March 27, 2008

You’re Asking To Be Robbed!

General Add Comment »

It’s bad enough that we have to worry about someone robbing us or breaking into our house so let’s not give the crooks that much more reason to do so. I had never really thought of this until last night when my fiance, Wendi, mentioned this to me. Most robbers are not this smart but I’m sure there’s a few exceptions so let’s not test their abilities.

Basically every day I come home from work, I stop at our subdivision mailboxes and pick up the mail. Most of the time we get a bunch of junk mail such as credit card offers, political campaigns and retail catalogs so my first instinct is to throw it in the back seat of my car or on the floor where it then ends up for at least a few weeks until I get the motivation clean my car out.

I also have a garage door opener in my car that obviously lets me in our garage. So, here’s the simple equation.

GARAGE DOOR OPENER IN CAR + MAIL IN CAR = ASKING TO BE ROBBED

If someone breaks into your car which is VERY common…especially if you live near a larger city, you open up the door to much worse things that can happen. If someone breaks into your car and sees a garage door opener in sight with mail right next to it, there is the key into your house. They have the garage door opener to get in the house….at least into the garage. Most of us don’t lock our door that leads to the house from the garage (now I will)! They have your address from the mail you left in your car. You are actually helping the robber succeed at his job if you do this. Even the dumbest of robbers can pull this one off.

So, moral of the story…don’t be a lazy ass like me. Take your mail inside the house when you get it. It takes all of 3-4 seconds to grab it from your seat. If you are too lazy to handle this, then you might as well leave a key to the front door in your car too.


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March 25, 2008

The Best Recession Proof Career

Education, Internet Marketing Add Comment »

It’s so tough to pick a career in this day and age and stick with it especially with the way the economy has been. Things are looking down, people are losing their jobs and there’s little or nothing that can be done to stop it without some hard work by good ole’ America!

So, what do you do if you are searching for the perfect career or if you are in college and not sure what you want to do when you grow up? Get into Internet marketing at some capacity. No joke…it is the best decision I’ve ever made (with the exception of proposing to my fiance Wendi).

I don’t care what kind of business you have…automotive, retail, financial or anything else…you can get hit by the recession. So can Internet marketers but the difference is they can pick themselves up much quicker. Internet marketing and website development is an essential piece of every company in this day and age. How many successful businesses do you know out there with no website? Not many, right? Yes, there are a few businesses that are run the old fashion way but the majority of businesses are now moving to the web and what does that mean? MORE INTERNET MARKETING JOBS than there are Internet marketing professionals. There is a shortage of qualified Internet marketing professionals.

There are so many pros of working your way into Internet marketing, I can’t even list them all here. A few of the big ones are:

  • You have a skill not many people know much about. This is great for job security.
  • Internet marketers get paid well. You can make a GREAT living with Internet marketing. It’s not uncommon to make between $80-$120K with just 5 years of experience. Keep expanding your skill set and you will make even more.
  • Internet marketers can work from tree houses if they had to. We are a mobile bunch and all we need is a laptop and Internet connection and we are good to go.
  • We can substantially increase a companies revenue and profits with our expertise. Many people do not know that Internet marketing has a GREAT ROI compared to print media and other traditional methods of advertising. If they could only see through the confusion of Internet marketing and give it a try…they would see the light and what it can do for their business.
  • Even if you have a full time job, you can still do side Internet marketing projects and make a nice chunk of money throughout the year on top of your full time salary. Now we’re talking early retirement!!!
  • It’s an all around fun profession. I truly enjoy it and love to learn new things each day about Internet marketing and new strategies to execute.
  • There are not many other professions where you can work 10 hours or so a week and make more than most people do in a month.

If you are seriously considering a career change or if you are still in college searching for what you want to do…look into Internet marketing. I promise you will be pleased at what you find.

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March 23, 2008

Affiliate Marketing Probably Isn’t For You

Internet Marketing 2 Comments »

Let’s face it…affiliate marketing is tough stuff. It takes a rare breed to actually make a living off of affiliate marketing and be able to sustain this income. You need to make a decent amount on your investment in order to come ahead.

Let’s say you spend $500 on an affiliate marketing campaign and you make $750 in revenue. You say, hey…that’s not too bad. Well, now let’s subtract the $500 you spent on advertising your affiliate campaign via Google Adwords or whatever other advertising method you used. You are now down to $250 profit. So, you say, hey…that’s not too bad either. Okay…it’s not too bad but now let’s take out what you owe for taxes. If you are in a middle tax bracket you can take another 30-35% of that $250 profit away for income taxes, state tax, self employment tax and all other little things that eat away at your profit.

