Disenfranchised with Israel & Gaza Scenario

Over the past few weeks I have been deeply disturbed by the events both in the Gaza strip and in Israel. In all fairness neither side (Israeli or Palestinian) has any more claim to the “holy” land than say Ganges Khan or Cleopatra. From a philosophical standpoint, land is not really an entity to be owned, merely looked after for a time while we are living. To stake claim with extrajudicial rights claiming that God or various governments gave you a stake to claim is retro-progressive at best. And more to point, I don’t think Jesus would have anything nice to say about the present scenario. With well over 800 people dead, mostly in Gaza, it’s hard to fathom the circumstances in which two of the most open and loving religions can brutally slaughter one-another. With a bit of remorse I should clarify that I am neither a Zionist, a Muslim nor an anti-establishment advocate. I do feel that both sides are wrongly accusatory in this subject. If ever there existed a scenario in which neither side of a conflict was right, this would be that scenario. Where ever killing is involved and beliefs lie at the heart of the issue, neither side can be without fault. Living in the US, I have found the media rhetoric seems to support Israel and what they are calling their “right to self defense” but lets be honest here. Of the hundreds dying in Gaza, Israel was upset that it lost 4 soldiers one week of which 3 were killed from friendly crossfire. The numbers bar no comparison to each other and the Israeli offensive is in no means an act of “self defense.” On the opposing end, no one has the right to blow anyone up! The only impact the Hezbollah have had on the Middle East is to provide for further isolation of Israel and more indifferent hatred in the region. This has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for many of the Middle Eastern viewpoints against Israel and has only shown as further example that the US is willing to stand behind their friends more so than their morals. That is not a view point I share, but one that I think many people in the US do not understand. By supporting Israel we are reaffirming their every action to all the people of the Middle East. My father called it “digging your own grave,” I call it stupid. Any suggests or ideas I would bare into this struggle would be seen as short-sighted or all together impossible, which is an unfortunate circumstance. However I wanted to add my own view to this cluster-**** and see if it resonated with anyone else out there?

Was the Bank Bailout An Auto Bailout?

Last week President Bush announced a bailout plan for US auto manufacturers that would be stipend from the money already approved in the remaining $700 Bank Bailout plan. It could have been that I was burnt-out following the presidential elections or maybe I missed something, but I was under the impression that Congress had approved that national mortgage for banks and the financial sector to ensure more credit was available and the American credit system didn't collapse over night. Now, however, it looks as though Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is holding a blank check to do with as he would like; including bailout the auto makers. What was once a very cautiously approached and risky loan that everyone understood to be "mortgaging our children's future" has now been morphed over it's life and now the remaining $250 Billion is being considered for auto makers. Where did the banks go? To the best of my knowledge getting a loan from the bank is still like pulling teeth and don't even think about consolidating student loans (a group not even in the real estate biz). Yet, over the last few months we have watched the $700 Bank Bailout transform like a metamorphic butterfly:
1. Buying Bad Mortgage Loans from Banks
2. Putting Money directly into banks to balance their books
3. Buying Stocks of banks to help their stability & market value
4. Loaning money to sound banks for expansion
5. ?????Bailing out the auto industry?????

