I recently came across this statistic:
Americans will spend a projected $79 billion this year on upgrading
their kitchens, according to Kitchen and Bath Business magazine. To
the rescue:
www.epicurious.com has a Dream Kitchen sweepstakes. The grand
prize includes a refrigerator/freezer, wine storage unit, double
oven, dishwasher, and much more. Visit
http://www.epicurious.com/promo/dreamkitchen2006/ to enter.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
Show Me Mo’ Money!
One of the last remaining taboos in our society is talking about
money. Do you know how much your best friend or your neighbor or
even your parents or brother or sister earn? Probably not. More
important, do you know how your own salary stacks up against the
industry average, or what your colleagues are making? Satisfy your
curiosity by going to
www.salary.com.
This site is a tremendous resource for anyone on a career track. Not
only will it tell you what the median salary is for someone working
in your profession in your region, but it offers
“self-tests”
to help you evaluate how you’re doing and prepare yourself for your
next performance review, so that you can qualify for a killer raise.
It helps you track your professional goals and objectives, offers
career advice and success stories, reports on emerging careers, and
more. Partnering with
www.HotJobs.com, it allows you to perform job searches from its
site. There’s a layoff survival guide, a cost-of-living wizard, and
tips for coming out No. 1 in the hiring process when you search for
your next job. Use its
“Millionaire Maker”
tool to figure out how much you need to earn and save to
become a millionaire by a certain age.
If you have a nagging suspicion that you’re not earning as much as
you should be at your current job, you’re not alone—but you may not
be right. Salary.com recently released its 2005-2006 Job
Satisfaction and Retention Survey, in which it found that 57.3
percent of the respondents reported that they felt underpaid. Of
those who reported their salaries, however, only 18.7 percent really
were underpaid, according to the survey. Follow Salary.com’s
recommendations for analyzing how your current salary rates by
CLICKING HERE.
Unfortunately, there are millions of workers in this country who
haven’t had a raise in nearly 10 years—those working for minimum
wage, which has been set at $5.15 since 1997. Yesterday, the Senate
voted not to raise the minimum wage. Maybe it’s time to start a
national discussion about that.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Travel Guides You Need—and One You
Don’t
All hail the
first day of summer. No, that’s not a weather report; it’s a call to
fun in the sun. How much is your summer getaway going to put you
back, though? With gas prices, airfares, hotel rates and even rental
car fees heading up, up, up this summer, it makes more sense than
ever to hunt for travel bargains. Start here: three sites worth
visiting are
www.travelzoo.com,
www.shermanstravel.com and
www.budgettravelonline.com.
Travel Zoo’s staff of experts winnows through deals presented by
travel companies all over the world and recommends the best to its
audience of 10 million fun-seekers. Over at Sherman’s Travel,
editors offer their picks of the best travel deals and packages they
find every week. And Budget Travel Online is the Web site of Budget
Travel magazine, with daily “Real Deals,” destination descriptions,
travel strategies, a Trip Coach to help you plan your dream
vacation, and, best of all, reader-supplied “True Stories.” Take a
trip down memory lane right now: the best “crazy travel tale” Budget
Travel receives before June 30 wins a $2,000 gift certificate, good
for use at New England inns. Hiking in Vermont . . . boating in
Maine: sounds like a great summer vacation.
CLICK HERE for contest guidelines. But hurry—you’ve only got a
week to get your entry in.
Sign up for a free newsletter from each of these sites, and receive
the latest travel deals in your e-mail box every week.
You’ll have to wait until September to read another kind of guide:
David Zinczenko, the editor in
chief of Men’s Health, has come up with
"Men, Love & Sex: The Complete User's Guide for Women" ($23.95;
Rodale), in which, ladies, you’ll learn that when men are trying to
get to know you, they’ve “got more butterflies than a Costa Rican
guidebook,” according to Women’s Wear Daily reporter Jeff
Bercovici, who’s seen an advance copy. My recommendation: Save your
money. It’s true that men are unknown territory, but that journey is
better taken without a guidebook!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Move Over, Bill Gates!
Want to get a feeling for what it would be like to be Bill Gates for
a day . . . or at least 30 minutes? The UK-based global
communications company BT has a fascinating exercise posted on its
Web site. Challenging corporate executive wannabes to “make a better
world,” BT has devised a “Better Business Game,” which puts the
player (or players, if you get a gang together to act as your
management team) in the position of deciding how to react in certain
classic business situations. Start by creating a fictional company
name when you log in.