So, let’s say 35% is taken away from the $250. That 35% comes to $87.50. Subtract the $87.50 from your $250 profit and you now have $162.50. This still isn’t horrible but you can see where I am going with this. If you merely break even with your campaigns or come out a little ahead, you are still losing money. You need to figure out a way to make a substantial amount above and beyond your initial investment in order to reap the benefits of a true successful affiliate marketer.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a “Super Affiliate Marketer” hold up a check on their blog or website for $100,000 or $250,000 or more. What they don’t mention is that they spend $98,000 to make the $100,000 or $240,000 to make the $250,000. I’m not saying that there aren’t any successful super affiliate marketers our there because there definitely are. I am saying that most affiliate marketers trying to sell themselves don’t mention what they are actually spending on their campaigns to make their profits. If you spend $1.00 and get $1.02 in return. It’s going to take a hell of a lot of dollar bills to make a good living. You better have stacks of cash in the bank ready to use.

I guess…moral of the story is…affiliate marketing is hard and you need to make a substantial amount beyond your initial investment in order to become successful. Best of luck.

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March 23, 2008

FICO Will Be Changing They Way They Calculate Credit Scores

Personal Finance 3 Comments »

First of all…Happy Easter! I just read an article that I found awhile back notifying that FICO will be changing the way they calculate credit scores. This will go into effect sometime later this year and they say will likely help more people that it will hurt.

FICO says that they will put more weight into the types of credit people use such as mortgages, car loans, student loans and anything related that’s not a direct credit card. They will also not hold as much weight for delinquent items in the past either so if you made a late payment 5 years ago but since have been good at paying your bills on time, your score should not take such a huge hit. This is not to say if you pay a bill late now, you are fine. FICO talking about weighing less on past history items and not things that you do now so it’s important to pay on time…each and every month.

It’s probably a good idea to check your credit score now before these changes go into effect and then check it once they have been in effect for a few months to see how much your score has either increased or decreased.


What is your FICO Score

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March 22, 2008

Make $100 an Hour Cleaning Your Own House

Personal Finance, Productivity 3 Comments »

I bet you never thought you could clean your own house and get paid for it! Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s VERY easy. My fiance and I spent about one hour last night and about one hour this morning and we made $215. How did we do it you ask? We had a garage sale.

It’s once again spring time and it’s time to clean out the clutter from last year and make some more room for this years purchases, gifts and other junk you accumulate throughout the year. You don’t even realize how much stuff you have built up over the year until you actually start gathering things for a garage sale.

I’ll give you some tips on how you can hold a successful garage sale:

  1. Don’t hold onto stuff that you have not used in the past year unless it is extremely sentimental. If you haven’t needed it for anything in the past year, it’s highly likely that you will not need it in the year to come. Put a price tag on it and get rid of it.
  2. There are garage sale junkies. They do know how to haggle and they WILL haggle. You must learn to haggle back and hold strong on your prices. Learn to negotiate with them. If you have an item for sale at $10 and they offer $5, don’t take their offer. Ask for $9. They they will likely come back with an offer of $6 or $7. You say $8 and it’s all yours. Garage salers are a thrifty bunch so they will do what they can to get an item at it’s lowest value. So, brush up on your negotiating skills before you throw up that “Garage Sale” sign.
  3. If a little boy or girl finds something they like such as a doll or toy, just give it to them for free. It will make their day, and really, giving away a little toy is not going to make or break your garage sale. It’s fun to make kids happy for such a simple thing.
  4. After someone buys something and if it’s a heavier or larger item, help them bring it to their car or truck. They will appreciate it and it’s just a nice gesture.
  5. Make sure you have plenty of single dollar bills and change as people will not always be prepared with exact amounts of money. Many items will be priced very low so quarters and dollars are essential.
  6. Offer them coffee or water. This takes so little time to prepare and this might keep them shopping a bit longer until they find the impulse to buy that golf club or slow cooker.
  7. When the sale is coming to an end and all of the “junk” items are left, put a sign up offering them for free. This will save you the hassle of having to find a place to get rid of everything.
  8. Last but not least…just have fun. It’s only a garage sale. You will make some money and clear up the clutter in your house at the same time.

Happy Garage Saling!!!

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March 21, 2008

Quit Complaining About Gas Prices Already

Personal Finance, Lifestyle 1 Comment »

It really is time for people to quit complaining about high gas prices. It could be much worse. I love it when I see someone say, “we won’t be able to go on a family vacation this year because gas prices are too high.” If this is the case, and gas prices are too high for you to go on vacation, then you probably shouldn’t be going on vacation in the first place. The extra $100 you’ll spend on gas should not make or break you and if it does, you are making a bad decision about going on a vacation in the first place. Save your money and go when you are comfortable financially and the extra $100 in gas won’t matter.