As banks were still waiting for the ink to dry on their checks, the auto makers began in hot pursuit of their own bail out. The new rational we are hearing for this is that these auto manufacturers would not be facing bankruptcy, but liquidation. By offering them this bailout now, President Bush is hoping to save hundreds of thousands of jobs and another possible dip in US trading markets. I don't know how avoidable that scenario is given the current condition of things. Homes are still overvalued, people are still sitting on hundreds of thousands of bad martgages, foreign markets have yet to feel a relative impact and reciprocate, the GDP is steadily dropping in the face of economic fears and unemployment is still rising. I don't think we have hit bottom yet by a long shot. If the US government has taken it upon itself to save US Banks with new encompassing banking rules, I don't think it would be asking to much to expect auto makers to restructure as well? Why can't the US government simply say, look "we're going to help you go through bankruptcy to ensure this doesn't happen again." I think that would be responable, asking for a financial aid package is more like a bandaid and if the banking bailout proved anything it was that these types of bailouts are not as effective as we would like to beleive. The only positive benefit here would be American jobs were saved for the time being, but 20 or even 5 yrs down the road I think would tell a different story.
Honestly, I think if Congress voted an auto bailout down twice it indicates that Congress wants the auto manufacturers to restructure....something long over due! It's not the high cost of labor that is driving these record losses and auto flop (at least not by itself). It's more a long-term failure of leadership and good governance among auto manufacturers. To say that Toyota is the model to follow in these difficult financial times is also off mark. Toyota has historically done loads better than any US manufacturer but the reality is that we are in the mists of another large global meltdown that has yet to be realized both socially and economically. Times are going to get rough, but offering borrowed money can not and will not be the long term solution to this problem. There are other options out there like restructuring the supply and demand systems (Walmart would serve as a great example here) or wagering federal aid based upon percentage of domestic business and/or an industry specific comparative advantage for the US economy.
In conclusion I wanted to post a little parable a friend e-mailed me just the other day. I remember this parable circulating a few years back, but it seems more relavent for today...

A Modern Parable

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, The End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving many of its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building plants inside the US .

TOYOTA makes over 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 12.6 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

Ford: currently 39 plants in the US, with 14 scheduled to close by 2012, leaving just 25. Ford has 90 plants outside the US.

Toyota: currently 10 plants in the US, 20 overseas.

Ford has yet to post its 2007 financial results, but analysts expect a loss of $3 billion. They lost $12.6 last year.

Toyota 2007 profits are estimated to come in at $13.2 billion. Even after reinvestment and other various company spends, the company will still show a profit of nearly $5 billion.

Sources: Detroit News, BBC, PBS, NY Times.

Iraqi Journalist Throws 2 Shoes; was it Terrorism?

This morning, whilst enjoying my breakfast and watching the morning news I watched as an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes one after the other towards US President Bush. Dismaying as the image might have been, my initial reaction was to laugh. Not because a security cleared personnel and a man of supposed intelligence took a gamble at the president of the United States, but because of what the act meant.

In the Iraqi culture, throwing a shoe at someone is the lowest of insults and reserved for only the most hated of people. The journalist wasn’t try to kill the US president, he wasn’t even trying to hurt the president instead he was insulting President Bush. The American culture is much more vocal about our insults, but I’m willing to bet it would be the equivalent of a one-fingered upward gesture and a two-worded response. Who knows if the journalists actions were suppose to mean anything more, but without question any punishment he faces will be far worse than if he had been on American soil swearing at the president. In a strange twist of irony, freedom of speech was one of the liberties we first set out to bring to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. And it is with these weird twists of irony that that these new liberties will test the powers that be (Both the US & Iraqi Governments). Will the shoe throwing felon be tried in a US Tribunal, detained and questioned in the secret US detention camps, or given over to the Iraqi people for a trial by his peers. All very interesting prospects and each would tell a different tale about where US-Iraqi relations are today. I would wager, the poor bloke will be questioned until US forces are sure he is not a terrorist or connected to terrorists. As long as he checks out, it would be most sensible for the US to turn him over to the Iraqi government as a symbol of mutual cooperation and set an example that the US feels the Iraqi government is self-sufficient. I also think, if the journalist does have terrorist connections it is still very likely he would be retained indefinitely; a state of affairs not uncommon in Iraq. If the US was not an occupying force in Iraq or had not gone to war within the country in the past decade, the circumstances might be different.

While throwing shoes at people is not polite, it means that even those educated individuals are sick of American influence in their country. We hear on the news often of suicide bombs and terrorist attacks, but such things can be equated with extremist views and people who have let themselves be brainwashed into an ideology of terrorism. Shoe throwing however is a symbol that even the well educated and well placed people of Iraq are fed-up at least with President Bush. While it’s not polite to throw shoes at occupying countries’ Presidents, the point is well taken. It’s not just the terrorists who are unhappy with the current US presence. In the course of everything this War in Iraq has brought us, I took the hurtling shoes as a message not unlike the stories I read in my morning newspapers. Certainly not the actions of a terrorist, but then again I’m not the one at whom the shoes were being thrown.

