I recently came across a product put out by D-Link, which plugs into the USB port on my computer and allows me to make Skype calls from a normal phone!  In addition, if I had a regular phone line, I could plug that in as well which would allow me to make and recieve phone calls from either line.  The ability to use a regular phone is something that I did miss, but with the addition of the DPH-50U, I have added a lot of versatility to my office.  You can use any regular phone with this device.  I purchased mine at NewEgg.com, for $19.99 on sale, and there was no shipping cost.  In addition, there was a $10 mail in rebate which I took advantage of.

Overall, I would say that the call quality I have had has been very good.  I’ve had a couple calls fade out for a second, but the interruptions have been minimal at best.

This doesn’t exempt the rest of the work force!  With our recent economy, I know that there are a more than a few people out there  searching for employment.  Keeping your resume up to date will help you get focused quickly after a job loss.  Even if you are “secure” in your job, you should always keep feelers out there to see if there is a better opportunity waiting for you somewhere on the horizon.

There is a great article at Dumb Little Man that discusses building a top notch resume.  About the only item on their list that I disagree with is removing your postal address.  I would consider that a pertinent piece of pedigree information, not one that I would omit from my resume.

The bottom line on this issue?  By having a solid resume, and taking the time to update it regularly (10 minutes every 6 months!), you put yourself in a much better position than someone struggling to get their act together when it comes down to it.

Secured Debt is debt backed by something tangiable.  Good examples of a secured debt are your vehicle and your mortgage.  There is a physical good that can be reposessed or foreclosed on to recoup losses by the lender in the event you fail to make the payments.

Unsecured Debt is debt without a tangiable asset to back it.  The best example of this would be a credit card.  A regular credit card has nothing to back it, so the creditor can only attack your credit score and not your home.

There are secured credit cards, where you pay a specific amount up front to the creditor, for instance, $500.  You are then given a credit card with a credit limit of $500, secured by the money you have already fronted to the creditor.  This would be considered a secured debt.

Hope this helps!

The two options I considered were having a Verizon land line phone installed, or finding an online Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service to run over top of my preexisting broadband connection.  I ended up choosing Skype as my VOIP solution.

Skype is a messaging client similar to AOL Instant Messanger, ICQ, or many others that you may come across.  It also comes with a built in VOIP service, with very reasonable rates.  Skype can be found at www.skype.com.

Startup Costs: My initial start up costs for Verizon would have been a $130 installation charge.  This baffles me, because the entire house is already wired (and what rooms weren’t wired I would have done myself).  I understand that they have to send a tech out to the house, but this cost didn’t seem prudent.  My initial startup costs for Skype were $40.  I spent $40 on a nice headset to plug into my computer.  Your costs may be higher or lower, but I would suggest a nice headset.  Skype also sells phones that will plug into your computer and integrate with their service, though the cost on these ranges greatly.  There are also tutorials online that will show you how to convert your phones preexisting wiring to a fully functional Skype based phone system.

Service Comparison: For comparison, I am using the same service set for both Skype and Verizon.  I wanted unlimited local and long distance calling to the United States.  The plans I am comparing include unlimited local and long distance to the United States and Canada.  Skype DOES have a fair use policy in effect which limits you to 10,000 minutes per month.  Assuming a 31 day month, this gives you 322 minutes per day of talk time, or over 5 hours of talk time.  I don’t anticipate my needs going over that for quite some time.  Both plans also include voice mail, call forwarding, and caller ID.

With Verizon, I was signing up for one plan which included all the features above.  With Skype, I signed up for 2 separate services – SkypeOut, which provided me with my unlimited outbound service, and Online Number, which provided me with a local calling number for people to reach me at.  Both Skype services were subscribed to at the same time, so there really wasn’t much added “hassle”.

Show Me The Savings: Now let’s crunch some numbers.  The Verizon plan, after taxes, would have run me $57.60 per month.  This adds up to $691.20 per year!  With Skype, I paid $30 for a full year of SkypeOut service.  I also paid $29.50 for a year of Online Number service.  Total yearly cost of Skype: $59.50.  For $1.90 more, I now have phone service for an entire year!

Figure Skew: There is some skew to these figures.  I am not including the cost of my broadband connection, because I would be paying for it regardless.  Also, I could have found a broadband and telephone package with Verizon, but overall I’m sure the costs still would have been more than the Skype service.

Quality of Service: As long as you have a solid broadband connection, Skype should work fairly well for you.  I have been using the service for almost a full year now, and I have only had one call fade out.  There are some special considerations that need to be taken into effect with Skype.  For instance, Skype does not tie in to a 911 Emergency Dispatch center, so I need to use my cell phone to call in case of an emergency.

