Over the last few years I’ve had numerous conversations with family and friends about money. I have since realized a secondary benefit to my finance education, a better understanding of how our monetary system works and who is making
Which side of this deal are you on?
money off of my money. A number of us don’t really understand how our banking and monetary system works. Some of us may believe that all the money we deposit is literally in the bank’s safe!
Here is the basic principle of how money works in our society. You are in one or more of these three categories: you have just enough (you are neither lending nor borrowing), you have more than enough (you are lending money), or you do not have enough (you are borrowing). If you lend money you earn more money, if you borrow money you pay more than the amount you borrowed. If you neither lend nor…
Taking the leap of faith to start your own business is difficult enough. According to the SBA, in 2008 an estimated 627,200 businesses opened. On the flip side, an estimated 595,600 closed their doors. While many factors contribute to the decision for a business to open or close, prioritizing the following three items will get you headed in the right direction when you start your own business.
- Business Plan – The most important part when you start your own business is developing your business plan. A business plan forces you to consider all foreseeable areas of your company and address issues before they occur. It helps you to diagram the operations, research your competition, plan your marketing strategy, and understand how you will make money. It is the most critical part of your business, it will grow and expand as your business grows and expands. A business plan should be developed before you ever start your…
This is what you don't want.
I was reading an interesting article in February’s Inc. magazine (FYI I’m able to see into the future) by Joel Spolsky about communication, or more so, over communication. Everyone has finite resources (time, money, energy) that they want to use as effectively as possible. A big part of using your resources effectively within your organization is effective communication. In the article, Joel describes a few ways in which the way we communicate may be becoming less effective instead of more.
It all starts with Brooks’ Law. Fred Brooks worked on a massive software project for IBM in 1975. As the project fell behind schedule, IBM added more and more people to the project to speed up the completion time. What Brooks noticed was that adding personnel had the opposite effect; it actually slowed the project down. Brooks’ Law says that “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” The Law…
I recently watched the documentary Food Inc. The premise is, as Michael Pollan states in the film, “The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” The case for this statement is made well throughout as the film follows multiple food industries such as chicken, beef, corn and other produce as well as the people and parties involved. As I watched I realized how far removed I am from knowing the origins of what I put in my mouth to sustain my life. Thinking even further, I realized how far removed I have become from the origins of almost all of the goods I purchase. You mean my bed frame came from a tree? Wow! I realized that it was made of wood and therefore came from a tree, but when I saw it in the store it was just a completed bed frame. I failed to connect…
This Christmas I was blessed to travel to Thailand to visit my parents. My parents currently live in Bangkok, a sprawling city of almost 12 million people in the metro area which spans nearly 3,000 sq. mi. (New York City has 18 million people in the urban area across 3,352 sq. mi.). Your arrival by air is the first indication of the impact a dense population, for which 2/3’s of the country’s GDP is reliant on exported goods, has on the environment.
While you fly over some countryside on the way in, by the time you are on the road from the airport the consistent gray skies soon engulf your view. As you get closer to the city the choking traffic becomes apparent. 4 designated traffic lanes somehow turn into 5 as cars move to every available inch of road. Traffic lights can take up to 10 minutes or more to change, while congestion piles up.…