Cheap Wedding Plan & Affordable Wedding Ideas

I was talking to a girl friend not long ago who was beside herself over credit card debt and the knowledge of a new family member on the way. It struck me as odd that after such amazing news she would be so upset. After talking with her for some time I realized the source of this financial ruin was their wedding not 3 months earlier. She got married just a few months after me, but while my wedding didn’t cause too much financial unrest hers seemed to be tearing the newlyweds apart. According to Credit.com the average wedding in America costs $20,000!! After all was said and done my wedding cost close to $7,000 to serve a total of 200 people. This is still a striking number for most newlyweds who are usually just out of school and have not been in the job market long enough to have any capital built up. At such a critical turning point in your life when you need to really spend time getting to know and accept your new life with your spouse, money should not be the foremost thing on your minds.
I can’t help thinking that the multi-million dollar wedding industry is to blame for our girly fantasies and extravagant dreams, but this is still OUR wallets and no one is forcing you to buy a gazebo for the service or that lavish honeymoon. The solution then is approaching a wedding like any other large financial decision. In many cases the first large financial decision you and your new partner will make together. Think of it as a trial run on how you and your partner approach financial decision. (Complicated by other extended family factors yes, but in reality what financial decision isn’t??) So, here are some tips and budget helping items that you can use to still have an extravagant wedding while spending only half of the average wedding. The real trick is trying to combine as many things as you can. Make outfits & decorations into gifts and overlap wherever you can to cut spending.

#1 Gifts/ Honorariums: This is an item people always forget about until last minute and even if you are cheap this can easily be $1000! I’ll put what I ended up getting in ( ) so you can think in the right price range. Note that cash is usually appreciated more than checks, include a thoughtful card and you will have happy helpers!
Pastor/ Clergy Honorarium: $100-200 Each ($100 Cash)
Organ/Piano Player: $100-200 ($125 Cash)
Singers/ Musicians: $75-150 Each ($75 Cash)
Bridesmaids & Groomsmen: $25-100 Each (Matching Shirts, Steins, & custom jewelry)
Grandparents & Parents: $25-100 Each (Wedding Photos & Steins)
Flower girls & Ring Barrier: $25-75 Each (Handheld Games)
Ushers: $15-40 (Matching Ties)
Church Gift: $100-300 ($)
Candle Lighters: $25-40 (Handheld Games)
Gift Barriers: $25-75 (Gift Certificate & Handheld Games)
Bubble Princesses: $15-30 (We had lots of kids to employ during the wedding, so 5 of my nieces handed out bubbles for our grand exit from the church)
Cake Cutters: $15-30 (Set of bath soaps & wedding photo)
Tips:
• Asking your family to help out in your wedding is an honor, so don’t feel obligated to them gifts. Even a card can be enough of a thank you in some cases.
• Think of practical gifts, for example we gave all our ushers nice silk ties so they could wear them at the wedding and have nice ties for themselves to keep. By having them wear black pants and a nice white shirt instead of renting them outfits kept costs down and they were still matching with the ties.

#2 Venues:
Service - If you (or your parents) are members at a church, this always fits best with a tight budget. (You also get to invite those in your church community you’ve grown up with your whole life.) Many churches don’t charge members for using the chapel, but do expect to make at least a small donation to help cover cleaning and utility costs during of the wedding. We also reserved our churches basement for the bachelorette party the month before. ($ Donation)
Reception Many churches have utensils and all the dishware needed to host their congregation which makes them the most affordable option for receptions and parties. However if you want to go to a separate location, have a large number of guests or want to served alcohol you may want to think about alternatives. Community centers, convention clubs, or your local Rotary or Kiwanis clubs make great affordable options. These groups will often rent out their facilities a lot cheaper than hotels or restaurants and they are often more flexible when it comes to decorations too! We chose to have our receptionist at a nearby community center that had a huge convention room to fit all our 200 guests, a dance floor and had an adjoining board room we used for child care. The sheer size of our wedding meant a convention center was a required splurge in our budget. ($1200 - $2000)
Tips:
• Ask the caterers to hold the leftovers for you. Many times they throw out the extra, which could serve as a weeks worth of food. Something your family might appreciate after a stressful wedding week.
• Talk with the building manager of each venue before you book to make sure you can decorate like you want to. Many places don’t allow candles, candy, or confetti near their buildings. Be warned some venues also require you to buy any food through them which can make or break a budget. Book at least a year in advance and do your homework early!