Overall, I am very happy with the service I have received with Skype.  If you have any questions about their service, I would be more than happy to answer them.

One thing I want to point out is the importance of having copies of your documents available (front AND back).  Preferably, have a digital copy and a hard copy or two.  Keep them in safe, secure places, and your life will be infinitely easier!

1.  Replacing your license / ID:  This will vary from state to state, however here in New York I would be able to order online.  However, since I cancelled my debit card before I did this (ARGH!), I’ll be going to the DMV to shell out $15 in cash for the replacement.

2.  Replacing your Social Security card:  First off, this should never have been in my wallet.  There is NO reason to carry your social security card with you on a day to day basis.  However, I will be able to replace this document as well.  Information on what you need can be found at the Social Security Administration’s website.  Basically, I’ll need the application, proof of birth via a certified copy of my birth certificate, and proof of identity via a non expired photo ID.  However, since my license was in my wallet, I’ll be using my photo ID from college.  At least it has a good photo.  If I had a passport, they can use this to verify birth AND identity, killing two birds with one stone!

3.  Credit Cards, Debit Cards:  In a bit of luck, I actually had all of my account numbers, phone numbers for the companies, and access information saved in a spreadsheet already from when I was creating my budget.  If you don’t have all of this information in one place, I suggest you find a way of recording it and securing it (NOT in your wallet!)  This made the entire task of locking down accounts and ordering new cards much easier, and it only took me about half an hour to handle all of the accounts.

4.  Miscellaneous:  You may have other things in your wallet that need replacement such as student IDs, certification cards (lost my CPR and EMT cards!), etc.  These will have to be handled on a case by case basis.  Having copies of my CPR and EMT cards will be a big help in getting copies.

Lessons learned:  While it sucks to lose a wallet, it won’t be the end of the world.  I’ve learned what I need to do to get new copies of everything, found the flaws in my backups, and will (ultimately) grow from the experience.

This past week, my room mates Matt and Patrick, as well as our friend Ian, decided that I needed to conquer this fear.  Let me rephrase this.  Matt and Patrick, coaster enthusiasts, decide to break Ian and I, flat footed soil bound folk, into the wonderful world of coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio.

More after the jump.

For the past two weeks, the only thing Matt and Pat have talked about is how much fun the trip would be, how much fun I would have, and how I could die at any second!  Actually, they were awesome about the entire experience.  “If you can do the Millennium Force, you can do anything.”  So that was the first coaster I ended up on.  After I stopped screaming in terror from the first hill, the rest of the ride wasn’t so bad!  I managed to do all but 3 of the coasters in the park.  Two were down, and one we just didn’t get to.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather!  The forecast was for overcast skies, but we had more than ample sunshine and fair temperatures both days.

I really have to thank Matt and Patrick.  With out their gentle guidance (read: constant ribbing), I probably never would have faced the fear, and I wouldn’t know what I was missing out on.  The power a positive friend can have on your mind set when you walk into an uncertain situation is enormous.  And now that huge fear that I never thought I would overcome is now a love for a beast I have learned to tame.

I promised Kate over at FadedWords that I would post a photo.  This is a picture of myself and Patrick (to my right) on the Top Thrill Dragster.  This particular coaster shoots you from 0 to 120mph in under 2 seconds, up a 400 foot 90 degree slope, over the top, and back down.  Total ride length:  17 seconds!

The average player coming into the league just out of college starts at $285,000 a year and after taxes and deductions they round that figure down to about $147,000 a year. One thing that surprises me is that many of these players are financially struggling during the off season because they only get paid 17 weeks out of a 52-week year, and stretching that money gets more and more difficult as time goes on. One of the main reasons is that these players have never been required to budget such a large amount of money, so they go on spending sprees and other frivolous endeavors. When it comes time to live during the off-season, they find themselves in financial trouble.

The article discusses creating a cash flow plan for these players which would break their finances down into two different types:

1. Sure Money- the player’s salary
2. Extra Money- profit gained from endorsements, league bonuses, and any other cash not gained directly from their league check.

The article further explains that the “sure money” account would be broken down into four separate accounts with the player’s bank. The first account would be the holding account where the money is originally deposited. From there, the money would be broken down into:

• Operating Account: all money for bills and personal spending would be filtered into this account.
• Major Expense Account: property taxes, insurance, etc. would end up in this account.
• Emergency Account: 3-6 months salary that is saved up so that all bills could be covered in the case of an emergency.