Let’s say you go on a family vacation and you are driving 400 miles each way for a total of 800 miles round trip. Let’s say you will be gone for a week and over that week you will put on an extra 500 miles doing things on your vacation. Let’s say your car gets 22 miles per gallon, you have a 15 gallon tank and let’s say gas is at an average price of $2.85. This would mean that we would take 1300 total miles divided by 22/mpg. This would mean that we need roughly 59 gallons of gas for the trip. So, we take 59 gallons of gas x (times) $2.85 and we get $168.15. This is what gas would cost for the vacation is the gas price is $2.85/gallon. Now let’s say gas is $3.20/gallon. We take the 59 gallons you will need for your vacation and x (times) that by $3.20. We get $188.80. That’s a difference of $20.65. Now, if you are telling me that $20.65 is going to make or break your vacation, you SHOULD NOT GO ON VACATION!

Let’s say gas is $4.00/gallon and you need 59 gallons. Your price would then be $236 for the total trip for gas. This is a difference of $67.85. This still should not make one bit of difference as $67 shouldn’t make or break your trip.

I drive roughly 450 miles each week to and from work. Most of this is in bumper to bumper traffic as well. Yes, I do complain about the actual commute but I never complain about gas. This is also definitely over the average commute time. If you are driving more miles that this per week to and from work then you are probably getting some sort of reimbursement for gas because the majority of the population drives much less than this. People that are in their cars a lot are usually road warriors that are in some sort of sales position. In this case, you are likely getting the money back from your employer.

Get rid of that huge freaking truck that takes a gallon of gas just to start it up. Really, what’s the need? You are not cooler because you have a truck that can run over most cars. You are most likely just a 120 pound hillbilly that thinks you are tough because you have big wheels! Get over yourself.

Or you can forget about all of this and just get a Smart Car and hope to not get crushed on the highway by a hillbilly in a huge truck!

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March 18, 2008

How Often Should I Check My Credit Report and Score?

Personal Finance 5 Comments »


Many people have no idea what their credit score is and many people don’t even know what a credit score is. This is basically your financial livelihood. The higher your credit score, the better rates you will get on loans, mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. Wikipedia classifies a credit score as, “a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person’s credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person, which is the perceived likelihood that the person will pay debts in a timely manner. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information, typically sourced from credit bureaus / credit reference agencies.”

There are 3 main credit scoring agencies and they are Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. All have a little bit different method on calculating your scores. Your credit or FICO (Fair Issac & CO) score usually is in the range between 850 and 300. The higher the score, the better. The lower the score, the more work you need to do to improve it. If you are above a 700, you are safe and are considered to have excellent or very good credit which usually qualifies you for some of the lower rates. Once you dip below 620, you need to start being more careful about your financial situation. A credit score can sink for a number of reasons including late payments, too much credit utilization (using a high percentage of a credit card limit), too many recent inquiries, collections amongst many other reasons. It’s safe to say that you should use as little credit as possible and always make payments on time.

You can go to each scoring agency separately (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax) to get your credit report and score but it’s much easier to go to myFICO.com and get all three at once for one low price. You can check everything online and you can also print off copies for your own records. Right now you can get 25% Off on all myFICO products. This is a great way to find out where you are financially especially if you are looking to make a major purchase such as a car, home, boat or anything that will require you to apply for credit.

It’s a very good idea to check your credit report and score periodically to make sure you are not a victim of credit fraud or identity theft. If you have been or would like to prevent identity theft, it’s a good idea to contact a company like LifeLock Identity Theft Services.

Best of luck with your financial well-being and don’t forget to check your credit report and scores and get 25% off.

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March 14, 2008

Should Parents Allow Their Daughters To Get The HPV Vaccine Garadasil?

Health Add Comment »

The HPV vaccine…to give or not to give? I think we need to be realistic here, the rate of STD’s in young women in frightening. (Estimated 1 in 4 has an STD.) Why wouldn’t you give your daughter the chance to prevent a potentially deadly cancer? And yes, I say chance, nothing in this world is certain. So you need to ask yourself, are the risks of the vaccine better than cancer? I would have to answer this definitely, YES!!!

I was diagnosed with HPV in my early 20’s and was shocked. I contracted the virus in college and must say that I was not promiscuous and I feel I made good decisions. Well, here I am nearing 30 and am still anxious after each visit with the doctor wondering if I have another abnormal pap smear. The reason I share this with you, is because if this vaccine were available when I was young, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. It scares me to read about parents who are uncertain of this vaccine and would rather wait….well, waiting is time and in that time your daughter can contract HPV.