#3 Food: With 200 people this was by far the priciest item in our wedding. For smaller weddings you may want to modify what is served. We chose to have a buffet style meat with just the bare necessities: Chicken, assorted vegetables, 2 salads, and bread which still ended up being $10 a plate. We chose caterers because we wanted everyone at the wedding to enjoy themselves, not be caught serving food or cleaning dishes. ($2000)
Alcohol - We opted to buy one keg of beer for guests and 2 bottles of Champaign for the head table. Any guests wanting drinks after that had to pay for them. I had bartended in the past and had seen first hand how people could abuse open bars. Imagine a $2000 alcohol bill and evaluate where you want to spend your money. ($150)
Cake – Wedding cakes are expensive! Think about renting Styrofoam cake (that the bakery or florist will decorate anyway you want) and getting sheet cake to serve to guest. The cake acts as decoration all night and you still get the great photos, but don’t have to hire a special cake cutter. And most places offer more flavors of sheet cake to choose from than those huge tier cakes. ($300)
Tips:
• Ask the caterers to hold the leftovers for you. Many times they throw out the extra, which could serve as a weeks worth of food. Something your family might appreciate after a stressful wedding.
• Rent a Styrofoam Cake & Serve sheet cake to guests.
• Think about getting just a keg or giving drink tickets to make drinks affordable for guests.

#4 Decorations: No one thinks decorations are ever going to be a big ticket item, but they can become expensive in a hurry if you’re not careful. Wedding favors also fall into that category. They are decoration and also serve as a way to say thank you to guests. We decorated the cake table, head table & gift tables with tons of tole & Christmas decorations. Pin icicle lights behind your table skirts, drape/pin tole with intermixed beads and other decorations. We borrowed the tole from my cousin who had recently been married, then we bought very lightweight fabric for a splash of color on the head table. If I can track down a photo, I will share it with you. For the rest of the decoration we rented them from an events store in town. We got mirror tiles for every table and used tea lights (the community center already had) for each table. On every other table we rented flute vases and had topiaries made to fit the color theme. In total costing no more than $300.
Flowers - The real question here is to do real or faux flowers. We found an amazing florist who helped make our faux flowers look better than real ones and they turned out being half as much. We had real flower boutonnieres for all the main wedding party, and then made our own boutonnieres for any others roles.
Favors - my mother was of the thinking that every wedding needed bells and candy on the tables. So, we got a book of silver wedding bells with ribbons & pre-cut thank you notes at Wal-Mart and placed 4 on every table figuring not every guest needed one. Then on the alternating seats we placed a soap rose (I lost the original site, but here is the rose) which came in sets of 9 for only $0.50. The fragrant roses made the room spell great and served as decoration on each table. Then around valentines, my mother picked up a few bags of Hershey's kisses matching my wedding colors.
At the end of the night we gave away our flower decorations to our parents and others as thank yous, stretching every dollar.
Tips:
• Think about making your own favors or using favors that act as decoration in order to cut down costs.
• Using faux flowers cuts down on costs a lot and they last forever, so you can use them again!