First on the
agenda: It seems the Board has just agreed on a Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) Statement. “We have committed to manage our
business with integrity and in ways that avoid damaging the
environment or infringing human rights. In fact, we would really
like to be recognized as delivering a positive impact on society. We
hope you keep that in mind in the coming months.” A classic dilemma:
Your company has “just received some worrying information” about a
proposed joint venture in Asia. “Apparently, there have been media
reports of harassment, child labor and worse in some of the
company’s factories.” This venture is critical to your shareholders,
but if you go ahead you might get criticized in the press. “What do
you think we should do?” Jane, the head of Human Resources, asks.
Your
choices:
A: Go
ahead with the venture, but write a letter to the proposed joint
venture partner about your concerns.
B: Put the venture on hold while the concerns are investigated, even
if it upsets the venture partners.
C: Pull out of the venture; the effect on reputation is too great,
and anyway your company doesn't get involved in human-rights abuses.
Once you make your decision (I opted for B), the real challenge
comes in testing your resolve in the face of shareholder, employee,
customer and pressure-group reactions, all of which are described
for you. At the end of the game, you will be evaluated on how your
decisions have impacted the corporation. Balancing what’s good for
business with your own values, corporate values and the bottom line
is an invigorating mental exercise—something you might enjoy even if
you aren’t a Wharton or Harvard Business School grad student.
So, if you’ve got 30 minutes to test your convictions and
decision-making prowess, scoot on over to
http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Businessgame/index.htm.
Play CEO for a day. (It’s more fun than that old TV show
Queen for a Day that my mother used to watch.) Move over, Bill
Gates! Oh, that’s right, he already has.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Monday,
June 19, 2006
One Thing That Really Is ‘Dirt Cheap’
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “dirt cheap.” Well, this
weekend I decided to go on a research mission to find out just how
cheap dirt is. I have to admit the idea of paying for dirt
struck me as a bit absurd, but I wanted to create a miniature
English garden between two rose bushes, full of delphinium and
gaillardia and coneflowers, and lilies and daisies, and I needed to
build up the soil in the flower bed there. So off to the local
garden-supply store I went.
Dirt, it turns out, really is cheap: two dollars and change for a
40-pound bag. And that’s not all the good news: this time of year,
most nurseries are pruning back prices to get rid of their inventory
of perennials and annuals. So even if you don’t have a green thumb,
you won’t have to chop down a money tree to experiment a little with
plants you’ve always wanted to try. With travel expenses sky-high
and getting higher this summer, you might as well create a vacation
paradise in your own backyard. If you don’t have a yard, spending a
few minutes sitting on a park bench in your local city park can do
wonders to clear away the dreariest of Monday blues.
Speaking of gardens, I have a friend who has decided to start her
own garden-advice business. She has the greenest of green thumbs;
digging in the dirt is her passion, though she never made it her
career. Now, she’s finally decided to take the plunge and try to
make some dough doing what she loves doing. She’s becoming the
“Gardening Tutor,” and I wish she didn’t live so far away so I could
become her first pupil. Another woman I met this weekend told me
about an idea she had for a sun visor that . . . well, I won’t give
her idea away, but it was a good one. Both of these women are on the
leading edge of a swelling movement of boomer women and younger,
stay-at-home moms who are deciding to start their own businesses and
become financially independent doing what they enjoy doing.
If you’ve got a business idea you want to pursue,
www.legalzoom.com makes it easy to set yourself up as a sole
proprietor. Another site, started by a mom inventor, offers tons of
advice for other women like her, who want to introduce their own
products to market out of their own garage or dining room. Do you
need a trademark, copyright, or patent? What about liability
insurance, legal incorporation, manufacturing and marketing advice?
Visit
www.mominventor.com to hear how other women have succeeded and
to check out the resources and products there.
Oh, and if you have any dirt-cheap products that you want to
recommend, pass the word and I’ll post them here for others to read.
None of us wants to end up dirt-poor!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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If you like the blog, you’ll love the book.
For more savvy
finance advice, buy
“Making Bread: The
Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough,”
by Gail Harlow and Elizabeth Lewin, available on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore |
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