The article also discusses the basic budgeting premises that many of us have come to be familiar with. This includes developing a budget that allows you to live within your means, as well as being able to put money away for times when you many not have an income. This is especially important to the NFL player outside of that 17-week season when a paycheck is coming in regularly.

According to the article, many players will take their extra money and blow it on things that may not be necessary instead of saving it or putting it in to smart investments that will help them continue to live the comfortable lifestyle that they’ve become accustom to when they retire.

The article discusses how taxes would affect these incoming finances, oftentimes with a 50% tax. “1 Million dollars quickly becomes $500,000″ and it would help if that money was put into an investment vehicle in order to get more benefit from that money.

This article stunned me in that I never considered that a professional football player would have the same problems as Average Joe when it comes to finances simply because of the pay schedule they’re in. When you stop and think about it, you have to realize that proper budgeting and financial management is not just a skill that comes easier when you have more money; it’s a skill that must be learned, and one that must be practiced throughout the course of your career.

How can you use this to improve a presentation?

Keeping the idea of being awakened to a new idea in mind, you can use this information to your advantage. For instance, when you are giving a presentation, you may want to give a summary of all the points you are going to cover at the beginning. What you are doing is opening the mind to these new ideas. When you go to present the ideas you opened with, the information is more likely to be absorbed, because the individual is now open to the idea, whereas before they may not have been. This isn’t because they aren’t interested in your material. Their mind is just skimming over the information, because there isn’t a sticking point in their mind that says “I’m interested in this.”

Comment on this entry and tell me about an experience that awakened you to a new idea.

Working in real estate, specifically property management, I am shocked at the number of people who just don’t have their important papers together. For instance, many people don’t keep copies of things like rent receipts. You never know when there will be an accounting error and you will have to prove you have paid rent. Remember that a computer is only as good as the person entering the information, and that everyone makes mistakes! In addition, I have come in contact with a staggering number of people who don’t keep a copy of their lease! Your lease is a LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENT between you and your land lord. Not keeping your copy is the equivalent of asking to be walked all over. There are a lot of unscrupulous individuals who will take advantage of any weakness that they can find in you. Not keeping important paperwork is a huge oversight of many people.

How do you go about protecting yourself (and your papers)? More after the jump.

In order to keep my papers under control, I have devised a dual layer protection protocol that I use to keep myself safe and organized. First, gather the paperwork that you need to keep safe, but still at hand. Things you will want to include in your hunt are:

• HOME – Deeds, leases, mortgage papers, insurance, appliance warranties & receipts, utility bills, inventory,
• AUTO - Titles, car note information, registrations, insurance, repairs,
• IDENTIFICATION – Passports, birth certificates, social security cards, licenses, marriage certificates, wills, medical records,
• PROFESSIONAL - Professional certifications, degrees,
• TAXES - Tax information, 1099s, W-2s,
• WORK - Job contracts, offer letters, non compete agreements,
• FINANCIAL -Bank statements, credit card statements, bills, investments,
• PERSONAL – Planners, to-do lists, notes, ideas, calendars, contact lists,

This list is by no means exhaustive, and you may want to add your own items. Feel free to comment with additional items that you keep handy. Having these papers is the first layer of protection in the dual layer protection protocol. Keep them organized in a system that you find convenient, but keep them in some sort of system, and keep them up to date! Easy accessibility to original papers can be critical when the unlikely becomes reality. Some papers, such as birth certificates, deeds, etc may be better kept in a fire safe, or in a safe deposit box. Other paperwork, such as utility bills, are probably fine in a file cabinet.

Keep watch for part 2 of this article, where I will discuss the importance of digitizing documents.

A popular example of this is confidence. Many people lack confidence in themselves, which makes it difficult to do things like ask for a raise or promotion, approach people in a position of power, or even approach a member of the opposite sex. Looking at themselves in a negative light, they will walk into a situation such as asking for a raise in all the wrong ways. For instance, they may slouch, look at the ground, beat around the bush, but most importantly, they wont get what they want.

Let’s reframe this reality. If they walk into the same situation, but thinking about how they deserve the raise or promotion, how confident they are that they are an asset to the company, they will subconsciously change the way they act. They will look their boss on the eye, stand strong, speak confidently, and more often than not they will get the raise or promotion they were after.

Framing your reality, and influencing those around you with your actions, can have a positive effect on not only you, but those around you. It takes some practice to get in the habit of doing this continually, but once you have it down, you can really change your outlook on life.