#5 Pictures: I talked to all my friends who had gotten married before me and their one hang-up was that they wish they had more pictures of the day. So, one of our biggest items was our photographer. We found a couple that would go crazy taking millions of pictures and would give us the rights to the photos later so that we wouldn’t have to only order prints through them. It worked out great!! We were able to print thank you cards later for dirt cheap ($0.09 a piece) with our wedding photos and make our pictures available on-line to all the wedding guests at SnapFish.com and Shutter Fly. We found out this is the one item that you don’t want to skimp on and it works out best to pay more for the service up front if your photographer gives you the rights to the photos later!!
($1500)
Tips:
• Ask around to your friends about photographers and don’t be afraid to ask them about prices.
• Always ask if photographers will provide digital copies and/or rights to the photos!!
• Make a list of all the photos/shots that are important to you and
• See if your photographer could do the engagement & wedding photos at a discounted price. You might want to also ask if they would think about doing photos of just you and your partner a few days before the wedding. That way you have lots of time to take pictures and can go to several different locations.

#6 Cloths: Clothing is such a very personal thing, but I found lots of creativity to be had at David’s Bridal. The best part was there was a store in every state, so even my bridesmaids coming in from other states (and other countries) were able to match colors/styles/sizes. It was a really simple process and affordable for all the ladies. For the men, suits do not come cheap, but most guys have at least a plan black suit or should plan on having a plan black suit (they are the every marriage, celebration, and death outfit). So, it’s easy to have guys wear their black suit and then you can rent them the vests/ties/shirts. We chose to buy our guys matching shirts as our gift to them.
Tips:
• As cliche as it sounds, pick bridesmaids outfits that you might think of wearing to a nice event. If there is a possibility your bridesmaids could use the dress again, then you won’t feel bad about asking them to pay for their own.
• Since we were asking for so much time and effort from the parents of our flower girls and ring barrier, we decided to pay for the dresses and rental outfit ourselves as part of our thank you. Then we gave each child a toy that would be entertaining at the reception. We got ours dresses from this site.

#7 Childcare: Often not something you think about when planning a wedding, but chances are you know someone with small children. It means the world to them if you have childcare available. Think about getting one sitter for the day and just paying them a flat rate. We chose to have childcare in the basement of the church during the service and then had a separate room for kids at the reception. Parents could rest easy with their child literally steps away and they were free to enjoy themselves. We decorated the kid’s room with a luau theme, so kids felt like they were having their own party. We lined a table with stock paper for coloring, then got a toy bowling set at a discount party store, had lays on the table and some board games from home. Beware, kids love to steal any table cameras you may have!
Tips:
• Don’t spend anything in this category (other than to pay the sitter). If you have crayons at home, then you already have the makings of a great kid’s room/childcare room. Just find fun stuff around your house that you wouldn’t mind letting the sitter have for the night.

#8 Invitation/ Programs/ & Thank You Cards: I got lucky, I married a graphic designer. We made all of our own stationary and got huge compliments on everything! The best advice I can give you is that stationary doesn’t have to be fancy, just heart felt. Go to Barnes & Nobles one night and check out books in the wedding section on writing thank you notes & invitation etiquette. You don’t need to buy the book, just pick up thoughtful phrases and wording to use later. Letting people know that you care goes further towards a beautiful wedding more than anything else. We bought a $20 paper cutter & paper punch, then went to a local office supply & paper warehouse were we could buy 500 sheets for $20. The most expensive part of our invitations and thank yous was the postage. (We handed out as many invitations as we could as holiday get-togethers, the bridal shower, & when we say people.)
Tips:
• Don’t those stationary software programs and other catalog invitation stuff. If you want something really fancy and aren’t marrying a graphic design than go ahead and look into the invitation magazines, but otherwise you can save tons of money by avoiding them!
• Try a paper warehouse or office supply warehouse for affordable envelopes and paper.
• Lazar printers use much less ink then ink jets, you will go broke trying to print invitations from an ink jet printer!
• Sometimes little touches make the difference, we used hot glue guns to put seals on all our invites and thank yous making them much classier looking.

Finally, congratulations! I wish you all the happiness, including financial, that my husband and I have shared over the years!!