Many parents think that giving their daughter this vaccine will give them the “ticket” to be sexually active. I don’t find this to be true! It is no different than condoms being available in a supermarket. Sexual activity is happening!!!! We try to protect our children and we make daily decisions on what is best for them. We teach them simple things like putting on a seatbelt and looking both ways before they cross the road. Just like the HPV vaccine, Garadasil, these things are precautionary, nothing guaranteed…but they all help us to be safer!

So, if you have a daughter, think about getting her the vaccine. Wouldn’t it be terrible if years later she looked back at you and said, “Mom, you had the chance to help me prevent cancer and you didn’t?”

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March 13, 2008

Tooth Extraction, Dental Implants, Porcelain Crowns & My Dental Extravaganza

General, Health 7 Comments »

So, the past few weeks have been pretty busy. I traveled back to Chicago for some dental work. The week after I was in Santa Clara for work and this week I had to travel back to Chicago to finish up my dental work that I’ve been putting off for so long…almost 2 years!

It feels so good to finally have a “normal” mouth. When I was in junior high, I was riding my friend on my bike (he now plays in the NFL) and we ended up falling off of the bike and he landed on my head. So, I stood up and tried to talk and notice a huge whistle! I looked on the ground and saw my tooth and root sitting in the road and started to freak out. So, I went to the dentist and he ended up putting the tooth back in my head and it was fine…..up until about 2 years ago. Mind you, this is my front right tooth so VERY noticeable.

It started to hurt so I figured I better go to the dentist and get it checked out. Come to find out, it needed to be extracted because it was ready to crack off at any point which would cause many more issues if this happened. So, I had the tooth extracted a couple of years ago. I then decided to move to Phoenix right in the middle of all of this (so glad I did because now I’m marrying the woman of my dreams) but I had already paid for the entire procedure ($12,000) so I knew that I would have to go back to Chicago to get everything taken care of unless I wanted to pay again! So, for about 1 1/2 years I totally put it off and finally realized that if I want to smile at my wedding…I better get moving. So, the past 2 months have been quite hectic.

I went back in August of 2007 to get the implant put in and all went well. After that, I had to let it sit for 3-6 months for the implant to grow in the bone. During this time I had to wear what they call a dental flipper which is a fake tooth that acts just like a retainer. I was a 29 year old using Fixodent on a daily basis. Talk about embarrassment…walking into Target or Walgreens to get yourself Fixodent! I felt stupid to say the least.

So, the dental implant grew back in the bone and I went back in February 2008 to get some work on the implant and to get 2 temporary porcelain crowns. I then booked airfare and headed back on March 10th for my final appointment! Well almost, I do have one more follow up just to make sure everything is okay. Just yesterday I got my permanent crowns and I’m back home and done with this excruciating process. I do have to say that it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. Actually, the tooth extraction was the least pain and the dentist actually putting on the permanent crowns was the most uncomfortable but hey, it’s DONE!

Before this whole process started, I really couldn’t find a good resource to learn about it so if you are in the same boat as I was, I know how you are feeling. Shoot me an email and I’d be happy to let you know the ins and outs of getting a dental implant, bone grafting, porcelain crowns and all kinds of other fun dental procedures and I can also recommend a great dentist in the Chicago area if you are in the Midwest.

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March 9, 2008

Best Way To Lift Your Spirits: Do Something Productive Today!

Productivity, Lifestyle Add Comment »

We all get into ruts where we feel down or maybe just not our usual self. This happens to the best of us and is totally normal. There is a common cure for feeling down and out of touch with reality and it might be much easier than you think.

DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE!

It’s as simple as that. Most people get stressed out and feel sad or down because they are overwhelmed with their life. Get out a pad of paper, write down what you need to accomplish, and just get it done. Don’t make excuses for yourself and don’t blow things off. There comes a point when something needs to get done and knocked off of the list of “To-Do’s” and the only way to shrink that list is to do it!

I am at fault just like the next person when it comes to getting stressed about having too many things on my mind but I can say that when I do have a productive day or an entire productive weekend, I feel SO much better.

My fiance Wendi and I were just talking about this today. We had a great weekend together, got quite a bit done and feel so much better about everything than if we would have just lounged around all weekend and woke up Monday morning with th same list of “To-Do’s”!

So, if you are on the couch, laying there, contemplating on doing something productive today…..get off your lazy ass and do something. You will feel much better tomorrow morning and you will start the week off on a good note.