Christmas Budgeting

I love to give presents! Don’t get me wrong I enjoy getting gifts, but giving them is almost twice the fun. If you spend even five minutes a day with someone, then you’re bond to know something about that person, which can help you pick smart gifts. I’ve always prided myself on being able to give amazing gifts (or at least very appropriate gifts) just by paying attention to what people like. And if ever I’ve given a bad gift, the recipients have always had the good sense not to say anything (usually because I include a gift receipt).

I never realized that the task was so daunting for some until I went Christmas shopping for the first time with my now husband. He honestly had no idea what to get his parents, sister or anyone else in his family. At one point he wanted me to spy on them while perusing the mall just to get ideas. After some spirited jesting I put forth my best James Bond and stealthily moved from party to party as we meandered our way through the nearby mall after Thanksgiving. Then, I reported which items each family member had looked longingly after and which they had paused at for a few seconds. Unbeknownst to me (and much to my dismay), the next week my adoring husband brought home one of each of the most coveted items for his family. I didn’t know what to say and because it was our first year together I really didn’t want to hurt his well-intentioned feelings. I remember thinking, is this how everyone does their Christmas shopping? How can anyone possibly afford that sort of spending every year? Everyone wants to give lavishly and shower their children in gifts, but that isn’t all Christmas is about and you still have to pay bills in January. (I remember reading some where that suicides were at their highest rate in Jan. because of this!?!) It would seem more prudent to take a more realistic approach to Christmas giving and to save for other things like college for the kids or your own retirement.

Needless to say, my husband and I worked things out. Miraculously, we were even able to stay within the Christmas budget I had organized early in the year. The experience taught me that talking about budgets and how you think of money with your spouse is very important. So, I though maybe throwing out some ideas surrounding Christmas budget might help others in their dire searches and more to the point, providing a sample Christmas budget worksheet for those of you that need help organizing money during the holidays.

1. Figure out how much you can spend on Christmas and stick to it! All good things come from planning, hard work and dedication. As they say “People never plan to fail, they simply fail to plan.” So, figure out how much extra or misc. income you have each month. Gift giving (birthdays & other events) needs to be factored into your year budget. If you don’t have a family budget, we need to talk! You should need to dip into your savings for Christmas money, instead just cut back on your spending for a month or two in order to put aside Christmas money. If you can’t seem to save any money, try keeping track of where your money is going. You may need to cut back more or think about having a gift-less Christmas with your family. Your family might appreciate not exchanging gifts and just setting aside time to spend together.

2. Who would you like to give gifts to? The first thing you should think about is if you will be required to give a certain amount to anyone or organization. No one can force you to give them money or gifts (except the bank), but you may feel obligated to reciprocate gifts to work friends or there maybe a required amount at family gift exchanges, so this should be factored into your budget first.

3. Do not go on a spending spree!! Sit down with your significant other (or whomever can help you brain storm) and decide how much you are going to spend for Christmas giving. Remember to factor in any obligations, decorations, party costs, and travel expenses. Create a rough outline for how much you can spend on each person or category you want to spend money on. Then, brainstorm good gift ideas within that budget. (Don’t be afraid to ask people what they might want or what they could find useful.) Lastly, you must to stick to the budget!! No Exceptions!!

4. Time to go shopping! Hint, if you start Christmas shopping months in advance your more likely to buy during the best deals and know exactly what will make the best gifts. Always ask for gift recites and keep them all together in one safe place. If you do start buying months in advance, don’t wrap the gifts until a few weeks before that way you can always return or exchange items if you find a better buy. I shop over the course of 3 months and compare prices every where: on-line, in stores, through clearing houses, and in my own inventory.

5. A good gift doesn’t always have to be store bought. For close friends of the family and co-workers I usually make cookies and wrap them in $0.50 tins. For my grandmother I usually give her a set of hand-made cards & a book of stamps. Many people also appreciated books on tape and music collections, so if you already have the media in your collection you can re-gift the item or make copies. (In no way do I advocate illegal copying or downloading of music…I believe if you appreciate an artist you should always support them by buying their music!) Lastly, if your job offers free merchandise or perks you can always pass those along to family as your gift. Check with your company to make sure that you are within company policy and not breaking any laws. For example, my husband receives free video games and clothing with company logos that he sometimes gives away at Christmas. In his case, the company encourages giving the items away because it’s free advertising and exposure for them.

Finally, as you buy things write down how much they cost and compare them with the budget to see how successful you were. Keep you budget at the end of the year, because it may help you decide what to budget the next year. You may also want to write down what others gave you so you remember what they are budgeting for yourself. Take a look at the sample budget below and see how even a small budget can add up to a lot of money very fast!! If you fail to plan for this type of stuff, it’s very easy to overspend and have a hard time paying bills come January. So, I encourage all to spend wisely over Christmas and keep in mind that everyone will be in happier moods if you aren’t stressing over money!! Have a very HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!

Eve’s 2008 Christmas Budget

Spouse = Nothing (Reserving $100 extra towards vacation $$)

Children = None at Present (Recommend $100 Cap)

Parents = Family Album, Ties, Skillet, & Jump Drive ($35 Each)

Siblings = Movies, Video Games, & Gas Cards ($35 Each)

Grandparents = Framed photos of our family & handmade cards w/stamps ($15 Each)

Pets = Bulk bag of dog bones from Sam’s Club ($9 Total)

Decorations = ($15 Total)

Extended Family Gift Exchanges = Gift Cards & Video Game ($40 Total)

Work Gifts = Hot Cocoa Packets in coffee mugs ($1.50 Each)

Friends of the Family = Homemade cookies in Tins ($10 Total)

Travel Expenses Over Holidays = $200 (Total Gas $)

Charitable Giving = ($150 Goodwill & Church Offering)

2007 Total Spent = $732

2008 Total Budget = $823

Leaving an Unethical Job?!?

I’m becoming vindictive in my job, a sure sign that a change is needed. My problem, as my loving husband points out, is that I’m too nice or have a conscious, which ever. Driven by moral and ethical dilemmas I was raised with I have refused to lie on reports, cheat on evaluation standards and steal my other co-worker’s projects. Because such practices seem to be common practice at my firm, I find myself only doing average and rarely winning contests or competitions with my co-workers.
Two weeks ago I found an example where one of my co-workers clearly was lying on projects and entering false information into their reports. No one wants to be a tattle-tale, but when your coworkers are threatening your position because they are clearly lying…you feel the need to point it out to your management. So I did. My manager had a conversation with my coworker in which she pinned me as a snitch and then joked about the situation as though it were nothing. As a result I was handed my colleagues projects to clean up, while she dug through my leads with renewed vitality looking for new projects. Any reporter in their right mind would be furious! It was clear any journalistic ethics and morals had been vanquished from my position long ago. As I was plotting my revenge and thinking that eggs were cheapest at Wal-Mart, I decided that recourse was past me and I simply have to move on. If my supervisor and boss both refuse to address ethical and moral business practices, then it’s best for me to leave the company all together. It’s no easy decision to come to and not a good situation to be in, so when do you decide to leave a position?

My decision focused around these questions:
1. If one of my co-workers is involved in unethical businesses practices; is there channels set-up for recourse or a way to keep such practices in check? When my manager and boss handled the situation poorly, it left me feeling helpless and out of options. When my boss sided with their unethical behavior and then told me to follow suit, I was given few options but to start job hunting.
2. Does the unethical behavior affect me and if so is there anything I can do about it?
My colleague’s willingness to falsify reports escalated the company’s expectations and made it harder for me to meet those unrealistic expectations. In order for me to keep-up with my colleagues numbers I would have to participate in unethical practices, something that I didn’t feel comfortable with and refused to partake in.
3. If I continued working with unethical co-workers would their behavior affect my performance and/or long-term goals? Since many of my firm’s projects are group projects, I had to place a great deal of trust in my colleagues. Something I was unable to do given the circumstances. I also wanted to make sure that I upheld my integrity and character, because honestly that is all a reporter has at times.

Now that it has been two weeks, I’m proud to report even given the dire economy I have several job prospects on the table and I am looking forward to a brighter future. If you should stumble across this blog and suffered a similar malady, I would love to hear your story. I don't think unethical or immoral behavior profits anyone. Perhaps I’ll dedicate another blog about how to use vacation time to interview with other firms!?!

Do Not Bail Out The Auto Industry!!

After years of bad management policies and even worse marketing strategies that gave Americans a sense of pride when buying gas guzzling and eco-harmful vehicles. GM killed the electric car a decade ago and that was just the tip of the iceberg that became abusive practices and even worse environmental disasters. Now that push comes to shove, the American Auto manufacturers want a bail out from the American people. Their most immediate problem is that they have no access to credit, even after we already bailed out the banks!?!?! The irony is priceless, yet I’m not a big fan of taxes more than anyone else so I can’t help feel a little peeved at the whole situation.

I honestly feel the best the that can happen is to let the companies fail and declare bankruptcy, they will be allowed to restructure under the chapter 11 tax code allowing new management and consequently new life to filter back into the American auto industry. Take careful note that while foreign auto manufacturers employ just as many US workers as American auto manufacturers, they are not in line for bailouts! In fact, Toyota and Honda are doing outstanding selling hybrids and other fuel efficient vehicles. While demand might be done, they are still a float and not worried about the coming year because they found their niche in the ever increasing demand for fuel efficient transportation. Hats off to you!! For those of you buying fuel efficient cars, you have my gratitude and the gratitude of my children who will be breathing cleaner air because of you!!!!

The point can not be emphasized enough! We need to change our practices & habits! America has now gone to war over our oil dependence in more than one circumstance, so why they hell would you buy an SUV after shipping your son or daughter off to war. The reality should be stark clear.

In talking to my own parents, they agree with me 100% and have done everything they possibly can to reduce their own economic/ energy footprint. Why they hell hasn’t everyone else!! My parents in-law, who I love dearly and respect adamantly, tried to tell me people are to stupid to make such environmentally wise decisions and that we will never change our habits. There verdict was clear, they honestly thought we would continue down the same road as we always have; going to war with other countries for access to oil (Russia is off the coast of Venezuela as they pointed out), polluting our environment leading to global warming (Ironically they were the ones who convinced me to buy Planet Earth & An Inconvenient Truth), and letting consumers fall into big ticket spending traps (affluenza fueled items such as huge SUVs & energy bills which led us into this crisis situation in the first place).

My father in-law and mother in-law told me to “get my head right” which I took to mean “you have to accept that we are doomed.” For the sake of their own children and grandchildren’s, I hope they will change their minds. Each and every person makes a difference in this battle, which means they need to take action too!! And believing in that change and action, passing along the energy and enthusiasm to others is the only way we are going to win this!! By not believing in a better future, they are only fueling the problem and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. I respect my in-laws very much and admire them for many of the things they have done in their lives, but in this I have to draw a line. It’s a topic we may have to agree to disagree on, but I am unwilling to forgive bad management practices, poor union policies, and horrible ecological planning on the part of the auto industry.

Let the US auto manufacturers fail and let them get their ducks in a row. It’s inexcusable they are asking the American people to bail them out in the face of unsustainable economic or environmental practices they setup!!

I fully understand that workers will lose their jobs and Detroit will be hard hit by such a bankruptcy, but frankly it’s been a long time coming. Car sales were down long before the financial crisis of 2008 and the majority of auto industry jobs have been seasonal and fluctuating anyway.

Want to guess how many American dealers are in the average city and in big dealers? The auto industry has a variety of assets, including dealers they could close in order to live within their means. Take example from governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who, even though declared California in a fiscal emergency Dec 2^nd, he also said he would not ask for any money from Washington because he thought California should learn to live within its means. Does that rhetoric sound familiar to anyone? If we as Americans are forced to live within our own means through this credit crunch and beyond, why the hell can’t the auto industry? A 25 million bail out is not going to solve the problem only prolong it!

Practical Solutions to the Auto Industry

Why Letting the Auto Industry Fail Would Be Better In the Long Term

Getting another Opinion